Innovation for Sustainability: Exploring the interplay between environmental management systems and environmental innovation processes
(2010) In IIIEE Master thesis IMEN41 20101The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
- Abstract
- Over the past decades, sustainable production and consumption pattern has been addressed on a global level. Business is a powerful stakeholder in the development of sustainable consumption and production systems as it represents a great proportion of competence, resources and mechanisms (Charter, Gray, Clark and Woolman, 2008). The global approach toward achieving sustainable production and consumption patterns is to encourage environmental innovation and the use of standardized EMS. However many argue that the formal structure of standardized EMS is counterproductive to environmental innovation, merely generating incremental innovations, which is not enough to achieve global sustainability targets, while others argue the opposite. The... (More)
- Over the past decades, sustainable production and consumption pattern has been addressed on a global level. Business is a powerful stakeholder in the development of sustainable consumption and production systems as it represents a great proportion of competence, resources and mechanisms (Charter, Gray, Clark and Woolman, 2008). The global approach toward achieving sustainable production and consumption patterns is to encourage environmental innovation and the use of standardized EMS. However many argue that the formal structure of standardized EMS is counterproductive to environmental innovation, merely generating incremental innovations, which is not enough to achieve global sustainability targets, while others argue the opposite. The purpose of this thesis is to; through cases explore and contribute to the understanding of the interplay between standardized EMSs and the environmental innovation process as well as identifying critical aspects that may help to guide the process.
The study showed that none of the specific organizations explicitly express environmental innovation under the framework of their environmental management system. Though, establishing a definition for environmental innovation is complex and it must also be emphasized that definitions in this thesis may not correlate with the organizations’ definition or other definitions of environmental innovation. In this thesis, continual improvement under the framework of ISO 14001 is considered to be an innovation if generating change that is environmentally beneficial. All of the studied organizations commit to continual improvement in their environmental policy. On the other hand, continual improvement is not clearly defined.
All of the organizations in this study have in some way decoupled the innovation process from the EMS, making it difficult to establish whether the EMS affects the innovation process or how. The EMSs are focused on operative processes and efficiency improvements within. Innovations generated through the EMS are often incremental. Three major outcomes can be outlined for interplay between the EMS and the innovation process. The EMS can stifle innovation, coexist with innovation or promote innovation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1782613
- author
- Wester, Johanna Minette LU
- supervisor
-
- Mårten Karlsson LU
- Beatrice Kogg LU
- organization
- course
- IMEN41 20101
- year
- 2010
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- publication/series
- IIIEE Master thesis
- report number
- 2010:18
- ISSN
- 1401-9191
- language
- English
- id
- 1782613
- date added to LUP
- 2011-02-04 11:51:51
- date last changed
- 2011-02-04 11:51:51
@misc{1782613,
abstract = {{Over the past decades, sustainable production and consumption pattern has been addressed on a global level. Business is a powerful stakeholder in the development of sustainable consumption and production systems as it represents a great proportion of competence, resources and mechanisms (Charter, Gray, Clark and Woolman, 2008). The global approach toward achieving sustainable production and consumption patterns is to encourage environmental innovation and the use of standardized EMS. However many argue that the formal structure of standardized EMS is counterproductive to environmental innovation, merely generating incremental innovations, which is not enough to achieve global sustainability targets, while others argue the opposite. The purpose of this thesis is to; through cases explore and contribute to the understanding of the interplay between standardized EMSs and the environmental innovation process as well as identifying critical aspects that may help to guide the process.
The study showed that none of the specific organizations explicitly express environmental innovation under the framework of their environmental management system. Though, establishing a definition for environmental innovation is complex and it must also be emphasized that definitions in this thesis may not correlate with the organizations’ definition or other definitions of environmental innovation. In this thesis, continual improvement under the framework of ISO 14001 is considered to be an innovation if generating change that is environmentally beneficial. All of the studied organizations commit to continual improvement in their environmental policy. On the other hand, continual improvement is not clearly defined.
All of the organizations in this study have in some way decoupled the innovation process from the EMS, making it difficult to establish whether the EMS affects the innovation process or how. The EMSs are focused on operative processes and efficiency improvements within. Innovations generated through the EMS are often incremental. Three major outcomes can be outlined for interplay between the EMS and the innovation process. The EMS can stifle innovation, coexist with innovation or promote innovation.}},
author = {{Wester, Johanna Minette}},
issn = {{1401-9191}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{IIIEE Master thesis}},
title = {{Innovation for Sustainability: Exploring the interplay between environmental management systems and environmental innovation processes}},
year = {{2010}},
}