Eco-Innovation: When Sustainability and Competitiveness Shake Hands

This book considers the impact industry has on our environmental surroundings while exploring the need for more sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development and the general understanding of the interdependence of the environment and the economy are both examined in this thought-provoking new book.

Review
'This book provides an excellent vision on how the environment can find its place in the new and rapidly changing world of business. Its content offers clarity on eco-innovation, that is, the ability to transform environmental challenges into business opportunities. It will certainly enlighten eco-innovators and decision makers at a crucial time of change.' - Beatriz Yordi, Head of Eco-Innovation Unit, Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI), European Commission. 'Eco-innovation advances our understanding of the role of innovation in creating an environmentally sustainable future. Its message is needed now more than ever.' - Dr. Gregory C. Unruh, Director of the Lincoln Center for Ethics in Global Management, Thunderbird School of Global Management. 'Progress in addressing the enormous challenges of sustainability has long been hindered by the lack of engagement with the concepts and language of competitive economic advantage. This book cuts across these boundaries and provides a working framework for more effective, long-term decision making in both business and government.' - Dr. Ron Johnston, Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Innovation. 'Eco-innovation provides a new paradigm for sound and profitable management in all industries, from tourism to energy or online services. This book is a breakthrough in the theory and practice of sustainable management, a decisive reference for all business stakeholders.' - Dr. Santiago Ainiguez, Dean IE Business School. 'Fundacion Entorno BCSD-Spain and its Member companies believe in sustainability as a driver to succeed. This publication gives a solid approach on how sustainable development can be a key part of the functional and emotional attributes of a product or service, issues that must be translated into communication and marketing strategies as an integrated part of the offer.' - Cristina Garcia-Orcoyen, Chief Executive of Fundacion Entorno BCSD-Spain. 'This new book provides valuable insights into the concept of eco-innovation, i.e. innovation that improves environmental performance of products or services, and its implications for policy and business strategies. Drawing on a wide range of evolutionary economics and innovation literature, the different dimensions of eco-innovation are explored. This leads to the development of an eco-innovation dashboard, covering design, user, product-service and governance dimensions, which is applied to the assessment of a number of case studies. This book should prove useful to policy-makers, business leaders and researchers interested in understanding and developing new eco-innovations, contributing to both sustainability and competitiveness.' - Tim Foxon, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds, UK