Eco-innovations for economic growth and environment protection

The aim of this work is the presentation of current EU issues on eco-innovations in the light of its role for economic growth and natural environment protection. Within the EU economic and environmental climate, eco-innovations can be the key to Europe’s competitiveness in the future. However, in many EU countries, including Poland, the market of eco-innovations is developing too sluggishly and faces a number of obstacles. Moreover, there are many differences between the EU countries in the field of eco-innovations. Although at the European level numerous support tools are currently applied, there is a growing necessity to gear them towards making eco-innovations commonplace on the market. This paper makes an attempt at answering a few questions crucial for finding optimal solutions for the development of an integrated support system for ecological innovations, in particular: what are the potential benefits of the implementation and development of innovations for the economy and natural environment, what are the current eco-innovation support tools and the main issues in their development, and what is the level of eco-innovation in the EU countries including Poland, seen through the available data.Preparation and printing funded by the National Agency for Research and Development under project “Kreator Innowacyjności – wparcie dla Przedsiębiorczości akademickiej

Employment Effects of Ecological Innovations: An Empirical Analysis

Ecological innovations have increasingly been seen as a major response to environmental problems. An important question for both economic research and public policy is whether these innovations also increase employment or not (the question of a double dividend). The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the factors affecting direct employment changes due to eco-innovations at the firm level. This analysis has been conducted in the framework of estimating a labor demand function including eco-innovations, the firm’s output changes (changes in sales), its labor costs changes and a set of control variables (e.g. firm-specific variables, industry and country dummies). Using data from around 1600 firms in five different countries (Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Holland and Switzerland) we have obtained the following empirical results: firms investing in relatively important (from the firm’s perspective) labor cost saving product innovations that have not been subsidized by the state and pursuing a market driven business strategy that leads to increases of their sales in industries in which they have a market power also increase the likelihood of their achieving a positive long term direct employment effect. Firms that deviate - on average - from this ideal portrait do not have positive direct employment effects. (It should, however, be emphasized that neither the indirect microeconomic nor the overall macroeconomic effects of eco-innovations are the subject of this study.)Innovation; Ecological innovations; Employment; Labour Demand; European Countries; Germany; Great Britain; Italy; Holland; Switzerland

Are eco-innovations a key element for green growth?

Purpose: In the recent decade, the so-called green growth (GG) concept has made a significant contribution to many-years’ debate on sustainable development (SD). One of its key pillars is eco-innovation (EI), however little information is available on whether and to what extent eco-innovation can be actually perceived as a significant factor for implementing green growth. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to clarify and synthesise findings at the intersection of these two fields: eco-innovation and the green growth processes. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper provides a special insight into the relationship between EI and GG incorporating the spatial dimension into analysis. The empirical part is based on the sample of 21 European countries. Findings: The rests of spatial panel models show that there exist positive effects of investing in eco-innovations on green growth. However, these results involve strong nonlinearities and threshold effects. The obtained results shed a new light on the uncovering relevant aspects and complexities of eco-innovations and green growth. Practical Implications: These results suggest that the policy-makers should mainly focus on stimulating the companies to introduce eco-innovations aiming at a reduction of material input and energy per unit output as well as an improvement of eco-management practices. Government incentives for green technology and organizational solutions may include a combination of subsidies and tax incentives. Originality/Value: This study is the first one which includes different measures of eco-innovations and relates them to the green growth process. These measures allow us portray the countries’ eco-innovation efforts from input, process, and output perspectives.peer-reviewe

EU Environmental Policy and Competitiveness

Protection of the environment was not a specific importance to the Community although the Treaty of Rome expressly specified that "health, safety, environmental protection" shall be based on "a high level of protection". In deciding upon a framework for a European environmental policy, the Community was also responding to increased public awareness of the problem and concerns about the state of the natural and man-made environment. During the past years, competitiveness concerns have dominated the EU policy debate, in the course of which a growing consensus is being developed on the importance of eco-innovations and resource efficiency for EU competitiveness and on the market opportunities they offer. There is increasing evidence that environmental policy and eco-innovations can promote economic growth, as well as maintain and create jobs, contributing both to competitiveness and employment. Environmental constraints to rapid economic growth are increasingly recognized by countries, leading to a rising awareness of the need for sustainable development. Implementation of an environmental policy, however, generates significant implications for competition among countries.EU Environmental policy, Competitiveness, Pollution control, Sustainable development, Resource efficiency

Does the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme Foster Innovation in European Firms?

This paper studies whether environmental management systems can spur eco-innovation, analyzing EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) adoption and patented innovations (at the European Patent Office) at firm level. It uses an original panel database of 30 439 European firms belonging to all sectors from 2003 to 2012. An original instrumental variable is implemented to control for potential endogeneity. The analysis reveals that EMAS adoption is conducive to more innovation at the firm level. The results vary across countries and sectors. In particular, EMAS is positively related to green patents for medium and low technology manufacturing. Copyright \ua9 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Spatial distribution of eco-innovation performance : evidence from European countries

Purpose: The aim of the paper is twofold. Firstly, it attempts to assess the spatial pattern of eco-innovation performance in European countries and to identify economies which are efficient in transforming eco-innovation inputs into outputs. Secondly, it endeavours to examine eco-innovation efficiency distribution and existence of spatial externalities across European countries. Design/Methodology/Approach: The sample consists of 21 European countries. We use two eco-innovations inputs and two eco-innovation outputs to measure eco-innovation performance. To calculate eco-innovation efficiency, we apply DEA method. In our research, mapping and Moran’s I are employed to find the spatial pattern of eco-innovation performance. Findings: The results show that high and medium-high eco-innovation inputs and eco-innovation outputs are mainly concentrated in countries in the Northern and West Central Europe, while low and medium-low eco-innovation inputs and eco-innovation outputs are performed in the East Central and Southern European countries. The findings confirm the presence of a negative spatial autocorrelation process in eco-innovation efficiency. Practical Implications: Identification of the eco-innovation distribution in the spatial scope is undoubtedly of high political importance, as it should enable to adjust policy actions aimed at improving eco-innovation efficiency to spatial characteristics of a given economy. Originality/Value: Since the issue of spatial characteristics of eco-innovation is still not sufficiently explored in the relevant literature, our paper attempts to fill a cognitive and methodological gap in the investigation of the spatial aspects of eco-innovation performance in the European countries.peer-reviewe

EU environmental policy and competitiveness

Protection of the environment was not a specific importance to the Community although the Treaty of Rome expressly specified that "health, safety environmental protection" shall be based on "a high level of protection". In deciding upon a framework for a European environmental policy, the Community was also responding to increased public awareness of the problem and concerns about the state of the natural and man-made environment. During the past years, competitiveness concerns have dominated the EU policy debate, in the course of which a growing consensus is being developed on the importance of eco-innovations and resource efficiency for EU competitiveness and on the market opportunities they offer. There is an increasing evidence that environmental policy and eco-innovations can promote economic growth, as well as maintain and create jobs, contributing both to competitiveness and employment. Environmental constraints to rapid economic growth are increasingly recognized by countries, leading to a rising awareness of the need for sustainable development. Implementation of an environmental policy however, generates significant implications for competition among countries

Prospects for implementation of corporate environmental responsibility concept: the eu experience for Ukraine

A comparative analysis of the main indicators of ecological sustainability in Ukraine and European countries has been done and the economic indicators of nature use in Ukraine have been studied. The purpose of this article is to study the experience and development peculiarities of corporate environmental responsibility, as well as the implementation of better European environmental practice in Ukrainian business. The research methodology concerns to the study of the Environmental Sustainability Index of Ukraine and European countries, as well as the Eco-innovations Index. The key criteria for corporate environmental responsibility has been identified based on the analysis results and a list of factors affecting the environmental responsibility of the enterprise has been formed. The conceptual framework of corporate environmental responsibility in Ukraine with application European principles and approaches for creating a favourable business environment has been developed

The creative response of energy-intensive industries to the Emissions Trading System in the European Union

There is a broad consensus on the contribution of the so-called eco-innovations to the sustainability transition of economic activity and on the power of policy instruments to redirect innovation towards solving environmental challenges over time. However, despite remarkable academic efforts in this direction, there is a shortage of studies empirically analysing the link between environmental policy and innovation activities. Using firm-level data gathered from the Community Innovation Surveys of two specific years, 2008 and 2014, from eleven European countries, we apply a difference-in-difference approach to provide a clear-cut test of the effects of Phase III of the EU's Emissions Trading System on low-carbon innovations of energy-intensive firms. Our results suggest that environmental policy may affect firms' environmental performance by improving eco-innovating efforts. In fact, the new environmental policy not only induced an adaptive response, in which firms adjust their level of emissions to this new cost scheme, it also induced a creative response, leading companies to move outside of the range of their existing practice

Dimension effects in the relationship between eco-innovation andfirm performance: a European comparison

This study investigates the effect of eco-efficiency actions on firm performance, considering both turnover and employment growth, in the European enterprises with different firm size classes. The sample includes 63303 firms from 13 different European Union countries. The main contributions of this work are the use of the most recent Community Innovation Survey (CIS) and the consideration of firms' size when analysing the relationship between the introduction of environmental benefits and firm performance. Using the ordinary least squares and simultaneous equation models the results showed that eco-innovations may affect negatively turnover growth as well as employment growth, a result which is not sensitive to firms' size. However, environmental benefits introduced in products, demanded by the end user, are sensitive to the different size class to which the enterprise belongs. Both human capital and the number of adopted eco-innovation strategies influence positively firm performance, revealing to be more sensitive to the firm size. Overall, policy makers should be aware of the size as an important driver, or conditioning factor, for firm performance when forcing firms to introduce policies regarding environmental benefits.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio