Recommended actions for the successful diffusion of environmental innovations
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Environmental innovations as a driver of the Green Economy

The transformation to a Green Economy requires environmental innovations in a wide range of sectors. These innovations play a key role in achieving ambitious environmental goals and are also an essential factor in maintaining Germany’s very good international competitive position in areas of environmental protection. It is therefore an important environmental policy task to foster green innovation activity.

The following tasks were the focus of the research project funded by the German Environment Agency:

  • Assessment of environmental innovation activity in Germany.
  • Analysis of the diffusion of green product-service systems including service innovations.
  • Development of concrete political recommendations for action to promote environmental innovations.

Work package 1 of the project provided an overview of the green innovation landscape in Germany, covering both product and service innovations and their combinations.

In work package 2, the factors influencing diffusion paths of service innovations and product-service combinations were identified with empirical support, and the extent to which different types of diffusion paths can be distinguished was examined.

Work package 3 focused on identifying possibilities for intervention by the state, companies and associations in innovation and diffusion processes and on formulating concrete recommendations for action for the successful diffusion of environmental innovations, taking into account both goods and services and combinations thereof.

Projects Results