Strategic partnership to up-skill European SMEs in the development of Environmental, Social and Governance strategies

To prepare for the challenges and opportunities of a greener economy, EU SMEs need to use the post-Covid recovery phase to operate drastic changes in their practices. To achieve this transformatio...

The main objective of the ESG-UP project was to address the training and knowledge gaps of SMEs in sustainability practices to become more competitive and resilient. Through our results and activities, we wanted to achieve the following objectives: - Define Environmental Social and Governance strategies and sustainable development, approaches and concepts, providing comprehensive and applying them to business models - Develop and share tools for the implementation of sustainable business models - Improve the profitability of SMEs and entrepreneurs, helping them to have a clear sustainability agenda, which will make their products and services more likely to attract sustainability-conscious customers, investors and suppliers. - Fostering the transversal and cross-sector collaboration among SMEs to optimise the exchange of best practices and sharing of resources, peer learning and mutual support. - Boosting the alignment of business practices to EU objectives of resilience, competitiveness and sustainable growth. Thanks to ESG-UP, participants were (and will be thanks to our sustainability plan) able to integrate the ESG objectives in their business activities, create an action plan that improves the sustainability of the SMEs

This project involved 6 partners from 5 countries (Ireland, Spain, Greece, Poland, and Sweden), who worked together addressing SMEs, their CEOs and workers of the departments related to the company's sustainability and environment policy, providing them with the necessary tools to enable them to lead a green transformation of the economy. Our activities were: - Development of 3 main project results: a mobile report on SMEs sustainable performance, a training package and a panorama of sustainable business practices and self-assessment tools. Together we created a coherent and complete training framework focusing on sustainability, ESG and SDG knowledge. These tools are enable SMEs workers to develop and implement efficient sustainable business models with a holistic full business approach. - Piloting activities, ESG-UP involved our target groups all through the project implementation. A panel of external evaluators reviewed some of our methodological documents for validation. In addition, the training package and panorama were tested directly by our target audience. Our materials were developed in a format that fosters collaboration and peer learning, where the participants get the opportunities to create new business relationships, debate on key issues and share best practices. - Sustainable events were organised in each country at the end of the project as a way to promote the results achieved. - Use of ICT as a catalyst for the project activities impact: our main results were produced in digital and interactive formats. - Focus on international activities, being in line with an international scenario for the transformation of our economic models following major European policies such as the European Green Deal. - all activities were supported by an efficient management system that itself was designed with sustainability and reducing our environmental impact to the minimum, meaning fewer transnational meetings, more virtual meetings, a no-papers dissemination strategy, the optimisation of online management tools, and a continuous reporting effort to spread our achievements, while maximising our social and economic impact.

To achieve our objective, we prepared training material for SME workers, and trainers and assessors supporting the SMEs. In addition, we prepared guidelines that will help SMEs in implementing a more sustainable way of impacting society, with a concrete action plan with projection in time. This was achieved through the production of 3 main results: R1: Mobile report on SMEs sustainable performance: This result covers the need for awareness of long-term actions for sustainable achievements through ESG principles and the need for a long-term strategy. The mobile report reveals the most needed skills related to sustainability and takes the form of an interactive resource that allows for searching and filtering of topics and answers using various criteria (e.g. the user will be able to choose the SDG or search the sustainable skills that are the most needed). It is also available as a mobile app for quick reference from any place via the phone. At least 300 SMEs representatives and 60 experts from different business support fields were involved in this activity, by participating in questionnaires, focus groups and interviews. R2: Training package: It contains 2 parts: R2.1 Guidelines to sustainability, ESG and SDG: Partners compiled information on sustainable businesses. Taking R1 as a basis, partners will develop specific training pills, focused in a practical way, with activities that SMEs can put into practice for developing the most needed skills identified. R2.2 Collaboration and peer learning Our training will include a Cluster dimension – a place where people can meet and exchange + link with other EU programmes supporting SMEs, in particular, the EU’s EEN, SME support services. These materials were tested by SMEs workers, and entrepreneurs, at least of 50 learners and 10 trainers in each country participated in our R2 activities. R3: Panorama of sustainable business practices and self-assessment tool: This panorama takes the form of an interactive online tool where SMEs CEO’s, staff and entrepreneurs can consult on sustainable solutions for the different areas of their businesses. The panorama includes a self-assessment tool, in the form of a questionnaire on sustainability performance.