This report analyses small and medium-sized enterprises (hereby SMEs) with green business models and explores how selected enterprises scale and replicate their activities. Its main objective is to provide insights into the critical success factors for scaling and replication. It is intended for policymakers and intermediaries to draw direct insights from SMEs. It analyses the critical success factors for scale-up and replication of enterprise activities and highlights concrete recommendations to close existing gaps in order to maximise their contribution to the SDGs. Green SMEs can find inspiration through the case studies in the annex of this report. This report was prepared in collaboration with GO4SDGs.

The enterprises analysed in this report cover five sectors –agriculture, waste, textile, energy and construction with enterprise operations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These five sectors are of critical importance in the context of a transition to a green, circular and inclusive economy. Across the enterprise analyses, a pattern of different critical success factors has emerged illustrating their scale and replication journeys. The evidence used in this report builds on in-depth interviews and support engagements that SEED had with the respective enterprises and the work and insights of SEED’s Catalyser, Accelerator and Replicator programmes that have supported over 1,000 enterprises around the globe.

The report is divided into four sections. The first section explains why the scale-up and replication of green enterprises is a promising pathway to achieving the SDGs within key sectors. The second section provides an analysis of the critical factors for scale-up and replication. The third section offers an overview of the different pathways to scaling and replicating enterprise activities. The last section of the report provides recommendations on how to support the scaling and replication of green enterprises. These sections are complemented with spotlights from the case studies that are all included in the annex to this report.