EcoBusinessPlan Vienna - Philosophy and objectives

The purpose of the EcoBusinessPlan is to help enterprises generate "green and clean" profits through ecological management practices that benefit both the environment and the enterprises, ensuring high quality and financial benefits in each company.

The EcoBusinessPlan Vienna aims to:

• Reduce adverse environmental impacts of economic activity through integrated environmental protection strategies
• Improve the competitive position of Viennese businesses through more efficient use of resources (making full use of innovative potentials and cost saving opportunities), sustaining employment over the medium term
• Strengthen the advisory component in the relationship between the city administration and private sector enterprises
• Contribute to the sustainable development of the City of Vienna
• Support the exchange of information, nationally and internationally, with city administrations and enterprises running similar programmes
• Extend and support environmental protection efforts both nationally and internationally
• Contribute to de-coupling economic growth from resource consumption and environmental damage

The EcoBusinessPlan goes international

An important advantage of the EcoBusinessPlan Vienna is that it is transferable in part or as a whole and can thus be implemented in other regions or countries. In 2004, five federal provinces of Austria (Lower Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Vorarlberg and Upper Austria) started to cooperate with the EcoBusinessPlan. The new cooperation partners began using the database and will develop it further together with the EcoBusinessPlan Vienna. The European Union has supported the EcoBusinessPlan Vienna with EUR 674,000. These funds were granted within the framework of the INTERREG IIIA project "Wien-Györ". The capital of Greece, Athens, and India's fourth-largest city, Chennai (Madras), want to develop EcoBusinessPlans of their own modelled on Vienna's programme.

International recognition

UN Habitat has included the EcoBusinessPlan Vienna in its Best Practices Database which lists the best sustainability projects worldwide.

The EU Commission also regards the Environmental Service Package of the City of Vienna as an example of best practice.