Based on a Twinning+ methodology, the peer-reviewing was used to analyse the mode of operation of each partner STP and to identify best practices related to the sustainability assessment of SMEs.
Besides the aforementioned methodologies exchanged among partners, external speakers were invited to share additional sustainability-related initiatives or tools. In particular,
• when addressing the social dimension, the Joint Research Center (JRC)-Unit I2 (EU Policy Lab) from EC (Belgium) shared its Canvas for Social Economy, a project in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), and the EBN Social Impact Special Interest Group (Belgium) shared its Community of Practice aimed at raising visibility on social innovation incubation initiatives and support accelerators to shape and run programmes maximising the social impact of their start-ups and SMEs;
• when addressing the profit dimension, Inèdit Innovació, a strategical eco-innovation studio located in Barcelona (Spain) that works towards the transition to a smart, prosperous and sustainable future and has large experience in sustainable business models, shared its circularity self-assessment tool for companies that allows to evaluate the degree of circularity to enable context-aware decision-making that favours the sustainability and competitiveness of the company.
• when addressing the environmental dimension, Circular Change, a non-profit organisation located in Ljubljana (Slovenia) with a strong international network that connects key players to make the circular economy a reality, shared all the circular economy-related initiatives in which they are involved, detailing the Circular 4.0 project aimed at strengthening digitalisation processes by SMEs to foster innovation processes and accelerate the transition to the circular economy in Alpine Space.
The sharing and cooperation among partners took place via three workshops, two of them on site at the place of residence of the partners, and one online due to the Covid-19 restrictions at the time. Each workshop covered the different dimensions of sustainability: the first one focused on the social dimension (5 good practices shared), the second one focused on the profit dimension (4 good practices shared) and the last one focused on the environmental dimension (4 good practices shared). In each workshop, the good practices were presented and discussed and the specific barriers and recommendations for the implementation of the shared good practices were pointed out resulting in conclusions and recommendations for the Design Options Paper composition. The DOP aims, therefore, to enable the transfer of a coherent method to approach sustainability with SMEs. By using collective experience and knowledge, business support organisations will be able to address the identified shortcomings and failures of existing practices, in sustainable and effective ways, and will improve the delivery of sustainability support services to SMEs.
