Roadmap for Sustainable Development: A Guide for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the Gothenburg Region

Abstract

In order for companies to keep their customers and stay in business they need to start working towards sustainable development. This project aims to find out what companies are doing today and where they need help. Thereafter, the goal is to create a roadmap that is flexible enough so that it can be applied to all manufacturing SME - small and medium-sized enterprises in the Gothenburg region. After interviewing 15 manufacturing SME in Gothenburg the first issue was an- swered. There is a need and an interest for a sustainability roadmap. The inter- viewed SME are at different stages and need to develop their own goals that are suitable for their operation. In order for the goals to be reached employees need to be involved in setting the goals. Apart from setting 3-5 sustainability goals at a time a suggestion board is recommended where employees can make sustainability suggestions that are not necessarily connected to the current goals. A roadmap consisting of seven steps was developed. The steps are: Introduction, sustainability analysis, essentiality table, goal setting, implementation, goal activi- ties and evaluation. All employees are actively involved in three of the steps and their input is taken into consideration in the remaining steps. A sustainability group or the management team carry out the other four steps, these steps involve answering yes or no questions, specifying goals and presenting them to the employees.