ECO-BUSINESS -"Harmony with nature, profit for business"

The Eco-Business program was launched by the Environmental Partnership Foundation in 2001 with the help of British specialists (Groundwork UK). The goal of the program was to increase the competitiveness of Romanian small and medium size enterprises (SME's) by improving their environmental practices. The program ran an advisory service for the Romanian SME's which aimed to apply environmental management by identifying and implementing cost-efficient measures and technologies, and by undertaking pro-environmental activities.

During its six years of activity (2001-2006) the Eco Business program had remarkable successes such as:

• Eco Business Clubs were funded in Miercurea Ciuc, Cluj Napoca and Baia Mare with 74 members,
• 67 seminars, 3 Club meetings and 15 Club evenings, 1725 participants, 115 invited lecturers,
• Bilingual Quarterly Eco Business Bulletin (10 editions),
• 408 Eco Business Newsletters,
• Trainings for the staff,
• Eco Business Awards in 2002-2003-2004,
• Editing the Environmental Management Guidelines,
• Registering the Eco Business trade mark at the national State Office for Inventions and Trademarks,
• 6 SME's introduced the ISO 14001 environmental management systems as a result of their membership in the Eco Business program,
• Implementing the EMAS Easy project,
• Initial environmental analysis, eco-cartography and eco star evaluations performed at the member SME's,
• November, 2005 - the Eco Business program won the OGUT Environmental Award in the "Environmental Protection and Technology in Central and South-Eastern Europe" category (www.oegut.at),
• 2 case studies were published within the framework of the ABP project of al KÖVET- INEM Hungary (www.kovet.hu).