A cluster-based approach as an effective way to implement the Environmental Compliance Assistance Programme: evidence from some good practices

SMEs - Small and Medium Enterprises - are to be considered a crucial target if policy makers really want to pursue sustainable development. These companies are responsible for a large share of business environmental impacts, but they show a low awareness about it and on environmental legislation. Our article aims at demonstrating how an innovative approach to environmental management, the “cluster approach”, can be an effective tool to improving the complance of SMEs and, as a consequence, their environmental performance. The local experiences, analyzed in our work, show the effectiveness of the cluster approach to strengthen the environmental competence and know-how at the local level, as well as the improvement of environmental performances of both individual SMEs and of the entire productive areas. How to develop the cluster approach and include it structurally in policy-making should be the question for future research and experimental initiatives, such as the on-going ECCELSA project.