Technological Aspects of Eco-Innovation

Many firms are learning that being environmentally friendly and sustainable has numerous benefits. (O.C Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2015). This could enable them to increase goodwill from various stakeholders and also save money in the long term. This will mean that they are being more efficient and less wasteful of resources, which will enable them to be more competitive by satisfying stakeholders. The CEO of

Creation of products that reduce energy usage, support sustainable forestry practice, promote cleaner water and less air pollution

The second case is from Hangzhou city in China. Guan et al. (2014) have made a case comparison of the implementation of cleaner production in two cities (Hangzhou and Guiyang), in order to compare different implementation strategies with their results in each city. However, here we are more concerned about the positive results of implementing cleaner production (that occur in Hangzhou city). Hangzhou has started implementing cleaner production options since 2002. More than 57 thousand cleaner production projects (within more than 2700 enterprises in Hangzhou) have taken place, in the period between 2002 and 2014. Moreover, in Hangzhou, the number of involved cleaner production enterprises has increased from only 5 in 2002 to about 450 per year during the period between 2011 and 2014. Approximately, 0.6 Billion USD is the total annual investment of cleaner production projects in Hangzhou, While the economic benefits are about 0.4 Billion USD annually. In addition, about 450 Thousand tons of standard coal, shape the total amount of energy saved

One positive implication capitalism has to the natural environment is industrial ecology, a system of chain production and consumption, serving to the lowest environmental impacts in a most environmentally sustainable economy as the main goal of operation (Richards & Pearson, 1998). The Companies in a like to operate in such way because of four major reasons. The most important factor is known as the corporate well-being, for it is determined by higher profits and growth provided by innovations in an industry. Profits are increased from recognizing the production ineffiency costs that comes from wasted inputs and energy losses; this allowing cost savings to increase and ineffiency to decrease. compliance with cleaner technology alternatives such as ones that produce less waste and less energy will provide long term savings which are both beneficial to the environment and the business at hand. A real world example freight company changes their salvaged driving equipment to hybrid vehicles. Money is temporarily lost, but the gasoline and maintenances cost savings will compensate in a long run period of time.

This Guide has been written in connection with the project with the Danish title Stimulering af mindre virksomheders interesse for arbejdet med renere produkter (Stimulating small companies’ incentive for producing environmentally cleaner products) sponsored by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. The project was managed by TIC (Technological Information Centres). The Guide can be

Sustainability is the ability for a system or process to endure over time without compromising future generations and their abilities to fulfill these processes. In America when we think of sustainability we most often just consider environmental and ecological sustainability. It was evident that sustainability means something completely different in Paris as well as Germany. The European wholesome view at sustainability takes many aspects into light including ecological and environmental as well as political and cultural. The governments and businesses set up sustainable living practices that are embraced by society to help society move forward into a sustainable future. Society also embraces innovation much differently with more collaboration and less worry of intellectual property ideas can flow much more smoothly. To encourage advances in sustainability and innovation european firms and the government 's focus on maximizing the potential of the 3 Ps, people, planet and profits, with profits being last for a reason.

In the international business arena, particularly as a result of globalization, multinational corporations are beginning to understand that being "green" or ecologically minded, is not simply for environmentalists. By supporting sustainability, many organizations hope not only to reduce their carbon footprint but also to attract younger people who prefer to work for environmentally and socially responsible organizations. This spills off into personal decisions as well, but includes a different philosophical mindset one of holism and treating the planet as one organism. The advantages of "going green" are both tangible and intangible: lower operating costs, less energy use, increased property value, and a positive, proactive, public image. Historically, there has been a battle from the so called "environmentalist cadre" who wanted slow or no growth in favor of the environment and the "capitalist right" who believed in a strong economy and the aggressive use of resources. In the contemporary environment, however, there is no doubt that both a template for robust economic growth can merge with a cleaner environment. Unfortunately, in many ways, sustainability in design and output is no longer something that would be "nice to implement," but because of the loss of biodiversity, over-use of the environment, and continuing overconsumption, is almost a necessity for the 21st century.

The first thing to focus on is the different stages that are associated with sustainable development. According to Stuart Hart, there are three stages: Pollution Prevention, Product Stewardship, and Clean Technology (Hart, 1997). Pollution prevention is just what it sounds like. The goal is to minimize the waste before it even has a chance to be created (Hart 1997). To do this, it is imperative that organizations are constantly adapting and improving their efforts. Pollution prevention is based on staying ahead of the game and ending waste before it can begin. Product stewardship takes things one step further than pollution prevention does. Pollution prevention is mainly pertaining to minimizing waste from manufacturing. In addition to this, product stewardship also focuses on minimizing the impacts that the life cycle of a product can have as well (Hart 1997). Many

The world faces many issues, but the most important which will affect people living on this planet is that it is slowly deteriorating. Pollution, excessive greenhouse gases, and the ozone layer depletion are causing the environment to slowly degrade and cause chronic and fatal health issues such as cancer. One of the main ways to help the environment be a better place is by having businesses be more environmentally friendly. Businesses don’t have to put a lot of effort in helping the environment, but instead small changes can make a big difference. Businesses can help the environment by reducing their carbon emissions, reducing carbon capping, reducing pollution, and reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses that are being emitted into the air. Businesses helping the environment could also save money for the company and make the world a better place.

This development in interest in sustainability in business practices and its growing awareness creates a both side happy for business and humanity. (Hopwood, Mellor, & O 'Brien, 2005). Traditionally, most businesses had strong focus on factors that are directly effecting their economic performance. This was often examined by their overheads such as material costs, amount of sale and profit margin, which most Businesses did not consider the long term impacts. In fact, it is some sense true for short term aspect, however in contemporary society, companies play a vital role and should approach as it is also their responsibility to contribute to society and the environment also referred to as a planet, people and profit the triple bottom line. (Elkington 1997) and at the end every single investment business contributed will return in value to the business. (Kuehn, K. 2014). The Economic impact is not solely internally about local wage, jobs opportunities, investment in the economy but also looks at externally at suppliers to ensure they are involved in company’s similar practices and value. This will eventually lead to a healthier future for business while boosting its economy and local economy likewise economic component is the driver behind a company’s activity aimed at supporting business sustainability. (Svensson, Göran; Wagner,

The business world today is characterized by extreme competence. Clients are going for super made goods and services. They want to feel the value for their money. In this regard, the idea of core competence emerged. Fundamentally, core competence refers to an organization’s strengths that make it ahead of other organizations and these strengths make it possible for the company to add value to its end products through innovation (Prajogo & Ahmed, pp.499-515). Through the concept of core competence companies are able to concentrate on what they are best gifted in and outsource what they cannot do. This ensures that the products they produce cannot be copied easily be competitors. Because of the competence, the skill can be used diversely to develop different products and greatly add value.

Our dependence on technology to solve environmental problems around the word is really significant, owing to the universal ignorance to make the social, economic and political changes that are deemed to be necessary to reduce growth in production and consumption. Yet again the amount, kind and nature of technological changes required to counteract the growing environmental damage caused by increases in production, consumption and other humanly activities would have to be fairly dramatic. But the question remains, can such a dramatic and radical redesign, structuring and reshaping of our technological systems occur without causing drastic social changes and will it not require a

Based on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports, eco-innovation is different from any other types of innovation because of the result which it mitigates from the environmental impact, whether the effect is intended or not. Furthermore, its scope may transcend the traditional structural limitations of the innovating organization, thus involving broader social arrangements that could spur socio-cultural and institutional changes and society in a bigger scope and contribute to the development of the nation itself. (Fernandez, 2011)

Since the 20th century, there has been an increasing number of people beginning to pay more attention to environmental issues from global climate change to local waste disposal problems. There are many reasons that have caused the environment pollution. Graedel and Howard-Greenville (2005) give one of the reasons that in the process of traditional producing, the environmental pollution cannot be avoided. In order to deal with this issue, eco-design as a new concept is proposed by people. The definition of eco-design given by Wrisberg et al.(2012) is that the designing of a product is based on a science to reduce the impact on environment. Therefore, Pigosso (2013) claims that eco-design is very important in

Environment is our greаtest heritаge аnd its protection, our highest responsiblity. Green process design аs аlso green product design hаve аssumed importаnce. Eco-design of the products аnd process is the tаsk for tomorrow. Аccordingly, product development is the obsession for future.