Pusnik M., Sucic B., Al-Mansour F., Crema L., Cozzini M., Mahbub S., Holzner C., Kohlmaier J., 2014, Framework for Sustainability Assessment of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 42, 121-126.
Regions of Central Europe are characterised by the economic activity mainly performed by micro companies and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In accordance with the sustainable economic development of the Central Europe SMEs, key objectives have been recognised to tackle the challenge, namely: implementation of energy efficient and environmentally friendly technologies in production process, promotion of economic and social benefits of sustainability and achieving positive changes in behaviour of employees. This paper presents a novel approach (3EMT tool) for sustainability assessment of SMEs together with resulting normalized quantitative indicators, statistical benchmark indicators and SME energy consumption profiles. The 3EMT tool enables the evaluation of energy and environmental performance of SMEs and provides ranking useful for benchmarking and supports regional sustainability evaluation.
