Over the last decades, entrepreneurs and academics from the management area have received inquiries about how and why companies should integrate environmental issues in strategic decision making. Therefore, the concern about environmental issues has made companies of all sizes rethink their attitudes towards the environment. The aim of this article is to observe if activities concerning environmental management in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from the metal-mechanic sector in São Paulo State, Brazil are in line with their business strategies. A collective case study was conducted in four enterprises of this business sector. The data was analyzed using inductive content analysis. The results showed that there are SMEs which are strongly engaged with environmental management and their environmental practices are in line with their strategies. Moreover, the research showed that informality in SMEs did not affect the adoption of proactive environmental management.
small and medium sized companies; environmental management; business strategy
