P4SME · Peer for People, Planet, Profit in SMEs

The transition to economic, environmental and social sustainability has become a major priority for the new European Commission. At the same time, it is recognised that this transition must be based on a strong and resilient economy and that small and medium-sized enterprises provide the backbone for this. Therefore, it has become a political priority for the EU to ensure that the sustainability transition goes hand in hand with SME growth. All partners of P4SME are Science and Technology Parks (STPs) that belong to the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation, whose mission is to respond to new needs of companies in new market conditions to drive growth and internationalisation. The integration of the sustainability approach into their portfolio of services will allow STPs to provide SMEs hosted in their facilities with a more complete support, helping them to seize new opportunities and to introduce their sustainable products and services into the market to achieve a steady growth. Thus, the main goal of the P4SME project is to improve the support services that partners are currently offering to SMEs by introducing the sustainability concept and by helping companies to integrate the sustainability into their business strategies. For that purpose, partners will share good practices, tools and initiatives that tackle the three dimensions of sustainability, that is, the social (people), the environmental (planet) and the economic (profit) dimensions, and will count on the support of relevant European external experts. The findings of the peer-learning group will be collected in a Design Options Paper and will be disseminated among international networks, whose members provide support services to SMEs, and among relevant stakeholders and authorities at all levels. By doing so, all organisations working with SMEs might enhance the quality of their sustainability support and contribute to the competitiveness of the SMEs within their orbit.