Cleaner production, environmental and economic sustainability of production firms in South Africa

Abstract

Cleaner production (CP) has been confirmed to enhance efficiency in various industries; however, it has not yet been well developed and tested within the sugar production process. Consequently, this study investigated the impact of CP on environmental and financial performance from the perspective of the South African sugar industry. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 323 respondents. The questions were based on a Likert scale structure. ISO 14001 guided the development of the CP questions. The structural equation model was adopted to analyse the data. The evidence demonstrated that CP has a positive and significant relationship with both the environmental and economic performance of sugar production firms. This suggests that CP has led to better environmental and financial performance in the sugar industry in South Africa. This result is reasonable because these performance elements were the basis of providing sustainable CP. The result is also consistent with the innovation theory, which hypothesises that CP can reduce production waste, which can improve the environmental and financial performance of firms. This result implies that further successful implementation of CP would continue to influence sugar production firms’ performance positively. Therefore, the National Cleaner Production Centre of South Africa must intensify its activities to improve the adoption of CP and change its strategic direction for manufacturing organisations to achieve environmental sustainability and CP. The study is the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, and it may assist and guide policymakers and researchers by providing new information and insights on the environmental and financial effects associated with CP in the sugar industry.