NEW APPROACHES IN HRM

31 The remainder of this topic is structured as follows: Section 2 offers a brief overview of the green economy concept as a part of a more complex conceptual framework known as sustainable development. Section 3 deals with the projected potentials of the green economy and presents some statistics that could help in assessing the current status of the GE implementation inside the European Union SME sector. Section 4 will elaborate on the theoretical and practical implications, conclusions, limitations, and possibilities of the GHRM framework, supported by the presentation of the illustrative real-life cases. The final section presents concluding remarks with recommendations and actions to be taken by certain stakeholders. I. THE CONCEPT OF A GREEN ECONOMY To balance economic growth with the protection of the natural environment, it is necessary to take into account the consequences of economic growth on quality of life and its continuity, which leads to the need for intergenerational solidarity. Based on that need, the concept of lead to the need for intergenerational solidarity. Based on that need, the concept of sustainable development was formulated and still represents the dominant development paradigm. Sustainable development At the heart of sustainable development is the inevitable conflict between the demands for economic prosperity and the demands for the preservation of the natural environment. These two types of requirements are in inverse proportion - the higher the economic growth, the lower the degree of conservation of nature and natural resources. Thus, economic development acts as a limiting factor to ecological development, and vice versa. Understanding the green economy concept enables mainstreaming economy-society-environmental linkages into national development planning as well as into business strategies of modern enterprises. Various concepts and approaches to economic development that will assure sustainability of the natural environment in the long term are being promoted globally and include a green economy, resource efficiency, a circular economy, sustainable consumption and production ( Fig. 1 ).