ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to synthesise and build on the very limited and fragmented international literature on environmental policy instruments targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It integrates this with authors’ own research and it seeks to construct an overall framework for how best to deal with what has so far represented an intractable environmental challenge. SMEs represent a very high proportion of all enterprises in industrialised economies. The effective regulation of SMEs is a substantial policy challenge for environmental agencies in all jurisdictions, not least because this group has a number of unique characteristics which inhibit the application of conventional regulatory measures. The policy challenge is made even more complex by the fact that SMEs are a very diverse group of enterprises, both within and across different sectoral groupings. One of the most advanced approaches to promoting voluntary self-inspection and self-audit among SMEs has been introduced in Minnesota through the Environmental Improvement Act of 1995.
