Eco-innovation: Helped or hindered by Integrated Product Policy? 

Eco-innovation: Helped or hindered by Integrated Product Policy

Environmental attention in the last decade has seen a shift away from production facilities and processes to products and their impact on the environment across their life cycle. Eco-efficiency, eco-design, product-oriented environmental management systems (poems), sustainable service strategies, product stewardship, supply chain management, eco-innovation and Integrated Product Policy (IPP) are all examples of concepts that have become popular within the business sector as well as with policymakers.

Although all these concepts have a, sometimes cosmetic, difference in focus, they all have the same aim: to reduce the impact of products and services on the environment. Two of these concepts, eco-innovation and IPP, can be seen as two sides of the same coin. Eco-innovation is the response from industry and the academic community to the challenge of sustainable product development whereas IPP is the answer from governments. Boththese responses have the same aim and should be mutually supportive. This article analyses if this is the case?

To read the analysis visit the

The Journal of Sustainable Product Design website