Sustainability has entered companies quietly, not as a revolution, but as a daily practice that demands new skills and new ways of learning. Within this landscape sits the European project CPG – Community of Practice on GreenComp Skills for Organisations’ Human Capital, funded by Erasmus+, and bringing together partners from Bulgaria, Spain and Italy.
Behind the acronym lies a simple but meaningful idea: using Communities of Practice (CoPs) as collaborative learning spaces to help European SMEs embed sustainability principles into their organisational culture. Not through manuals or formal courses, but by creating environments, both physical and digital, where managers and employees can exchange experiences, share challenges, and build knowledge together.
The concept of Communities of Practice, first introduced in the 1990s by researchers Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, refers to groups of people who learn by collaborating around a shared area of interest. In business contexts, this approach has proven effective in spreading innovation and developing cross-cutting skills, especially in environments where cultural change is key to transformation.
The CPG project also draws on GreenComp, the European sustainability competence framework developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Published in 2022, GreenComp outlines twelve key competences, from systems thinking to the ability to act for sustainability, offering a common language for those seeking to integrate environmental and social values into education and training.
The project’s goal is to translate these principles into practical learning pathways for small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up the majority of Europe’s productive fabric but often lack the tools to address ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) challenges in a structured way.
The Global Business Group Ltd (Bulgaria) coordinates the partnership and serves as the project leader. It includes Euro Education Bulgaria Ltd (Bulgaria), Markeut Skills Sociedad Limitada (MEUS) (Spain), System Dynamics Italian Chapter (SYDIC) and OpenCom I.S.S.C. (Italy). Over the next two years, the consortium will conduct research into European best practices, develop multimedia training materials, and create a collaborative platform to support organisations in building a sustainability-oriented learning culture.
As is often the case with small-scale initiatives, CPG’s strength lies not in its size but in its ability to experiment. Each partner brings different expertise from vocational education to business consultancy, from systems research to communication, creating a context that values dialogue and mutual learning.
In the broader debate on the green transition, training remains a secondary issue, yet it is essential. Understanding what “sustainability competence” really means and how people can collectively learn it poses both cultural and economic challenges. As the German sociologist Ulrich Beck once noted, “environmental risk is not a technical problem but a question of knowledge and awareness.”
Projects like CPG do not promise quick fixes, but they open up spaces for reflection on how businesses can become active participants in change rather than passive recipients of it. From small, concrete initiatives like this, we may help a new way of understanding sustainability emerge not simply as a goal to achieve, but as a competence to cultivate.