Abstract
The earlier chapters provided background and some practical guidance on how the eco-innovation can be dealt with. However, there are many kinds of eco-innovations and in practice various factors influencing on the innovation process are likely to intertwine in many ways. This led us to an important conclusion. Really understanding eco-innovation and its management and policy require research on individual cases of eco-innovation; learning from the experience. We strongly believe that the effective management and policy of eco-innovation depend much on the understanding of the specific conditions of the innovation. The use of a case study approach is particularly suitable for this purpose, as it is ideal for generating theoretical and pragmatic insights from empirical observations when little is known about a phenomenon and when there is disagreement within the literature.1 More specifically, we decided to conduct multiple cases, since multiple cases can increase the external validity, and, ultimately, the generalizability, of research findings.2
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Notes
Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989) ‘Building theories from case research’, Academy of Management Review, 14 (4), p. 548
Cook, T. D. and Campbell, D. T. (1976) ‘The design and conduct of quasi-experiments and true experiments in field settings’ in M. D. Dunnette (ed.) Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Chicago: Rand McNally), 223–336;
Patton, M. Q. (1990) Quality Evaluation and Research (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage).
Case study 1: Ecocement
Faced with increasingly strong legislative and stakeholder pressure, the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) was established in 1999 by ten of the world’s leading cement companies under the auspices of the Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) (Klee, H. and Coles, E. (2004) ‘The Cement Sustainability Initiative: Implementing Change Across a Global Industry’, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 11, 114–120). Today the CSI project is comprised of 18 major cement producers who believe there is a strong business case for the pursuit of sustainable development. Collectively these companies account for more than 40 per cent of the world’s cement production, ranging in size from very large multinationals to smaller local producers (CSI (2008), www.wbcsdcement.org (home page), date accessed 3 June 2008).
EU (2007) ‘Hearing on the Evolution of the European Cement Industry’, European Economic and Social Committee Consultative Commission on Industrial Change, Brussels, 30 May (DI 56/2007).
Ampadu, K.O. and Torii, K. (2001). ‘Characterization of eco-cement pastes and mortars produced from incinerated ashes’, Cement and Concrete Research, 31, 431–436.
Vigon, B. (2002) ‘Toward a sustainable Cement Industry–Substudy 9: Industrial Ecology in the Cement Industry’, An Independent Study Commissioned by the WBCSD.
WBCSD (2001) ‘Taiheiyo Cement Corporation: Using urban waste for “eco-cement”’, WBCSD, http://www.wbcsd.org (home page), date accessed 28 May 2008.
Placet, M. and Fowler, K. (2002) ‘Toward a Sustainable Cement Industry–Substudy 7: How Innovation Can Help the Cement Industry Move Toward More Sustainable Practices’, An Independent Study Commissioned by the WBCSD.
Case study 2: Automated vacuum system for waste collection
Jørgensen, B. (2006) ‘Technology and Innovation in Waste Management in the Arctic. Example of an Automated Waste Collection System in Stakkevollan, Tromsø, Norway’ The 12th Mayors Conference of WWCAM, 2006 Winter Cities Forum, Changchun, China.
Case study 3: High-Speed Train System
Boyd, L. and Pritcher, L. (2008) ‘Brief History of the U.S. Passenger Rail Industry’, http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/rails-history.html, date accessed 26 November 2008.
Keating, O. (2007) ‘High-speed Rail’, http://www.o-keating.com/hsr/, date accessed 26 September 2008.
European Commission (2008) ‘EU Energy and Transport in Figures’, Luxembourg.
CNT (2006), ‘High-speed Rail and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the U.S.’, Center for Neighborhood Technology, http://www.cnt.org/climate/high-speed-rail, date accessed 26 September 2008.
García, A. (2008) ‘Consumo de energía y emisiones del ferrocarril: Situación actual y posibilidades de mejora’, conference presentation at the Jornada Anual 2008 de la Cátedra Rafael Mariño de Nuevas Tecnologías Energéticas, Universidad Pontifica Comillas, Madrid, 29–30 May
Case study 4: EcoWorxTM, carpet backing
Biehl, M., Edmund Prater, E., Matthew, J. and Realff, M. J. (2007) ‘Assessing performance and uncertainty in developing carpet reverse logistics systems’, Computers & Operations Research, 34, 443–63.
Case study 5: Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
Davison, J. (2007) ‘Performance and costs of power plants with capture and storage of CO2’, Energy, 32, 1163–1176.
Klaasen, G. (2008) ‘The economics of EU carbon capture and storage policy’, 16th Annual Conference of the European Association for Environmental and Resource Economics, Gothenburg, 26–28 June.
See, among others, IPCC (2005), IPCC special report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage
prepared by working group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Metz, B., O. Davidson, H. C. de Coninck, M. Loos, and L. A. Meyer (eds) (Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press) (available in full at http://www.ipcc.ch); IEA (2006), Storing CO2 Underground, Paris;
Pacala, S. and Socolow, R. (2004) ‘Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies’, Science, 305, 968–972. IPCC (ibid.) highlights the important contribution of CCS to the emissions reductions portfolio (including renewable energy, nuclear, energy efficiency and shift from coal to gas) required to reach those targets according to two integrated assessment models (MESSAGE and MiniCAM). This increases by the end of the period (2095). Notwithstanding, the IPCC (ibid., p. 45) anticipates that ‘the actual use of CCS is likely to be lower than the estimates of economic potential indicated by these energy and economic models because the results are typically based on an optimised least-cost analysis that does not adequately account for real-world barriers to technology development and deployment, such as environmental impact, lack of a clear legal or regulatory framework, the perceived investment risks of different technologies, and uncertainty as to how quickly the cost of CCS will be reduced through R&D and learning-bydoing. Models typically employ simplified assumptions regarding the costs of CCS for different applications and the rates at which future costs will be reduced’.
Wright, I., Ashworth, P., Xin, S., Di, L., Yizhong, Z., Liang, X., Anderson, J., Shackley, S., Itaoka, K., Wade, S., Asamoah, J. and Reiner, D. (2007) ‘Public Perception of Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage: Prioritised Assessment of Issues and Concerns. Summary for Policy-Makers’, commissioned by the International Energy Agency Working Party on Fossil Fuels, funded by the UK Department of Trade and Industry, p. 4.
Johnson, T. and Keith, D. (2004) ‘Fossil electricity and CO2 sequestration: How natural gas prices, initial conditions and retrofits determine the cost of controlling CO2 emissions’, Energy Policy, 32 (3), p. 357.
IEA (2005) ‘Projected Costs of Generating Electricity–2005 Update’, Paris, p. 189.
Coninck, H.C. and Groenenberg, H. (2008) ‘Effective EU and Member State policies for stimulating CCS’, International Journal on Greenhouse Gas Control, 2, 653–664.
Rubin et al (2007) criticize the estimates of CCS costs in the literature: ‘A number of recent studies have estimated CCS costs based on technologies that are either currently commercial or under development. Relatively few studies are published in peer-reviewed journals. For the most part, they focus on coal-based power plants, which are a major source of CO2 emissions. Most studies consider only CO2 capture costs and do not include the costs of transport and storage. While some studies also have reported ancillary benefits of CO2 capture, such as improved capture of criteria air pollutants (like sulphur dioxide, SO2), a more complete picture of the environmental and resource implications of CO2 capture is largely lacking in the current literature’ (Rubin, E., Chen, C. and Rao, A. (2007) ‘Cost and performance of fossil fuel power plants with CO2 capture and storage’, Energy Policy, 35, p. 4444).
Røine, K., Tvinnereim, E. and Hasselknippe, H. (eds) (2008) Carbon 2008–Post-2012 is Now (Copenhague: Point Carbon). Interviewed more than 4,000 actors in the EU ETS. Expected prices are in the region of €24 in 2010 and €35 in 2020.
Case study 6: Hybrid Synergy Drive
Lee, J., Gemba, K. and Kodama, F. (2006) ‘Analyzing the innovation process for environmental performance improvement’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 73 (3), 290–301.
IPCC (2007) ‘Fourth Assessment Report’, Geneve.
EEA (2003) ‘Europe’s Environment: The Third Assessment’, environmental assessment report No. 10. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen.
Smith, G. (2004) ‘Emission impossible: At last a green mobile that doesn’t look like something an elephant sat on’, The Guardian, 27 January.
Rowley, I. (2007b) ‘The Trouble with Hybrids’, Business Week, 8 June.
All these calculations are provided by Tarboton, R. (2004) ‘Economy drive’, The Guardian, 9 August. It is assumed that the Prius costs around £2000 more than their petrol counterpart.
White, J. (2006) ‘GM, Toyota Bet Hybrid Green’, The Wall Street Journal, 11 December.
Lave, L. and MacLean, H. (2002) ‘An environmental-economic evaluation of hybrid electric vehicles: Toyota’s Prius vs. its conventional internal combustion engine Corolla’, Transportation Research Part D 7, 155–162.
Markides, C. (2006) ‘Disruptive innovation: In need of a better theory’, J. Prod. Innov. Manag., 23, 19–25.
An example is the energy bill in the US on 8 August 2007, which effectively gave a break to US manufacturers by extending what could be a tax credit of as much as $3,400 per car to purchasers of the first 60,000 hybrids sold by a company, with the credit phasing out after that. However, this does not benefit the Prius, since Toyota has already sold more than 60,000 hybrids (Brooke, J (2005) ‘Challenges ahead for Toyota hybrids’, International Herald Tribune, 7 September).
Case study 7: Green Hotel Project
This involves working with suppliers to green the supply chain (ITP (2008) ‘Going Green: Minimum Standards toward a Sustainable Hotel’, International Tourism Partnership, London, http://www.tourismpartnership.org/downloads/Going%20Green.pdf, date accessed 19 November 2008).
See, for example, Del Río (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, for an analysis in the pulp and paper sector.
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© 2009 Javier Carrillo-Hermosilla, Pablo del Río González & Totti Könnölä
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Carrillo-Hermosilla, J., del González, P.R., Könnölä, T. (2009). Eco-innovations in practice. In: Eco-Innovation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230244856_6
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