The green initiative: improving quality and competitiveness for European SMEs

Attempts to show that environmental issues are becoming increasingly important as an attribute of the quality of goods and services. However, although firms appreciate the importance of good environmental practices there is a lack of awareness of how this can best be achieved, particularly in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Suggests that one way to enhance understanding among SMEs is to consider environmental responsibility as part of the quality attributes which customers may expect from suppliers. Presents a quality profiling approach which is based on customers’ perceptions, which should assist an SME to: establish the importance of environmental factors with respect to other attributes in the purchasing decision; and evaluate the organization’s performance on key product/service attributes relative to its main rivals. Discusses the role of governments and other bodies in relation to encouraging a proactive environmental approach among SMEs.