Eco-innovation Society

Eco-innovation is an area of scholarly, research and practice focusing on the development, transfer, diffusion and adoption of innovations that contribute to environmental sustainability. 

Although its origins can be traced to the seminal paper of Rennings (2000) and the book of Fussler and James (1996), eco-innovation still is considered a novel field of research and scholarly work. Eco-innovation is also known as environmental innovation, green innovation, sustainable innovation, ecological innovation, among other terms. Ideally, it brings positive effects on the environment (eco-innovation) and society at large (social eco-innovation) (c.f. Carrillo Hermosilla, et. al. 2010). However, eco-innovations can also create undesired and 'rebound effects' in the economy, environment and/or society (c.f. Mazzanti and Zoboli, 2006). Meaning, not all innovations can be considered truly green and socially inclusive (McDowall et al. 2011). Nonetheless, they are environmentally better than current alternatives, and often are justified by either a public good and/or a business case rationale (Kemp, 2010). Therefore, they receive public support as they constitute solutions to tackle climate, biodiversity and sustainability challenges (Ekins, 2010). 

In scholarly terms, most of the eco-innovation research has been published in a very large number of Journals (Journal of Cleaner Production, Sustainability, Business Strategy and the Environment, Ecological Economics, among others). It is our view that there is a need to continue making progress around theory, methods, applicability, transferability and education around the topic of eco-innovation. Unfortunately, there is not a unified academic community around this topic..until now.