On 24 and 25 October 2023, Resolvo attended and moderated the 2nd interregional CDR EUROPE meeting in Seinäjoki (Finland), hosted by the Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia. International experts, including Rob Price from International CDR Manifesto and Christian Thiel from Bayern Innovativ, participated, as well as experts and stakeholders from the local Seinäjoki area (from waste management companies to the theatre sector) and representatives from the 8 partner territories participated.
Partners talked about the challenges of engaging SMEs in digitalisation and how to encourage SMEs to commit to CDR. Some points discussed:
- Should CDR be a voluntary code or do we need regulation to enforce it? How the value of CDR and the risk of not being digital responsible can be demonstrated?
- How can partners help SMEs to be more digitally responsible in their core business? Who can train SMEs in CDR? What skills and expertise should a CDR consultant have?
- How can we measure CDR implementation without over-burdening? We looked at some examples, including the Digital Responsibility Goals.
- Is there funding available? We talked about examples of existing calls that could be adapted to include CDR. Fingers crossed!
While waiting for next project meeting in Budapest (Hungary), partners will work on understanding challenges of SMEs, based on their level of awareness and digital advancement, and try to seek the first answers to guide SMEs towards Corporate Digital Responsibility.
