Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
broader upstream/ downstream context and how
the existing incentives and hurdles (be it objective
or perceived) raise issues to the current business
models or provides opportunities for the sector's
transition in the near future.
Renato Orsato (2009) appears to provide a
useful methodological approach to screen the
portfolio of sustainability strategies available to
the selected sectors. It combines the Porter five
forces approach and the Resource-based view
of the firm (according to which the basis for a
competitive advantage of a firm lies primarily
in the application of the bundle of valuable re-
sources at the firm's disposal). The circumstances
surrounding each activity type will influence the
competitive focus of the firm (on organisational
process or products/services) and the potential
source of competitive advantage it will adopt
(cost or differenciation). This lies the ground to
four main competitive strategies:
An additional strategy corresponds to sus-
tainable value innovation, which goes beyond
competition and price constraints, as it provides
the occasion to create new market spaces.
This portfolio finality is not to provide a
framework for a stage-by-stage approach to be
adopted by firms. It rather enlightens different
options to tackle various aspects of the business:
the process, the products/ services and the strategic
positioning of the firm. These are not “ready made
recipes” for greening businesses, they need to be
consistently coordinated and implemented. They
are complementary between them and to a holistic
approach of the business relation to environment.
To be more specific: for instance, a cost optimiza-
tion strategy seems a pure win-win solution and a
natural rationale for business. It seems therefore
that cost optimization of the value chain is the
natural and first step that all businesses will imple-
ment. Whereas a cost efficiency approach may
have profitable impact on environment through
an optimized use of natural resources, it is not a
sustainable strategy
per se
if it does not question
the business in itself (process/ product /strategy).
Our case studies will therefore examine how
the selected sectors envisage the low carbon tran-
sition, i.e. how they perceive their environmental
impacts and the threats and opportunities related
to the transition to a low carbon economy; how,
to this respect, they envisage to maintain com-
petitive advantage in the long-term. This analysis
will enlighten what kind of the above-mentioned
strategies are implemented by the selected firms
and what to what extent the strategies they pur-
sued have effects at the intra-firm, intra-chain (the
repercussions on suppliers, buyers and the supply
chain), intra-sectoral (repercussions on other firms
in the same economic sector) and inter-sectoral
(repercussions on firms in other sectors) levels.
This analysis will examine to what extent these
sectors are path-dependent or opting for ruptures,
which will affect the way they reformulate the
environmental issues as regards their business
evolution.
•
Eco-efficiency: supposes the optimization
of the processes leading to cost reduction
reinforcing market advantages
•
Environmental cost leadership: aims to
both achieve the lowest cost and the low-
est environmental impacts. This implies
more involvement than the previous strat-
egy in new development on life-cycle
analysis, eco-design, substitution of mod-
els of production, commercialization and
consumption
•
Beyond compliance leadership: subscrib-
ing to voluntary norms and standards or
new environmental initiatives, in the aim
to demonstrate commitment to reducing
the impacts of operation, going beyond
what is required by regulation.
•
Eco-branding: the ecological differentia-
tion is central for the marketing and sales
of the products or services, and mainly re-
lies on the propensity of the consumers to
pay a price premium, which is not the case
in other strategies.
