Greening small businesses in small States: the case of Barbados

Barbados has embarked on a bold initiative to green its economy and has already made significant progress in some economic sectors (e.g. energy). This study investigates the extent to which small- and medium-sized enterprises (one of the largest segments of economic activity) on the island have adopted green initiatives and the factors that have prompted them to do so. A probit model is estimated using a firm-level database extracted from the Productivity, Technology and Innovation in the Caribbean (PROTEqIN) database maintained by Compete Caribbean. The results suggest that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have lagged behind larger firms in adopting green strategies. One of the key constraints was found to be the limited availability of technical skills and support within such enterprises. The study concludes that, if the island is to have any success in greening its SMEs, technical support will need to be made more accessible for these enterprises.