Practical aspects on knowledge based development of small communities

The concept of a knowledge-based European Society, with all its shortcomings and weaknesses, creates nevertheless a mainframe that could accommodate, for the time being, projects limited to a specific geographic area, projects trying to put in practice such a generous idea. The work details experience of implementing the knowledge – based development paradigm in a number of communes located in the Suceava County, Romania. Options for KBD are presented, classified using a Pareto-type analysis and results are detailed in 2 major areas for interest for local communities: energy and environment. In addition, efforts were made to present to local specialists new and performing methods for management, namely, the Sustainable Balanced Scorecard.