Professor Lazaric teaches a PhD course on Eco-innovation
Eco-innovation refers to any innovation or technology that significantly contributes to sustainable development and reduce the impact of production on the environment. For instance, these innovations may use natural resources in a more efficient way, recycling technologies, or change products.
Eco-innovation is more than simply designing green products and green packaging as it entails improvements in business operations and processes to improve efficiency and to reduce costs and waste significantly. This is the focus of the PhD course given by Professor Nathalie Lazaric, Guest Professor at Gothenburg U-GOT KIES and Professor at Cote d’Azur, France. She stresses the importance of implementing Eco-innovation. This week part two of the PhD course on Ecological Challenges for the next decade is taking place for the PhD students associated with the Gothenburg U-GOT KIES centre, with most enrolled as PhD students at the Unit for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Professor Lazaric explains:
- Although the opportunities that eco-innovation offers are clear, greater effort is needed to close the gap with regards to implementation. To be truly effective, Eco-innovation needs to be adopted on a larger scale and with greater consistency across different countries and different sectors.
In the PhD course, diverse case studies of Eco-innovations, such as bio sourced plastic, bio control in agriculture, biofuel, e-bike, are presented and discussed. These examples highlight challenges during the process of adoption of ecological innovations. Policy recommendations for explaining diverse sources of “lock in” present at individual, technological and organizational levels is also addressed.
