Green Management in SMEs of Bangladesh: Present Scenario, Implementation Obstacles and Policy Options

Abstract

‘Be green’ is a global slogan today. It is necessary to protect our mother planet Earth from the unabated destructive economic activities that put everything here under the threat of extinction. Management of all organizations should be aware of ‘Save the Earth’ movement and be restrain from all activities damaging to the Earth. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in manufacturing and service industries occupy a major share of the economic activities in every country. In Bangladesh, SMEs account for about 45 percent of manufacturing value addition, about 80 percent of industrial employment, about 90 percent of total industrial units and about 25 percent of the labour force. The total forest in Bangladesh is 17.5%  and the deforestation rate is 0.18%. Therefore, SME sector in Bangladesh should undertake the green management and measures to be green to contribute to the efforts of keeping the country green as well as keeping the Earth green. Unconcerned and reckless economic activities caused much damage to our water, forest, air, and other sides of human living and environment. The research is undertaken to know how far the owners/owner-managers of SMEs have executed green management issues, what obstacles they face and what policy and operational measures to be taken to implement green management. Green management refers to the production of goods or generation of services by using such strategies, technologies and workplace practices that aims at reducing industrial waste, minimizing pollution, recycling wastes, doing paperless operations, and producing environmental friendly products and services. The outcomes are obvious- preservation of the natural conditions of the Earth, protection of consumers /end users of the product and the employees of the firm from any kind of injuries caused by the process or by the products, and building image and economic gain for the organization.

Green management is the continuous application of an integrated preventative environmental strategy in production and marketing processes to reduce risks to human and the environment. Under these circumstances, every productive organization shall have to take numerous measures to produce green products for the protection of people and the Earth from physical hazards. SME sector, being the largest productive sector in Bangladesh, shall perform its business operations maintaining sustainable green policies and actions. No study has so far been done in Bangladesh in this area of ‘Green management in SMEs ‘. So, this would be the pioneer study. This is an exploratory research. The study is based on primary data. Primary data are collected by a set of questionnaire with dichotomous questions from the owner-managers /managers of 120 SMEs. Simple statistical methods have been used to analyze and interpret data. The result of the study shows that very small number of SMEs are becoming aware of and taking action to keep our Earth green. Therefore, positive motivational measures shall have to be taken to encourage them towards green management by the government and business owners as well as good business forum of Bangladesh.