Holistic Management of SME Environmental Management Practices: Toward a New Typology

The context for this study is SME energy and waste management practices. A sample of 155 Australian SMEs in three industry sectors enables a quantitative analysis of environmental practices. The study’s scope includes business drivers and measurement of a wider range than usual of environmental practices. Conceptually, a new typology of environmental management strategy is proposed, focusing on four alternative types. The findings, through cross-validation, support the usefulness of the newly proposed typology. The results position the typical SME at an elementary level of environmental practice, with a challenge for future research to better understand how firms progress up the typology ladder. More positively, about one third of the sample of SMEs has evolved their business model to seamlessly incorporate sustainability issues. Green competencies have been developed to enable them to do this. Together, environmentally friendly products and brand reputation create a major platform for progressive SME environmental business practices.