Competitiveness and collaboration: key to sustainability

On March 18, 2025, the second stakeholder meeting of the GreenGov project took place at the Lombardy Region headquarters, with participation from, in addition to the Region, Finlombarda, Poliedra, AFIL Cluster, ARPA Lombardia, CNA Lombardia, Confartigianato Lombardia, Confindustria Lombardia, LE2C Cluster, MUSA, and Unioncamere Lombardia.

GreenGov, a four-year collaboration project involving ten European regions within the Interreg Europe program, focuses on three key areas of the European Green Deal: DNSH (Do No Significant Harm), climate proofing, and sustainable finance.

Launched in April 2024, GreenGov has so far gathered evidence on the use of sustainable finance tools by European entities, including contributions from Lombard stakeholders coordinated by Finlombarda, and has shared best practices related to DNSH and Climate Proofing. Lombardy Region, with the support of Poliedra, shared the guidelines under development for climate verification and the process of implementing the DNSH principle in calls for proposals.

The central topic of discussion was the different local applications of sustainability principles, particularly in calls financed by European funds, and the simplification of bureaucratic requirements for participants. According to attendees, increasing competitiveness can be a key driver for SMEs to adopt sustainable processes, while sharing successful cases is seen as an opportunity for engagement and motivation.

Participants were updated for the next project meeting, scheduled for May 27-28 in Milan.

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