Success and Sustainability
The Executive gave £30,000 over 2001-03 to Midlothian Enterprise Trust - now known as the Business Environment Partnership - for a project to promote sustainable development to small and medium enterprises, to encourage them to adopt more sustainable business practices, to develop sustainable products, services and technologies and to promote corporate responsibility.
As well as the Scottish Executive's Sustainable Action Grant , there was funding from the Sustainable Technologies Initiative, Forward Scotland, SEPA, EB Scotland (Shanks Waste Solutions) and the European Regional Development Fund.
The project sought to embrace economic vitality, environmental integrity and social responsibility, thus helping to ensure long term prosperity. Outputs include the adoption of cleaner technologies to reduce waste, opportunities to utilise recycled materials within products and eco-design of products, and the creation of a Business Sustainability Network of partner organisations.
To carry out further work by March 2004, the Executive gave a further grant of £40,000 in November 2003 - to work up a Business Guide and publicise it. Scottish Enterprise also supported this. They was a queue of SMEs wanting to get involved, and this additional work went beyond the original 23 projects to another 10 companies, more widely across Scotland.
Building on the success of a Waste Minimisation and Environmental Management Initiative, the aim of the project was work in partnership with the Scottish Enterprise Network, SEPA, East of Scotland Water, Heriot-Watt University, SISTech and other organisations, to promote Sustainable Development to SMEs in a way that actively encourages and supports their participation by:
- Undertaking sustainability projects with SMEs, to encourage them to adopt more sustainable business practices, to develop sustainable products, services and technologies and to promote corporate responsibility. The majority of these SMEs are in the Lothians and other parts of the East of Scotland.
- Undertaking pilot comprehensive sustainability assessments with SMEs leading to the adoption of Sustainable Development Action Plans integrated into existing environmental management systems, EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management), IIP (Investors in People) and other business systems
- Updating / revising an earlier guide 'Success and Sustainability' to develop more detailed guidance for SMEs on the adoption of Sustainable Business Practices / Technologies. This guide would cover all aspects of sustainability not just environmental management. Such a guide did not already exist.
- Producing a best practice guide highlighting the ways in which SMEs can move towards sustainable development to maximise the potential for replication throughout the enterprise support network in Scotland .
Outputs
The project promotes economic vitality in a way which offers environmental integrity and social responsibility, thus helping to ensure long term prosperity.
- SMEs directly participating in the project all of which should have a better understanding of the relevance of Sustainable Development to their business activities and a list of specific actions to implement. These actions will include potential for the adoption of cleaner technologies to reduce waste, opportunities to utilise recycled materials within products and eco-design of products
- Up to 5 SMEs will have developed and, through the delivery of necessary training, be implementing comprehensive Sustainable Development Action Plans
- Creation of a Business Sustainability Network of partner organisations.
- Detailed guidance for SMEs on the adoption of Sustainable Business Practices / Technologies.
- Best Practice report highlighting the ways in which SMEs can be successfully encouraged to become more sustainable to enable similar projects to be developed elsewhere.
Contact
Business Environment Partnership
Hardengreen Business Park
Dalkeith
Telephone: 0131 561 6262