About the project

Introduction

To prepare for the challenges and opportunities of a greener economy, EU SMEs need to use the upcoming phase of recovery to operate drastic changes in their practices. To achieve this transformation, we detect the need for education and training in the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) fields as part of a holistic full business strategy that enables professionals from cross-sector SMEs to develop better sustainable practices. Ensuring companies have a clear and measurable ESG strategy provides not only a competitive advantage but also provides greater resilience against future economic shock and provides greater competitiveness and opportunities for financing and growth. Furthermore, ensuring that SMEs have a comprehensive understanding of ESG will enable more responsiveness in the supply chain and financing scenarios.

ESG is criteria used by SMEs to screen potential investments with a sustainable focus. The environmental criteria consider the green performance of the company. The social criteria observe how the SMEs manage relationships with employees, suppliers, customers and communities where it operates. Governance is about leadership, control and internal procedures.

The ESG-UP project proposal was designed to answer the need observed by partners of better accompanying SMEs in the process of implementation of Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) strategies. It focuses on SMEs, their CEOs and workers of the departments related to the company’s sustainability and environment policy, corporate social responsibility, human resources, and all those with the capacity to change the focus of the company’s activity, making it more sustainable and committed to the environment. ESG-UP delivers operational training tools that will support the implementation and delivery of a ESG strategy and measure results, supporting the planned approaches of SMEs regarding environmental sustainability.

Objective

The main objective of ESG-UP is to address the training and knowledge gaps of SMEs in sustainability practices to become more competitive and resilient. The project focuses on sustainable business operations as a result of integrating ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) objectives and measurements.

Target audience

Target group 1: SMEs and start-up business representatives

Target group 2: all the professionals that provide education, C-VET, assessment and support to TG1, especially in the field of business model implementation, and also working processes, HR management or any transversal activity that help to improve their efficiency and sustainability.