Chronicle Editor
Harare Bureau
SMALL and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) should adopt sustainable green procurement and clean technologies to curb pollution while harnessing business opportunities.
Globally, there is growing evidence that SMEs play a vital role in national economic development and the sector has become a key driver of economic growth.
According to the World Bank, SMEs represent about 90 percent of businesses and more than 50 percent of employment world-wide. The world is significantly under siege from an extensive environmental challenges and greening economy paradigm especially the SME sector.
The sector is regarded as a necessary player to overcoming challenges of sustainability today. Sustainable green business is an enterprise functioning in a capacity where no negative impact is made on the local or global environment, the community as well as the economy.
A green business will also engage in forward-thinking policies for environmental concerns and policies affecting human rights.
Ranging from climate change, waste generation, hazardous chemicals and water pollution, SMEs businesses are confronted with choices and have a big role to play in halting the decline in environmental quality.
Energy and climate change consultant, Dr Dingane Sithole, says Zimbabwe’s economy is SMEs driven, hence promotion of green procurement to the sector is vital for sustainable development.
“It’s important at the time when a growing number of large companies nation-wide recognise the advantages of cleaner production in terms of reduced costs of resources, environmental compliance and customer relations, especially in the growing SMEs sector,” he said.
“Reducing the environmental impact of small and medium-sized enterprises in both manufacturing and services is a key success factor in greening the economy.
“Improving the environmental performance is also a significant business opportunity for SMEs themselves as important suppliers of goods and services.”
Dr Sithole said the uptake and promotion of green procurement for SMEs in Zimbabwe was still low, posing growing threats to the environment.
“SMEs in Zimbabwe play a critical role in the economy as suppliers of goods and services across all sectors. The sector presents a huge opportunity since over 75 percent of the workforce in Zimbabwe is employed in SMEs.
“However, sustainable procurement is still very limited owing to a number of challenges faced by the SMEs in Zimbabwe,” he said.
“The consideration for social and environmental issues during procurement is, therefore, quite low in most SMEs.”
Dr Sithole said the “green transformation” was a significant business opportunity for SMEs themselves as important actors in green technology innovation and production.
However, the willingness and capability of SMEs to adopt sustainable practices and seize green business opportunities generally faces resource constraints, skills deficit and knowledge limitations.
Online Reporter