Where do SMEs stand in Environmental Sustainability? An overview of past studies

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of business activities on the environment and the urge of sustaining the Natural Capital. Though there is a trend of growing numbers of corporations emphasizing on Environmental Sustainability as one of the dimensions of the corporate sustainability, the truth is that SMEs are far behind in this race. So the question arising here is “What are the problems that force SMEs not to take steps towards greening themselves”. In this paper, we tried to accommodate the environmental performance of SMEs from Europe and Asia. We have also analysed the literature to put forth some of the strong reasons for resistance towards Environment Sustainability by most of the SMEs, and a few solutions to overcome these issues or problems. This paper will also be used as a framework to work further on studying SME’s in Malaysia and their contribution towards environmental sustainability.