Carbon management as a strategic challenge for SMEs

Abstract

Climate change poses a challenge to politicians and business managers alike. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) cannot ignore the potential impact of climate change and the related institutional adjustments on their daily business activities. They need to assess how both climate change mitigation and adaptation should be reflected in their corporate strategies. This article focuses on climate change mitigation and discusses the challenges SMEs face when incorporating a strategy for greenhouse gas measurement and management. We outline an SME-specific carbon management framework and discuss key findings and lessons learned from a case study of a medium-sized company in Switzerland which has successfully used this framework. We summarize our findings for SMEs incorporating such a strategic approach and provide recommendations for further research.