Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to study the concept of environmental proactivity and its application to manufacturing industries. The literature on environmental proactivity and its application to different types of industries is reviewed. This paper examines the latest trends in the field and verifies their practical applicability and usefulness for companies. Increasing companies competitiveness is key to their survival; interestingly, environmental proactivity can improve companies productivity, and hence their competitiveness. The concept of environmental proactivity is often viewed with suspicion by manufacturing firms; in this work, a positive view of the concept of environmental proactivity is presented. This paper includes case studies of the application of environmental proactivity to three industrial sectors as well as a quantitative study to verify the results. The papers conclusion is that the adoption of a proactive environmental approach provides benefits to companies in terms of image enhancement, cost savings, and new business opportunities, all of which contribute to the sustainable growth of companies.
Highlights
I nterest in environmental care has increased across many fields in recent years (Vargas-Vargas et al, 2010)
External factors bearing on environmental proactivity include industrial sector and location (González-Benito, González-Benito, 2006)
Quantitative analysis demonstrated that large company size is a facilitator for environmental proactivity, verifying statements made by González-Benito and González-Benito (2006) and Vargas-Vargas et al (2010)
Summary
I nterest in environmental care has increased across many fields in recent years (Vargas-Vargas et al, 2010). Aragón-Correa (1998) defines the positive impact of environmental proactivity in terms of the competitive advantages it affords to companies. A case study verifies that certification under ISO 14001 (the International Organization for Standardization’s environmental management standard) leads to company changes that may be transformed into benefits (Rondinelli, Vastag, 2000). It is difficult to confirm the value of “being green in a sector” versus “being in a green sector.”the most important question in this field is, “When does it pay to be green?” The relationship between having a proactive strategy towards the environment and gaining a competitive advantage may not always be positive; it depends on the characteristics of the business environment, such as uncertainty and complexity, among others (Aragón-Correa, Sharma, 2003). Lack of financial resources is one of the major barriers hindering the development of proactive environmental practices (Gadenne et al, 2009)
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