Environmental Innovations in the Chemical Industry - Case Studies in a Historical Perspective

TLDR: In this article, the authors present a survey of internal sense-making processes that generate environmental innovations in the chemical industry and consider the complexity of factors influencing innovation and environmental decisions in firms.

Abstract: Industrial innovation processes are shaped and influenced by a multitude of factors. Usually the market and competition conditions, specific strategies of corporations, the mandatory law, and the political and societal environment have to be taken into consideration. Thus, the direction of the innovations and the motivation to undertake environmental innovation is considerably complex. Here the state takes part in a multifaceted way, for example by technological policy, environmental policy or the provision of public infrastructure. In this process public measures have to take the particularities of the specific innovation systems into account in order to influence an innovation into the direction of sustainable development. The research project „Co-operative institutions for a sustainable paradigm shift within the industrial sector The example of the chemical industry" (COIN)^ aims to survey internal sense-making processes that generate environmental innovations. Furthermore it considers the complexity of factors influencing innovation and environmental decisions in firms on the basis of operational case studies. The main interest focuses on the identification of influencial factors which push the development and implementation of environmental innovations. Recently, there has been growing interest in researching approaches to economic, environmental and social performance measurement. Researchers and institutions seek to develop quantitative indicators for the sustainable economy as a whole. However, this idea gained substantial importance in the early 1990s as major institutions such as the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission began the process of defining innovation indicators and coordinating their implementation across countries. These initiatives led, for example, to the "OECD Work Programme on Sustainable Development".