Environmental Compliance Assistance Programme for SMEsSmall, Clean and Competitive

How can businesses benefit from the lessons learnt and tools identified under the ECAP programme? How to avoid reinventing the wheel?

Three workshops in June 2009 looked at useful approaches to getting SMEs to improve their environmental performance and legal compliance.

The first workshop, in Brussels, considered regional and national approaches to environmental management systems; the second, in Rome, looked at tools to minimise administrative burdens and the use of voluntary agreements; and the last, in Budapest, addressed support networks.

Presentations of best practices and group work focused on transferability and the creation of partnerships.

Ideas taken away from the events include:

• different types of local and EU-wide environmental management systems and transferrable elements;
• the need for not-for-profit environmental services to act like real businesses, including business rationale and indicators;
• the importance of marketing, communication and effective messaging for projects;
• the development of innovative incentives e.g. with the banking and insurance sectors; and
• more partnerships between project partners.

• Presentations of the Brussels workshop (05/06/2009) - Environmental Management Systems  [1.7 Mb]
• Presentations of the Rome workshop (12/06/2009) - Support for legal compliance  [587 Kb]
• Presentations of the Budapest workshop (30/06/2009) - Public and private networks  [1.9 Mb]
• Best practices should become regular practice  [5 Mb]

• Programme of the final conference  [1.46 Mb]
• Presentations of the final conference ZIP [19.4 Mb]
• Explore project ideas and contribute on the ECAP Forum