Welcome to the Industry & Service Providers — SwitchMed

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Welcome to the Industry & Service Providers

by admin — last modified Mar 03, 2016 06:23 PM

Are you working on increasing productivity and environmental performance in industries? Would you like to expand your capacity and services to industries? Are you keen to show industry how they can save money and reduce negative impacts on the environment by implementing resource efficiency into their production processes? Would you like to become a reference point for sustainable production in your country? Would you like to become part of an expert network on adoption of best available techniques and eco-innovative technologies?

If you are answering with a ‘yes!’ then you have arrived at the right corner. Here, you can find out what SwitchMed actions we will be carrying out under the MED TEST II component, how we will be implementing them and how you can join these actions.

SwitchMed actions

Industry, as one of the key sustainable consumption and production (SCP) actors, is facing numerous challenges in its effort to be competitive while reducing its ecological footprint. Pressure from stakeholders throughout and beyond the supply chain is increasing, requiring internalization of the environmental costs associated with manufacturing, a more efficient use of resources and production inputs, compliance with national environmental regulation and adoption of international standards. In order to assist companies in dealing with such challenges, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) designed a specific methodology, the Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technology (TEST), an integrated approach and a global programme that has already been successfully implemented on a global scale to an array of different industrial sectors. The application of TEST under the MED TEST II component of Switch-Med initiative, are the actions that will be undertaken to demonstrate to industry the business case for more sustainable production, and by strengthening the local markets of providers of these services. 

MED TEST II has two major target groups for these actions:

  1. Service providers (consulting companies, institutional organizations, NGOs, Academia, etc.) working with industry in the field of environmental/energy/sustainability services. What MED TEST II can offer to these SP is a learning experience to develop their skills and build up a list of references (the demonstrations) that would enable them to expand their portfolio of services to industry
  1. Pilot Industries that will serve to demonstrate the business case of sustainable production in the Southern Mediterranean context, e.g. that “sustainable production is a sound business strategy�. Demonstration companies will gain skills and experience to identify and implement sustainable production programmes that will improve their operations, facilitate access to new markets and reduce their environmental compliance costs.

Who will lead these actions and how will they be implemented?

SwitchMed’s core implementing team from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) will lead the TEST actions in the Southern Mediterranean industries as a follow-up to the successful MED TEST I pilot initiative (2009-2012) that successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of introducing best practices for resource efficiency and integrated environmental management systems in industry, increasing productivity and environmental performance, in a pool of 43 manufacturing sites, across 7 industrial sectors in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The business case and achievements of this first phase can be found here.

Now, the core team aims at scaling-up the MED TEST I pilot initiative, which entails reaching out to 130-150 industries for new demonstrations and developing further the local markets of service providers to ensure continuity of the actions and sustainability. The core team will firstly establish partnership with national stakeholders and identify and engage a pool of 15-20 service providers through competitive bidding; secondly these service providers will be trained and capacitated; thirdly service providers will gain hands on experience delivering technical assistance to a pool of demo industries under the coaching of UNIDO experts, and finally national dissemination events will be carried out. 

 

Information on the Industry & Service Providers corner

At this corner, you can find recent updates regarding the call for proposals for local partners, the schedule of the train-the-trainer workshops, training materials and the set of financial incentives available for sustainable production measures in your country, industry case studies, and much more.