Abstract
To assure enduring success, firms need to generate economic value with respect for the environment and social value. They also need to be aware of the needs and expectations of relevant stakeholders and incorporate them in their business strategies and programs. These challenges imply that engineers should take into consideration societal, health and safety, environmental and commercial issues in their professional activity. This investigation accesses the influence of firms' environmental management programs and community involvement programs on their own employees and in the community, with a focus on small and medium companies. Based on a quantitative research, the findings suggest that firms that invest both in environmental management programs and in community involvement programs have a higher involvement of their own employees with the community, while at the same time receiving more feedback (positive, but also negative) from the community, stressing the need to pay special attention to their communication policies.
Highlights
The United Nations [1] has emphasized the importance of achieving a sustainable progress that must cover all three dimensions that affect people’s life chances and UNESCO [2] highlighted the role of engineers to help achieve those goals
When firms invest on environment management programs there is a positive weak to moderate relationship with the negative feedback they receive from the community
Firms that engage on environmental management programs address the issues of communicating with the community, and receive more feedback from the community stressing the need to pay special attention to their communication policies and confirming the research of Hillary [14], Porter and Van der Linde [15], Russo and Fouts [16] and Morsing and Shultz [22]
Summary
The United Nations [1] has emphasized the importance of achieving a sustainable progress that must cover all three dimensions that affect people’s life chances (social, economic and environmental) and UNESCO [2] highlighted the role of engineers to help achieve those goals. The sustainability “umbrella construct” could include concepts like corporate citizenship from Carrol [3], stakeholder orientation framed by Freeman [4], triple bottom line presented by Elkington [5], and creating shared value from Porter and Kramer [6]. The EURACE [8] program outcomes of accredited engineering degree emphasize the need for engineers to recognize and work on a wider context of engineering and take into consideration societal, health and safety, environmental and commercial issues. The purpose of this investigation is to access the influence of firms’ environmental management programs and community involvement programs on their own employees and in the community.
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