lessons from the eco-innovation observatory · lessons from the eco-innovation observatory netgreen...

Measuring eco-innovationLessons from the Eco-Innovation Observatory

NETGREEN Policy Workshop, Brussels, 11 March 2015

Michal Miedzinski

Technopolis Group

A Cerro Tololo Sky (Chile)

Credit: Roger Smith, AURA, NOAO, NSF

• European knowledge hub on eco-innovation for policy makers, business and researchers

• Supports the EU’s Eco-Innovation Action Plan (Eco-AP)

• Duration: 2009–2012, 2012-2013, 2014-2016

• Core partners: Technopolis Group (leader), Vienna University of Economics and Business, Wuppertal Institute, BIO by Deloitte and WAAT, with support from Triple E, Cleantech Group and University of Ferrara.

The Eco-Innovation Observatory

• Reports, briefs and presentations

• Eco-Innovation database and scoreboard

• EU28 country profiles

• On-line database withinteractive charts

• 200+ eco-innovation business practices from across Europe

• Glossary and more

www.eco-innovation.eu

The EIO in short

Setting the scene: what is eco-innovation?

Eco-innovation is any innovation that reduces the use of natural resources (including materials, energy, water, biomass and land) and decreases the release of harmful substances across the whole life-cycle.

Source: EIO, November 2010

Measuring eco-innovation

2013 Eco-Innovation Scoreboard (EIO 2014)

Source: EIO 2013

Welcome to Planet Earth

Credit: Apollo 17 Crew, NASA

2013 Global Eco-Innovation Scoreboard (EIO 2014)

What next for eco-innovation metrics

Pro

du

ct a

nd

se

rvic

e

ec

o-in

no

va

tion

Pro

ce

ss

ec

o-in

no

va

tion

Cost avoidance (regulatory requirements,

anticipation of new standards)

Cost saving (material and energy cost savings

due to efficiency gains)

New markets and customers(new competitive products and services)

Resilient business models (adapting business models to global challenges;

focus on delivering "performance")

Source: EIO 2012

Source: Miedzinski 2013

INCREMENTAL

ADAPTATION

RADICAL

CHANGE

SUB-SYSTEMS

(value chains,

sectors etc)

SYSTEM LEVEL

(society-, economy-

level transition)

DEGREE

OF CHANGE

SCOPE

OF CHANGE

ELEMENTS

OF THE SYSTEMS

(products, services,

technologies)

product

improvement

product

sharing

new resource

light products

industrial

ecology

INCREMENTAL

INNOVATION

TRANSFORMATIVE

SYSTEM INNOVATIONSYSTEM

ADAPTATION

RADICAL

INNOVATION

process

improvement

(e.g. EMAS)

material

efficient

manufacturing

extended

producer's

responsibility

functional

sales

sustainable

city

sustainable

mobility

eco-labels and

eco-vouchers value chain

optimisation

AGENTS OF

CHANGEVALUE

CREATION

• Conceptual and methodological hurdles

• Further reflection needed on scope and causal assumptions framing existing measuring systems

• Availability and quality of data

• Current systems strongly relying on proxies

• Limited access to data allowing for making strong assumptions about impacts of innovation

• Usefulness of metrics for end users

• Need to take into account the needs of users

• (Often) less is more…

• Visualisation

• Further work needed on visualising data

Selected challenges for eco-innovation metrics

18

Thank you

Contact:

Michal Miedzinski (michal.miedzinski@technopolis-group.com)

technopolis |group| has offices in Amsterdam, Brighton, Brussels, Frankfurt/Main, Paris, Stockholm, Tallinn and Vienna