Environmental Stewardship and Strategy for Business Sustainability: Evidence from Small and Medium Packaged Water Enterprises in Nigeria

Abstract

Climate change phenomenon and non-biodegradable nature of some industrial outputs are creating an increasing awareness and need to balance economic activities with social and environmental demands of the society. Also the rising concerns of government, consumers and the society at large regarding whether organisations see the necessity for the balance is gaining more momentum. In this regards, this paper seeks to examine the relationship between environmental stewardship and business sustainability. Research survey is used in which environmental stewardship proxy as community engagement activities, recycling activities, and waste reduction and management activities were investigated on business sustainability which is viewed along three dimensional (economic, social and environmental) balances in the questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics while multiple regression was employed to determine the effect of environmental stewardship on business sustainability. The two objectives were achieved as stated. The results show that there is positive significant effect of environmental stewardship on business sustainability at p-value < 0.05. Also, waste reduction and management has the highest mean value of 3.021 compared to others. The study concludes that recycling and waste reduction and management actions will enhance business sustainability. Future studies are suggested.