In our last article , we stayed close to the factory floor but lifted our gaze to the regulatory horizon. We examined how the EU Green Deal has moved from policy intent to operational gravity, reshaping compliance expectations, customer requirements, and access to finance for SMEs. This time, we keep the same operational reality in mind but change the lens again. Instead of asking, “Can we comply?” , we now have to ask, “Which upgrades do we actually fund, and how do we justi