Green Innovation - making it work

The last 40 years have seen environmental issues rise sharply in both national and international agendas. What began as concern about the deleterious effects of industrial activities on the natural environment (Parto, 2007) has grown as the effects of climate change have become apparent. This has resulted in concern not merely for environmental improvements but a move towards sustainable development.

Regulatory controls were initially seen as the means of protecting the environment, but they were often only grudgingly accepted because of a lingering belief that there was an inherent trade-off between environmental and economic performance. Latterly there has been a growing recognition that innovation has a positive contribution to make in the pursuit of environmental improvement. According to the so-called 'Porter hypothesis' (Porter and van der Linde, 1995; Pujari et al., 2003) environmental regulation can actually drive polluting firms to seek innovations, in order to reduce the costs of compliance and production. The resulting new products and processes would in turn - improve firms' competitiveness leading to a positive relationship between environmental and economic performance.

Recognition of this positive contribution led to the emergence of a plethora of terms (e.g. eco-innovation and innovation for sustainability) to describe innovations that contribute to improved environmental performance and sustainable development. Each provides a particular slant on the kind of innovation involved.

However a recent OECD ( 2009) report noted that with such innovations there has been a tendency to focus simply on technology and technological advances, rather than engaging in the creation of new and alternative solutions. The technological bias is evident from the lack of attention that innovation scholars (Schiederig et al., 2012) have given to green innovation. And yet in the last ten years significant changes have begun to occur. A number of studies (NBS, 2012) have served to place green innovation in a broader context. They note that sustainability (Eckington, 2012) is not merely a matter of developing appropriate product and process innovations. Rather, systemic dimensions are increasingly are crucial, with a need for economic, social and environmental aspects to be integrated in moving to a low carbon economy. Hence it is increasingly being recognised that whatever the type of innovation, technological solutions, no matter how effective, are a poor guide to the take-up and diffusion of green innovations. It is increasingly clear that institutional considerations, along with technological developments, play an important part in the transition towards sustainability.

The purpose of these seminars is to provide a nexus for bringing together academics and practitioners interested in innovation linked to the environment. We have adopted the deliberately broad and populist term "green innovation" (Schiederig et al., 2012), to signal its role as a forum for the interchange of ideas and research findings between academics from different disciplines and institutions, and practitioners working in fields like energy and transport which have significant environmental impact.

The aim is to promote a shared understanding of green innovation, with a focus on the factors that facilitate and constrain their practical application. It will provide a means to propagate knowledge about the institutional changes and infrastructures required for the effective dissemination and diffusion of green innovations. The themes will be: i) Drivers/barriers to green innovation; ii) Policy initiatives and programmes; iii) Business strategies and business models; and, iv) Applications: energy (heat and power) and transport/mobility (one seminar each). The final seminar will draw these themes together, debate the implications, and propose an outline agenda for policy and practice.

As the recent OECD (2009) report, 'Eco-Innovation in Industry' observes, industrial firms have the potential to become a driving force in realising a sustainable society through the introduction of green innovations. The seminar series will contribute to this by bringing together practitioners (i.e. technical and managerial specialists working for organisations developing and or implementing green innovations), academics, research students and members of the policy community (i.e. members of governmental and non-governmental organisations active in these areas). By engaging this diverse audience in a focused debate on specific aspects of green innovation over an extended period, the series will provide an opportunity to refine our common understanding of key issues. Having academics and practitioners present at the seminars, and including presentations on the implementation of green innovations from the latter will provide a forum for direct engagement, from which both will benefit. Appropriate facilitation and briefing will be designed to ensure that practitioners gain from their exposure to current research, including recent theoretical developments and more holistic perspectives that embrace social and economic aspects as well as the more technological ones that they are likely to be familiar with. The seminars will also be an opportunity for academics and researchers to reflect on their contrasting approaches and to expose them to the scrutiny of practitioners. Discussion and debate within the seminars will challenge many preconceptions, bring to light examples of good practice and provide valuable insights across a range of issues including governance frameworks, target-setting, new business models, business strategies and investment opportunities.

The inclusion of consultants in the practitioner audience is also significant due to the influence they can exert in advising and guiding the implementation of green innovations. As key intermediaries, they are likely to derive particular benefits from this opportunity to engage simultaneously with members of the academic, technical and managerial specialist and policymaking communities..

Impact will not be confined to private sector commercial organisations. The seminar series will also impact both domestic and European policymakers and regulators and the second seminar will be devoted to policy issues. This seminar will be located in Brussels and will feature a keynote presentation from Kyriakis Maniatis, Principal Administrator in the Directorate-General for Energy at the European Commission that will address aspects of EU renewable energy policy. The seminar will provide participants with a unique opportunity for direct engagement between these often disparate communities

There will also be wider societal and environmental benefits. The speedier adoption and diffusion of green innovations can contribute to improved environmental conditions (e.g. reductions in energy demand and associated carbon emissions; reductions in the economic cost and environmental impact of materials recycling and waste disposal) that have the potential to enhance standards and quality of life. At the same time, green innovations can promote increased competitiveness on the part of industrial firms, contributing to more sustainable economic growth and greater resilience for individual businesses, industry sectors and regions..

While many of the impacts outlined above may be seen as a direct result of the seminar series, the indirect impacts are also likely to be important. For example, by expanding the body of knowledge surrounding green innovations, the series will help to increase public awareness of green innovations and make individuals and organisations more receptive to their introduction. Cultural shifts of this kind will contribute indirectly to achieving sustainable development goals earlier than would otherwise be the case.