Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

An approach to implement cleaner production in services: Integrating

quality management process
Hannah de Oliveira Santos a, Jordania Louse Silva Alves b, *,

Coutinho de Melo c, Denise Dumke de Medeiros d
Fagner Jose
a
University of Salamanca, Spain
b ~o Ramos, 1200 - Coroado I, 69067-005 Manaus,
Production Engineering Department, Federal University of Amazonas, Av. General Rodrigo Octavio Jorda
Amazonas, Brazil
c
Administrative Sciences Department, University of Pernambuco, Av. Veremundo Soares, s/n, Zona Rural, 56000000, Salgueiro, Pernambuco, Brazil
d
Production Engineering Department, Federal University of Pernambuco, Av. Academico Helio Ramos, s/n, CDU, 50.740-530, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Currently, society and the market have a holistic view of environmental issues and both are concerned
Received 23 January 2019 not only with economic benefits but also with the consequences that these benefits have for the envi-
Received in revised form ronment. The growth of the service sector means that this sector has made an effort to determine and
14 October 2019
measure the adverse impacts of service rendering on the environment and to minimize these. The
Accepted 20 October 2019
cleaner production program uses tools that associate economic, social and environmental benefits to an
Available online 25 October 2019
organization’s activities. This study sets out an approach to implement cleaner production, combining
Handling editor: Yutao Wang the principles of quality management applied to the processes as set out in Paladini and integrated with
the PDCA methodology and cleaner production methodology. It was analyzed in four companies that
Keywords: provide services, related to mass services, professional services, a services factory and a services shop,
Cleaner production each of which is representative of a type of service included in Schmenner’s classification of services.
Services Two of the five steps of the proposed approach were used, namely pre-evaluation and evaluation. As a
Sustainability result, it was observed that the organizational culture determines the vision of the purpose of imple-
PDCA
menting Cleaner Production. In one company, the decreasing of water consumption was more than
4.000 m3/year. It can be affirmed that, as soon as service providers adopt cleaner production, they will
become fully aware of the environmental aspects and impacts of their processes and services rendered,
and therefore will be able to identify opportunities for reducing costs, thereby helping the organization
to achieve responsible and sustainable growth. It is possible that through this practice there will be an
increase in competitiveness, reducing production costs and improving the quality of life of the local and
global community. Adopting cleaner production means innovating for organizations, as it is a process
that requires behavioral change, including all actors involved in the process working towards an efficient
and sustainable performance with respect to the resources available in nature.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The 20th-century production model was based on the premise
that the planet’s natural resources were unlimited. Thus, for many
years, man used them without any kind of environmental control
because it was believed not only that they were inexhaustible but
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: hannaholiveir@gmail.com (H. de Oliveira Santos), jordania@
ufam.edu.br (J.L.S. Alves), fagnercoutinhomelo@gmail.com (F.J.C. de Melo),
medeirosdd@gmail.com (D.D. de Medeiros).
also that Nature could absorb all the waste produced by human
actions without harmful consequences (Alves and Medeiros, 2015).
The alleged right to exercise wellbeing, without realizing the real
boundaries of the biosphere, has resulted in unsustainable pro-
duction and consumption systems, which put numerous pressures
on natural resources and biodiversity, and this results in climate
change, the burden on toxic substances, exploitation of non-
renewable resources and pollution of water resources (Mickwitz
et al., 2011; Staniskis et al., 2019).
Given this reality, environmental management became more
important, especially after the Stockholm Conference in 1972, when

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118985
0959-6526/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985
the first pollution control bodies were structured, environmental
legislation was drafted, and environmental quality monitoring ac-
tivities began. Concern for the environment keeps on increasing.
One consequence of this has been to develop and implement solid
and liquid waste treatment units, with the aim of placing them at
the end of the industrial process. Such units are known as “end-of-
pipe” systems because they treat waste at its point of exit from a
factory. It can be said that these units are part of the traditional
approach to pollution control that seeks to protect the environment
reducing waste (Abdul-Rashid, 2017).
According to Guimara ~es et al. (2017), the complexity of indus-
trial processes is the cause of environmental problems. Chehebe
(1998) states that every product, no matter what material it is
made for or purpose of use, has an impact on the environment,
whether due to its production process, the raw materials used, due
to its use or disposal. Today, the big challenge for managers is to
identify the best strategy to maximize the environmental oppor-
tunities linked to the business (Song et al., 2018). In order to enable
the implementation of appropriate strategies, several environ-
mental methodologies are being used by industries, among which,
cleaner production has been very successful (Wang et al., 2018).
Cleaner production is a product of the “end-of-pipe” vision, but has
a preventive approach to environmental management and aims to
produce goods and services in a way that minimizes their impact on
the environment within the current economic and technological
constraints that companies face (UNEP, 2018). The cleaner pro-
duction program introduces tools that link economic, social, and
environmental benefits to an organization’s activities. Imple-
menting this program leads to financial gains because better use is
made of raw materials, energy and water, and waste is minimized
(Bhupendra and Sangle, 2016).
In view of this, it is worth mentioning that the market is
currently becoming more and more competitive and directed at
consumers, who have begun to pay attention to the importance of
conserving the environment and to take an interest in the pro-
cedures and actions that companies perform (Huang et al., 2014).
Despite the political and economic crisis experienced by Brazil in
recent years, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and
Statistics, the service sector accounted for 75.8% of Brazil’s Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018. The sector showed a growth 1.3%
when compared to the previous year, ahead of industrial growth
(0.6%) and agriculture (0.1%) (IBGE, 2019). In 2018, 529,554 new
formal jobs were created in Brazil, the best performance in new job
creation since 2013 and the first positive result after three years of
contraction in new job creation. The sectors that contributed most
to the generation of these new posts were the services sector
(398.603), commerce (102.007) and construction (17.957) accord-
ing to the National Employees and Unemployed Register (Caged,
2019).
For Aquino et al. (2019), the service sector, in addition to being
responsible for the largest share of world GDP, is perhaps the most
constant in the economy, as its share of GDP and the number of jobs
in the sector grow at higher rates than in other economic sectors, as
presented earlier. In contrast to manufacturing and agriculture,
services are often considered to be “environmentally friendly”
(Romeiro, 2012). This paradox can be explained by a lack of proper
consideration of the size of service material emitted in the envi-
ronment. Services have characteristics that cannot be measured as
easily as products because of their intangibility. Many
manufacturing industries have the end result of their process as a
product, but in the service companies, the end result is not always a
product. It is also known that there are several environmental
impacts generated by industries in the manufacture of a product,
such as waste generation. However, it is not only industries that
cause impacts on the environment, as services, when provided, also
impact (Desmarchelier et al., 2012; Fourcroy, 2012).
Hospitals, for example, can be considered major generators of
epidemics, not only because they bring together people with
different pathologies, but also because they generate waste that is
hazardous to the population’s health (Moura et al., 2018). Andre

et al. (2016) sought to raise waste generation in hospitals in
southeastern Brazil. In six days of collection, the eleven hospitals
studied generated 44,489.91 kg of health services waste, an average
of 7414.98 kg/day. On the other hand, laundries are responsible for a
significant portion of water consumption that when discarded
without treatment cause great environmental impact due to the
use of polluting inputs in the washing process. One of the major
obstacles to laundry treatment of water is the high costs of envi-
ronmental control (Buss et al., 2015). Despite the high costs, it is
possible to treat and reuse water in various types of sector. Sepehri
and Sarrafzadeh (2018) proposed an approach to mitigate fouling
and improve wastewater treatment performance with dominance
of autotrophic microbial community populations in activated
sludge. Thus, if left untreated, waste can cause major damage to the
environment if it ends up in unprepared areas.
Implementing a service waste management plan solely to meet
legal requirements does not solve the problem of its generation.
The smaller the amount of these residues, the lower the cost for
their treatment/disposal and the associated problems (Silva et al.,
2019). Given this fact, companies recognize that environmental
questions are of significant importance and can become a factor of
influence for consumers, laws, society and government, making
organizations show growing interest in protecting the environ-
ment. However, alternatives that seek to reduce waste generation
in the service sector are still scarce. It is in this context that cleaner
production emerges as an alternative capable of reducing waste,
toxic gases and effluents, optimizing the use of water and energy, as
well as better health and safety conditions for employees and the
general population (Neto et al., 2019).
Thus, the following research question arises: How to produce
services with minimal impact using the cleaner production meth-
odology? Based on this issue, this work was developed to analyze
the application of cleaner production in service companies, since
there is a lack of instruments that direct these companies to the
practice of minimization and management of waste generated. This
deficiency is due to the fact that the quality of services has very
subjective aspects that make it difficult to implement instruments
of change and improvement. Therefore, this study aims to apply the
methodology of cleaner production in services, according to the
classification of services proposed by Schmenner (1995). To this
end, the cleaner production approach was adopted by the National
Center for Clean Technologies (CNTL), considered the most com-
plete approach among those surveyed. To develop the research
instruments, two steps of the five of the cleaner production
methodology, pre-evaluation and evaluation were used. The two
steps were chosen because they highlight the barriers to imple-
menting the methodology, identify the waste generated by a
company and at a company’s initiative can be used to analyze the
volume and type of waste it produces.
The authors chose to apply the cleaner production methodology
in the services sector because it is the most representative sector of
the Brazilian economy. In addition, the application of environ-
mental practices in the service sector is still little analyzed, since it
is assumed that the environmental impacts produced by the service
sector are few due to its not producing palpable products (Blanco
et al., 2009; Zeng et al., 2010). Therefore, this paper aims to
contribute to the literature regarding why and how cleaner pro-
duction programs can be developed in the services sector, besides
which the paper integrates two important approaches, namely
cleaner production and PDCA.
 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985
2. Literature review
In this section, the main concepts of this work will be presented:
cleaner production and quality management applied to the
processes.
2.1. Cleaner production
Given current concerns about the environment and thee being a
better understanding of the waste generation process, pollution
control policies have evolved from procedures known as “end-of-
pipe” ones and now tend to focus on the principle of prevention
(CNTL, 2003). According to Strasser (1997) and Rehfeld et al. (2007),
end-of-pipe technology seeks to solve environmental problems by
controlling pollution at the end of the production process, in order
to mitigate the impacts that it has generated. But among the aspects
that still exist, due to lack of prevention, corrective actions are still
made without investigating the causes of pollution and seeking to
understand and tackle them. Yet even when solutions are found,
these arise from making a reactive and selective response to a
problem, which has, in general, been undertaken to meet emission
or environmental quality standards established by government
regulation (Tseng et al., 2016).
While end-of-pipe techniques represent corrective actions in
which waste is expected to be generated and then treated, cleaner
production is a preventive action aimed at reducing the adverse
environmental, health and safety impacts of products, throughout
their life cycle, from the raw material state to the final product
(Frondel et al., 2007). The United Nations Environment Program
(UNEP, 2018) presented the concept of the cleaner production
program as a methodology for implementing a strategy without
interruptions. This was due to changes in the market profile, an
increased interest in environmental awareness, increased levels of
pollution and their effects, the development of laws and regulations
and the growth of demand for “green” products and processes that
are “clean” or ecologically correct. Cleaner production advocates a
voluntary approach to reducing the disposal of harmful wastes into
the environment and, at the same time, to reducing costs. More-
over, this concept assumes that contamination is a result of the
“ineffective” use of raw materials, products or by-products (Oliveira
and Alves, 2007). Table 1 shows the main differences between end-
of-pipe and cleaner production technologies.
Cleaner production takes environmental considerations into
account at all hierarchical levels of the company. It is characterized
by acts that are implemented within the organization, with the
objective of making the process more efficient at using its inputs
and generating more products and less waste (Montavani, Tarola,
Vergari, 2017). Implementing a cleaner production program en-
ables a company to better understand its industrial processes, and
to monitor these constantly so as to conserve and develop an eco-
efficient system of production and to generate environmental in-
dicators (Urbaniec et al., 2017). The cleaner production program can
also be integrated with quality systems, environmental manage-
ment and safety and occupational health systems, and its aim is to
provide a complete understanding of the company’s management
system.
Nicaragua’s beverage company, PEPSICO, identified that product
losses were almost 80% due to mechanical problems, where 20%
would be solved by applying cleaner production practices. The
measures taken have been able to save water by 50% and increase
energy efficiency, reducing by 12% cooling, 40% in air conditioning
and 30% in overall fuel costs. In addition, employees were trained,
and bottle breaks could be reduced by 30%, saving $ 26,000/year,
also contributing to the development of new internal routines and
know-how (United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, 2019).
3
Another example of applying cleaner production is in the min-
ing industry, where pollution prevention and cleaner production
are of the utmost importance, as practically living things, animals
and plants can be affected by activities. With regard to wastewater
treatment, a number of technologies have emerged, more effec-
tively mitigating the problems of heavy metal contamination,
particularly copper, lead, cadmium and arsenic, namely: electro-
chemical methods, plasmotechnologies, membrane filtration,
evaporation/crystallization, biodegradation processes, chemical
precipitators. Adopting preventive water pollution strategies, such
as those listed above, minimizes toxic effluents and helps put a
company in a better position to avoid the costs of the ecological
“shock” created by mining waste discharged into water bodies
(Hilson, 2000).
Noranda Inc., a Toronto based multinational forestry and mining
company, has a $ 1.1 million wastewater treatment facility installed
in 1998, with an estimated operating cost of $ 1.5 million per year.
Few other companies can speak of equivalent environmental
technology. Although large mining companies have pollution con-
trol systems in place, a limited environmental budget restricts
spending on highly efficient and expensive pollution prevention
technologies and cleaner production. For smaller companies, the
implementation of such cutting-edge environmental technology is
completely unfathomable (Hilson, 2000).
Based on this, research by Frondel et al. (2007) concluded that
additional investments in cleaner production can be stimulated by
increasing the cost difference between the two types of technolo-
gies. That is, as they do not generate value, they can represent a very
high and unproductive cost. The potential to continually replace
end-of-pipe technologies with cleaner technologies may be limited,
and not all regulations favouring end-of-line technologies can be
cut. For example, additional filters currently reduce particulate
emissions from diesel cars more effectively and more eco-efficient
diesel engines. Thus, a number of end-of-line technologies will still
be needed to limit specific emissions that cannot easily be reduced
with cleaner production measures.
In this sense, each longer-term cleaner production system is
more economical than conventional end-of-pipe technologies
(Christie et al., 1995). This argument reinforces the claims of pre-
vious work that when the company concentrates in the short term,
it tends to adopt end-of-pipe technologies, in which the company
sets as its main objective to take actions to correct environmental
impacts by measures that do not imply development of new skills
to manage new environmental processes (Claver et al., 2002).
Cleaner production can be undertaken in any business activity
and is based on a planned technical, economic and environmental
analysis of the production process, in order to identify opportu-
nities for improving the process and reducing adverse environ-
mental impacts that the process may generate (Silva Filho et al.,
2007). According to the CNTL (2003), the first step is to raise the
target public’s awareness of environmental issues prior to imple-
menting a cleaner production program, and this is done by making
a technical visit to a company during which successful cases will be
presented in order to draw attention to the CP program’s economic
and environmental advantages. After the pre-awareness-raising
phase, a company can start to implement a cleaner production
program using its own methodology or by contracting institutions
that can support it in this task. Fig. 1 outlines the steps for imple-
menting cleaner production.
2.2. The quality management applied to the processes
Cleaner production is a constant cycle, which must always be
analyzed, monitored and improved whenever needs emerge. In
addition, improvements arising from using a cleaner production
4 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985
Table 1
Differences between end-of-pipe technology and cleaner production.
ENDeOFePIPE TECHNOLOGY
Want a reaction
Waste, effluents and emissions are controlled using treatment
equipment
Environmental protection is a matter for competent experts
Environmental protection operates after processes and products have
been developed
Environmental problems are solved from a technological point of view
The efficient use of raw materials, water and energy is of little concern
Leads to additional costs
Source: CNTL (2003).
program does not happen at the end of the production process, but
during it (Hamdoun et al., 2018). One of the main concepts used to
define the improvement of the production process is that of quality
management applied to the processes which, according to Paladini
et al. (2015); Silva et al. (2016), is the effort made to ensure that
quality is not restricted to the product or service, but that quality is
also generated during production. The principles based on this
emphasize the need for managerial action to analyze the causes
and, no longer, give exclusive attention to the effects of production.
Being able to manage in this way involves three steps: eliminate
losses, eliminate causes of losses and optimize the process, Table 2.
3. Material and methods
This study is characterized as being exploratory because it de-
scribes a situation and seeks to discover what the relationships
between the elements of the research are. As for the approach, it
can be characterized as qualitative. The research methodology is
called a case Study. In order to ensure the reliability of the results of
the research, practical examples of service companies were chosen
for the case studies. The starting point was Schmenner’s
Fig. 1. Steps for implementing cleaner productionSource
Adapted from CNTL (2003).
CLEANER PRODUCTION
Want action
Prevents the generation of waste, effluents and emissions at source. Seeks to avoid using
potentially toxic raw materials
Environmental protection is a task for all
Environmental protection acts as an integral part of product design and process engineering
Environmental problems are solved at all levels and in all fields
Encourages the efficient use of raw materials, water and energy
Helps reduce costs
classification of the typology of such companies, namely, mass
service, professional service, service factory and service shop
(Schmenner, 1995). The choice for the sample studied was due to
the accessibility of the researchers. The four companies chosen
were intended to represent the types of services proposed by
Schmenner, namely: the language school, the law office, the hotel,
and the laundry of a university hospital, such companies did not
have the cleaner production approach implemented. Regarding the
sample studies, this is not representative of the universe researched
and was used for due applicability of the methodology proposed by
this research. It is believed that the results obtained were conse-
quences of the sample characteristics and cannot be generalized
without due adequacy. Although the sample is not representative of
the researched universe, the results of this research make a strong
argument regarding the benefits of implementing the cleaner
production approach for both company and society.
In this research it used primary and secondary data. Primary
data were collected at the language school and law office. These
data were collected through an unstructured interview in which it
sought to identify the practices of cleaner production actions
applied by the companies, the interview was recorded on an audio
 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985 5

Table 2
Steps of the implementation of quality management applied to processes.

First step: Essentially corrective actions aimed at eliminating losses. Eliminate defects, scrap and rework; use programs to reduce labor errors; make efforts to minimize
production costs and eliminate unnecessary efforts. Priority is given to minimizing production
deviations. During this step, preparing productive process for future actions begins, nothing is added
to the process, but additional costs imposed are eliminated. The target to be reached is limited and
well defined, and immediate results are sought. This step is very important for those that follow, and
when well conducted, it generates behavioral changes with positive didactic and psychological
effects.
Second step: Eliminate the causes of losses in the production Prevents situations, circumstances or elements that may lead to deviations from production, thus
process. Preventive actions. removing elements from the process that may be harmful in some way. It seeks to correct the misuse
of company resources.
Third step: Consolidate the results of the previous steps, change Studies to increase the company’s productivity and operational capacity; determine the best
processes which involves eliminating any losses. allocation of its resources; the best possible way of using them; develop processes for the production
of goods and services that perfectly suit the projects from which they came- needs, preferences and
conveniences of the consumer market; define the nature and usefulness of the information that will
be obtained, which requires collection, analysis and dissemination mechanisms.

Source: Adapted from Paladini (2009).

device, in addition to direct observation of the places under study
by the researchers. The unstructured interview guide is shown in
Table 3. The unstructured interview took place with principals and
teachers in the case of the language school and partners in the case
of the law office. The interview took place in two moments, in the
first part, the preliminary identification was made about the
studied organization, while in the second part the diagnosis of the
possible causes of waste generation was made. Interviews lasted an
average of 3 h per company studied. For the hotel and hospital
laundry cases, secondary data extracted from the Sustainable In-
dustrial Production Center (CEPIS) were used, taking into account
the same parameters as the unstructured interview.
After the unstructured interview, the data were transcribed in a
text editor and then analyzed. For the analysis, an integrated
approach was proposed, using the concepts and principles of the
process approach to quality management which are set out in
Paladini et al. (2015) and cleaner production, together with the
PDCA - Plan, Do, Check, Action, methodology (Deming, 2000). It is
noteworthy that such a diagnosis represents only the point of view
of owners, directors and researchers. Therefore, if the company is
interested in effectively applying cleaner production, the proposed
analysis should be performed from the point of view of other
members of the organization.
4. Analysis of application of cleaner production in services
For Volpi and Paulino (2018), there are two different definitions
of service. The first one says that a service is based on the act of
offering the services of one person to another, whose performance
is intangible and without property. The second refers to the fact
that the service is constituted as an economic activity, which seeks
to create value and provide benefits to customers, at specific times
and places, as a result of the desired change in or on behalf of the
recipient of the service.
There are several types of services that can be grouped into
certain service system categories that facilitate their classification.
In this paper, the criteria for classifying service systems presented
in Schmenner’s (1995) study were adopted. This classification is
presented in Table 4 which names the four quadrants of the matrix
in accordance with their degree of interaction with the customer.
For Schmenner (1995), service managers face challenges arising
from the characteristics of services, which directly influence
whether a company seeks o be competitive or not. An analysis was
made of the results from applying the cleaner production meth-
odology developed by the CNTL (2003) using the four types of
services defined by Schmenner (1995) which used the PDCA cycle
(Deming, 2000) and the three steps of quality management applied
to the processes, according to Paladini (2009). The application was
described in practical cases performed in institutions that represent
each type of service. However, due to the breadth of the cleaner
production methodology and the time constraints on the present
study, we opted to apply only the pre-evaluation and evaluation
steps, as shown in Fig. 2 below.
This article proposes to develop an approach to implement
cleaner production in services. To this end, it was developed an
integrated approach, presented in Fig. 3, considering the steps of
applying cleaner production (CNTL, 2003), the PDCA Deming
methodology (2000) and the principles of quality management in
process (Paladini, 2009).
The process quality management approach proposed by
Paladini (2009) linked to the PDCA cycle steps was used, since the
author presents a simple and structured sequence for the

Table 3
Unstructured interview guide.

Interview parts Questions

Part I: Preliminary identification
Part II: Diagnosis of possible causes of
waste generation
Identification of basic company characteristics such as customer service, number of employees, company size and certifications
and organizational practices.
Identification of the organizational process (labor intensity and customer interaction).
Identification of the main barriers to the success of organizational management.
Identification of the activities performed by the company.
Identification of factors related to the process, raw material, energy source and losses and emissions related to the provision of
the service.
Diagnosis of the possible causes of waste generation by the process, raw material, energy source and losses and emissions
related to the provision of the service.
Diagnosis of the impact caused by the generation of process waste, raw material, energy source and service-related losses and
emissions.
Awareness initiatives adopted by the company to reduce the impacts caused by the generation of process waste, raw material,
energy source and losses and emissions related to the provision of the service.
6 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985
implementation of a new system in organizations. Like this, the
objective of integrating the steps of cleaner production in the PDCA
cycle (Deming, 2000) and the three steps described by Paladini
(2009) was to simulate the steps of cleaner production analyzed
in service companies. Therefore, the steps Plan, Check and Action
simulate which steps of the cleaner production fits each step of the
PDCA cycle (Deming, 2000) and the three steps of the quality
management applied to the processes (Paladini, 2009).
The PDCA cycle is a tool that is both used to maintain the
standard established by the company and the constant search for
improving process, and to enable the manager to monitor each step
(Prashar, 2017). All steps of the PDCA cycle can be analyzed at each
step of cleaner production. In this paper, the steps of the cycle were
divided as follows: the planning and organization step of cleaner
production is the PLAN step, in which the goals of interest are
defined and action plans are drawn up to reach the proposed goals.
It can be considered the step of elimination of losses in the process,
defined by Paladini (2009), because preventive measures were not
taken, only corrective ones.
According to Acosta-Mejia (2012) and Paladini (2015) the DO
step proposes the improvement of the organizational process or the
improvement of the product or service. The actions aimed at the
development of this step correspond to the monitoring and mea-
surement of the organizational process and the product or service
provided, and the evaluation of productive losses. In this paper, the
DO step is associated with two steps that were applied to the
cleaner production in the companies studied - pre-evaluation and
evaluation. The step considered to be execution is the one that
demands most time for the organization to carry out and this must
be done with precision. During this step, the flow chart of the
company’s production process is analyzed, the environmental
diagnosis is generated and the focus of the evaluation is defined. It
also includes the evaluation step, when the material balance and
indicators are defined, the causes of waste generation are identified
and cleaner production options are made. These are the two steps
that need the most attention in the cleaner production program
because they are used to inform decisions that will be made about
changes in processes, installations, etc.
After identifying the causes of waste generation in the DO step,
the step is associated to eliminating the causes of losses, in accor-
dance with the three steps of the process approach to quality
management as set out by Paladini (2009). If the causes of waste
generation are known, they can be eliminated. The objective of the
CHECK step is to validate the results obtained, which will be done
during the fourth step of the cleaner production program. Tech-
nical, environmental and economic evaluations are used to confirm
the viability of what was established in the previous step. Finally,
there is the ACTION step, the aggregate deployment. As has been
seen, it is imperative to monitor activities that have already been
determined in this step to see if they are being performed correctly.
As a consequence of this integration in the productive process, it
is optimized, since it is not finite but continuous. If what has been
laid down has been achieved, goals are set to maintain and improve
the good results, and what has not been achieved is the input for
starting a new cycle, with the aim of finding means that lead the
process to give results that overcome the difference.
Table 4
Classification of services.
Service factory: The processes of a service factory have a low labor intensity and have a
low degree of customer interaction and customization.
Mass service: These processes have a high degree of labor intensity, but a rather low
degree of interaction with or customization for the consumer.
Source: Adapted from Schmenner (1995).
4.1. Cleaner production in mass services
Mass services have a high degree of labor intensity, but a very
low degree of interaction or customization with the consumer and
serve a large number of customers per unit of time. Examples of
mass services are: retail operations, banking services, schools and
wholesale operations (Schmenner, 1995). Mass service customers
will receive an undifferentiated service.
4.1.1. Pre-evaluation step and step DO
The language school was founded in the city of Sa ~o Paulo/Brazil
in the year 1950. Today the network has more than 420 schools in
the country, with about four thousand employees. It was one of the
first service sector franchises in Brazil and the first to integrate the
internet with the classroom, among other innovations. The analysis
of cleaner production practices adopted by the company was car-
ried out in a unit in Paraíba/Brazil. Based on the pre-evaluation step
proposed by the methodology chosen, it was sought to diagnose in
general, by conducting unstructured interviews with the school’s
executive director and with some teachers, if their organization has
been practicing cleaner production actions and would be able to
accommodate the application of this tool. This diagnosis aims to
facilitate the understanding of the current universe of the language
school. The information obtained indicates that the company is
aware of what a cleaner production is, which would facilitate the
application of the tool. However, it would be difficult to implement
the cleaner production implementation steps because there is no
sector or someone responsible for environmental issues and
because the school does not have a long-term strategic plan This
latter lack is significant, since, for the application of this tool to
succeed, it should be part of the company’s strategic plan.
Regarding the operations plan, it is observed that the company
studied knows that its productive activities generate waste and it
seeks to control this. Meanwhile, it still needs to create evaluation
mechanisms and employee development programs linked to
cleaner production to improve its performance on these issues.
With regard to the financial plan, it can be said that the company
has an interest in reducing its costs and losses from wasting re-
sources and from waste, with a view to improving its financial
health. As for the marketing plan, the company undertakes prac-
tices that lead to a cleaner production and disseminates them to its
external public because it believes that in mass services, through
which there is a lot of contact with consumers, their collaboration is
necessary for cleaner production to be successful. For most of the
aspects raised in the company, there was a positive response, which
indicates that it already practices some actions related to cleaner
production. However, there may be opportunities for cleaner pro-
duction which the company has not yet identified. Therefore, it is
necessary to describe the inputs and outputs highlighted in Fig. 4.
The following section presents a more detailed analysis of this.
4.1.2. Evaluation step and step DO
In Fig. 4, it is possible to identify the waste generated by the
company studied. Once these residues have been identified, it is
critical, according to cleaner production methodology, to diagnose
the possible causes of their generation, and also the impacts
Service shop: as the degree of interaction with the customer increases, a service
factory turns into a service shop
Professional service: If the degree of interaction increases or customization is
fundamental, a mass service turns into a professional service.
 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985
PLANNING AND
PRE-EVALUATION EVALUATION
ORGANIZATION
Fig. 2. Steps addressed in the study of cleaner production methodology
SourceAdapted from CNTL (2003).
Fig. 3. Proposed integrated approach.
generated by the step as a whole. The factors their impacts and
suggestions attributed to the company are set out in Table 5, below.
4.2. Cleaner production in professional services
Professional Services are those in which the customer is usually
seeking expertise) that he does not have from the service provider.
There is high contact with the customer and, as this is often a long
cycle process, this results in a low number of customers processed
per day.
4.2.1. Pre-evaluation step and step DO
The company chosen to represent Professional Services was a
law office. The reason for this choice is that there are few papers
that address the environmental issue in offices and, in general, they
pay little attention to environmental issues since their work is
people-based. The Office of Advocacy studied was opened in 1997
and is located in Paraíba/Brazil. The company’s lawyers provide
legal advice, offering assistance and guidance in the areas of
Criminal Law, Corporate Law, Administrative and Constitutional
Law, Consumer Law and Civil Law - with particular emphasis on
Civil and Family Liability. On observing the routine of the office, the
researchers noted that the lawyers do not adopt any environmental
measure when undertaking their activities. When asked whether
- Students
- Teachers
PROCESS OF
- Information
TRANSFORMATION
- School supplies
- Water and Energy
Fig. 4. Inputs and Outputs identified at language school.
7
FEASABILITY
IMPLEMENTATION
STUDY
they had heard of cleaner production, they replied that they could
imagine what it was, but they did not know what it was. The
company is not subject to any environmental regulations and af-
firms that the environmental issue is not a priority in its activities,
even though they are aware of its importance.
Regarding the plan of execution of cleaner production, it is
observed that the company under study does not know what forms
of waste are generated by its activities and does not seek, even
superficially, to control them. Regarding the financial scope, the
office has no interest in reducing its costs and losses from wasting
resources and producing waste. To do this, it must first become
aware of the importance of adopting environmental practices and
creating evaluation mechanisms and development programs for
cleaner production employees to improve their performance in
these issues. In the pre-evaluation, the activities are carried out
within the organization. The environmental diagnosis, which is the
description of the activities that generate waste, will identify the
focus of study.
4.2.2. Evaluation step and step DO
Once the waste has been identified, it is essential to diagnose the
possible causes of its generation, as well as the impacts generated
at all steps. It should be noted that the company studied does not
adopt any environmental initiative. All the initiatives described are
recommendations. The analysis is presented in Table 6.
It is verified in this type of service, that the measures that must
be adopted are changes of attitudes for which little or no financial
investment is required.
4.3. Cleaner production in service factory
The service factory typology involves processes with low labor
intensity and low degree of interaction with the customer and
customization. In this type of service process, the largest fraction of
costs is associated with the facilities and equipment used. Focus
should be given to the layout, and the organization’s physical en-
vironments and standard operating procedures can be safely
deployed. The following companies are described as services fac-
tory: airlines, carriers, hotels, leisure and recreation centers
(Schmenner, 1995).
4.3.1. Pre-evaluation step and step DO
The practical example for the services factory typology was a
hotel located in Paraíba/Brazil, which offers its guests lodging, food
and events services. The company has 171 employees and, ac-
cording to information obtained through CEPIS (2012), the hotel
market is divided into leisure (50%), events (35%) and business
(15%). This step includes studying the activities developed in the
- Knowledge
- Waste
- Waste of water and
energy
8 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985

Table 5
Factors, initiatives and suggestions to the company.

Factors Company initiatives Suggestions to the Company

Waste arising from the use of school supplies -
the main materials used in school for the
performance of activities are paper and
paperboard.
Energy consumption - The energy used in the
school is intended for the lighting of the whole
environment and for air-conditioning
appliances.
Water consumption - Most of the water used in
the company is for hand washing and
discharging in toilets.
The discard is done selectively, in the trash cans already in
place at several points of the organization. All books used
by students and teachers are made from recycled or
certified paper (wood for reforestation).
In order to reduce the consumption of electrical energy, the
air-conditioners in the organization cannot fall below
23
C, because if this happens, the energy consumption is
higher.
The company takes no action to save or reduce the waste of
this resource.
To reduce this impact, the company must use paper and
paperboard rationally so that both sides are used before
discarding.
Regarding lighting, no measures were taken to reduce its
consumption. It is recommended that sensors be installed
in classrooms and bathrooms, and classroom doors be
sealed.
It is recommended that water-withdrawing devices when
not in use, and mechanisms be installed that reuse water
used to clean the school.

organization, conducting the environmental and process diagnosis
and selecting the focus of the evaluation, i.e. to determine what the
most importante activities are that need to be deterred. The hotel’s
network is certified by the environmental management system,
according to the ISO 14,001, which deals with environmental issues
and the main objective of which is to standardize the processes of
companies that use resources taken from nature and/or cause some
environmental damage resulting from their activities. The fact that
the organization under study has this certification demonstrates its
interest in environmental issues and, consequently, evidences the
interest in cleaner production.
The main barriers highlighted by hotel management were lack
of employee training and lack of motivation for them to develop
responsible practices. Regarding the operations plan, it is observed
that this company is aware of the types of waste its productive
activities generates and seeks, even in a superficial way, to control
them. However, it needs to create evaluation mechanisms and
employee development programs linked to cleaner production to
improve its performance in these issues. This step includes study-
ing the activities carried out in the organization, conducting the
environmental and process diagnosis and selecting the focus of the
evaluation, i.e. determining what the most important focus should
be on implementing cleaner production. To do so, the flow diagram
of the process must be analyzed, which will enable the range and
amount of waste generated during the process to be visualized.
In the studies developed by CEPIS, techniques are used to
identify the activities performed in the company under study. Two
of the techniques are the Quick-Scan app, a tool that allows a quick
diagnosis, which is able to identify processes, raw materials, energy
sources and losses and emissions from the organization under
study; and the EcoInspector technique, which identifies the po-
tential of cleaner production. Both techniques are instruments that
analyze and make a detailed diagnosis for environmental man-
agement. Fig. 5, below, presents the factors identified by applying
these techniques.
Initial sources of power generation are water, electricity, solar
energy and LPG gas. Water is used in almost all hotel processes such
as food preparation, cleaning, hotel laundry, bath rooms, swimming
pool and so on. Electricity is mainly used for the connection of
lamps, mini-bars and air conditioners. LPG gas is primarily used in
food preparation and solar energy is used to heat the pool. Thus,
after obtaining the information on the environmental diagnosis,
with the main environmental aspects, the work focus is selected
from among all the company’s activities and operations. This is
considered to be the one that generates the greatest amount of
waste, including toxic waste and therefore treatment costs are high.
4.3.2. Evaluation step and DO step
After identifying what waste there is, it is essential, according to
the cleaner production methodology chosen, both to diagnose the
possible causes of its generation and the impacts generated by the
step as a whole. This analysis is presented in Table 7.
As mentioned in the previous step, one of the barriers identified
for implementing cleaner production is related to employee
training and motivation. Therefore, the company also adopted
some measures, including training employees in relation to waste
reduction. Some measures, such as installing flow reducers in the
showers, aerators, taps and energy-saving appliances in the
apartments, required some financial investment by the organiza-
tion. However, the gains from adopting these practices were
striking, as indicated in Table 8.
Table 8 shows the gains from adopting three options for
applying cleaner production in the hotel studied. The first option
was the installation of flow reducers in the hotel apartment
showers, reducing water consumption by 2.100 m3/year, with an
investment of $770 with an average return of two months and
annual savings of $4.606. The second option was the installation of
aerators in the taps of the hotel apartments. The facility reduced
water consumption by 2.016 m3/year. The investment for this ac-
tion for the hotel was $1.680 with a five-month return and an
annual savings of $4.282. Lastly, the installation of energy savers in
the hotel apartments brought a reduction of 142.272 kWh of energy
per year, with an investment of $11.830 and a return of fifteen
months. By taking this action the hotel has saved $9.264 a year. In
addition, ventures that have more financial capital to invest in other
segments or service improvements become more competitive.
Another advantage obtained is the differentiation of the brand with
benefits to the public image of the company, since the company

Table 6
Factors that generate waste and consequent suggestions to the company.

Factors Suggestions to the Company

Waste generated by the use of office materials - The office materials used in The company could adopt the use of recycled paper or paper only for the essential causes,
the development of activities were paper, stamps and pens. such as the printing of a defense.
Electric energy consumption Switching off lights, electronics, air conditioning and other equipment that require power
when not in use. Installation of devices to turn off equipment automatically.
Water Consumption - Most of the water used in the company is used to Installation of devices that turn off water when not in use. Reuse of water for washing the
wash hands and flush toilets. environment.
 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985 9

of a university hospital, located within the hospital in Paraiba/

Fig. 5. Factors identified in the provision of services in the Hotel.
deals directly with the public.
4.4. Cleaner production in service shop
As the interaction with consumers increases, service factory
gives way to the service shop. This process is characterized as the
one that most personalizes the service in a high capital investment
environment (Schemenner, 1999). In this type of service, com-
panies such as hospitals and repair services of all kinds are char-
acterized and there is a wide variety of activities. However, the
services provided follow a schedule of activities. In this case, there
is great interaction with the customer.
4.4.1. Pre-evaluation step and step DO
The space chosen to represent the service shop was the laundry
Brazil. The company has been operating since 1980, in the areas of
medical consultation, surgery, general examinations and labora-
tories, with about 1100 employees. This laundry operates in the
washing areas of hospital linen and other items (bed-sheets, pil-
lowcases, blankets, towels, patient and employee clothing, masks,
caps, etc).
As already mentioned, before any implementation of cleaner
production, the managers should be aware of the importance of
implementing the program in the organization. Thus, the fact that
the organization under study has sought the help of an environ-
mental consultant demonstrates that it is aware of the importance
of the environmental question and the economic benefits that can
be achieved. The hospital laundry, the object of study, does not have
the ISO 14,001 certification implemented, that is, an environmental
management system implemented in the organization. However,
before defining the factors identified in this type of activity, two
main barriers to this type of service were listed the employees who
would carry out the cleaner production activities have not received
any training; and funds are not available, since all the current
budget for this sector has been spent on the equipment that the
sector needs.
Based on the pre-evaluation step proposed by the methodology
chosen, it was generally diagnosed if the organization has been
practicing cleaner production actions and if this would be able to
include the application of this tool. The processing of the hospital
clothes covers all the steps through which the clothes pass, from
their use until their return in ideal conditions of reuse. These steps
are generally classified as: collection - purging and transporting
used laundry in different sectors of the hospital; receiving and
washing of laundry in the laundry; drying and ironing of clean
clothing; separation and transport of clean clothes from the
laundry to the hospital linen room. Clothing leasing and repair may
also be included in this process. Therefore, an analysis must be
made of the factors involved in the laundry process, which will let
the generation of the range and amount of waste be visualized.
Fig. 6 shows the activities that generate the greatest amounts of
wastes.

Table 7
Factors, initiatives and suggestions to the company.

Factors Company initiatives Suggestions to the company

Waste from food preparation: after preparing food or The impacts generated by these wastes are related to
hotel meals, there is much waste from the the financial issue, because if the leftover food is
preparation and left-over food. dumped in the trash, there is waste. To reduce the waste
generated in the food preparation, the company
adopted the selective collection system, in which they
deposit the waste, which is sorted so that it can be
reused.
Electric energy consumption: In the hotel surveyed, the To reduce the cost of electricity, the company adopted
amount of energy used is high, and to control the energy control system in the housing units, using a
spending on electricity is not easy if there are no magnetic key that activates and deactivates the room’s
tools to help the organization. energy system. This prevents wasting electricity when
the guest leaves and leaves lights on or equipment
connected. Another initiative adopted by the company
was to disconnect the refrigerators in the bedrooms
while they are not in use and to replace the rubber
sealing of the freezers and refrigerators, so that thermal
energy does not escape, thus increasing the
consumption of energy.
Water consumption: As with electricity consumption, To reduce wasting water, the company installed
water consumption must be controlled. aerators in the taps of the housing units. Another
measure taken was to install flow reducers in the
showers of the apartments.
Regarding the leftover food after meals, the company
did not take any action. In this case, the ideal would be
to predict the amount that would be consumed by the
guests before preparing the food.
It is important that the hotel constantly monitors that
the actions it has taken are working and that the
equipment and accessories used for this are not in need
of adjustment, repair or replacement.
The re-use of towels by guests.This is because if towels
and bed linen are not changed every day, there will be a
reduction in the amount of laundry that goes to the
hotel laundry. Thus, the costs incurred on drinking
water and products that would be used for washing are
reduced. This measure should be looked at as many
guests do not like to reuse bed sheets and towels when
staying in hotels.
10 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985

Table 8
Cleaner production options at the hotel.

OPTIONS Environmental Benefits Financial Economics

Decreasing of water or energy [Unit/year] Saving [U$/year] Investment [U$] Return [months]
3
Installation of flow reducers in apartment showers 2.100 m of water $4606 $770 2
Installation of aerators in apartment taps 2.016 m3 of water $4282 $1680 5
Installation of energy-saving appliances in apartments 142.272 kWh $9264 $11830 15

4.4.2. Evaluation step and step DO activities implemented in the company’s production process. In
After obtaining the information of the laundry processes, it is addition, adherence to environmental programs, such as cleaner
fundamental, according to cleaner production methodology, both production, must be based on the company’s overall vision and
to diagnose the possible causes for waste being generated and the planned before its actual implementation. The evaluation step
impacts caused by the step. The analysis is presented in Table 9. proposed to list, firstly, the possible barriers encountered for the
implementation of environmental programs. One of these barriers
refers to the organizational culture, because different cultures
5. Result and discussion
make each company have a different view of the main purpose of
implementing cleaner production. In the types of services that
First, it is worth mentioning that the assertion by Bartolomeo
demand a more intense labor force, such as service shop and mass
et al. (2003) and Kisch (2000) is valid for the results obtained
services, the main barrier listed was the lack of training and
when they claim that it is possible to adopt environmental pro-
training of employees to develop the practice of cleaner production,
grams directed to industries and service providers, provided they
since they are responsible for performing the service. In the service
consider their particularities and identify the actors who act
factory and in the professional service, the main barrier is to get the
directly or indirectly in the process.
collaboration of the consumer or customer, because as part of the
The environmental issue has been playing a prominent role in
process, they will also be responsible for ensuring that the cleaner
world discussions, making man think about the importance of us-
production program is successful.
ing natural resources in a sustainable way. In the company’s
The fact that service companies are not aware of the waste and
context, this view would be no different, as it tends to adapt to the
the impacts they generate also makes it difficult to implement
trends of the society in which it operates. In this context, it is
environmental programs. It turns out that service companies do not
essential that companies perform their management based not
produce a product itself, and that makes business owners and
only on administrative principles but also on environmental prin-
managers think that only industrial activities generate waste.
ciples, not only by legal obligations, but mainly to fulfill their role of
Therefore, service companies need to be aware of the importance of
environmental responsibility, which consequently makes it is
implementing cleaner production in all sectors of the economy,
differentiated from other organizations.
showing its benefits to the organizations that adopt them.
The integration of the steps of cleaner production with those of
In the research, the cost associated with implementing cleaner
the PDCA cycle and the process approach to quality management,
production and the amount of waste generated by the companies
according to Paladini (2009), shows the importance of continuing
could not be determined, but it was possible to identify what
the monitoring and making the necessary adjustments to the

Fig. 6. Factors identified in the laundry of the university hospital.

 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985 11

Table 9
Factors, initiatives and suggestions to the company.

Factors Company Initiatives Suggestions to the Company

Reduction in Electric The environmental impacts highlighted in this item concern the Other measures that require less investment can be used to reduce
energy consumption of natural resources, CO2 emissions and BPF oil electricity consumption, such as: overhauling the entire electrical
consumption consumption by the machines used in the washing. The company installation and replacing energy-intensive incandescent bulbs with
acquired a washing machine and extractor, with a capacity of 100 kg and fluorescent bulbs.
programmable cycle. This initiative, in addition to reducing the number
of washes, decreases expenditure on electric energy, because a greater
amount of clothes can be washed in one step. In addition, this measure
would reduce the use of BPF oil by 6480 L and reduce by 20,160 kg the
release of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Reduction in water The adoption of the machine described in the previous item will also Environmental awareness in order to reuse towels and bedding. In
consumption reduce water consumption by 4800 m3/year. Another measure that can addition to reducing the environmental impact would also impact on the
be adopted by the company is to reuse water from the flushes. To do so, financial performance.
chemicals must be used to adjust the concentration necessary so as not
to harm human health. The hospital also acquired four new trolleys to
collect dirty clothes, with a capacity of 350 L. Using the new trolleys,
employees can collect more pieces and use the full capacity of the
machines. This measure led to a reduction in water consumption of
1640 m3/year.
Reduction of The company implemented a dosage system of cleaning products used in The organization could also replace substances that are considered toxic
consumption of the washing, to avoid waste or the unnecessary consumption of by other non-toxic or less toxic ones in order to avoid accidents with
chemicals chemicals. employees and the environment when they are disposed of into the
environment.
Correct discard of In this respect, the company did not adopt any measures. It is suggested
waste generated that the company could reuse the packaging of the products or pass
during the activity them on to companies that work with recycling.

possible wastes are generated and to identify the companies’ ini-
tiatives and recommendations. The companies analyzed in service
factory, service shop and mass services already adopt some envi-
ronmental practices. Some of them are changes, which avoid
wasting water and energy, as for example:
 Installation of aerators in taps;
 Installation of flow reducers in showers;
 Exchange of old equipment for more efficient;
 Reuse of rinse water;
 Installation of magnetic switch that activates and deactivates
the power system;
 Freezer seals and refrigerators sealing changes;
 Temperature limit on air conditioner.
In other cases, financial investment in machinery or facilities is
required. These investments brought visible economic benefits to
both the hotel and the laundry. In the mass service company -
language school - many steps have already been taken towards
cleaner production. To do so, several measures were adopted with
the collaboration of teachers and students. The Professional Service
company showed that in the case of a law office, the partners did
not worry about environmental issues, because they believe that
the waste, they generate does not harm the environment. The fact
that they do not have a view that preserving the environment by
using environmental practices brings many social and economic
benefits to the company means that they do not bother to adopt
environmental initiatives. Relevant points about the cleaner pro-
duction methodology were discussed and some simple initiatives
that the company could adopt were recommended. Members were
interested and available.
The main difference found with the application of the pre-
evaluation and evaluation steps in the four types of service was
that the companies that have low degree of interaction and cus-
tomization and a high degree of intensity require the collaboration
of employees and the initiative to adopt environmental practices
must start with the senior managers. In the types of companies
with a high degree of interaction and customization and a low
degree of intensity of the workforce, consumers must collaborate
with the adopted environmental practices, so that they obtain the
desired success, since they will be in contact with other companies.
To do this, they must disclose environmental plans and how to
execute them, that is, they must keep customers informed about
which programs the organization is running.
Within the companies analyzed, it is noticed that, although
cleaner production practices were adopted, they did not follow
well-defined steps. However, if such practices are not well planned,
their effects will be temporary. Therefore, it is important that there
be planning that is consistent with what was planned for the pri-
mary activities of the organization. It should be emphasized that
the adoption of cleaner production is not a practice that should be
applied once only, but rather, continuously, and managers should
always be analyzing, controlling and observing the possible
changes in the process of their activities regarding the generation of
waste. Souza-Zomer et al. (2018) says that “the cleaner production
principle of input substitution is valuable for reducing input and
use of natural resources as well as increasing the share of renew-
able and recyclable resources, technological optimization can
contribute to reducing emissions levels”. Finally, it is important to
note that, although these are practical examples, which cannot
represent the sectors represented in their entirety, this study con-
tributes to a broad view of companies in the search for preservation
of the environment, social well-being and production, especially in
the areas studied.
6. Conclusions
The search for products and services that do not harm the
environment is increasing, and this prompts companies of all sizes
and sectors to be attentive to innovations and to incorporate
environmental issues into their productive and administrative
processes, in order to fit the requirements of the market. For this
reason, to achieve sustainable production, they must implement
actions that result in improving the environment. Service providers
are also driven by the increasingly competitive marketplace in
which customers have become more demanding. In this perspec-
tive, cleaner production aims to strengthen companies not only in
the economic, but also in the environmental and technological
12 H. de Oliveira Santos et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 246 (2020) 118985
areas, by minimizing the amount of waste generated, and, at the
same time, by contributing to improving the quality of life.
Due to the successful implementation of the clean production
program in industrial companies, this paper sought to verify how
service companies could develop their activities and minimize ther
impact on the environment by using this program. After the anal-
ysis, it was observed that the greatest difficulty is not only to
implement cleaner production, but also arises from the fact that
service companies are not aware of the impacts they cause on the
environment and believe that environmental impacts are unique to
manufacturing industry. Thus, the main issue would be to under-
stand how to produce services with the least impact, using cleaner
production. The answer is to structure a conceptual model that will
help business owners understand the process of adopting the
program, the changes that would occur, and the benefits of
implementing cleaner production in service delivery. To do so, the
theoretical basis was constructed, in which the main concepts were
approached.
Another researches that studied the same approach like
Azevedo et al. (2011); Sol-Sanchez et al. (2016), Zhang et al. (2017),
Says that managers considered green practices linked with cleaner
production influence positively enterprises performance, in addi-
tion to reduce waste and improve recycling. These researches show
the relevance of cleaner production in industry and services.
It was identified that as this research included a case study, this
gave rise to certain limitations. For example, the data collected and
the results achieved cannot be generalized. The observations on
implementing cleaner production practices in the companies cho-
sen were carried out within short deadlines and it was difficult to
find a theoretical reference on the subject of cleaner production in
service providers.
As recommendations for future work, it is suggested that a study
be conducted of service companies that have adopted cleaner
production practices versus those that have not done so and a
comparative analysis should be made with a view to showing what
benefits companies that adopt these practices can achieve. A study
conducted by Zeng et al. (2010) analyzed the impact of cleaner
production on the economic performance of manufacturing com-
panies. Therefore, another recommendation would be to carry out a
study on how the adoption of cleaner production in service com-
panies affects their economic performance. Thirdly, studies are
needed that investigate all steps of cleaner production, since the
present study considered only two of the five steps.
Although, it is believed that preventing pollution is more rele-
vant than trying to correct it after its generation. However, if its
generation has already been caused, actions should be directed
towards eliminating the cause of the problem rather than con-
trolling the effects, which will be realized, in most cases, with high
financial disbursements. Developing countries such as Brazil need
an environmental program such as cleaner production to help
companies make choices during the process of pursuing sustain-
able development and consequently to develop economically. It is
in this environment that this type of program is developed as a way
to prevent pollution, protect the environment and grow
economically.
Thus, the implementation of cleaner production programs in
service companies can provide financial gains through better use of
raw materials, energy, water and minimization of waste generation
(Vergragt et al., 2016). It is possible that through this practice there
will be an increase in competitiveness, reducing production costs
and improving the quality of life of the local and global community.
Adopting cleaner production means innovating for organizations,
as it is a process that requires behavioral change, including all ac-
tors involved in the process. Therefore, the commitment of all
managers and employees is necessary in order to achieve an
efficient performance regarding sustainability development. It is
important to highlight that each company must understand its role
in society and contribute, even with small actions, to the sustain-
able development of organizational processes.
Acknowledgments
This study was financed in part by the Coordenaça ~o de Aper-
feicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior e Brasil (CAPES)
eFinance Code 001, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cien-

gico (CNPq) and the Fundaç~
tífico e Tecnolo ^ncia e
ao de Amparo a Cie
Tecnologia de Pernambuco (FACEPE).
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Hannah de Oliveira Santos: PhD Student in Business Economics from the Univerisdad
de Salamanca. Master’s Degree in Production Engineering from the Federal University
of Pernambuco. Graduated in Administration from the Federal University of Campina
Grande.
Jordania Louse Silva Alves: Author biography: PhD in Production Engineering from
the Federal University of Pernambuco. Master’s in Production Engineering from the
Federal University of Pernambuco. Latu Sensu Postgraduate in Inoovation Management
and Technological Dissemination from the Federal University of Pernambuco.Grad-
uated in Tourism from the Federal University of Pernambuco. Adjunct Professor at the
Federal Universtiy of Amazonas.
Fagner Jose
Coutinho de Melo: PhD Student in Production Engineering from the
Federal University of Pernambuco. Master’s Degree in Production Engineering from the
Federal University of Pernambuco. Graduated in Administration from the Federal
University of Pernambuco. Assistant Professor at the Pernambuco University.
Denise Dumke de Medeiros: PhD in Production Engineering from Grenoble Institute
of Technology (Grenoble INP). Master’s in production engineering from the Federal
University of Santa Catarina. Graduated in Administration from the Federal University
of Santa Catarina. Professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco.