Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)

What are SMEs?

• SMEs are highly diversified small and medium-sized enterprises that are the fastest growing facet of the Canadian economy. The needs of small businesses and their interaction with the environment differ from those of large companies in the following ways:
• Generate less environmental data


• Have less environmental expertise and/or experience


• Have fewer resources


• Differ in organizational structure


• Individually their environmental impact is likely to be small, but cumulatively they can generate a substantial amount of wastes that may impact the quality of our air, land and water.

Common definition of small and medium-sized enterprises

• Firms with less than 500 employees and less than $50 million in annual revenues. (Source: Statistics Canada)


• Small Business has less than 50 employees. Medium Business has 51 to 500 employees. (Source: Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment)


• Canada has 2.6 million SMEs:
  • 94 percent have fewer than 20 employees
  • 75 percent have fewer than five employees
    (Source: Certified General Accountants Association)

SMEs and Pollution Prevention (P2)

• SMEs collectively may create considerable pollution. Roughly 80 percent of the smaller polluters scattered throughout communities across North America have increased the amount of pollutants released to air, water and land by 15 percent for the time period 1998 – 2000. For most citizens, this means that the facility down the street or in a given local community is more likely to be doing worse – not better – when it comes to creating and releasing pollutants.

• SMEs are typically less closely regulated than large operations. As well, the small size of these companies makes it difficult for them to devote significant resources to P2 activities. Alberta Environment has identified Small and Medium Enterprises as potential partners that can be encouraged to develop P2 strategies to help them reduce waste and decrease the amount of emissions to the environment.

• Although individual companies sometimes think that the pollution from their individual operations is minor, when taken as a whole the small business sector is a major source of pollution. Some estimates suggest that SMEs may produce up to 70 percent of the total environmental pollution load of certain business sectors.

Funding and Information Sources for Small & Medium Businesses

Funding for pollution prevention planning is often not readily available for many small & medium businesses. Here is a list of possible funding sources. (PDF document)

Pollution Prevention Consultants Listing
SMEs do not normally have the expertise in-house to develop and implement a Pollution Prevention Plan. A list of consultants providing P2 planning is available here. (MS Word document)

Additional Information

• The Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention (C2P2) has developed a website specifically for SMEs on pollution prevention and other environmental information that contains preliminary information for different SME sectors. Refer to the C2P2 website.
• Municipalities also have access to funding for pollution prevention initiatives, please visit our list of funding sources.