In this crucial decade for taking action against climate change, it is imperative that all sectors of the EU economy undergo a profound transformation to achieve the ambitious targets set by the EU Green Deal such as climate neutrality by 2050. ICT SMEs play a central role in Europe’s green and digital transformation by developing technologies fostering sustainability across sectors, and strengthening Europe’s position as a source of constant innovation. Following this vision, DIGITAL SME partnered with the European Commission to carry out the “Get Digital: Go Green & Be Resilient” initiative to showcase and facilitate the adoption of cutting-edge sustainable solutions. However, the core challenge to fast-track the twin transition lies in the identification of the most impactful sustainable technologies. This will allow to support stakeholders in successfully adopting and integrating them into operations and business processes.

To help overcome this issue, DIGITAL SME, as part of the European Green Digital Coalition (EGDC) Secretariat, is co-organising a series of six workshops targeting key EU sectors, namely smart cities, transport, energy/power, manufacturing, construction/buildings, and agriculture.

These workshops bring together developers/providers and buyers/users of digital solutions, as well as representatives from sustainable finance, sectorial experts, and policymakers. They are fostering discussions on how to promote the adoption, deployment, and effective use of digital solutions for greenhouse gas emissions’ reduction. The gathered inputs will feed into the Deployment Guidelines of the EGDC Pilot Project, which will complement the EGDC science-based methodology to calculate the net climate impact of real-life digital solutions across sectors. The guidelines will provide tailored recommendations for different stakeholders within each sector by offering comprehensive guidance on how to:

Maximise carbon, resource, and energy savings through the implementation of digital solutions
Minimise the emissions and potential negative impacts on the climate associated with these solutions.
Establish metrics and tracking mechanisms to understand the impact of solutions
Consider other sustainability impacts, such as health or social implications, associated with the use of solutions
Ultimately, these guidelines will facilitate the green digital transformation of key sectors, benefiting the environment, society, and the economy as a whole. To this extent, the pivotal role of ICT SMEs for industrial ecosystems is unequivocal, given their crucial contribution in addressing impending 21st century challenges (i.e. climate change, energy crisis and supply chain resilience).

The first two workshops were held in April and May, dedicated to the construction/buildings and the transport sector.

Registration is now open for the upcoming workshops focusing on the Agriculture (13 June), on the Energy/Power sector (28 June) and Smart Cities (12 July).

Register today!