"While organisations primiraly focus on profit, sustainable organizations are committed to measuring and making key decisions based on measures that look after the profit, the planet and the people. These represent the three pillars the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework is based on, a sustainability business model suitable for every organization, regardless of its size. It is a feeder road to a highway called ""sustainable growth"".UseWine aimed at increasing the sustainability outlook of European Wine SMEs by guiding them through their first crucial move: the adoption of the TBL model. TBL is not widely known within SMEs, and those who have heard of it, consider it as an unfeasible model for the small size of their organisation. The fact that ""the planet"" and ""the people"" are part of the sustainability equation creates negative attitude since both are considered to lead to additional expenditures. The project aimed at:- guiding Wine SMEs in establishing a sustainability strategy that will cover financial, environmental and social elements- fostering a TBL culture in Wine entrepreneurship- creating common strategy among the Wine SMEs, the local authorities and the social and environmental stakeholders applied through policies which support TBL- developing leaders among the Wine SMEs who will manage the TBL change - establishing performance indicators to measure the penetration of TBL principles in Wine entrepreneurshipUseWine's consortium comprised of ten organisation from 8 different countries. The organisations involved have had the competencies or relations to the target groups in order to have fast access to them. One of the partners (ETA from the UK) has been offering consultancy services to SMEs using TBL on a professional level.The project was launched by assessing the current TBL related practices applied by the Wine SMEs, the existing TBL related policies and regulations in enforcement by the policy makers (local governments/regional authorities) and how the citizens (social and environmental groups) reacted to such actions taken by both. The results of this research establish the state-of-art and set the baseline. Having a clear picture of the current situation, the project designed a training curriculum to be used for the training of facilitators who would support Wine SME leaders in their to introduce TBL related policies and procedures in their organisations. The curriculum also embedded leadership training as leaders needed to sharpen their leadership qualities.The training curriculum required the creation of the corresponding pedagogic material. A set of tools which were designed to provide a framework of smaller projects within the Wine SMEs and to support activities for all three pillars (profit, people, planet).The skills on how to train the leaders of the organisations were delivered by a professional TBL business consultant to a selected number of facilitators during a 5-day train-the-trainer workshop which was organised by the lead partner. Each partner organisation designated two experienced consultants who were trained to become the facilitators of the leadership workshops and of the implementation of the methodology during the testing phase of the project.Awareness activities also took place in the form of half-day events in every partner country (in some cases more than one due to geographical situation of the areas), where market stakeholders, local authorities and entrepreneurs were exposed to TBL which was projected as an SME sustainability mechanism. Success stories were presented, derived from the respective national market to better relate to. The awareness activities, lead by the trained facilitators, were necessary to stimulate interest with the stakeholders and to attract candidates for the upcoming pilot/testing phase.One hundred eleven Wine SMEs from the partner countries took part in the testing phase. The testing phase lasted 6 months during which the trained facilitators supported the Wine SME leaders to identify areas within their organisation that needed change and deploy measures to bring about changes in the business culture of their organisation. The last phase of the project was to measure the impact the project had had on the target groups and their perception of SME sustainability. The project had not only enlightened the various stakeholders on the importance of looking after ""people"" and ""planet"" besides ""profit"", but also demonstrated how to achieve to go about achieving substantial progress."

The so-called ‘digital revolution’ is changing the world in which we live and work. Trends such as home-working and globalisation are contributing to increased use of remote teams. Team members and teams are becoming increasingly geographically dispersed: team members might work just a few kilometres from their colleagues, or in different countries and time zones. Whilst remote teams bring benefits for both employers and individuals, they also bring some new challenges, especially for team leaders and managers. TeamMate 360 developed a new set of VET resources to help team leaders, managers and organisations to adapt to and improve the management of remote teams and team members. Project partners developed a new, multi-lingual, on-line 360° assessment tool called, ‘TeamMate 360’. The tool was based upon a set of 72 observable behaviours, organised into a set of 24 Specific Skills sub divided into a set of six Core Skills: -Developing Team Plans-Team Leadership-Team Communication-Working as a Team-Performance Management-Exploiting Technology. After being trained and recognised as certified ‘360-degree Feedback Coaches’, a team of 10 VET coaches planned and implemented seven national pilot assessment exercises. In total 125 team leaders and managers completed the TeamMate 360 assessment with around 100 taking part in a new VET course called ‘The Remote Manager’. The data from the TeamMate 360 assessments was analysed resulting in a set of seven national benchmark reports plus a comparative analysis of the skills and behaviours of managers from the UK, Romania, Spain, Italy, Greece, Ireland and Bulgaria. Based on the pilot testing phase of the TeamMate 360 assessment exercise and the delivery of the Remote Manager courses, a Best Practice Guide to 360-degree assessment was prepared. In addition to a wide range of dissemination activities, the project culminated with the delivery of a series of six national conferences including the UK conference hosted by the Chartered Management Institute. During the conferences, participants learned about the design and use of the TeamMate 360 assessment tool, the project results and impact. In addition to impacting on team leaders and managers and building new national and European capacity and capability in the use of 360-degree assessment and feedback, the Erasmus+ project also provided ‘proof of concept’. Consequently, partners have ambitious plans for the continued use of the tool including adding more languages training more ‘360-degree Feedback Coaches’ and developing other editions of the 360-assessment tools including a version for Directors and Coaches.

Not all entrepreneurs / business owners / managers have a background in business and management. However, all of them need to master some knowledge regarding, precisely, business and management. Is, being aware of this context and the difficulties that aspiring entrepreneurs experience in their quest to become business persons that the project was created.As such, the Your Business Success (YBS) project developed an approach to enable the primary target group (aspiring entrepreneurs and business owner/managers of micro and small enterprises) to prepare practical and performance-focused business plans. This was achieved through the development of a new digital business planning tool and methodology supported by a new VET course and learning resources. The YBS digital business planning and management tool help participants to prepare business plans where the enterprise’s objectives are linked to and supported by operational plans, VET training and employees' skills, competences and performance targets. Partners created a new VET curriculum and course called Your Business Success. The project increased the quality of VET provision in the field of entrepreneurship and enterprise support through the delivery of a C1 training the trainer course. Once trained as YBS Coaches, the VET teacher/trainers can deliver the YBS VET course to the target group, thereby developing their knowledge and understanding of business planning and the use of the YBS digital planning tool. The project contributed to the development of an increased sense of entrepreneurship within the primary target group. It also increased the digital competence of VET teacher/trainers by exposing them to the effective use of digital technologies in the delivery of enterprise VET courses. At the end of the YBS project, Partners have created a new training course that promotes the use of innovative methods and a new pedagogical approach to the delivery of business and enterprise planning and management; Partners have created a new open education resource relevant to a wide range of different audiences, including aspiring entrepreneurs, business owners and managers and enterprise support agencies and VET institutes engaging in enterprise training. Partners seek to widen the impact of the project beyond the immediate target groups by preparing a good practice guide in the form of a book (Output 3: Best Practice Handbook: Planning for Business Success). Through the dissemination activities and the multiplier events (E1 - E6), Partners tried to influence the strategies and initiatives supported and sponsored by a range of other VET actors and stakeholders (e.g. regional/national government agencies, VET centres and education institutes, business support agencies and awarding bodies with responsibility for and/or an interest in raising interest in entrepreneurship and the development of micro and small enterprises).

The importance of innovation for SMEs is widely recognised. Innovation boosts productivity and facilitates substantial growth in sales. Survival rates are also higher in SMEs that innovate, for the simple reason that they are flexible and better able to adapt to challenging market conditions.In order to operate effectively, a systematic approach is needed if improvement efforts are to succeed and businesses are to remain competitive in dynamic markets. Capacity enhancement trainings must meet the needs of the small firm and have to be easy to apply. However there are already some innovation standards on the market, the current approaches based on these do not satisfy the total requirements of the SME. Most solutions fail to provide a holistic, practical and effectively integrated approach to innovation management; the available ones too are prescriptive, overly complex and do not meet the needs of the organisation. It is clear that this deficit must be addressed.To meet the urging need, the EPIC project consortium is planning to develop a complex educational package that helps SMEs to increase their innovation capabilities and productivity based on the content of the technical specification of the CEN/TS 16555 1-7 “Innovation management” European standard family for both middle/top and innovation managers of SMEs and for any employees taking part in innovation projects or processes. It will enable SMEs to establish and manage an innovation management system as well as to implement successful innovation projects. Hopefully, this will help them to overcome the economic challenges that might get more difficult given the current pandemic situation around the word.Within the 24-month duration of the project, we foresee the development of the following Intellectual Outputs by implementing the described vertical activities:O1: Study of innovation management skills/competencies/knowledge- A1 Face to face interviews- A2 Quantitative research- A3 Desk research- A4 Research summary reportEPIC aims to improve the capacity of European SME’s to implement effective innovation initiatives. To do this, we must adopt a user-centric approach so that the intellectual outputs we develop aligns well with the needs of the end user. To ensure this, we will conduct research to assess the needs of innovative SMEs regarding the competences, skills and knowledge their employees are lacking or should improve in terms of innovation management to be able to carry out successful innovation projects; methods and parameters (length, depths, design) of a training that would be suitable and motivating for employees to do.O2: Online self-assessment tools - A1 5 self-assessment tools - A2 Facilitator guides- A3 Internal testing (Joint Staff Event)- A4 Corrections and translation- A5 Digitalization- A6 External testing- A7 O2 finalizationBased on the findings of research (O1) we prepare 5 online self-assessment tools and facilitator guides. These materials will be tested first by the partnership and secondly by the members of the target group.O3: Training package- A1 Templates for training material- A2 Training material development- A3 Offline interactive training kit development- A4 Internal testing (Joint Staff Event)- A5 Corrections and translation- A6 External testing- A7 O3 finalization and printingThe training material includes 6 chapters, 12 best practices and 18 practical group exercises. It is complemented with an offline interactive training kit.The training material and the offline interactive training kit will be tested internally and externally (by the target groups).The main short-term impacts on partners and end-users of EPIC results are that they will acquire new ways of thinking and acting and be equipped with the competencies, methods and skills to implement effective innovation management structures tailored to their specific needs.Long-term impacts – among others:- the partners’ extended networks, (e.g. educators, SMEs and clusters) will be better connected, which this bridges the gap which often divides the fields of education and industry.- participants will be able to pinpoint personal and organisational development needs to improve and develop their approach to innovation especially if supported by training resources.The EPIC project is implemented by a consortium of 7 partners – an innovation consulting company, an adult training and consulting provider, three training and business consultancy organisations, a manufacturing company and a business association - from 7 countries (Hungary, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Portugal, Greece, Slovakia, Romania).

One of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals is “sustainable production and consumption” that includes all related stakeholders including raw material supply system, manufacturing, distribution, service and disposal. Sustainable food products will provide environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health, welfare, and environment over their entire life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials to final disposition. The food industry is a powerhouse for the global economy. In order to succeed in the sustainability applications for the food sector, it is of great importance to bring standardization on the main pillars of sustainability, especially on environment with globally accepted standards on integrated resource and chemical management together with waste and emission prevention. UN associated offices and related stakeholders in food industry has combined economic growth with respect to planetary boundaries. Reconciling World development with Earth sustainability can be explored with Sustainable Development Goals so that global economic development can be achieved within human health and ecological health.Manufacturing processes in food sector lead to generation of various types of wastes, secondary products, by-products that has to be utilized in an integrated way. Regarding the content of the project, one of the main focus points is external reusability and recyclability applications for by-products. This will be provided through industrial symbiosis guide covering all the details of external management of production waste in upgraded applications of environmental management applications with a special emphasize on cleaner production. Environmental problems generated in a local area can easily scale up to a regional problem, which brings the need for collaboration on a wider, regional basis. As food production is one of the largest manufacturing sector in Turkey, food industry has an important role on national economy and increasing its export potential steadily. Within this frame, food producers from different countries need to collaborate to sustain their international market. Moreover, they need to sustain their product quality and production quality in terms of supply chain management. Considering the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement, countries have already agreed on reduction of carbon emissions. However, the dependence of the global food system on fossil fuels contributes to GHG emissions and may increase input costs to the extent that they become unaffordable. Project partners will contribute as multidisciplinary team of researchers with their established knowledge in their field. The nested structure of this project will contribute to the growing body of research in integrated waste management opportunities.For this concern, in order to develop a bridge with the aforementioned issues and successful application of zero waste management in food sector in the partner countries; a pollution prevention ladder stage based approach is planned to be used in the training contents. The pollution prevention ladder gives an overview of several environment oriented activities pursued in business. The scope of the project will cover external and internal reuse-recycle-repair-rethink-reduce options for integrated waste management system with the main target of efficient zero waste application.This project has 9 partners from 6 countries. Applicant organisation is İstanbul Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanisation. Governorship of İstanbul (TR), Boğaziçi University(TR), ENAİP LOMBARDİA(IT), MANRA(ES), Media Creativa(ES), Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies(LVA), Exponential Training & Assessment Limited(UK), Kaunas Food Industry and Trade Training Centre(LT) are project partners. This partnership will create following outputs:1)IO1: Comprehensive Framework on Waste Management Applications in Europe and A Comparative Report (on Current Legislation)2) IO2: Waste Management Skills Defined in Food Sector and the Training Curriculum (EQF4); 3) IO3: Training Content For Waste Management in Food Sector;4) IO4: Enriched Educational Materials and E-learning Platform; 5) IO5: Industrial Symbiosis Guide6) IO6: White Paper: Recommendation Paper on Waste Management in Food SectorIn terms of project management, we will have Quality Management Plan(including assessment tools and risk management plan) and Dissemination Plan. We will realize 1 LTT short-term staff training as well as 5 TPMs. Moreover, 6 MEs will be held to disseminate project results.