Environmental regulation and cleaner production partnerships with small and medium sized enterprises: A case study

Small and medium sized enterprises are a rapidly growing and increasingly important component of industry whose aggregate environmental impact, in some respects at least, may substantially exceed that of large business. Whilst it is clear that the conventional regulatory response used to deal with large point-source polluters - command and control regulation - is singularly inappropriate for dealing with the vast numbers of SMEs that populate some industry sectors, the strategies for curbing their environmental excesses are as yet under-developed and no systematic policy solutions have so far been identified by policy makers or regulatory strategists. This article, through a case study of the Victorian vegetable growing industry, explores the potential role of cleaner production partnerships as a means of overcoming the limitations of conventional regulatory strategies.