Policies and actions in national and international spheres which aim to develop the local industry competition, taking as their basis the many advantages of agglomeration, have been focusing on the local production systems (LPS). Such actions and policies indicate the LPS as a vector of economic dynamism that improves local development, emphasizing the role of micro and small enterprises (MSE) which occur in an industrial agglomeration. However, the environmental dimension has thus far only received tangential treatment within the policies and actions in the promotional and structural activities mentioned above. Thus, there is a question as to how we could contemplate this dimension in order to understand and promote LPS, including the objective of preventing and reducing negative environmental impacts from the activities of these agglomerations. The article proposes to examine the opportunities for integration of environmental issues in a group of enterprises that belong to the São José do Rio Preto-SP Jewelry Cluster, which is the second largest in the State of São Paulo in manufacturing jewelers made from gold. These enterprises joined a competitiveness project undertaken by SEBRAE (Brazilian Agency for Support of Micro and Small Enterprises). The analysis adopts the cleaner production proposal(P + L) as an approach and tool for environmental management, particularly suitable for smaller enterprises that are able to converge innovation efforts in order to provide alternatives for undertaking improvements in environmental performance. Qualitative exploratory research found that endeavors to update technology in the jewelry cluster analyzed with a view to cleaner production, leads to environmental, economic and occupational health and safety benefits due to the reduction in the consumption of raw materials, water and energy, as well as the reduced generation of waste and emissions. The qualitative exploratory research identified opportunities to incorporate the environmental issues in policies and actions for structuring and promoting LPS, considering specificities and the technological dynamic of the sector of micro and small enterprises.
Cleaner production; Technological innovation; Local production systems; Cluster; Jewelry industry
