Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My Department, through Enterprise Ireland, EI, and the local enterprise offices, LEOs, provides a range of supports to help Irish companies start, grow and export. In particular, Enterprise Ireland's new strategy for 2017 to 2020 will support more Irish companies to achieve greater scale, to be more competitive and expand into new export markets.

The objective of the Global Ambition strategy is to support enterprises across the economy to grow into strong international companies, developing world-leading products and services and exporting them all around the world. Sustainability is an important aspect of our drive to improve company level competitiveness. As part of helping clients to compete on world markets, Enterprise Ireland assists companies to incorporate sustainable practices into the day-to-day running of their business. Areas covered include environmental management systems, energy management systems and carbon management systems. Assistance also includes templates for devising an environmental policy statement and advice on the management of a business's environmental impacts.

Companies can also undertake technical feasibility studies into environmentally superior product design. Better environmental performance leads to improved efficiencies and direct savings in energy, water and waste costs. It can also increase access to customers who are increasingly demanding more environmentally friendly products and services. Those supports will make Irish companies more sustainable, more successful and more resilient.

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