Relevant initiatives

Project eco-efficiency: Transfer of the innovation of expert methodologies for the qualification of eco-efficiency matters in the SME and combate the climatic change

Cámara de Comercio e Industria de Zaragoza

2009-2011

European

Yes

LLP - Transfer of Innovation

PROJECT ECO-EFFICIENCY:Transfer of the innovation of expert methodologies for the qualification of eco-efficiency matters in the SME and combate the climatic change

Cámara de Comercio e Industria de Zaragoza

2009-1-ES1-LEO05-10350

Online course

ICT, Science , Other

Other EU, Slovak, Spanish, English

Teachers

- The context
Between 75 % and 90 % of SMEs erroneously believe that their activities have no environmental impact. The recent strategy to combat climate change and the emissions reduction targets set by the EU require SMEs’ direct involvement in the adoption of processes that require specific training of workers, together with approaches that promote awareness and involvement of companies in line with the emissions reduction targets that have been set.
The ECO-EFICIENCIA (ECO-EFFICIENCY) project, coordinated in Aragón by the Zaragoza Chamber of Commerce and Industry, connects the unemployed, workers and businesses in order to reduce the environmental impact of the latter. The objective is to implement good practices and the best available techniques for economic optimization derived from the environmental improvements in SMEs.
- The activities
Specialized training of 20 unemployed (diploma or degree holders), the ECO-EFFICIENCY program develops through workshops, in which 20 workers are trained in a pool of 20 SMEs in order to implement eco-efficiency measures as joint learning practice.
- The aims
- a) To promote the application of eco-efficiency measures in SMEs to help in the fight against climate change through processes of joint qualification of workers, the unemployed and businesses.
- b) To link, in turn, this methodology as a strategy for enhancement of occupational, continual professional training in order to encourage employment by means of finding evidence of cost savings and reduced CO2 emissions in the company.
- c) To strengthen professional profiles suited to the new environmental requirements and work market developments simultaneously affecting workers, businesses and the unemployed.
- The results achieved
- Online training application
- Specialized training courses

The project's goal is to transfer knowledge and expertise in eco-efficiency and fight against climate change to small and medium companies, unemployed persons and employees. The implementation of the project has created a e-learning website. http://campus.seas.es/index_ECO.php
The project, tries to include recent methodologies (not educational, but industrial procedures ), like the PREPARE methodology created in Austria to identify and correct environmental impact of business and OPTIMA, which tries to refine improvement in industrial processes related with environment
The main document http://www.eco-pymes.eu/docs/eco-eficiencia_es.pdf is the stating point to learn from the project

The main benefit of this project is that the concepts included are leading in industry, and the knowledge that teachers can gather are not only useful but unique. The project description is in http://www.eco-pymes.eu/docs/eco-eficiencia_es.pdf . And the course is set in this page: http://campus.seas.es/index_ECO.php.
The drawback is that the interesting course needs special permission and registration in order to have access to. And the rest of the free documentation is a book.

This project can be useful in the upper courses of secondary school and some vocational training studies. The oportunity to know where industry is moving to in environment protection gives a important knowledge to students.