The Impact of SMEs on the Environment. Legislation and Best Practice

The sustainable development has economic, ecological and social dimensions and it is a general objective of the European Union. Even if the small and medium enterprises are companies with less than 250 employees, they are a very important part of the Europe’s economy and may have a significant environmental impact. Frequently analyzed during the last years, the subject of this study has as general objective to identify the instruments for stopping the negative effects of the SME’s activity on the environment, and supporting them in order to comply with the legislative request regarding the environment. In this respect, we used as research methods the logical analysis, behaviour and causal, of impact, as well as the comparative analysis. According to the results of some recent research performed at regional and national level, the small number of SMEs to understand the influence of their activity on the environment, and to understand the compliance with the law regarding the environmental protection, is due to the fact that, in most of the cases, they do not have enough knowledge of the relevant legislation, or to the fact that there are excessive administrative and financial constraints implied by specific law enforcement or to the fact that there is the idea according to which environment’s protection is expensive, or they simply prove to be incapable to manage their own impact on the environment. We appreciate that, in basis of all the support measures at european and national level, the SMEs will be able to develop specific instruments through which will reduce the impact of their activities on the environment.