Course

Fostering Green Business Growth

This course provides both a conceptual and practical overview of the policies and instruments countries have at their disposition to support SMEs going green, boosting innovation and ensuring that their SME stays ahead of competition.

Introduction to the course

Environmental challenges, including climate change, are changing the way businesses work, either because they are forced to or because they proactively seek to. Green businesses are more profitable and future proof. Green businesses save scarce resources, help maintain healthy ecosystems, minimize pollution and waste, limit greenhouse emissions, and provide green goods and services to enable more responsible consumption patterns.

Green businesses are vital for a development model that delivers a triple bottom-line of prosperity, planet and people. However, sustainability as a business driver is novel, and companies will need support in the process. Therefore, this course will capacitate business service providers to support companies in the process towards greening the economy.
The benefits from flourishing green businesses are twofold. The business community becomes more competitive while at the same time the jobs produced are supporting a societal change towards greener and healthier lives for people. Therefore, governments and private sector support agencies have a clear role and motive to promote greening of businesses and create an enabling environment for green business and job growth.

Developed and middle-income countries are leading the way in supporting green business development, while a number of low-income countries are also taking positive steps. How do they do this? What works and what does not work in supporting green business development? Join this course to find out and stay tuned on green business growth strategies.

Who attends this course?

This course targets policy makers and business service providers involved in the design and implementation of national or local strategies and instruments to support the greening of businesses:
• Employers' and business membership organizations
• SME agencies, business development service providers and business incubators
• Development practitioners responsible for green business finance and/or green business development
• Development agencies sponsoring green SMEs and entrepreneurship
• Members from civil society organizations supporting green business growth.

What topics does this course cover?

This course provides both a conceptual and practical overview of how business service providers and business membership organizations support SMEs going green, including:
• Green business development services, green business competitions, green business training, marketing, fast prototyping and B2B
• Green innovation policies and policy advocacy
• Ecosystem for green entrepreneurship development
• Certification, eco-labelling and tracing in the supply chain
• Green financial instruments: Green loans, green bonds and green investments.

What will I learn?

This course will provide you with an increased understanding of:
• The business case for greening transitions: Market failures and the rationale for supporting green business growth
• Opportunities and challenges at firm level: the internal and external drivers to going green
• The role of SME agencies and business service providers in the green transition
• How to design an appropriate mix of policies and support programmes to make green business growth happen
• Tested tools and approaches to support green entrepreneurship
• Policy advocacy tools and approaches to greening of businesses