ECO-WISE is associated with ecologically conscious or environmentally friendly practices in a
wider sense. The wide variety and usage of this notion indicates that green is a growing trend
internationally. In particular the abbreviation ECO-WISE stands for ecologically oriented
work-integration social enterprises. These enterprises can be described briefly as
not-for-private-profit organisations that improve the inclusion of the long-term unemployed
into society by providing jobs in ecological businesses. Over the last few years ECO-WISE have
been discovered as a strategic reserve to strengthen the environmental social and economic
pillars of society. They are seen as examples of best practices that achieve the general
objectives of the global sustainable development strategy. These organisations however have
only been marginally investigated their experience in balancing economic social and
environmental goals has largely remained unnoticed. The intention of this book is to deliver an
overview of concepts performances and impacts of ECO-WISE and other social enterprises that
have environmental interests in addition to their socio-economic goals. A group of
international experts from a variety of disciplines took up the challenge to contribute to this
compilation drawing on their own national and cultural experiences as well as different
theoretical and methodological paradigms. This compilation of articles is not exhaustive. It
should rather be understood as one of the first cohesive sets of articles that together
illustrate the world of ECO-WISE and similar organisations with the hope that this will
trigger discourse that further reveals the experiences and potential of social enterprises as
sustainable actors.
