6 out of 10 SMEs Say "Environmental Regulations Should Be Changed to Voluntary Management"

<중기중앙회, Survey on Environmental Regulation Compliance Difficulties for 730 Companies>

It was found that 60.3% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) believe that a transition to self-regulatory environmental regulations is necessary to minimize the burden of environmental regulations.

The Korea Federation of SMEs announced the results of the "Survey on Difficulties in Complying with Environmental Regulations by SMEs" conducted on 730 small manufacturing companies on the 9th. This survey was conducted to understand the management burden caused by environmental regulations on SMEs, difficulties faced, status of personnel in charge of environmental tasks, and directions for regulatory improvement.

Self-regulatory regulations refer to a system that encourages workplaces to manage their environment independently through incentives, based on the principles of autonomy and self-responsibility. In this survey, besides self-regulatory regulations, 45.2% of respondents expressed the opinion that "it is necessary to resolve overlapping regulations among laws and unify the management and supervision system," and 29.3% responded that "sufficient preparation periods such as grace periods for regulatory response must be guaranteed."

Additionally, only 0.8% of the responding companies had an organization dedicated to environmental tasks. 84.8% answered that "there is no dedicated person or only personnel with concurrent duties." Among companies with environmental task organizations or personnel (309 companies), 89.3% stated that they are hiring professionals with environmental certifications, but most companies (83.8%) had only one certified individual.

Among the surveyed companies, 37.3% of workplaces emitting environmental pollutants (300 companies) responded that "the burden of environmental regulations on business management is high." By industry, the degree of management burden was highest in primary metals (72.7%), chemical substances and chemical products (45.3%), and non-metallic mineral products (40.9%). The environmental regulation areas where burdens were felt were air (67.3%), waste and resource circulation (46.0%), and wastewater (30.0%), in that order.

Yang Chan-hoe, Head of the Innovation Growth Headquarters at the Korea Federation of SMEs, said, "SMEs lack both the administrative capacity and personnel to fulfill environmental legal obligations," and added, "there is a need for a new approach to environmental regulations that departs from the existing regulatory omnipotence, allowing self-management for companies with sufficient management capabilities, while providing policy support for SMEs lacking such capabilities."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.