Engaging Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in environmental im- provement is vital because they constitute the majority of companies, and col- lectively have a big environmental impact. However, their lack of resources and low awareness of the benefits to be gained from environmental manage- ment are barriers to the implementation of a formal environmental management system (EMS). SMEs need user-friendly solutions to facilitate decision- making, understanding of environmental management, and evaluation of environmental performance. tion companies, which enables users to measure, monitor and report their envi- ronmental performance and costs. The calculation tool is combined with a training system so that these results and indicators can be used as an environ- mental decision-making aid. By using EcoTra, organisations enter a cycle of continual improvement while they consider their significant environmental as- pects as defined in ISO 14001 and measure their environmental performance. The tool is developed in co-operation with transportation SMEs in three dif- ferent European countries. awareness, resources and knowledge; the diffusion of environmental manage- ment will be enhanced by the development of similar sector-specific tools.
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