A methodology for assessing environmental compliance in small to medium-sized enterprises

Small and medium-sized enterprises face an environmental ‘compliance conundrum’ as they seek to meet the ever-increasing legislative demands placed on them by Government whilst still trying to operate effectively. Environmental auditing is recognised as a tool for improving compliance as it offers a supplementary effective enforcement mechanism. However, there has been little published research specifically on environmental compliance auditing techniques. This paper reviews the general auditing literature and uses experiences and research data generated from previous environmental compliance audits to demonstrate how a specific environmental compliance assessment approach can be developed for SMEs. The paper suggests that a ‘regulation-specific’ auditing approach is an effective way of determining legal performance in SMEs, although this needs to be supported by specific methodologies and strategies for each regulation audited.