SME Survey 2010: The South African SME and the environment – does it care?
For the first time in its eight year history, SME Survey asked how important environmental awareness is to doing business. “Overall, 78% reported that it is indeed important. That’s exceptionally high,” he notes.
Goldstuck says this is almost certainly a consequence of business owners bringing their personal viewpoints of the necessity for environmentally sound practices into the workplace.
Perhaps even more surprising, he continues, is that emerging businesses were slightly more concerned than established companies. “Businesses in established markets came in at 77%, while businesses in emerging markets were at 80%. That’s fascinating and flies in the face of ‘received wisdom’ which assumes that those businesses which are more established and enjoy access to technology and formal communications, might be more concerned about their impact on their surroundings,” Goldstuck says.
And, when asked ‘Do you disagree that the environment is important’, 6% of emerging business said they do disagree, while 20% of established companies said they disagree. “In effect, three times more people in so-called ‘first world’ businesses don’t think the environment is important. This turns on its head the notion that the first world is more concerned with the environment than the emerging world is.”
While the underlying reasons for this are obscure, Goldstuck ventures that a struggling business owner is likely to be focused across all elements of impacts on his organisation, including its place in the community and the environment. However, once more established, company owners tend to narrow the focus to those factors directly linked boosting growth and profitability.
Andile Lungisa, NYDA Chairperson, says that as issues of sustainability elevate in the national consciousness, it is noteworthy – and encouraging – that the small business owner factors the environment into his or her plans. “We have limited natural resources which must be preserved not only for this generation of young people, but the generations which come thereafter. The South African SME owner, and especially the emerging businessman, can therefore take a bow. The great majority know that looking after the environment is the right thing to do is, and they are applying that in their organisations.”
SME Survey 2010 is sponsored by the National Youth Development Agency. Visit www.smesurvey.co.za
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