Barriers and motivators to the adoption of cleaner production practices

This report was commissioned by Environment Australia to identify the barriers and motivators and drivers to the adoption of cleaner production by industry, and subsequently, to recommend a cleaner production policy strategy. In particular, the report makes specific references to the needs of small business, the potential for sector specific approaches and the role of regulation.

Cleaner production holds out the promise of improving the environmental performance of industry while at the same time improving a firm's bottom line. If this is true, then it would be expected that firms would be rushing to implement it. And yet, despite a shortage of concrete data, there is a general consensus that, in Australia at least, the widespread adoption of cleaner production remains a largely unfulfilled ambition.

In consulting with a wide range of industry representatives, it became clear that the majority of barriers to cleaner production confronted by firms could be placed into one of two categories: those that were internal to the firm and those that were external to the firm.