SEED: Green SMEs and their Success Factors for Scale-up and Replication

This report analyses small and medium-sized enterprises (hereby SMEs) with green business models and explores how selected enterprises scale and replicate their activities. It is intended for policymakers and intermediaries to draw direct insights from SMEs. It analyses the critical success factors for scale-up and replication of enterprise activities and highlights concrete recommendations to close existing gaps in order to maximise their contribution to the SDGs. Green SMEs can find inspiration through the case studies in the annex of this report. This report was prepared in collaboration with the UN initiative GO4SDGs.

The enterprises analysed in this report cover five sectors – agriculture, waste, textile, energy and construction with enterprise operations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These five sectors are of critical importance in the context of a transition to a green, circular and inclusive economy. Across the enterprise analyses, a pattern of different critical success factors has emerged illustrating their scale and replication journeys. The evidence used in this report builds on in-depth interviews and support engagements that SEED had with the respective enterprises and the work and insights of SEED’s Catalyser, Accelerator and Replicator programmes that have supported over 1,000 enterprises around the globe.