Environmental sustainability and ambiguity of environmental objectives in European companies: a survey analysis

The current development model has not been feasible for some time, given the tremendous impacts that are being encountered on a social and environmental level. The need for a development model focused on sustainability, so called "sustainable development", has been known since the 1990s, however not all companies are committed to pursuing it. The objective of this thesis is to investigate whether the European SMEs pursue environmental sustainability at an operational level, and not just a formal one, by setting clear and measurable environmental objectives; indeed the use of corporate environmental objectives is a useful tool for implementing sustainability in the corporate management system. The underlying assumption is that a low level of ambiguity of environmental objectives, it should lead to good environmental performance. To answer the research question, 70 small and medium-sized European companies were interviewed through an online survey, and the results show a medium-low total mean of the ambiguity of environmental objectives, which correspond to medium-high managerial environmental performance; on the contrary, the operational environmental performances are lower than the managerial ones, indicating a greater attention of the companies in question to the formal aspect of sustainability, which is not completely followed by a practical application, for example through monetary and non-monetary incentives. Given that the definition of environmental objectives by organizations, as a way to enhance environmental performance has been little studied in the literature, we suggest further research that may or may not provide evidence on this topic.