City council wants to continue eco-compass for SMEs

SMEs rarely have a specific environmental management system. Comprehensive consulting services for small businesses are lacking. The city of Zurich concludes with the Eco-Compass thus a gap in the range of products and services. The Eco-Compass shows SMEs potential, provides environmental offers and creates an overview for SMEs in the jungle of measures and subsidies. The city has delegated the operational management of the Eco-Compass to an external office. This model has proven successful and is to be continued. For the continuation of the Eco-Compass offer, new annual recurring expenses in the amount of 350,000 Swiss francs will be requested from the municipal council from 2022.

Direct savings of up to 7 tons of CO2 per SME per year

The evaluation of the effectiveness of the Eco-Compass has shown that the agreed measures have a positive impact on the climate, air and water quality and resource consumption. The directly measurable annual environmental relief is in the order of 400 to 5000 MWh of saved energy (electricity, heating/cooling), 100,000 to 500,000 passenger car kilometers and 15 to 50 tons of material. This corresponds to a saving per year and SME of 2 to 7 tons of CO2 emissions. That is half the environmental footprint of a Swiss citizen per year.

Great potential for SME consulting

The Eco-Compass was created in 2009 as part of the then legislative focus "Sustainable City of Zurich - on the way to a 2000-watt society". In 2015, the program was awarded the "Excellence Publique" innovation prize. By 2020, nearly 4000 companies had been personally contacted and over 1200 consultations had been carried out. According to a study by act Cleantech Agentur Schweiz AG, there remains a potential of over 18,000 additional SMEs that can be tapped.

"Achieving the climate protection goals requires everyone. The city of Zurich therefore intends to continue supporting local businesses with suitable advisory services in the future," says City Councilor Andreas Hauri, head of the Health and Environment Department.

Adaptation to new conditions

According to a satisfaction analysis by ETH Zurich, the existing consulting services are perceived very positively by SMEs for the most part. Nevertheless, the consulting service should be further developed with a focus on the climate protection goals to be achieved and current political, scientific and social knowledge, and should be adapted even better to the needs of the companies. "In order to achieve the ambitious climate targets, we need innovation and networking with the business community," says René Estermann, Director of Environmental and Health Protection Zurich. "The Eco-Compass promotes the knowledge transfer with business that is necessary for this."

Source: Environmental and Health Protection Zurich