The assessment of environmental costs under the guidance of an Austrian expert took
place at Costa Rican companies during the period November 8-22, 2002. The first
part of the “train the trainers” seminars consisted of a half-day lecture on EMA and
the UN DSD methodology. This lecture was aimed at the common public, and was
followed up by another half day used for a preparatory workshop in which just staff
from the five SMEs participated. These SMEs were selected as the pilot group to
train CEGESTI consultants on applying the UN DSD methodology in a Costa Rican
business context. The training was followed by a one-day site visit to each of the
selected companies. Through the period, the expert and involved CEGESTI consultants
got together several times to share doubts, analyse the results thoroughly, and
share the lessons learned.
Though the initial plan was to organise two workshops just focused on small
groups of SMEs, after which some of them would be visited afterwards, it was decided
to change this method in order to invite a bigger audience to an open lecture,
consequently sharing the methodology with more people. Besides, this increased the
available time that could be used for the company visits and analyses, which was
necessary, since the visits had to be confidential which limited the number of people
that could participate in each visit. In total 61 people participated in the general
lecture, of which eight were CEGESTI consultants and 53 external participants.
During the general lecture the following issues were discussed: