Sustainable innovation 'crucial'
The value chain of innovation must take into consideration the fact that spending even one cent on innovation that is not sustainable is a "waste of money" and a "tragedy", said David Cook, CEO of The Natural Step, a sustainable development NGO.
"There is no such thing as a sub-prime planet," Cook added, arguing that the only serious way forward in the current context of economic crisis and credit and resources crunches is sustainability-based innovation.
"We need to turn challenges into economic opportunities", agreed Timo Mäkelä, a director at the European Commission's environment department, before stressing that innovation lies at the heart of process of change.
The workshop saw several chemical industry stakeholders present their views on the role of chemicals in leading the way towards sustainable development and innovation. "There is a huge amount of chemistry in solar energy, for example," said Gray Wirth, responsible for EU affairs at chemical company Rohm and Haas, explaining how chemicals increase the lifespan of photovoltaics and help to produce more solar power (see EurActiv LinksDossier on renewable energy).
As for moving towards more responsible consumer goods, Wirth said it was necessary to offer manufacturers incentives to "go green" and stimulate higher market demand by building consumer awareness of sustainability of goods.
Regulation, in particular, could speed up sustainable innovation, argued Rodney Townsend, chair of the EU technology platform on research and innovation in chemistry and biotechnology (SusChem), highlighting the "opportunities for sustainable innovation" provided by the bloc's new chemical legislation, REACH (see EurActiv Links Dossier), and the forthcoming revision of pesticides law (see EurActiv LinksDossier).
Smart energy 'too costly'
However, Townsend deplored that while the technology and products to build energy-smart homes that save up to 70% on energy consumption exist, they are too expensive to implement. He thus called for legislation to be adapted "to allow smart energy homes to boom" and to achieve a "negative carbon footprint" in the long term.
Legislation should, however, be kept flexible enough to provide opportunities for business innovation, according to Rini Claassens of Johnson Diversey, a cleaning company, who noted that hazard-based approaches to regulating cleaning products had resulted in "missed opportunities".
While cleaning products could be more concentrated - leading both to less physical waste (packaging) and fewer 'chemical miles' as transport volumes decrease - the fact that they are more dangerous and corrosive is perceived to be a problem. Meanwhile, if consumer communication on diluted end use of the products was done properly, there would be no hazards but only risk to be managed, Claassens argued.
Such risk could be assessed and dealt with by an EU risk management authority, declared Luxembourg EPP-ED MEP Erna Hennicot-Schoepges, who noted that one of the problems with investing in sustainable innovation is that funding allocations are too often decided upon by bankers in pursuit of quick returns, rather than scientists or politicians with longer-term goals.
