Sustainability in business practice: how competitiveness is changing in Europe

Lisbon Strategy (2000, 2009a), Gothenburg Strategy (2001) and now New Territorial Agenda 2011 and Europe Strategy towards 2020 represent the framework of the new regional business in Europe, re-addressing the regional enterprises and regions’ goals to valorize the territorial potential capability to be competitive in sustainability, starting from the increase of co-operation and cohesion (V Cohesion Report, 2010). The paper aims to investigate and measure how sustainability is helping regional business to change its productive behavior towards a new ‘competitiveness capability' including a vision of territorial cohesion. This requires to adopt innovative spatial enterprise models, as STeMA is, able to manage new strategic pillars of the EU development: smart growth, sustainability, social - and employment - inclusion (Prezioso, 2010). The paper illustrates how, looking at Europe2020 Strategy and Rio+20 perspectives, the conversion of endogenous productive resources in social, economic and territorial development business opportunities, require the development of new regional organisations patterns of local production.