This article describes a Swedish initiative for providing a joint ISO 14001 certification to small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The model started in 1997 in the Hackefors industrial district - so named Hackefors model - is now used by 450 enterprises of a wide variety of different business in 24 other districts. In this study we examine the use of this successful experiment in a Brazilian industrial district, Fazenda Botafogo, in Rio de Janeiro that, at the same way than Hackefors, is composed by small to medium-sized enterprises.
Cadma; environmental certification; industrial district; ISO-14001; small-sized and medium-sized enterprises
