Identifying business opportunities for green innovations: A quantitative foundation for accelerated micro-fuel cell diffusion in residential buildings

Combined heat and power (CHP) production in buildings is one of the mitigation options available for achieving a considerable decrease in GHG emissions. Micro-CHP (mCHP) fuel cells are capable of cogenerating electricity and heat very efficiently on a decentralised basis. Although they offer clear environmental benefits and have the potential to create a systemic change in energy provision, the diffusion of mCHP fuel cells is rather slow. There are numerous potential drivers for the successful diffusion of fuel cell cogeneration units, but key economic actors are often unaware of them. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of barriers, drivers and business opportunities surrounding micro-CHP fuel-cell units (up to 5 kWel) in the German building market. Business opportunities have been identified based not only on quantitative data for drivers and barriers, but also on discussions with relevant stakeholders such as housing associations, which are key institutional demand-side actors. These business opportunities include fuel cell contracting as well as the development of a large lighthouse project to demonstrate the climate-neutral, efficient use of fuel cells in the residential building sector. The next step could involve the examination and development of more detailed options and business models. The approach and methods used in the survey may be applied on a larger scale and in other sectors

Procuring sustainably in social housing: The role of social capital

In order to explore its many complexities, scholars have called for a move beyond, descriptions of sustainable procurement. This study responds by seeking insights into sustainable procurement through the lens of social capital theory. Social capital is conceptualized as comprising cognitive, social and relational elements. Sustainable procurement is seen as a means of pursuing environmental, economic and social goals through the purchasing and supply process. The study, proposes and empirically tests the operational measures of social capital and their relationship with, sustainable procurement activity on a sample of 135 procurement professionals in organizations, providing social housing. The results indicate partial support for the study proposition; structural, social capital, rather than structural, social and relational taken together, is found to be the most robust predictor of sustainable procurement. The results highlight the importance of broadening, collaboration models for sustainable procurement beyond an exclusive focus on dyadic relations. It, also demonstrates that this broader engagement with other stakeholders focused on knowledge creation, as well as knowledge sharing, is a significant contributor to sustainable procurement activity. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

MehrWert schöpfen: Verantwortung entlang von Produktionsketten

Die Wirtschaft hat sich globalisiert. Komplexe Produktionsnetzwerke umspannen den Erdball, und die Waren in den Einkaufszentren haben oft lange Reisen hinter sich. Wird an den fernen Produktionsorten die Natur strapaziert, werden die Arbeiter geknebelt? Die Verantwortung für naturschonende und faire Produktionsbedingungen lässt sich nicht mehr auf einzelne Betriebe beschränken; sie ist zu einer globalen Gestaltungsaufgabe geworden. Doch die Welt hat keine Regierung: Welche Ansätze gibt es dennoch, mehr Ökologie und Fairness in transnationale Wertschöpfungsketten zu bringen

Forming the nucleus of a novel ecological accounting system: the myEcoCost approach

The limited data availability, transparency and harmonisation in environmental assessments of products are bottlenecks for improved environmental and sustainability governance. Despite the progressive developments of information and communication systems, reliable, accurate, up-to-date data for assessing the resource use of products and services is still lacking. Resource accounting systems often have limited scope on single companies, processes or products. This paper presents an approach for an automated bottom-up accounting system for measuring resource efficiency at product and service level. It is based on a global collaborative network of resource accounting nodes connected for the accounting of natural resources use for products and services. Using an Internet-based service-oriented architecture, relevant and timely data is passed from supplier to customer recursively through the whole value chain to produce an "ecoCost" for each product or service. This conceptual paper reflects first experiences from partners of the myEcoCost project funded by European Commission (www.myecocost.com)

MyEcoCost - forming the nucleus of a novel environmental accounting system: vision, prototype and way forward

The innovative software system "myEcoCost" enables to gather and communicate resource and environmental data for products and services in global value chains. The system has been developed in the consortium of the European research project myEcoCost and forms a basis of a new, highly automated environmental accounting system für companies and consumers. The prototype of the system, linked to financial accounting of companies, was developed and tested in close collaboration with large and small companies. This brochure gives a brief introduction to the vision linked to myEcoCost: a network formed by collaborative environmental accounting nodes collecting environmental data at each step in a product's value chains. It shows why better life cycle data are needed and how myEcoCost addresses and solves this problem. Furthermore, it presents options for a future upscaling of highly automated environmenal accounting for prodcuts and services