Sustainable business models in evolving times - Clusters greening SMEs through the Towards Green Transition Facility
The ECCP’s Towards Green Transition Facility (TGTF) has been supporting 25 selected clusters with targeted business advice through a team of hand-picked world-class advisors from around the world.
Throughout September and October 2021, the facility launched its first two cross-cutting support webinars. The idea was to share best practices, exchange knowledge on green transition themes and create a community of practitioners.
Both webinars were attended by around 50 members of the TGTF community. Participants were a mix of cluster managers and their respective TGTF mentors and experts.
In the first webinar on the 24th of September, Bianca Dragomir, CEO of AVAESEN CleanTech Cluster and founder of Clusters for Change, shared best practices on innovative and proven methods to design and implement sustainable business models. This was followed by an interactive session moderated by Pouyan Maleki, TGTF Expert & Ecorys Sustainability Consultant.
Several sustainable tools and outputs were showcased such as a business process blueprint, action plans to improve value chain efficiencies and introducing sustainability strategies for SMEs.
Concluding the webinar, the clusters were shown how to create their own roadmaps for green transformational impact. Recognising the need to ensure sustainability efforts are continued beyond TGTF, the facility will aim to engage with clusters so that they can draft a roadmap of their own which will be presented and discussed in the final TGTF cross-cutting webinar.
In the second webinar on the 18th of October, an interactive session showcased clusters’ experiences with the green transition. As a way to provide participants with best practices, several success stories from SMEs on the development of sustainable business plan models were presented.
Among the experiences shared was that of Fabio Montagnino who is advising the Sofia Knowledge City Cluster. He explained how they had explored new markets for digital technologies and how the cluster increased international networking in the context of the European Green Deal.
Another success story was demonstrated by Roberto Alonso from Clusaga, who explained how the cluster brought together key actors in the regional food value chain with the goal of sustainable change.
Five break-out sessions followed on a selection of green transition themes in which participants joined to share findings and use these methods to present their objectives and future strategies.
The topics included resilient business models, green action strategies, green communication, skills for SMEs, and green leadership. The webinar concluded with clusters sharing their key learning and insights – paving the pathway to inspire SMEs to become green and sustainable in these evolving times.
Full summaries of the webinars are attached at the bottom of this page.
You can find out more about the clusters who received guidance from the TGTF here.
