Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 11.4
Innovation chain and market entry hindered by obstacles.
symbolizes all difficulties and handicaps which make a large number of developed
technologies “disappear'' before reaching the market. The identification of the obsta-
cles and their removal may increase the success rate of innovations. The most frequent
obstacles in the way of market entry are the following shortcomings: lack of proper
dissemination and publication about the new technology, diminishing trust due to
missing verification tools and registries or certificates for demonstrated and verified
environmental technologies, the lack of funds for demonstration and marketing, and
missing innovative spirit of owners, investors and contractors. In addition, we have to
count with legal barriers, no-orphan status or other preference for demonstration of
innovative technologies. In Hungary, for example, authorities require the same licens-
ing documentation for an experiment at a 5
5-m site, as for an application on a
5-ha site. Surprisingly, the low cost and, as a consequence, the low financial interest
of the contractor, may also be an obstacle in the way of application, e.g., of natural
attenuation or other types of “soft'' (ecological) remediation. Another objective bar-
rier is the environment itself with its huge variability and uncertainties: even verified
technologies are burdened by high uncertainties due to environmental heterogeneities
and site-specific conditions. A robust technology well practiced at one location may
fail at another.
The failure to apply the available up-to-date or innovative tools may lead to unnec-
essary costs, lower quality and less effective ERM. Some existing tools have not been
applied, while some others have not been developed because the economic incentive
for their development is not strong enough. When tools are missing, compromises
and errors in the ERM concept may occur. For example, a general confusion can be
experienced in contaminated site assessment: the analytical plan only includes those
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