Purpose: Our world faces greater environmental, social and governance challenges than ever before and a growing number of organisations are establishing sustainability functions, strategies and plans in an effort to address these complex issues. However, limited research exists on the critical behavioural competencies required to maximise leadership impact on sustainability initiatives. With the stakes so high and the task so complex, this empirical study identifies key behavioural competencies of corporate sustainability leaders and sets out a model for assessing these behavioural competencies. Design: Based on a review of the empirical literature, the study sets out five competency groupings, which informed a hypothesis. This was tested quantitatively via a self-report tool that enabled a quantitative analysis of behavioural competencies. Contributions from 97 participants were triangulated with data collected from colleagues who rated the participants on the same set of competencies. Findings: Ten critical and ten prominent behaviours of Sustainability Leaders in five competency groupings were idenified. The analysis also explored how the business sector, location, years of experience and level of qualification impacted upon the sample Sustainability Leaders' perceived effectiveness. Research limitiation/implications: The sample size means that the competency model derived from the findings should be seen as propositional and requiring further validation. Impact measures would add considerable robustness to the findings. Practical implications: The research offers a means to better focus and tailor leadership development experiences and as a tool for the recruitment of Sustainability Leaders. Originality/value: The study is based on a robust quantitative approach, and the behavioural competency model developed as a result provides a tool for Sustainability Leaders to map current behaviours and monitor their progress over time.

This paper presents the results of a survey-based study, which involved 120 SMEs in the East Midlands region of the UK, and aims to explore SMEs environmental practices, environmental capabilities and awareness of the regional support for green growth. Environmental capabilities of SMEs are found to be bound to energy efficiency projects, with very few SMEs having a strategic outlook toward developing these capabilities. The majority of SMEs did not access governmental grants to improve energy efficiency, and those who did accessed governmental rather than NGO or private sources. Around a third of SMEs did not invest in any form of EMS or EMA over the last two years. Environmental capabilities, which are considered to have a direct positive impact on cost reduction, are found to be attracting the highest demand from SMEs. The study offers a typology of SMEs environmental capabilities providing a valuable conceptual development in understanding the links between various environmental capabilities and their significance for the strategic success of an enterprise.

Whilst there are well-established bodies of knowledge about enterprise support and the role of entrepreneurial learning for SMEs (Small and medium-sized enterprises) in general and a growing body of evidence relating to environmental capabilities, green/eco-innovation, sustainable supply chains and green skills for SMEs in particular, there is little empirical and peer reviewed literature that address approaches to enterprise support specifically focussed on the needs of the growing number of pro-environmental SMEs. This study undertakes a contextualised review of diverse knowledge domains to identify the key features of enterprise support for pro-environmental SMEs. In doing so, the paper plots the knowledge journey of experienced academic programme providers, from the initial design of an enterprise support programme for pro-environmental SMEs, through a thematic review of academic, grey and other related literature and finally presents a propositional and normative conceptual framework that proposes eight key features of enterprise support for pro-environmental SMEs. The resulting ‘framework for action’ aims to offer a practical tool for providers of pro-environmental enterprise support to review and improve their own provision, an analytical frame for other researchers in this field and a benchmark for SMEs seeking guidance on their pathway to net-zero business performance.

Although clean growth has been identified as one of the grand challenges of the UK Industrial Strategy, public policy paid little attention to the configuration of business support towards enhancing clean growth potential of small and medium-sized enterprises. The dominant approach of policymakers to the design of enterprise support interventions appears to be ‘place-blind’ and downplays the challenges that small and medium-sized enterprises face in engaging with the clean growth policy agenda. Based on a mixed methods methodology, involving a survey of 306 businesses, a range of public engagement exercises and an extensive interview schedule, the study explores small and medium-sized enterprises engagement with the clean growth challenge and associated business support mechanisms. We conceptualise the nexus of place–policy–practice as a way of framing policymaking approach in addressing the challenge. As part of the clean growth policy implementation, business support mechanisms need to move beyond a singular focus on energy efficiency and shift towards a holistic approach to capacity building for sustainable development. Small business needs to project a district voice in the definition of place in the local industrial strategies and have access to enterprise support which is place-based, policy-informed and practice-relevant.

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