Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 4. Key aspects of green innovation
Author
Years
Key Aspects
Porter and Linde
1995
Green innovation includes clean production equipment and process or green product innovations.
Klassen &
Whybank
1999
The authors classified green innovation according to product design and process aspects
Internal managers' support is one of the key driving forces for internal environment management
practices (green managerial innovation)
Zhu & Sarkis
2004
Table 5. Indicators of green innovation and green technologies
Author
Years
Green innovation and technologies indicator
1. Reduced raw material, use high recycled content. 2. Non-polluting manufacture/non-toxic materials
(CFCS, de-linking solvents, etc). 3. Low energy consumption during production/use/disposal. 4. Minimal
or no packaging. 5. Reuse/refillability. 6. Long useful life, updating capacity (office machines). 7. Post-
consumer collection/disassembly system (cars). 8. Remanufacturing capability
Simon
1992
1. Pollution prevention technologies 2. Pollution control technologies, which are like pollution preven-
tion technologies, but more focus on pollution control technologies such as the treatment or disposal of
pollutants or harmful by-products at the end of a manufacturing process. 3. Pollution management system.
Klassen &
Whybank
1999
competitive advantage. Furthermore, it is very
important to point out that getting top management
support is one of the key drivers for successful
implementation of innovation (Hamel and Pra-
halad, 1989). Similarly, Zhu and Sarkis (2004)
have found that getting commitment from top or
middle level managers, at least for the Chinese
manufacturing industry in their research, has a
significant influence on the implementation of
a successful internal environment management
practices. Therefore, green innovation can also
be underpinned by green managerial innovation.
Table 4 illustrates some key aspects of green in-
novation from these different authors.
Regarding the indicators for measuring green
innovation, Simon (1992) developed eight green
innovation indicators that can measure how green
a product is, as listed in Table 5. Companies can
gain competitive advantage and improve envi-
ronmental performance by developing green
product innovations and implementing internal
process and managerial innovations to reduce the
negative impact on the environment. In terms of
green innovation technologies, Klassen and
Whybank (1999) classified three technologies
and they are also listed in Table 5. These tech-
nologies are designed to reduce emissions before
discharge and to improve product quality and
increase productivity.
Environmental Performance
Many organisations now consider environmental
issues for their business activities to improve
their environmental performance. Vermulen
(2002) mentioned that most organisations have
improved their environmental performance by
taking advantage of clean production method-
ologies and by implementing the principles of
environmental management into their activities.
The environmental performance of a company can
be evaluated by the degree of waste minimisation
within its own plant and also the initiatives and
ability to work with its suppliers. Tukker et al.
(2001) suggest that there are three approaches
to improve a company's environmental perfor-
mance. The first one focuses on applying or add-
ing cleaning technologies, wastewater treatment
and treatment of hazardous waste to the existing
processes. However, these activities are expensive
