The effectiveness of Russia's integration into the world economy and world trade is determined by the level of competitiveness of its industrial markets, and it is obvious that in this problem, technological leadership is one of the key factors of effectiveness. Thus, the task of achieving competitiveness of the Russian economy is complicated by the need of combining economic interests with the preservation of the natural balance of ecological systems and find points of matching economic and social interests. The solution to environmental problems lies in the urgent need of transition to sustainable development, in which open tremendous opportunities for small and medium enterprises to occupy a niche in the development of technical, technological, operational, and environmental components. The aim of this work is to define the most relevant for the development of small and medium enterprises direction, from the point of view of combining economic and environmental interests on the example of Sverdlovsk region. The subject of study is developed under the influence of climatic and geographical factors and historical features that define on the one hand the competitiveness of the region, but on the other is a source of environmental pollution. In the work tasked to analyze the opportunities of small and medium enterprises in the sectors most relevant for transition to sustainable development. Used for the purpose of the scientific methods are comparative and causal analysis.