Measuring industrial sustainability performance: Empirical evidence from Italian and German manufacturing small and medium enterprises

Trianni, A; Cagno, E; Neri, A; Howard, M

Measuring industrial sustainability performance: Empirical evidence from Italian and German manufacturing small and medium enterprises

Trianni, A

Cagno, E Neri, A Howard, M

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Journal of Cleaner Production, 2019, 229 pp. 1355 - 1376
Issue Date:: 2019-08-20

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Trianni, A https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1699-7787	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Cagno, E	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Neri, A	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Howard, M	en_US
dc.date.available	2021-08-24T19:00:38Z
dc.date.issued	2019-08-20	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Journal of Cleaner Production, 2019, 229 pp. 1355 - 1376	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0959-6526	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/135159
dc.description.abstract	© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Measuring industrial sustainability performance in manufacturing firms is still a major challenge for both policy and industrial decision makers, with many firms, particularly small and medium enterprises, struggling to properly engage with them. Hence, to understand the level of adoption of industrial sustainability indicators and the issues preventing their effective measurement, and stimulate further research in this area, a multiple case analysis of 26 small and medium manufacturing enterprises across Germany and Italy operating in the chemical and metalworking sectors was conducted. The findings show that only 18 indicators are in place on average. Furthermore, too many firms still focus almost exclusively on the economic pillar of sustainability, while social and environmental pillars are addressed almost exclusively for compliance with legislation. Moreover, the research suggests that contextual factors may influence the firms’ perspective on sustainability and the way it is managed, as well as the certifications held by firms, influencing, in turn, the number and types of indicators considered. An exploratory investigation allowed identification of several important open issues, leading to future research avenues, and in particular towards the development of a novel model to gauge sustainability in industrial activities, as well as adoption of policy-making measures for further emphasis on environmental and social pillars when promoting the adoption of sustainability indicators.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Journal of Cleaner Production	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.076	en_US
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
dc.subject.classification	Environmental Sciences	en_US
dc.title	Measuring industrial sustainability performance: Empirical evidence from Italian and German manufacturing small and medium enterprises	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	229	en_US
utslib.for	0907 Environmental Engineering	en_US
utslib.for	0910 Manufacturing Engineering	en_US
utslib.for	0915 Interdisciplinary Engineering	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Information, Systems and Modelling
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CAMGIS - Centre for Advanced Modelling and Geospatial lnformation Systems
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	229	en_US

Abstract:

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Measuring industrial sustainability performance in manufacturing firms is still a major challenge for both policy and industrial decision makers, with many firms, particularly small and medium enterprises, struggling to properly engage with them. Hence, to understand the level of adoption of industrial sustainability indicators and the issues preventing their effective measurement, and stimulate further research in this area, a multiple case analysis of 26 small and medium manufacturing enterprises across Germany and Italy operating in the chemical and metalworking sectors was conducted. The findings show that only 18 indicators are in place on average. Furthermore, too many firms still focus almost exclusively on the economic pillar of sustainability, while social and environmental pillars are addressed almost exclusively for compliance with legislation. Moreover, the research suggests that contextual factors may influence the firms’ perspective on sustainability and the way it is managed, as well as the certifications held by firms, influencing, in turn, the number and types of indicators considered. An exploratory investigation allowed identification of several important open issues, leading to future research avenues, and in particular towards the development of a novel model to gauge sustainability in industrial activities, as well as adoption of policy-making measures for further emphasis on environmental and social pillars when promoting the adoption of sustainability indicators.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/135159