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A survey conducted in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the East Midlands and in Tyneside revealed some similarities in the approach taken to environmental issues in three differing sectors of the economy: metal/mineral manufacturing companies (which, as part of a ‘dirty’ industry would face a range of pressures to respond); construction companies (which have a range of organizational issues— subcontracting and so on); and consultancy services (whose responses could be expected to be ‘low key’). The survey results analysed the actions taken by businesses in these three sectors as measured against the awareness of, or sensitivity to, environmental impacts. A model can be devised which matches the extent or magnitude of environmental impacts against the environmental response, to allow a comparison of the theoretical, or expected, position of a business with the actual responses that it makes. Businesses in all three sectors appear to respond quickly to environmental issues that have relatively small environmental impacts, but this immediate response is not carried on to cause actions against much greater impacts. Often the issues are seen as business issues—>energy efficiency, waste minimization—and therefore the response follows general management principles, thereby emphasizing the short-term, cost-oriented perspective of business rather than the longer term nature of environmental problems. Hence environmental awareness is not always translated into actions. Conclusions can be drawn that suggest that such small businesses are not tackling the whole range of environmental issues at the same scale or to the same extent as their larger counterparts. Suggestions and recommendations for improving environmental actions in such companies can be made to allow them to respond to the more painful consequences of their environmental impacts. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Holland et al. (Sat,) studied this question.