About the I-GO Community Space
The I-GO group is intended to function as a community space for all SME stakeholders interested in supporting SMEs become resource efficient.
The objective of the I-GO Group is to foster exchange between organisations on their experience and learnings from working with SMEs on resource efficiency projects, and support the develop of collaborations to improve access to funding opportunities.
What is I-GO?
The I-GO initiative, developed by the Green Industry Platform, aims to scale up resource efficiency efforts for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
I-GO’s core objective is to help SMEs access resource efficiency guidance and support services most relevant to their activity, location, and business needs. It does this by providing a support structure that connects the sustainable business requirements of SME clients, the vast array of existing support services from SME intermediary organisations and the specific needs of individual SMEs. I-GO's regional deployment is supported by the GO4SDGS initiative.
How I-GO works?
The main objective of I-GO is to develop a clear business case for resource efficiency and then align the relevant guidance, capacity building and financing with the daily operations of an individual SME.
I-GO has been designed as a support structure to underpin the complete resource efficiency implementation cycle. Aiming to achieve a strong and collective approach by all related stakeholders in supporting SMEs integrate resource efficiency into their operations, the I-GO target audience, in addition to SMEs, includes:
- SME client companies (with a focus on those sharing the same supply chains)
- SME intermediary organizations such as business associations, NGOs, government agencies, development organizations and financial institutions
- SME service providers
The I-GO support structure is based on the integrated provision of interactive tools and development of strategic partnerships, as detailed below.
I-GO tools
I-GO offers an integrated resource efficiency support structure for SMES. It provides a complete toolkit that includes the SME Support Centre, the I-GO Assistant, the Implementation Manager tool and promotional activities and networking opportunities.:
- SME Support Centre: An online library that brings together the vast array of resource efficiency knowledge (guidance, case studies and tools) and support services (training and financing solutions) made available to SMEs on a country and regional level by the many different organizations.
- I-GO Assistant: It is an online resource efficiency self-assessment and navigation tool that rapidly determines an SME’s resource efficiency status and provides customised recommendations along with a tailored list of support services most relevant to their specific needs from the SME Support Centre. To note, this tool offers an understanding of an SME’s overall resource efficiency situation rather than providing a diagnostic review of an SME’s operations.
- Implementation manager: A tool aimed at supporting an SME track technical audit data, access sector specific benchmarking, manage implementation of resource efficiency measures and report on performance of implemented measures. This tool will be developed in 2022.
