Discussing piloting plans in Sligo, Ireland
On 5-7 May, Sustainable SMEs project group members gathered in beautiful Sligo, Ireland, to discuss and develop the next project activities. Read our experiences here!
The aim of the meeting was to evaluate and develop the piloting process, the key activity of Sustainable SMEs, in which SMEs get to test five different sustainability reporting solutions across Finland, Sweden and Ireland. The project partners had the opportunity to present their plans for the pilot workshops they are responsible for, and get feedback and suggestions from other project group members. The sessions brought up lively discussion on the contents and organization of the workshops, and project partners gained new ideas on how to engage participants through participatory tools during the workshops.
In addition, the meeting included co-creation sessions for marketing the workshops and developing the evaluation frameworks for each sustainability reporting solution tested in the pilot workshops. Practical issues were also covered, including checklists for workshop implementation and documentation, as well as deciding a month-specific timeline for the pilot workshops.
During the visit, the project group members also had the opportunity to get to know the activities of one of the project partners, AIM Centre. The group was given a very interesting introduction to AIM Centre’s new AI Studio, and heard a presentation by Adeep Sri Narayana titled “From Data to ESG Insights: How IoT & AI Enable Smart Sustainability”, in which he presented the data collection and analyzing system he had created to support AIM Centre’s sustainability reporting.
Apart from work, the project group enjoyed walking on the shores of the Atlantic at Strandhill, networked over traditional Irish pub dinner, and got to know a local sustainably operating brewery called The White Hag. Through these activities the group not only learned quite a few things about Ireland, but had some interesting societal and cultural discussions as well.
Overall, the meeting was highly successful. The feedback from participants was positive, mentioning how the meeting exceeded their expectations, and how useful it was to be able to discuss and work face to face. The co-creating sessions received special positive mentions. The group achieved a better understanding of the project’s activities and outcomes, shared insight and experience, brainstormed on the contents and evaluation of the pilot workshops, and created concrete templates and one-pagers to aid the practical implementation of the pilot workshops.
Stay tuned for the next activities of Sustainable SMEs!
