The case of municipal policy enhancing SMEs through an environmental approach

As interest in the impacts of business activities on the environment has grown, environmental policy is now shifting from the end of pipe stage to the next stage. In the environmental departments of municipal governments in Austria, an increasing number of cases is observed where the department has outgrown its restriction-based environmental measures. The program aims to reduce environmental burdens, not through forcing SMEs to follow governments´ measures, but rather through supporting SMEs´ own efforts to decrease the burdens. This can be categorized as a diffusion-oriented policy. The goal of this paper is to extract the conveyed meanings of partnerships and the role that public sectors through the activities of local authorities or intermediaries need to play in fostering environmental conservation. The focus of discussion is on the partnerships among the parties involved in the program and on the program operation. The program is composed of various elements such as the legal system and control, financial methods, the consulting system, multifaceted partnerships and so forth. This comprehensive program, which is appropriate for local areas, can be a model of community-empowering policy in an attempt for local governments to implement bottom-up type measures for boosting local industries.