Environmental awareness and practices in small and medium businesses

With increasing awareness of environmental issues, there has been rising demand for environmentally friendly business practices. External pressures from legislators, environmental groups, financial institutions and suppliers, as well as internally by employees and owner/manager attitudes and knowledge. However it has been reported that despite business owner/managers having strong “green” attitudes, the level of implementation of environmental friendly practices is low. To explore the connection between pressures for improved practices and the management actions taken, this paper examines how influence from various sources is related to awareness of environmental issues, and how this awareness relates to actions taken within the businesses to reduce the environmental impact of their operations.