Protect Resources, Strengthen the Economy: Good Examples for Resource Efficiency in Industry and Handicraft Businesses

Abstract

A lack of knowledge about internal business flows, lack of a cross-company perspective, dependence on customer requirements and the lack of time, personnel and financial resources, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises, mean that the advantages of the resource-efficient economy are not sufficiently exploited. Laws and regulations alone can not provide a remedy, and instead entrepreneurial ambition must be aroused. The experiences and successes of the work of the Duisburg Effizinez-Agentur NRW show that this is possible. Concrete and individually tailored support offers as well as the intensive cooperation of all participants often lead to a start-up in entrepreneurial activity. The public authorities can provide decisive support here, as the NRW Ministry of the Environment has shown with the establishment of the Effizienz-Agentur NRW. In the following we will outline how this work is carried out and explain the results by illustrating some examples.