Development of a framework for the integration and management of sustainability for small- and medium-sized enterprises

Environmental problems such as global warming are issues that must be addressed urgently. In particular, environmental indicators in the manufacturing industry should be managed systematically in order to not only solve environmental problems but also to reduce manufacturing costs. With securing stable profits by enhancing productivity as their top priority, many small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been operating with a focus on productivity. However, government’s environmental regulations for manufacturing companies will only get tougher and this would require introduction of an international certification system for environment effects. Therefore, environmental indicators will need to be meticulously managed by manufacturing enterprises. Economic problems, such as expansion of existing systems or introduction of new environmental indicator management systems, and technical problems, such as conjunction of existing and heterogeneous systems, may arise in the process of managing environmental factors in SMEs. This paper introduces a framework for integration and management of sustainability factors and their application for SMEs. The framework aids to reduce cost and time to develop sustainability management system in SMEs and to eliminate technical problems such as interface development between heterogeneous tools and systems.