Does It Pay to Be “Greener” than Legislation? An Empirical Study of Spanish Tile Industry

Abstract

Environmental awareness is a key aspect considered in companies' corporate social responsibility. Companies try always to comply with current environmental legislation. Does it make sense for them to go beyond legislation? This work's aim is to answer this question and to study how companies can generate value through environmental proactivity. This study is focused on the Spanish tile industry sector. This research's objective is to describe which aspects form companies' environmental strategy; barriers and facilitators that make possible proactive environmental orientation; benefits companies can obtain from it and obstacles companies face when trying to be environmentally proactive, through a case study as qualitative methodology. The major benefit observed is to prevent sanctions, followed by improvement of corporate image, long-term cost savings and new business opportunities obtaining. Main obstacles companies face are lack of institutional and financial support. Evidence is found that environmental proactivity is considered in companies' strategic planning.

Determinantes de la eco-innovación en la actividad de construcción en España

“…La evidencia demuestra cómo el rendimiento de la industria se ha visto mejorado al aumentar su actividad eco-innovadora y mejorar su orientación medioambiental, siendo éste el caso de la industria cerámica y azulejera (27), la industria agroalimentaria (28) o la industria hotelera (29) (30), entre otros.…”

ISO 14001 y variables económicas, ¿hay alguna relación? Análisis de las empresas certificadas del sector cerámico español

“…Este resultado puede tener importantes implicaciones a nivel empresarial, ya que parece que una vez realizado el esfuerzo y la inversión y obtenida la certificación, se desaprovechan las oportunidades de mejora de resultados que la ISO 14001 como sistema de gestión medioambiental podría ofrecer a la empresa, como el incremento de información, reducción de costes o el control en el uso de los recursos energéticos, entre otros (8,11,12,16,17,23,56).…”

Performance and environmental proactivity in small mezcal businesses in Oaxaca, México

“…Over the last years, the interest in the reduction of environmental pollution, the impact of the businesses activity on the environment, the efficiency of the production processes and the businesses performance has become an important research topic (Carrascosa, Segarra, Peiró, & Segura, 2012;Plaza, De Burgos, & Belmonte, 2011). Historically, the secondary sector of the economy and large companies are signalized as the major's pollution creators, which has been the object to the creation of norms and laws to regulate and reduce that pollution (Carrascosa, et al, 2012).…”