PROJECTS

Change language

Projects

Promotion of resource efficiency in SMEs in Central Europe

Acronym

PRESOURCE

Abstract

Funded by the Central Europe programme (European Regional Development Fund), the PRESOURCE project is aimed at promoting a more efficient use of natural resources in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Central Europe.

Large_Description

The 'PRESOURCE - Promotion of resource efficiency in SMEs in Central Europe' project, funded by the Central Europe programme (European Regional Development Fund) (June 2012 - November 2014), is aimed at promoting a more efficient use of natural resources in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Central Europe.
Eight partners are involved in the PRESOURCE project: the German Federal Environment Agency (coordinator - Germany), the German Ministry for the Environment (Germany), the research centre Fraunhofer MOEZ (Germany), the research and innovation centre Pro-Akademia (Poland), the consulting companies ENVIROS Ltd. (Czech Republic) and Stenum GmbH (Austria), the Corvinus University of Budapest (Hungary) and ENEA (Italy).
The main outputs of the project will be:
1. the 'EDIT Value' tool (Eco-innovation Diagnosis and Implementation Tool for Increasing the Enterprise Value) that will enable Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to increase their resource efficiency and thus to increase their competitiveness. The tool will be tested in SMEs in the partner countries and training courses will be organized for intermediaries (service centres, consultants, ...) interested in using it;
2. a Financial Guideline and a Cost Benefit Analysis tool that will translate the added value of resource efficiency into the 'speak' of the financial sector and make the competitive advantages of investments in resource efficiency visible;
3. a Competence Platform, that will be available on-line and will provide policy makers and other stakeholders with data, information and good practice examples on resource efficiency in Central Europe.

location

Europe: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland

start_date

01/06/2012

end_date

30/11/2014

url_reference

http://www.presource.eu/

achievements

The main outputs of the project are:
1. the 'EDIT Value' tool (Eco-innovation Diagnosis and Implementation Tool for Increasing the Enterprise Value) that will enable Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to increase their resource efficiency and thus to increase their competitiveness. The tool will be tested in SMEs in the partner countries and training courses will be organized for intermediaries (service centres, consultants, ...) interested in using it;
2. a Financial Guideline and a Cost Benefit Analysis tool that will translate the added value of resource efficiency into the 'speak' of the financial sector and make the competitive advantages of investments in resource efficiency visible;
3. a Competence Platform, that will be available on-line and will provide policy makers and other stakeholders with data, information and good practice examples on resource efficiency in Central Europe.

innovation

PRESOURCE is developing different new innovative tools in a transnational approach.
New capacities and knowledge sharing is needed to decouple economic growth and environmental impacts of this growth. The typical 'speak' of environmental regulations and action plans need to be translated in 'business speak' in order to enable the investment in eco-innovations. PRESOURCE is dedicating a whole Work Package to this issue and provides decision-makers (on external or internal investment decisions) with the tools which speak their language.
PRESOURCE is mainly targeting multipliers in order to maximise the impact of the project on the business sector. Only very few national resource efficiency strategies exist, while PRESOURCE involves political decision-makers: several Ministries for the Environment are involved either as financing or as associated partners and this ensures a high impact on new strategies and policies.
There is a great variety of institutional settings and organisational arrangements for developing and implementing resource-efficiency policies. It is an innovative approach to bundle the information on one competence platform (one of the main output of the project) in order to create a one-stop-shop for resource efficiency.
Depletion of natural resources does not respect borders of national states and thus also their conservation has to be addressed at the transnational level. PRESOUIRCE creates a dialogue on the transnational level, which has not existed so far in the field of resource efficiency.

Keywords

Resource efficiency, Eco-innovation, Life Cycle Thinking, Small Medium Enterprises, Cost Benefit Analysis.

Development_Status

Complete

Funding

European

Keywords

Resource efficiency, Eco-innovation, Life Cycle Thinking, Small Medium Enterprises, Cost Benefit Analysis.

Project_Type

R&D

Partnerships

Research Unit	Name	Laboratory	Role
LEI	LCA ed ecodesign per l’eco-innovazione	Home page LEA laboratory (ENVIRONMENT)	Scientific/Technical coordinator