Environmental management is a competitive necessity of industries, both to minimize operational risks (product of legal violations, problems of access to resources as well as problems with the communities in which they operate) and to succeed in a more demanding market where consumers prefer and reward companies that have a good reputation and offer products with better environmental performance. 

This document does not present a state of the art of the situation of SMEs in the region, nor its current participation in public procurement, the paper presents recommendations on strategies that will unite two strong global trends: the promotion of SMEs and the requirements of environmental criteria in public procurement. To do this, it presents examples of policy instruments such as financial instruments, training and / or technical assistance, positive discrimination, simplifying procedures, among others, that some countries in the region have implemented, so that they can be replicated.