Resource Efficiency in Motion: Tracking the Shifts and Priorities of SMEs Across Countries and Overtime

Resource efficiency is a critical issue for businesses, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as they strive to reduce their environmental impact and improve sustainability. Their efforts are in line with the goals of the SDGs, the 2030 Agenda, and the CSRD. The aim of the study is to identify changes in the approach to the efficient use of resources between 2012 and 2021, to identify countries with a similar approach to the use of resources and to identify leaders. The Friedman test, Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, and hierarchical and K-means clustering techniques were used. The results revealed the existence of a significant preference for efficient use of energy and procedures aimed at minimizing waste. The cluster analysis revealed the existence of four different groups of countries in terms of approach to the use of resources. Significant shifts in the composition and priorities of the clusters have been observed over the 9 years, with some countries showing an increased focus on certain activities, while others have de-emphasized specific areas. Worth noting is Turkey, which has strengthened its position among the most active countries, and Belgium, which has achieved statistically significant progress in every investigated area of efficient use of resources. The results from Slovakia show improvements especially in the areas of water and energy saving, material saving and recycling, and waste minimization.