Green Action Plan for SMEs
3 Jul 2014 04:06 PM
The
European Commission has adopted a Communication Green Action Plan (GAP) for
SMEs: Enabling SMEs to turn environmental challenges into business
opportunities. The
Action Plan presents a series of SME-oriented actions proposed at European
level to help exploit the business opportunities that the transition to a green
economy offers, by improving resource efficiency of European SMEs, supporting
green entrepreneurship, exploiting the opportunities of greener value chains,
and facilitating market access for green SMEs.
Helping SMEs make the most of the transition to a green
economy
The
Green Action Plan sets out a series of objectives and corresponding actions
which can be grouped in five sections:
1.
Greening SMEs for more competitiveness and sustainability
Improving resource efficiency in SMEs offers enormous
potential for the reduction of production costs and for productivity gains. A
better use of resources is calculated to represent an overall savings potential
of €630 billion per year for European industry.
2.
Green entrepreneurship for the companies of the future
Preventing environmental damage and moving towards a low
carbon economy is a societal challenge which also offers new business
opportunities for enterprises that bring green products and services to the
market. SMEs need a favourable business environment in which green ideas can be
easily developed, financed and brought to the market.
3.
Opportunities for SMEs in a greener value chain
Re-manufacturing, repair, maintenance, recycling and
eco-design have a great potential to become drivers of economic growth and job
creation while, at the same time, making a significant contribution to
addressing environmental challenges. SMEs and entrepreneurs need a supportive
environment to move towards a circular economy (see IP/14/763).
4.
Access to the markets for green SMEs
The
EU’s international commitments in areas such as climate change
cooperation or neighbourhood policies offer concrete scope for European SMEs
with green expertise to gain access to new markets. However, 87% of European
SMEs sell their green technologies, products or services only in national
markets. A more supportive framework and more international cooperation are
required in order to help SMEs successfully integrate into global value
chains.
5.
Governance
The
Green Action Plan for SMEs has been widely supported by EU Member State
administrations and SME stakeholders in consultations on the future of SME
policy and in meetings with the Network of SME Envoys and business
organisations. It is therefore important to implement the GAP thoroughly, so as
to ensure an impact across Europe for the benefit of SMEs.
Background
Resource efficiency is one of the main drivers of
companies’ competitiveness since European manufacturing firms spend, on
average, 40% of their costs on raw materials, with energy and water pushing
this to 50% of total manufacturing costs, to be compared to a share of only 20%
for labour costs.
The
March 2014 European Council highlighted that Europe needs a strong and
competitive industrial base, in terms of both production and investment, as a
key driver for economic growth and jobs. The European Council further called
for sustained efforts to moderate the energy costs borne by energy end-users,
in particular through sustained investment in energy efficiency and demand-side
management all along the value chain and at the R& D stage. The Small Business Act (SBA) highlighted that the
EU and Member States should enable SMEs to turn environmental challenges into
opportunities. The Green Action Plan aims to contribute to the
re-industrialisation of Europe advocated by the European Industrial Renaissance
Communication (see IP/14/42) and supported by the European Council, by enhancing SMEs
competitiveness and supporting green business developments across all European
regions. The Green Action Plan complements the Green Employment
Initiative (see IP/14/765), which proposes a roadmap for supporting green jobs
creation across the EU, and with the Circular Economy Package and Waste Target
Review (seeIP/14/763).
For
more information
MEMO
Communication Green Action
Plan for SMEs