Green Business Supports for SMEs
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The GreenBusiness Winter Seminars took place in Athlone, Dublin and Cork recently. These environmental events were organised by GreenBusiness.ie in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency, Bord Iascaigh Mhara and Enterprise Ireland. Presentations were balanced between information on available supports from government agencies together with case studies from Irish small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) on environmental initiatives which they have undertaken.
The focus of the seminars was on the savings that a business can make by identifying opportunities for resource efficiency in their day to day operations. Resource efficiency is essentially about using less water, energy and raw materials to manufacture a product or provide a service. In every business steps can be taken to address specific areas of a process and identify opportunities to prevent waste and save money.
Government Agency Supports:
• GreenBusiness programme. GreenBusiness is a free service funded by the Environmental Protection Agency aimed at providing supports to Irish SMEs with the objective of delivering substantive resource efficiency improvements and cost savings, through waste prevention and reductions in water and energy consumption. More information on the supports GreenBusiness offers can be seen here.
• Enterprise Ireland Environmental Supports Programme. The Competitiveness Department of Enterprise Ireland provides various financial supports to their client companies to aid them in their endeavours to become more sustainable. Alongside the financial supports Enterprise Ireland also offers information and advisory services. More information on Enterprise Ireland supports can be seen here.
• Environmental Protection Agency National Waste Prevention Programme. The aim of this initiative is to deliver substantive results on waste prevention and minimisation and integrate a range of initiatives addressing awareness-raising, technical and financial assistance, training and incentive mechanisms. More information on the EPA initiative can be seen here.
• Bord Iascaigh Mhara. BIM aims to provide a sustainable future for the Irish seafood industry by focussing on water usage, energy consumption and waste prevention. This improvement in resource usage has resulted in significant cost savings and increased reputational benefit. If you are interested in finding out more about BIM’s initiatives please click here.
The recurring theme from these seminars was that Irish companies should be identifying opportunities for resource efficiency. It is possible to achieve significant savings as a result which will increase the profitability and competitiveness of the companies.
If you are interested in finding out more about sustainable strategies that are right for your company please contact Enterprise Ireland’s Green Team at green@enterprise-ireland.com
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