SEED, UNEP, GO4SDGs, One Planet Network, the SME Climate Hub and Normative, together with the governments of Germany, Indonesia, South Africa and Uganda organized this side-event at Stockholm+50. The event demonstrates the potential and necessity to engage with and enable SMEs in delivering sustainability, including the opportunity to start their journey to net zero. At the occasion of the event SEED has launched its 20 Year Flagship Report, from Impact to Scale, and the report on Green SMEs and their Success Factors for Scale-up and Replication.
The event is also the lead-up to the launch of the “Coalition for Innovation, Circularity and Entrepreneurship” and invite partners to join it. The Coalition aims at enabling SMEs, scaling-up and replicating their good practices, while providing a Voice for the SMEs and enhancing system-wide innovation and collective green climate action.
Summary of key issues
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) offer a largely untapped potential, including for decarbonizing, decoupling and digitalization, with their impact as drivers of innovations that secure local jobs, protect ecosystems, and enhance resilience. The growing success of green entrepreneurs and SMEs have shown the great potential of a transformative and collective impact. It is time for all actors to scale up and optimize the power of SMEs in delivering innovation, digital transformation, efficiency, circularity and resilience in the transition to sustainability, while empowering them to combat climate change. The event showed practical cases and success stories and contributed to improving knowledge about enabling conditions, enhancing digital transformation and the means to engage with SMEs in long-lasting actions for building resilience, combating climate change and delivering circularity.
The following transformative actions emerged out of the event:
- Innovative approaches to local environmental and social problems, while ensuring good business;
- Provide needed enabling capacity to SMEs by Government, International organizations and large companies if SERIOUS and RESPONSIBLE about sustainability. including for measuring progress and being accountable;
- Review financial mechanisms to make them accessible to SMEs;
- Involve and associate innovative SMEs entrepreneurs in the circularity and sustainability discourse and actions. not just at the edge for green washing;
- Establish a Coalition to share information and experience, develop synergies, and deliver collective impact.
More information: watch the recording.