Skip to main content

Business strategies for eco-innovation

  • Chapter
Eco-Innovation

Abstract

Since the publication of Changing the Course, the introductory book on eco-efficiency by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Steven Schmidheiny,1 companies have increasingly sought win-win solutions that combine simultaneous improvement in corporate competitiveness and environmental performance. Theoretical work supports this approach2 and argues that pollution is a sign of both environmental and economic inefficiency, and that many cost-effective environmental measures are inadequately exploited by managers. This divergence from neoclassical profit-maximization arises because managers are constrained by imperfect information, cognitive limitations and the existence of inappropriate organizational/incentive structures within companies.3

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Schmidheiny, S. (1992) Changing Course: A Global Business Perspective on Development and the Environment (World Business Council for Sustainable Development).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Porter, M. and Van der Linde, C. (1995) ‘Toward a New Conception of the Environment–Competitiveness Relationship’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9.4, 97–118;

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Von Weizsäcker, E., Lovins, A. B. and Lovins, L. H. (1997) Factor Four: Doubling Wealth–Halving Resource Use (London: Earthscan).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Decanio, S. J. (1993) ‘Barriers within firms to energy-efficient investments’, Energy Policy, 21 (9), 906–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. ISO (2006) ‘The ISO Survey 2006’, http://www.iso.org/iso/survey2006.pdf, date accessed 14 November 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Kuisma, M., Lovio, R. and Niskanen, S. (2001) ‘Hypotheses on the impact of environmental management systems in industry’, Ministry of the Environment, Finland, Helsinki (in Finnish);

    Google Scholar 

  7. Hertin, J., Berkhout, F., Tyteca, D. and Wehrmeyer (2003) “Are “soft” policy instruments effective?” Establishing the link between environmental management systems and the environmental performance of companies’, Berlin Conference on the Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change, 5–6.

    Google Scholar 

  8. IMPRESS (2003) ‘The Impact of Clean Production on Employment in Europe: An Analysis using Surveys and Case Studies’, TSER Progamme, Contract SOE-1-CT-98–1106, 2003, http://www.impress.zew.de/, date accessed 14 November 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  9. ADL (2005) ‘The Innovation High Ground’, Arthur D. Little, http://www.adl.com/ (home page), date accessed 14 November 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Fussler, C. and James, P. (1996) Driving Eco-Innovation: A Breakthrough Discipline for Innovation and Sustainability (London: Pitman Publishing), p. 364.

    Google Scholar 

  11. McDonough, W. and Braungart, M. (2002) Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (New York: North Point Press);

    Google Scholar 

  12. Braungart, M., McDonough, W. and Bollinger, A. (2007) ‘Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions: A strategy for eco-effective product and system design’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 15, 1337–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Frosch, R. A. and Gallopoulos. N. E. (1989) ‘Strategies for Manufacturing’, Scientific American, 261 (3), 94–102;

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Côte, R. (1994) ‘Designing and Operating Industrial Parks as Ecosystems’, School for Resource an Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Canada;

    Google Scholar 

  15. Graedel, T. E. and Allenby, B. R. (1995) ‘Matrix approaches to abridged life cycle assessment’, Environmental Science & Technology, 29 (3), p. 134A;

    Google Scholar 

  16. Socolow, R. (1997) Industrial Ecology and Global Change (New York: Cambridge University Press);

    Google Scholar 

  17. Ayres, R. (1996) ‘Creating industrial ecosystems: A viable management strategy?’, International Journal of Technology Management, 12 Issue 5/6, p. 608.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Anastas, P. T. and Zimmerman, J. B. (2003) ‘Design through the Twelve Principles of Green Engineering’, Env. Sci. and Tech., 37 (5), 95–101;

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Segars, J. W., Bradfield, S. L., Wright, J. J. and Realff, M. J. (2003) ‘EcoWorx, Green Engineering Principles in Practice’, Environ. Sci. Technol., 37(23), 5269–5277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Linstone, H. A. (2007) ‘The rise and fall of corporate R&D: Out of the dusty labs’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 74 (4), 558–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Smits, R. (2002) ‘Innovation studies in the 21st century: Questions from a user’s perspective’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 69 (9), 861–883.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Von Hippel, E. (2007) ‘Harvard Business Review List of Breakthrough Ideas for 2007’, Harvard Business Review, 85 (2), 20–54.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Von Hippel, E. (1988) The Sources of Innovation (Oxford University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Von Hippel, E. (2005) Democratizing Innovation (MIT Press).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Montalvo, C. (2008) ‘General wisdom concerning the factors affecting the adoption of cleaner technologies: A survey 1990–2007’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 16 (1), 7–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Koefoed, M. and Buckley. C. (2008) ‘Clean technology transfer: a case study from the South African metal finishing industry 2000–2005’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 16 (1), 78–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Visser, R., Jongen, M. and Zwetsloot, G. (2008) ‘Business-driven innovations towards more sustainable chemical products’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 16 (1), 85–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Cagno, E. and Trucco, P. (2008) ‘Cleaner technology transfer in the Italian galvanic industry: economic and know-how issues’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 16 (1), 32–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Ashford, N. A. (2005) ‘Pathways to Sustainability: Evolution or Revolution?’ in M. van Geenhuizen, D. V. Gibson, and M. V. Heitor (eds) Regional Development and Conditions for Innovation in the Network Society (Purdue University Press), 35–59.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Berkhout, F. (2005) ‘Technological Regimes, Environmental performance and innovation systems: Tracing the links’ in M. Weber and J. Hemmelskamp (eds) Towards Environmental Innovation Systems (Berlin: Springer), 57–80.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  31. Tukker, A. (2004) ‘Eight types of product-service system: Eight ways to sustainability? Experiences from SusProNet’, Business Strategy and the Environment, 13 (4), 246–60;

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Williams, A. (2007) ‘Product service systems in the automobile industry: contribution to system innovation?’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 15 (11–12), 1093–1103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Wagner, M. (2008) ‘Empirical influence of environmental management on innovation: evidence from Europe’, Ecological Economics, 66 (2–3), 392–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Del Río, P. (2005) ‘Analysing the factors influencing clean technology adoption: a study of the Spanish pulp and paper industry’, Business Strategy and the Environment, 14, 20–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. However, it has been suggested that a ‘small wins capability’ can assist employee based eco-innovations by overcoming entrenched industry institutional practices and precedents (Griffiths, A. B. and Haigh, N. L. (2004) ‘Co-ordinating small wins as an effective mechanism for implementing firm level eco-innovations’, 64th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, New Orleans, 6–11 August). The concept of small wins refers to the work of Karl Weick in understanding and making large complex social problems manageable. A ‘small win is a concrete, complete, implemented outcome of moderate importance’. By itself, one small win may seem unimportant.

    Google Scholar 

  36. A series of small wins at small but significant tasks, however, reveals a pattern that may attract others, deter opponents’ (Weick, K. (1984) ‘Small wins: Redefining the scale of social problems’, American Psychologist, 39, p. 43).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Tushman, M. and Anderson, P. (1997) Managing strategic innovation and change: A collection of readings (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 656.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Hawken, P., Lovins, A. B. and Lovins, L. H. (1999) Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution Natural Capitalism (US: Back Bay Books).

    Google Scholar 

  39. Powell, W. and DiMaggio, P. (1991) The New Institutionalism in Organisational Analysis (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press).

    Google Scholar 

  40. Tushman, M. and O’Reilly, C. A. (1997) Winning Through Innovation (Boston: Harvard Business School Press).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Copyright information

© 2009 Javier Carrillo-Hermosilla, Pablo del Río González & Totti Könnölä

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Carrillo-Hermosilla, J., del González, P.R., Könnölä, T. (2009). Business strategies for eco-innovation. In: Eco-Innovation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230244856_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics