SMEs and Sustainability: Project Management as a Tool to Accelerate the Green Transition

The green transition is one of the main challenges for the European economy and involves small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular. Despite representing the heart of European economy, many of them struggle to adapt to sustainability-related needs, often due to the unavailability of adequate resources, competences and tools. In the past several years, sustainability has become increasingly at the center of business strategies, alongside a constantly evolving European regulatory landscape. CSRD, CSDDD and EU Taxonomy are instruments that aim at guiding this process, but at the same time they represent concrete challenges for SMEs, which need to comply with complex and burdensome requirements. In this context, project management can offer decisive support. Methodologies such as PMBOK, PRINCE2, Agile, PRiSM and PM² make it possible to better organize processes, integrate sustainability objectives and enhance available resources. Each approach has strengths and limitations, but all offer useful tools to accompany SMEs on the transition path.