The paper from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) analyzes regulatory, market and financial strategies to promote green business practices among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and recommends, inter alia, regulatory simplification, public funding and sector-based approaches to improve their effectiveness.
20 September 2012: A new working paper by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), titled “Green Transformation of Small Businesses: Achieving and Going Beyond Environmental Requirements,” discusses strategies to establish environmental regulatory requirements for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and to promote compliance.
The paper first analyzes the main existing regulatory regimes in OECD countries, the main compliance monitoring strategies, and efforts to reduce the administrative burden on SMEs. The paper then discusses several strategies to further promote environmental compliance and green business practices, including: sector-specific approaches; information tools; environmental management systems and eco-labels; supply chain management; and financial incentives. The paper also discusses the role of different actors in environmental outreach to SMEs, such as local authorities and business associations.
The paper concludes with several recommendations of ways to improve the effectiveness of these strategies, including: regulatory simplification; sectoral approaches; adaptation of tools to SMEs’ needs; increased public funding in the initial stages of SMEs’ transformation to greener business practices; and the development of performance indicators. [Publication: Green Transformation of Small Businesses: Achieving and Going Beyond Environmental Requirements]