With the Green Deal, the European Union has set itself the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and making its economy sustainable. As corporate social responsibility (CSR) is about companies putting sustainable development into practice, green skills are an integral part of the CSR approach. A company that practises CSR is one that seeks to have a positive impact on society and respect the environment while remaining economically viable. It is therefore important to align the company’s economic objectives with training in environmental issues. There are strategies and tools available that can be easily adopted by companies.

However, far too few independent entrepreneurs make the conscious choice to develop their business in a way that takes account of ecological and sustainable issues. Some are aware of it, but do not know what methodology to use, how to equip themselves or what room for manoeuvre they have. And yet, for any type of individual entrepreneurial activity, it is possible to systematically adopt a development strategy that takes CSR and sustainable development into account.

The partners in the SURE project identified a real lack of educational resources for vocational training targeted at CSR for individual entrepreneurs. Trainers need to develop their green and CSR skills to train and support independent entrepreneurs.

The SURE project brings together 5 partners from 4 European countries:

• Co-opérative Co-actions (France, coordinator)
• Agence LUCIE (France)
• Vratsa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Bulgaria)
• Aris Formazione e Ricerca (Italy)
• POUR LA SOLIDARITÉ - PLS (Belgique)

Project objectives

• Raise awareness within the business start-up support ecosystem and among political decision-makers of the challenges of integrating sustainable development objectives into the development of individual businesses;
• Train educators in CSR to enable entrepreneurs to integrate sustainable and responsible practices into the development of their businesses;
• Design cross-disciplinary tools to assess and develop sustainable and responsible practices among learners in vocational education and training;
• Develop multimodal training content on the theme of ecological transition and make it accessible to all. A cross-cutting objective of the project will be to improve the digital skills of trainers.

Target groups

• Main target group: educators, trainers, those involved in vocational training for individual entrepreneurs;
• Secondary target groups: vocational training networks in the field of entrepreneurship and business creation, associations of training and CSR experts, political decision-makers in the field of vocational training and employment.

To achieve the project’s objectives, the partners have produced three outputs aimed at the target audiences:

• An educational tool for assessing sustainable practices in independent entrepreneurship;
• A sustainable development training toolbox;
• Recommendations in the form of a white paper on CSR as it relates to individual entrepreneurship on the theme of green skills.

The partners are organising a closing conference on 10 April 2024 in Brussels, which will provide an opportunity to discover the innovative outcomes of this project.

The event will feature contributions from regional and European experts, including the following speakers: Brigitte Fellahi-Brognaux (European Commission), Cécile Marsan (CO-ACTIONS), Céline Viardot (Donner du Sens A l’Entreprise), Sophie Humbert (CRESS Nouvelle-Aquitaine), Jean-François Herz (SAW-B), Noémie Escortell (CO-ACTIONS), Denis Stokkink (POUR LA SOLIDARITÉ - PLS) and Sébastien Paule (Smart Coopérative). The full conference programme will be available soon!

Practical information 

• Date: Wednesday 10 April 2024, 9.30am - 1pm (followed by a networking lunch)
• Address: SMART, KOP room, Rue Coenraets 72, 1060 Brussels, Belgium
• Registration:  Free and compulsory https://framaforms.org/les-entrepreneureuses-autonomes-pour-la-transition-juste-en-europe-1709741226

[Translate NSS EPALE France]