Development of good environmental practices in enterprises in the city of
Guayaquil, Ecuador, through the implementation of linkage projects.
Desarrollo de buenas prácticas ambientales en emprendimientos de la ciudad de Guayaquil,
Ecuador mediante la implementación de proyectos de vinculación
Sedolfo Jose Carrasquero Ferrer
PhD in environmental engineering. Universidad Tecnológica Empresarial de Guayaquil
(UTEG), Guayaquil, Ecuador, coordinadorgrado@uteg.edu.ec
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4725-963X
Sonnia Soraya Urbina Bustos
Master in Business Administration. Universidad Tecnológica Empresarial de Guayaquil,
Guayaquil, Ecuador, coordinadorfinanzas@uteg.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2076-1574
Abstract
A sustainable enterprise is one that, in addition to the economic component, involves
environmental protection and social development. The implementation of good environmental
practices (GEPs) improves the situation of microenterprises with respect to environmental
regulations, in addition to improving their competitive situation. The objective of this research
was to develop GHPs in enterprises in the northern zone of the city of Guayaquil through the
implementation of linkage projects aimed at strengthening the capacities of small enterprises
for sustainable resource management. The research was descriptive and cross-sectional in
scope. A purposive sampling of microenterprises in the northern zone of the Tarqui parish of
Guayaquil, Ecuador, was carried out. A total of 21 microenterprises with a variety of
production activities were selected in a purposive sampling. A structured questionnaire was
applied to describe whether the enterprises used GHPs. According to the results obtained, it
became evident that there is a need to train microentrepreneurs because they are aware of the
benefits of GHPs in their processes, but they do not apply them adequately. Although they
recycle some products, they do not adopt policies aimed at the rational and sustainable use of
water and energy resources.
Keywords: Good environmental practices, microenterprises, sustainable development.
coordinadorgrado@uteg.edu.ec
http://centrosuragraria.com/index.php/revista, Published by: Edwards Deming Institute,
Quito - Ecuador, April, June vol. 1. Num. 13 2022, This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.es
Carrasquero, Urbina. 2022
April - June vol. 1. Num. 13 2022
Resumen
Un emprendimiento sostenible es aquel que además del componente económico implica la
protección ambiental y el desarrollo social. La implementación de buenas prácticas ambientales
(BPAs) permite mejorar la situación frente a regulaciones ambientales de las microempresas;
además de mejorar su situación competitiva. El objetivo de esta investigación fue desarrollar
BPAs en emprendimientos de la zona norte de la ciudad de Guayaquil por medio de la ejecución
de proyectos de vinculación orientados a potenciar las capacidades de pequeñas empresas para
una gestión sostenible de los recursos. La investigación tuvo un alcance descriptivo y
transeccional. Se realizó un muestreo intencional de microempresas de la zona norte de la
parroquia Tarqui de Guayaquil, Ecuador. Se seleccionó en un muestreo intencional un total 21
de microempresas que presentaron variadas actividades de producción. Se aplicó un
cuestionario estructurado que busco describir si los emprendimientos utilizaban BPAs. De
acuerdo a los resultados obtenidos, se evidenció que existe la necesidad de formar a los
microempresarios debido a que conocen los beneficios de las BPAs en sus procesos, pero no
realizan la aplicación de manera adecuada. A pesar de reciclan algunos productos no adoptan
políticas dirigidas al uso racional y sustentable de los recursos hídricos y energéticos
Palabras clave: Buenas prácticas ambientales, microempresas, desarrollo sostenible.
Introduction
The sustainability of the planet's natural resources depends on the environmental awareness of
each of the people who inhabit it. Environmental awareness must prevail in their scope of
action and work; however, this care must also be led by companies, due to the environmental
impacts they generate, being every day more responsible with natural resources when
manufacturing a good or providing a service (González, 2018).
Consumers around the world are increasingly concerned about the environmental impacts of
the products they choose. Given this reality, many smart companies are paying attention to the
growing desire for greener products, which are building a niche that will soon become
mainstream (Abanyam and Raymond, 2019).
Given that business activities are considered one of the main causes of environmental
degradation, it has become important to analyze the role played by employers and their
organizations in the sustainability of societies (ONeill, Hersauer and Golden, 2009; Hockerts,
Wüstenhagen and Greening, 2010; Parrish, 2010). Thus, in the last decade, the concern for
understanding what is the real impact of companies on society has grown exponentially, with
some authors even talking about a paradigm shift in economics. The traditional understanding
of value creation simply in terms of economic gains has expanded to include non-economic
gains.
24
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are important for the economic fabric of a country
because of the amount of employment they generate, their production is linked to the domestic
market and a large part of the population and the local economy depend on their activity and
the positive and negative impacts they produce (Bermeo and Saavedra, 2018; Avila and Ceño,
2020). Although SMEs have a relatively small individual importance, associatively they can
have large impacts on the regions where they operate. (Sarango, Álvarez and Del Río, 2018).
In today's global business environment, SMEs face increased competitive, regulatory and
community pressures. In addition, there is also pressure for environmental sustainability, which
requires the implementation of strategies to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the
products and services offered. Clem (2008) adds that ecology reflects a social consciousness
around saving and using the Earth's natural resources, preserving and protecting them for the
good of civilization. As customers become more aware of environmental issues, the demand
for green products increases. (Kumar and Ghodeswar, 2015).
In this sense, a sustainable enterprise is one that, in addition to the economic component or
monetary benefits, involves environmental protection and social development. Entrepreneurs
and companies that make environmental progress their core business can be called sustainable
entrepreneurs, generating new products, services, techniques and modes of organization that
substantially reduce the impact to the ecosystem and increase the quality of life (Guzmán and
Trujillo, 2008; Schaltegger and Wagner, 2011; Rodríguez, 2016).
The identification and evaluation of environmental aspects and effects associated with an
undertaking is essential to know the impact generated by activities, products or services, and
to be able to establish environmental objectives (World Organization for Standardization,
2015). The environmental impacts of any productive activity are classified according to
whether they are produced as a consequence of the input process of resources (consumption,
whether of products, water, energy, among others), of the output process (pollution and waste)
or are directly due to the action of the activity on the territory in which it is carried out (impacts
on space).
For this reason, this research posed the following question: How to develop the implementation
of good environmental practices to achieve sustainable enterprises in the city of Guayaquil,
Ecuador, through the active participation of students, professors and the community in general
by means of activities linked to society?
Good environmental practices are instruments that are implemented at a destination or in a
company to ensure that negative impacts are reduced and positive impacts are enhanced,
benefiting both the client and the business owner. These are voluntary activities carried out by
entrepreneurs and/or organizations that facilitate compliance with sustainability criteria.
The general objective of this research was to develop good environmental practices in
enterprises in the northern area of the city of Guayaquil through the implementation of linkage
Carrasquero, Urbina. 2022
April - June vol. 1. Num. 13 2022
projects aimed at strengthening the capacities of small enterprises for sustainable resource
management.
The importance of this research lies in the fact that all sectors of the economy generate negative
impacts on the environment. In order to mitigate these impacts and minimize risks, the
importance of implementing good environmental practices by all actors in the productive sector
arises.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a very important role in the development of
any economy due to their relationship and impact on the generation of employment and
economic growth, and in general worldwide, they account for an average of 80% of the
businesses in an economy. In this sense, the importance of this sector of the economy is
transcendental for the generation of jobs, development of production, and sustainable
management of the economy (Veintimilla, 2014).
Corporate environmental management in SMEs can become one of the weapons to face the
opening of markets, as long as the different actors of the business and environmental sector
manage to orient themselves towards potential niches, for this it is required to adapt a new
management that strengthens coordination between them and leave the traditional approach of
an isolated environmental management, integrating it to the competitiveness of companies and
region as a whole (Gonzalez, 2017).
Ecuador registered a total of 843,745 companies. According to size, 90.51% are
microenterprises, that is, they have annual sales of less than 100 thousand dollars and have
between one and nine employees on their payrolls (INEC, 2015). The distribution of companies
by economic sector at the national level is composed as follows: services (40.59%); commerce
(36.62%); agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing (10.42%); manufacturing industries
(8.62%); construction (3.40%) and mining and quarrying (0.35%) (INEC, 2016). There are
81,598 microenterprises in Guayaquil. The main activities carried out in this city are: wholesale
and retail trade and vehicle repair with 59.34%, accommodation and food service with 9.62%,
other service activities with 8.89% and manufacturing industries with 7.84%.
León (2015) assures that SMEs are a vulnerable productive sector that needs to be strengthened
in environmental matters. In Ecuador out of a sample of 10,646 companies, 2,734 companies
(26%) have some type of environmental certification, while the rest (7,912) do not have any
type (74%).
Materials and methods
This research was carried out in three phases. In the first phase, a diagnosis was made of the
practices carried out in enterprises in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The second phase
corresponded to the analysis of the results in order to propose linkage projects aimed at
26
generating a guide of good practices in some of the diagnosed enterprises, and finally, the
implementation of these projects was carried out.
The research was descriptive and cross-sectional in scope. A purposive sampling of
microenterprises in the northern zone of the Tarqui parish in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador
was carried out. A total of 21 microenterprises with a variety of production activities were
selected in a purposive sampling. A structured questionnaire was applied to describe whether
the enterprises used environmental practices. The collection of information was carried out in
a single period.
A structured questionnaire developed from the instruments of Galvan, Clemente and Reyes
(2012), and Abanyam and Raymond (2019), which allow describing green business practices
for corporate sustainability, was used for data collection. The questionnaire has 20 questions.
The instrument was structured in four response options: strongly agree (SA), agree (A),
disagree (D) and strongly disagree (SD) with values of 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. The
instruments were validated by five experts and subjected to a reliability test. Cronbach's alpha
coefficient method was used to analyze the data obtained from the instrument. The result of
the reliability estimation of the pilot study yielded a coefficient of 0.886.
The data collected for the study were analyzed using the mean, standard deviation, and a one-
way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey's test to determine whether significant
differences existed between the environmental dimensions assessed. Any item with a mean of
2.50 and above was considered accepted, while any mean score below 2.50 was posed as
rejected, according to the methodology of Abanyam and Raymond (2019).
Result
The environmental diagnosis was carried out in 21 microenterprises constituted as legal entities
or individuals with entrepreneurial activity. They belong to four sectors (Table 1), including:
services (8), food (5), commerce (5) and technology (3). With regard to environmental
certifications, none of them have been recognized for their environmental management.
Among the main services offered are: vehicle washing, oil change and engine washing,
washing, drying and ironing of clothes.
Table 1. Diagnosed microenterprise items
Type of microenterprise
Number
%
Services
38,1
Feeding
5
23,8
Trade
14,3
Technology
5
23,8
Total
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The success and growth of micro-enterprises dedicated to car washing motivates reflection on
their practice, because they present paradoxical aspects, they contribute to local economic
growth and the generation of employment and income, providing improvements in the quality
of life of communities, but at the same time, these activities can also cause serious
environmental impact (Costa et al., 2009; Carrasquero et al., 2015).
Table 2 presents the mean scores of the dimensions measured according to the results of the
respondents. According to the analysis of variance and test of means, it is possible to group the
student dimensions into three categories, according to the answers obtained, the first and where
the highest weights were obtained were policy, environmental processes, sustainable
management of resources and environmental practices. The mean in these dimensions did not
exceed 2.60; therefore, it was considered that the microenterprises know about sustainable
management practices and processes, but do not apply them.
Table 2. Dimensions evaluated in the environmental diagnosis
Dimension
Media
Group
Company environmental strategies
2,15
B
Environmental training
1,80
C
Environmental conservation
2,18
B
Environmental policy and management
2,55
A
Environmental processes and sustainable resource management
2,53
A
Environmental practices
2,60
A
Promotion of environmental values
1,88
C
Green marketing
2,10
B
* Note: Mean followed by different letters in each row indicates significant differences according to Tukey's
test (p≤0.05).
In order to go deeper into the environmental management of the microenterprises, the results
are presented separately for each of the dimensions analyzed. Table 3 presents the questions
related to strategies, training, conservation and environmental policy, as well as environmental
processes for sustainable resource management.
Table 3. Means and standard deviations of the environmental diagnosis for the
microenterprises evaluated.
Dimension
Ask
Media
DE
Company
environmental
strategies
Good environmental practices represent a strategy for the
development of your microenterprise.
2,35
0,81
Environmental training
Conducts environmental training programs for its employees
1,80
0,62
Environmental
conservation
Investing in your company around environmental
conservation investments
1,65
0,49
28
Considers that being an environmentally friendly product is
an important quality requirement.
2,70
0,57
Environmental policy
and management
Knows what is a policy for environmental conservation
2,95
0,76
Environmental
processes and
sustainable resource
management
The company adopts a policy of rational and sustainable use
of resources.
1,70
0,57
Environmental management must be carried out by
contracted personnel.
3,65
0,59
The use of environmentally friendly production processes
improves your company's image in the market.
2,40
0,50
SD= Standard deviation
The analysis reveals that, for these first five dimensions evaluated, the questions of the
questionnaire recorded mean scores ranging from 1.80 to 3.65. The study also shows that all
items recorded standard deviations ranging from 0.49 to 0.19, indicating that there was little
dispersion among respondents' answers.
Table 4 presents the responses corresponding to the dimensions environmental practices,
promotion of environmental values and ecological marketing. The diagnostic scores on the
questions asked ranged between 1.55 and 3.20 for the dimensions promotion of environmental
values and good environmental practices, respectively.
Table 4. Means and standard deviations of the environmental diagnosis for the
microenterprises evaluated in the dimensions of practices, promotion of environmental values
and ecological marketing.
Dimension
Ask
Media
DE
Environmental
practices
Plant native trees, foliage, use rainwater or recycled
greywater to reduce ecological damage.
1,75
0,64
Produces durable products from design to disposal reducing
ecological damage to ensure sustainable development.
2,30
0,47
Find environmentally friendly alternatives to harmful
products, at the same or improved level, at a lower cost.
2,50
1,05
Uses environmentally friendly materials, procedures and
processes and ensures optimal use of raw materials.
2,75
0,44
Recycle waste products (e.g., plastic, paper, glass) to
increase operating income and consider expanding
production capacity.
3,10
0,79
Choose packaging material with minimal impact on the
environment.
3,20
0,62
Promotion of
environmental values
Use ads that promote a green lifestyle when highlighting a
product or service.
2,10
0,85
Uses green themes to sell new lifestyles and ideas.
1,55
0,51
Advertise green initiatives effectively to gain market share.
2,00
0,73
Include green business practices in the overall corporate
message to attract new customers.
1,85
0,67
Green marketing
Integrate green marketing into the marketing mix with green
products.
2,15
0,93
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April - June vol. 1. Num. 13 2022
Present an environmentally friendly corporate image through
advertising and sales promotion to all stakeholders.
2,05
0,60
SD= Standard deviation
Environmental management practices are applicable to any type of company, regardless of
economic sector, size, activity or any other type. According to the diagnosis carried out in the
microenterprises, the questions related to the use of ecological themes to sell their service or
product and investment in environmental conservation presented the lowest results of 1.55 and
1.65, respectively. This is related to the fact that microentrepreneurs are unaware of the
advantages of green or ecological marketing due to the fact that the approach to green or
ecological marketing in Latin America is in an introductory stage.
According to the results obtained, it became evident that there is a need to train
microentrepreneurs because they know the benefits of good environmental practices in their
processes, but do not apply them adequately. Although they recycle some products, they do
not adopt policies aimed at the rational and sustainable use of water and energy resources . For
García and Vargas (2015), environmental practices in microenterprises have not yet reached a
systemic structure that makes it possible to agree on criteria to improve environmental
performance.
In the dimension of promoting environmental values, none of the aspects diagnosed can be
considered accepted by the microenterprises, i.e., all had a score of less than 2.5. Therefore, it
is necessary to encourage these practices that promote the use of ecological themes, include
ecological business practices and advertise environmental initiatives in order to acquire a
greater market share. According to Huerta and García (2009), the current trend in
environmental matters is to make it an intrinsic part of the corporate strategy of companies,
i.e., the most appropriate thing nowadays is to have a business strategy that includes, in addition
to all the traditional components, environmental aspects as a critical part of the firm's success.
The environmental microenterprises consulted do not carry out environmental training
programs with their employees. Environmental training plays an important role in the
formation of a citizenry that is aware of and actively interested in the environment and its
associated problems (Martínez, 2010). The preparation of professionals, communities,
decision makers and other key social groups in the understanding of environmental problems
is key to achieving social commitment from the perspective of individual responsibility.
Similarly, environmental training contributes directly to the fulfillment of the environmental
objectives of the institution and prepares people to contribute from their work or professional
and social position, to the transition towards sustainable development.
The diagnosis made showed the need to train microentrepreneurs in environmental issues. For
this reason, in the next phase of the research, we proceeded through linkage projects to to
strengthen the capacities of small businesses through the transmission of knowledge to promote
the establishment of good environmental practices aimed at sustainable management of
resources .
30
Five of the microenterprises diagnosed were selected, two in the service sector, one in
technology, one in food and one in formal commerce. In each microenterprise, a group of eight
undergraduate students, through outreach activities, developed good environmental practices
in the microenterprises, with a total of 40 student trainers. It should be noted that the students
received 20 hours of GEP training prior to carrying out the outreach activities.
The objectives of the linkage projects were oriented to: Conduct a review of the companies'
operations plan, Train the personnel of the various microenterprises; as well as related
communities, in good environmental practices, such as: efficient water and energy
consumption, sustainable administration and sustainable waste management, Generate a guide
of good environmental practices according to the operational activities carried out in the
microenterprise, Monitor the implementation of good environmental practices in the activities
in the companies or institutions.
Conclusions
Good housekeeping practices are applicable to any type of company, regardless of economic
sector, size, activity or any other type. It became evident that there is a need to train
microentrepreneurs because they are aware of the benefits of good environmental practices in
their processes, but do not apply them adequately.
The development of the research allowed for the execution of linkage projects aimed at training
the personnel of the various microenterprises, as well as related communities, in good
environmental practices, such as: efficient water and energy consumption, sustainable
administration and sustainable waste management, generating a guide of good environmental
practices in accordance with the operational activities carried out in the microenterprise.
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