Embracing Environmental Innovation: The Example of Sweden
Eco-innovations help companies integrate some burning environmental concerns into their strategies to create or strengthen their competitiveness. Various researches confirm the positive relationship between green innovation and firm performance. Sustainable development is closely linked to corporate environmental management and the achievement of environmental goals. Companies that can take a leading position in sustainability reporting over the next few years will benefit from a competitive advantage associated with lower energy costs, lower penalties, and reduced need for carbon credits.
However, change in the transition to sustainability is driven not only by the individual corporations that adopt eco-innovations to strengthen their business sustainable performance. A lot depends on the favorable conditions that individual countries create to promote sustainable development. The example of Sweden is outstanding in this respect.
The Role of Eco-Innovation for Sustainable Growth
The need for the transition of the global economy to a sustainable type of development is not being questioned either in the academic community or among the political or business elites. The continuous deterioration of the environmental situation on a global scale, manifested in climate change, a decrease in biodiversity, and deterioration in the quality of soils, water, and air, makes the problem of finding new technological solutions in the field of creation of goods and services more urgent.
In modern economic science, this challenge is reflected in the emergence and intensive development of the theory of eco-innovation aimed at making a profit and achieving a positive environmental effect simultaneously.
A significant difference between the conventional eco-innovation is the presence of so-called double externalities — the double positive effect that environmental innovations have on society:
- reducing the negative impact
- increasing sustainability knowledge in society
In some, mainly resource-intensive sectors of the economy, including the electric power industry, the economic and environmental effect of eco-innovation can be quite balanced. It is directly related to the specifics of industrial development, consumption of natural resources in particular. Improving energy efficiency and reducing fuel consumption automatically lead to increased profits and reduced negative environmental impacts. The latter relates to the most important categories — emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere, waste generation, and water consumption.
Such a balance of economic and environmental effects is an important incentive for the implementation of the best available technologies, such as technological eco-innovation, as well as various organizational eco-innovations. There are many ways, in which a state may promote this process.
The Unique Example of Sweden
In the field of environmental innovation, the experience of a country like Sweden is unique. The country, whose government is effectively applying the “green” principles in all sectors of the economy, is considered the world leader in the use of renewable energy and local fuel.
A total of 96% of household waste is recycled in this country, which can be considered one of the highest rates in the world. The citizens are encouraged to switch to new sustainable practices: owners receive tax benefits in case of switching to renewable energy sources, taxes for car owners who use clean fuel for their cars are reduced. The share of these vehicles in the country is increasing every year.
In addition, the use of biofuels, mainly used for heat production, is developing. This is wood (firewood, pellets, briquettes, bark, wood chips), peat, cellulosic waste, garbage, technical waste. Due to the presence of a large base of raw materials (wood) in the country, technologies for the use of industrial and domestic waste, the share of biofuels in energy supply in Sweden is steadily increasing.
Leading your Country to Sustainable Future
In the foreseeable future, global demand for affordable and reliable sources of energy will continue to grow, but there has also been a new trend of a longer nature against the background of the transition to low-carbon energy systems in many countries of the world.
Taking a course in sustainability for your SME or manufacturing business will help you understand what position various countries take to promote sustainability, and how the international agreements impact local decisions and policies. SustainOnline professionals have conducted a significant amount of scientific investigations to create the best and most useful collection of training lessons to guide you on your sustainability path. We provide over 90 micro-courses that are easy to understand for every employee in every company. So, start taking care of sustainability of your enterprise today!
