UNIDO’s Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies (TEST) is an integrated approach that provides industries and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a combined set of tools to initiate a cycle of continuous improvements within their business operations to manage the transition towards a sustainable production. Initially developed for the Danube River basin, where poorly treated industrial emissions discharged into the Danube River generated excessive pollution and considerably degraded the quality of the water and environment, the TEST approach have over the years proved to become an efficient tool in helping SMEs and industries to gain resource efficient and environmental benefits within their operations, thus contributing to a better environmental compliance and an enforced competitiveness for the business. By combining the Cleaner Production Assessment (CPA) methodology, the core elements of an Environmental Management System (EMS) and an Energy Management System (EnMS), which include exploring new eco-efficient technologies and an effective and supportive information system for material and energy flows based on Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA), TEST integrates all levels of the business management through creative thinking and effective collaboration through teamwork involving people of different backgrounds and operational levels in a company to sustain the performance of resource efficiency within the business.

MED-TEST

The MED-TEST project has been designed to address pollution from land-based activities of priority industrial pollution hot spots identified in the Strategic Action Plan of the Mediterranean Sea. The project will primarily address industrial hot spots of the Mediterranean basin in each of the participating countries, which are associated with persistent toxic substances (PTS), and will serve to demonstrate the introduction of an integrated approach, including the adoption of best available techniques (BAT), cleaner production technology, appropriate environmental management and accounting practices.

The project aims to build national capacity to apply the UNIDO-TEST integrated approach in order to facilitate the transfer of environmentally sound technology (EST) that will improve the environmental performance and the productivity of priority industrial installations in the southern Mediterranean region.

The effectiveness of the TEST integrated approach will be demonstrated at a number of pilot enterprises to be identified within the Mediterranean priority hotspots in Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia. The enhanced institutional capacity will then be made available through the dissemination of project results to assist other enterprises in the pilot countries, as well as in other southern Mediterranean countries.

Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals