Sustainable SME Action Agenda and Future Lab Process

The Global Opportunities for Sustainable Development Goals (GO4SDGs) aims to accelerate the progress necessary to meet the 2030 Agenda, especially for SDG 12 (Sustainable Consumption and Production) and SDG 8 (Decent Work & Green Economies). The Initiative builds partnerships to connect global initiatives with regional needs and solutions. GO4SDGs uses a vast number and variety of tools developed by its partners and focuses on implementation, action and scaling up, and replications of good practices. 

In the framework of this initiative, SEED and Go4SDGs jointly organised four Global Future Labs for Innovation and Policy. The Global Future Labs brought together policy makers, intermediaries and SMEs to co-create and develop future-proof solutions. Designed to connect a community of critical stakeholders and to leverage the expertise of key green SME stakeholders, the Global Future Labs informed a Sustainable SME Action Agenda. The Global Future Labs targeted five action areas, namely Innovation, Non-Financial Support, Finance, Policy and Market and supported the design of 30 future-proof solutions that serve the needs of green-circular SMEs covering key regional priority sectors such as textiles and agri-food. 

Beyond the lab process, the project captured 10 inspiring case studies portraying the potential of green SMEs building experience and lessons learned from SEED, UNEP and other GO4SDGs partners and implemented three high-level side-events in order to build momentum around the Sustainable SMEs Action Agenda at a global level.