BUILDING CAPACITY ON ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT TOOLS

The business benefits of sound environmental management may not always be obvious for small and medium sized enterprises. Moreover, knowledge of the various environmental management tools can also often be low.

 

Familiarise SMEs with environmental management instruments

The “Environmental Management Navigator” project aims to build capacity on various environmental management instruments among a minimum of 500 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)in developing countries. The project illustrates the benefits of environmental management in general and offers practical implementation for participating companies.

 

The Environmental Management Navigator

The Environmental Management Navigator (EMN) has been developed to provide environmental management trainings for SMEs. The concept comprises a variety of environmental management instruments including, among others, cost accounting, environmental management systems, environmental reporting and product chain management. The EMN supports SMEs in selecting the appropriate instruments and assists with integrating selected tools into daily work routines.

 

Train the trainer

The Environmental Management Navigator was first successfully applied during a December 12 – 15, 2001 ‘train the trainer’ workshop for representatives from 20 countries in Bonn, Germany.  As a second step, the trainers delivered Environmental Management Navigator training workshops for the SME target audience in their home countries. Further training EMN workshops have since then been held in India and Peru.

 

Background

The project was undertaken under an agreement with InWEnt (the former Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft) and in co-operation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).