Description
According to Ministry of Finance in Latvia, there is around 87 000 SME (Small and medium enterprises) companies and only few hundreds of them has an interest in implementing environmental issues in their short and long term business strategy, because of a lack of motivation. In the meantime Latvia has a difficulty in fulfilling our obligation in reducing GHG emissions. According to NGO „Green Freedom” data, Latvia has to reduce 17,5 % GHG emisions every year, starting from Year 2031, because until the year of 2030 we would already have spent almost 79% of our 2012.-2100.year GHG budget. Aim’s: 1) To create an e-training, that is based mostly on real companys examples here in Latvia, why to implement an environmental policy in organization; 2) To create a motivation for at least 10 % from he project target audience to implement Environmental policy; 3) To raise awareness of Climate and Environmental issues and educate the target audience by organizing 1 seminar 2 round table discussions and 1 conference.
Summary of project results
According to Ministry of Finance in Latvia, there is around 87 000 SME (Small and medium enterprises) companies in Latvia and only few hundreds of them has an interest in implementing environmental issues in their short and long term business strategy. Projects “Promoting sustainable environmental management policies for the SME sector” aim was: • To develop professional education training programme; • To create a motivation to implement the environmental policy in the short- and long-term business strategyfor at least 10% of the target audience; • To inform and educate the target groups on the topics of environmental and climate issues. To develop training programme “Implementation of Environmental Policy in Entrepreneurship” main project activities were to find 10 SME companies from different kind of industries and regions in Latvia, to inspect them and then analyze data to get basic foundation for programme, so the training programme was developed on the basis of real company’s examples. The training programme demonstrates risks and examples how embedding sustainability into decision making process can deliver commercial benefits. Main training programme topics are: • Climate change and global warming; • Environmental management in enterprises. Environmental management objectives, targets and programmes, economic and environmental protection aspects; • Environmental aspect assessment; • Risk identification and assessment; • Energy efficiency measures and renewable energy production; • Environmental pollution abatement measures engineering, the establishment of a monitoring system for energy resource consumption. Scheduled company trainings were taking place both in regions and in the territory of Riga. The public attention was focused on the topics of the environmental issues and reasons why to implement an environmental policy in organization. As the result of project activities society’s knowledge about climate change is enhanced, one professional education programme on climate change and adaptation is developed.
Summary of bilateral results
Projects partner was Ostfold University College, Faculty of Engineering. Partnerships main aim was to provide best practice example. Partner provided consultation and advice on training module contents and participated in publicity events. Both experts provided presentations on project final conference.