Abstract
The implementation of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on 01.01.2005 highly affects corporations of various sectors, industries, and dimensions. Among the businesses that are involved there are a significant number of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME). While all participants have to cope with additional administrative burden and expenses, SMEs seem to be particularly affected because of above-average transaction costs, expenses for implementing missing IT-systems or the costs of human resource training. The chapter analyses the characteristics and resource availability that enable SMEs to cope with the challenges of the EU ETS successfully. A typology of Greenhouse Gas management strategies is introduced pointing out that an offensive GHG management is indeed demanding and resource-intensive in the short term, but advantageous, cost-efficient, and less risky from a longer-term perspective. Although these considerations generally concern corporations of any size and sector, the special focus is on SMEs. In this chapter, we discuss the particular resources and advantages that enable SMEs to pursue such an offensive, sustainable-oriented GHG management strategy successfully.
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Hesselbarth, C., Gutierrez, B.C. (2011). Offensive GHG Management and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. In: Antes, R., Hansjürgens, B., Letmathe, P., Pickl, S. (eds) Emissions Trading. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20592-7_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20592-7_11
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