Circular economy and new growth opportunities - Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production and eco-innovation among SMEs is a regional project implemented under “European Union for Environment (EU4Environment)”- programme in six Eastern partner (EaP) countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine)

Funded by European Union the program is implemented by a consortium of international partners, including OECD, UNIDO, UN Environment, UNECE and the World Bank.

EU4Environment Actions are clustered around five priority results:

Under Result 2- “Circular Economy and New Growth Opportunities”, UNIDO is implementing “Resource Efficient & Cleaner Production among SMEs scaled up” in Georgia and other EaP countries.  Building on important achievements of the former EaP GREEN Programme  (2014-2017) in Georgia in which 50 participating SMEs demonstrated the effectiveness of UNIDO’s RECP approach resulting in reduced consumption of resources, energy and water, UNIDO will continue to promote and build national capacities to enable SMEs in switching to a Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production. In addition, UNIDO will identify opportunities that can support the creation of circular value chains to raise the opportunities and benefits of a Circular Economy among enterprises, the government and the civil society.

Project activities:

Expected outcomes

Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production and eco-innovation among SMEs scaled up.

Expected outputs

RECP Project leaflet, 2021

The UNIDO Resources Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) Demonstration Project

The UNIDO Regional Resources Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) Demonstration Project is a part of the regional program of the European Union EaP GREEN: Greening Economies in the European Union’s Eastern Partnership Countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine).

This four years action (2013-2016) is jointly implemented by a consortium comprising OECD (lead partner), UNECE, UN Environment and UNIDO.

The UNIDO demonstration project supports in each of the six EaP countries: the creation of human and institutional capacities for RECP; the demonstration, dissemination and replication of RECP in priority sectors (chemicals, food and construction materials); and transfer of and investment in RECP technologies. Objective of the project is to improve resource productivity and environmental performance of enterprises and other organizations in order to put the green economy into practice.

RECP project brochure, 2014

RECP project leaflet, 2016

Activities

To harness the potential for economic, environmental and social benefits through widespread RECP implementation, the project supports the mainstreaming and scaling-up of RECP in the beneficiary countries, through the following three clusters of activities:

• Train a cadre of national experts in RECP methods and techniques, and develop mechanisms for their service delivery to enterprises and other organizations: International Experts delivered trainings for national experts in RECP methods and techniques, and coached them in the application of such methods in enterprises and other organizations;
• Support enterprises and other organizations in target sectors with implementation of RECP methods and techniques to achieve environmental and economic benefits: detailed RECP assessments have been completed for 18 enterprises in Georgia in subsectors of chemical, agri-food and construction materials production. Implementation results, with associated economic and environmental benefits, have been documented using a standard set of enterprise level indicators, and have been widely disseminated. In parallel awareness and understanding for RECP opportunities and benefits among wider group of stakeholders, including business sector, national and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, academic circles and civil society, are being enhanced.
• Support the transfer and deployment of key enabling technologies/equipment for RECP in the target sectors: building on the findings at enterprise level, technology gap analysis has been undertaken in selected companies and common technology needs identified. Appropriate technology solutions will be sourced and promoted, including through development and promotion of business and investment plans.

Stakeholders

RECP demonstration project stakeholders include busyness companies and other organizations who would like to see economic and environmental benefits in application of RECP methodologies. Stakeholders also are governmental organizations, including ministries of environment and economy, academia and civil society organizations who advocate and promote resource efficiency, environmental protection and sustainable economic development in the country. To ensure all stakeholders’ participation in the project a National Executive Committee has been established. National Focal Pints of the EAP GREEN program representing the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection and the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia are members of the National Executive Committee. Selected representatives of business sector, Georgian Technical University, Directors of the Regional Environmental Center for Caucasus and Energy Efficiency Center Georgia are also members of the National Executive Committee. The Committee meets once or twice per year to monitor, review and provide guidance for the project implementation.

Overall management of the RECP Demonstration Component is the responsibility of UNIDO’s main office (Cleaner and Sustainable Production Unit) in Vienna. A National Coordinator has been appointed to provide leadership at the national level and ensure effective implementation of the RECP activities on a day-to-day basis through planning, monitoring and review of project activities, identification and selection of project partners (including demonstration companies, etc.) and advocacy and liaison with relevant national stakeholders in the government and business sectors and civil society.

List of National RECP experts   has been established who were trained by UNIDO under the RECP Program in RECP service delivery. The experts have been utilized for short term assignments, in particular the execution of plan level RECP assessments in selected demonstration companies.

The RECP demonstration component is supported by the Energy Efficiency Center Georgia which is responsible for the organizational, logistic and administrative arrangements for smooth running of the day-to-day activities of the program, including e.g. organization of training's and events, delivery of demonstration projects, preparation of publications, etc.

These organization arrangements are illustrated below.

National Executive committee members

1. Nino Lazashvili, Sustainable Development Division, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development;
2. Nino Tkhilava, EaP Green Program Focal Point in Georgia, Head of Environmental Policy and International Relations Department, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection;
3. Shalva Andguladze, Doctor of Technical Science, Full Professor, Georgian Technical University;
4. George Abulashvili, Director, Georgian Energy Efficiency Center;
5. Sophiko Akhobadze, Director, Regional Environmental Center (REC) Caucasus;
6. Irma Daushvili, Director, LTD Dio;
7. Mikheil Kordzakhia, Vice President, Georgian Employers Association;
8. Jimsher Kerkadze, Doctor of Technical Science, Full Professor, Georgian Technical University.