Promotion of Resource Efficiency in SMEs in Central Europe

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Resource efficiency means to use the Earth's limited resources in a sustainable manner while minimising impacts on the environment. The European Union must use natural resources in a more convincing manner and the answers must go beyond existing policy actions. The situation within the central Europe area is even more alarming, since productivity in most of the countries joining the EU after 2004 has remained static or even decreased. Two major barriers for exploiting the potential for resource efficiency in products and production processes can be identified. First, enterprises and especially SMEs are not aware of their resource utilization, real costs of pollution and the related (cost) reduction potential as well as ways on how to improve the situation. Secondly, SMEs have problems in financing necessary investments in eco-innovations in order to exploit their potential to increase resource efficiency. The potential for increased resource efficiency, especially targeted at SMEs, will be in the focus of the project PRESOURCE. It aims at increasing resource efficiency in the production sector of central Europe by promoting transnational incentives for eco-innovations.

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