Ideas for future research on eco-innovation Ren é Kemp

1. Ideas for future research on eco-innovationRené Kemp

2. Eco-innovation • Products, processes and systems that are more environmentally benign than relevant alternatives (on a life cycle basis) • The environmental benefit may be the primary goal or an unintended side-effect

3. Categories of eco-innovation • A. Environmental technologies • Pollution control technologies including waste water treatment technologies • Cleaning technologies that treat pollution released into the environment • Cleaner process technologies: new manufacturing processes that are less polluting and/or more resource efficient than relevant alternatives • Waste management equipment • Environmental monitoring and instrumentation • Green energy technologies • Water supply • Noise and vibration control • B. Green energy technologies • C. Organizational innovation for the environment: • Pollution prevention schemes • Environmental management and auditing systems • Chain management: cooperation between companies so as to close material loops and to avoid environmental damage across the value chain (from cradle to grave) • D. Product and service innovation offering environmental benefits: • New or environmentally improved products (goods) including eco-houses and buildings • Green financial products (such as eco-lease or climate mortgages) • Environmental services • Services that are less pollution and resource intensive (car sharing is an example) • E. Green system innovations • F. General puropose technologies offering green benefits

4. Eco-innovation effects • Less pollution • Less pollution and waste management costs • Less resource costs • Increased sales • Quality of life benefits

5. Eco-innovation for a better Quality of Life

6. 4 types of innovation Source: Kemp (2011)

7. Transformative innovation Is broad in scope and radical in character It is about the implementation of a system-wide novelty It involves a wide diversity of actors and often takes decades to move from margins to mainstream It is dynamic and non-standardised It is disruptive from the viewpoint of incumbent actors (including users)

8. Smart grids + plug-in EV

9. DESERTEC 100 GWConcentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) plants in the Sahara-desert Mirrors that heat oil in troughs to 500C High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) connector to Europe Heat storage tanks (e.g., molten salt tanks) Waste heat may be used to desalinate sea water.

10. Possemarré (Germany) Passive homes with heat exchange system (100 m deep) New destination of old factory Located near public transport hubs to Dusseldorf and Wuppertal Urban element in green environment (Neadertal) Different age groups Working and living KFW loans for eco-houses

11. Intermodality

12. Bike – train integration (NL) • Public bikes at railway stations (OV-fiets) • 3€ per day, 10 € subscription • Bikes serviced and stalled in special racks • 1 million trips in 2011, large share of business trips • Expansion opportunities • Electric bikes, scooters • Public bikes at P+R sites • From an alternative to public transport to an alternative to cars • Smart phone bicycle route navigation

13. Cradle to cradle bio-mimicking

14. Themes about transformative innovation • They are about systems: they are not invention-based but about novel combinations • Sociotechnical change • Locally adapted solutions • From small steps to step change (hybrid forms, branching, new combinations, ..) • Sustainability benefits have to be secured (they are not guaranteed)

15. Research topic #1 Dynamics of eco-innovation trajectories • Topics for deeper examination: changing markets and actor coalitions (between knowledge holders, businesses, politics), alignment, problems of appropriation, interaction effects, path dependences, resistance from incumbents, influence of policies, exogenous and endogenous changes, … • Method: (comparative) process analysis of dynamics • Possible frameworks: functions approach of technology innovation studies (Bergek and Jacobsson; Hekkert), co-evolution framework (van den Bergh; Dijk), problem-solution sequences, path-creation as an emerging process of wilful actors in a changing world (Garud and Karnoe), upscaling: from niche to mainstream, history-friendly modelling (Oltra), SCOT (Bijker; Law) • Example: Gee and McMeekin’s study of Biofuels in Brazil and USA in Industry & Innovation

16. Research topic #2 Linking economic models with physical models • Decoupling of resource use and pollution from GDP: the role of eco-innovation • Impacts should be assessed upstream and downstream and across sectors • Methods: MFA, NAMEA, EEIOA linked with macro-economic models (e.g., GINFORS) • Questions for examination: • Can we observe a link between diffusion of major eco-innovations and reduced pollution and resource use? • Do eco-innovation impacts differ across sectors and countries, if so, what factors account for such differences? • How may economic growth and decoupling be co-optimised through green growth strategies?

17. Research topic #3 Sustainability assessment of life style changes and eco-innovations • Examples of eco-changes/innovations for assessment: • Shift from travelling to educational and cultural services? • Electric mobility • Smart grids • Bio-based products • Eco-cities with less car-based mobility

18. Assessing battery electric vehicles from a sustainability point of view • First, on the basis of today’s system configurations in which the electricity is produced through the use of various fossil fuels, nuclear fuels and renewables using today’s technology. • Second, for future system configurations in terms of energy supply, carbon capture technologies, smart grids, car ownership, car leasing, intermodal travel, higher prices for fossil fuels, road pricing and against visions of sustainable mobility.

19. Elements of the sustainable mobility paradigm • Reasonable travel time rather than travel time minimisation • Reducing the need to travel (through distance reduction and home working) • Seeing transport as a valued activity rather than derived demand • Achieving a modal shift (especially to walking and cycling) • Lower levels of pollution and noise from transport • Greater energy efficiency • More efficient use of infrastructures (through higher vehicle occupancy and demand management) • Increasing the quality of places and spaces (Banister, 2008).

20. A more concrete vision of sustainable mobility • Less car-based mobility • Less mobility because of reduced need for mobility and charging of full costs to travellers • Greener cars (more fuel efficient, alternative drive technologies) • Making walking and cycling attractive for people to do • Advanced public transport (light rail, high-speed trains, frequent metro-based train systems) (not for free or low cost) • Safety and noise reduction measures

21. Synergies from combinations • Green power and electric cars • Plug-in electric vehicles and smart grids. • Cars used in combination with other modes of transport (bicycles and public transport) • Green cars used as fleet cars (organised car sharing) • …

22.  A dynamic, integrated sustainability assessment of emerging technologies and prospective (socio-technical) systems • Combining environmental assessment with insights from innovation dynamics (hybrid forms, learning curves, ..) • Appraising the whole value chain and different configurations for electric mobility together with future economic conditions: • electric power generation, battery recycling, second-life use of batteries (e.g., in Vehicle-to-Grid configurations), the use of electric cars, scooters and bicycles within systems of intermodal transport and organized sharing, electric mobility in urban environments and how various policies, prices for fossil fuels and cultural values affects outcomes. • Consideration of problem shifting, rebound effects  to inform policies that reduce negative effects and increase positive effects

23. Research topic #4 Stability and change • Incumbents versus outsiders • Forces of stability • Hybrid forms acting as stepping stones for transformative change • Political struggle • Complex dynamics • Actor-based: actors having perspectives, roles, interests and resources

24. The (multi-level) transitionperspective Geels, 2002 in Research Policy

25. A transition is not caused by a technology or single factor • Multiple developments are involved, many of which preceded an innovation • Example of cars: • Suburbanisation preceded the use of cars • Car use went hand in hand with an increase in mobility and new practices (vacations, recreational trips, ..) • There was a process of niche proliferation: races, doctors, farmers, ..(distinctive uses and users) • The features of cars changed in reaction to societal demands besides user demands

26. Automobiles were last step in longer transformation process Source: presentation of Geels

27. What are niches? Places in which novel configurations develop and grow Niches are application domains with distinct selection criteria and resource pools In which there may be an element of deliberate protection

28. Niches

29. Regimes • Regimes as rules: • “A technological regime is the rule-set or grammar embedded in a complex of engineering practices, production process technologies, product characteristics, skills and procedures, ways of handling relevant artefacts and persons, ways of defining problems; all of them embedded in institutions and infrastructures” (Rip and Kemp, 1998, p. 340) • Regimes as socio-technical systems • “a mutually aligned, established set of technological artifacts, use patterns, institutional contexts, regulations, infrastructures etc. that prevail for delivering a specific service, e.g. personal mobility” (Truffer et al.,2008, p. 1361) • A practice-centered view of regimes • “the whole of implicit and explicit rules and associated ways of thinking that guide practical behaviour of professional people and which is being reconfirmed by everyday practice”(Loeber)

30. What is behind the idea of regimes? • The idea that practices and structures “reproduce” each other (duality of structure) • New practices require well-developed systems for their use, but such systems require users, companies, professionals for their development (“chicken and egg” situation) • Regime actors favour regime-preserving change (it is in the interest of many people to stay with the present regime)

31. Examples of regimes • Supply-oriented education • Supply-oriented system of health care • Car-based mobility • Regime of centralised electricity production

32. Delineating regimes 5 characteristics of a regime: • There is a clear goal in the sense of functionality for users and society that is being fulfilled (such as the function of mobility) • Many things are being combined and aligned with each other (coherence) • Actors do not suddenly orient themselves to something completely different (stability) • There is no central actor in charge or everything (self-guidance) • Importance of regime-internal dynamics (autonomy) (Holtz et al., 2008)

33. The car-based mobility regime(consisting of the individual use of (mostly) privately owned cars for most of the trips) is a regime because • There is a clear societal function: to satisfy the need for mobility. • It is coherent: the technological elements like cars, streets, service stations, the kind of gas provided etc. are strongly adapted; the design of cars is not only defined by technical aspects but also through consumers‘ preferences; legal laws, taxes and insurances guide and bound the usage of cars. • It is dynamically stable: there have been some trends like technological improvements (e.g. anti-locking systems, catalytic converters and navigation computers, just to name a few), or an increasing number of cars per household; but the general pattern remains stable. • It shows non-guidance [no one is in control] in that many and diverse actors are involved: car manufacturers, oil companies, various national ministries, car owners, associations etc. • The system is autonomous on the national level: institutions like legal laws and taxes are mostly designed on this level; a certain attitude towards cars prevails; companies adapt designs of cars and technological components to the national context (…). (Holtz et al., 2008, p. 629)

34. What is not a regime? • Even when people quite regularly combine different modes of travel, there is no regime of intermodal travel: • There are no organisation one can turn to for this offering informational services, booking and billing services • transport systems are not organised towards this end; • Intermodal travel is used when it is not convenient or practice to use a car or bus for the whole trip

35. Other non-regimes • Bicycles • Cradle-to-Cradle products • Decentralised electricity production They are “niches” with some regime-like features (niche-regimes)

36. Niches within regimes

37. The landscape consists of the wider context consisting of • Roads, towns, cities, .. • Values, beliefs, norms, .. • Aspirations and concerns of people • Political associations, • Prices, taxes, .. • Life styles • …

38. The transition perspective • Looks at dynamics at multiple levels (niches, landscape, in regimes), how are these interrelated? • Endogenises behaviour, public policy and private company strategies (does not see these as fixed or as reflecting true preferences) • Looks beyond individual sectors (energy from waste, telematics for health care, mobility) • Draws on multiple disciplines (innovation studies, political science, sociology, institutionalist theory, ..) • Allows for cooperation with practitioners

39. Research topic #6 Eco-innovation in developing countries and NIC • Technology transfer based on sponsorship versus development based on local capabilities • Technology-assimilation policies • The importance of informal institutions (culture, practices), the need for local markets.

40. Research topic #7 Scenario analysis based on causal loops and competition (+ and - interaction effects)

41. Examples Computers reducing the need to print paper, teleworking reducing travel PCs for communication and design work instead of for computing Newspapers, letters, and books exist next to e-mail, data-communication, electronic journals Downloading music, resulting in the demise of music retailers Shopping as a fun activity, offering pleasure which can not be provided by teleshopping Being able to use computers, trust in electronic banking and credit cards Hype disillusionment cycles Common pitfalls in foresight studies Lyons based on Geels and Smit, 2000 in Futures

42. Hype disillusionment cycle for solar cells

43. A plea for methodological pluriformity and knowledge integration

44. Theoretical models of incentives: limited to incentives for innovation in pollution control and end-of pipe solutions (no other forms of eco-innovation) factors related to techno-economic context and policy-design issues are not considered Econometric analysis: very difficult to incorporate policy design aspects of policies the majority consider only innovations in pollution control the majority use inventive activity indicators (patents and environmental R&D) and not innovationoutput measures Case studies: Not possible to determine causal links in a rigorous way Findings difficult to compare Findings are highly case-specific Surveys: Sensitive to respondees’ knowledge Sample bias may be an issue Methodological constraints influence findings Kemp and Pontoglio, 2011

45. Creation robust knowledge by combining different methods and types of expertise • Ideally one should employ different research methods. Any analysis is as good as the data or its assumptions. In limiting oneself to one method there is a danger of coming up with partial truths, and make unjustified generalizations. • Before embarking on econometric study it is advisable to speak to industry experts and suppliers about the most important factors behind certain innovations. • Too often scientists seek universal knowledge, whereas in reality the specifics of the situation are all-important for outcomes. Policy impacts depend on the design of the policies and context in which they are used. Working with experts and policymakers helps to learn about relevant contextual factors. • Research should be more concerned to the generation of robust knowledge than it presently is. Kemp and Pontoglio, 2011 in Ecological Economics