Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol1-1 > Tools for the eco trade

For most companies and industry sectors, eco-innovation is no longer a mere demonstration of goodwill and corporate social responsibility. It has become a genuine part of their business strategy responding to the needs of complying with regulations, of saving resources and of responding to customer demands. How these necessities can be turned into business opportunities is still a challenge for many, struggling at the same time with day-to-day business and the financial crisis. To enable innovative companies to tap into tailor-made green expert advice as and when they need it, a range of new Europe INNOVA projects is now testing tools that offer technical and business support, focusing efforts on eco-innovation.

If one takes a closer look at eco-innovation, it could be everywhere: in the classic environmental sectors such as recycling or air pollution and in the emerging industries around energy production and distribution, energy efficiency or alternative fuels. Green innovation is also conquering industry sectors that, up to now, have been rather damaging to the climate and the environment. Just take the examples of construction, food & drink, textiles, pulp & paper, automotive and their entire supply chains. They all need to pollute less and to use less energy and resources. Last but not least, the eco-innovation picture needs to be completed with cross-cutting issues such as sustainable design, materials, lifecycle assessment and the behavioural patterns of us all living and working in this world.

Almost untapped opportunities

Eco-innovation represents a sizeable, almost untapped opportunity for growth and employment, especially for Europe which is already rather advanced in many of these fields. In the construction sector, the refurbishment of buildings across Europe alone would create up to 530,000 full-time jobs, while at the same time saving €28.1bn a year by 2015. Business for the 60,000 European waste and recycling companies will grow with increasing demand and prices for raw material and due to strong European legislation. The European renewable energy sector is also growing faster than the statistics can be updated with a current annual turnover of €30bn and providing jobs to around 350,000 people.

Most of this represents export potential for European businesses which, to date, also remains underexploited. Eco-industry exports for the EU-25 are estimated at €13bn and imports are .11.1bn. So far, the main growth drivers came from home markets, but in the future, exploitation of growth opportunities requires switching to a clear export orientation for environmental technologies.

Whilst green innovation has a lot of potential, some of its particularities also make it more difficult than, for example, innovation in the ICT sector:

• The innovation cycle is typically longer than for many other technologies. It takes easily 15 years from initial research to a fully marketable product.
• The financial resources needed to bring a new technology into the market are very large and require heavy outside financial support.
• Eco-innovative technologies are seen as riskier than technologies in more established sectors, especially since their deployment depends on political will dfand regulation.
• A lack of skills in certain countries and sub-sectors is preventing eco-innovation.
• In many countries, the sector is still ill-defined and not recognised as an actual business sector.

This means the “valley of death” can be deeper and longer for green innovators and that they may be even more in need of professional and robust innovation support services than innovators in other sectors. At the same time, SMEs have been shown to appreciate advice from innovation experts helping them to better understand risks, to shape their strategy and business model, to prepare investor-rounds and to develop sales and marketing plans.

Accelerating eco-innovation

DG Enterprise, especially with its Europe INNOVA initiative, is testing and validating hands-on innovation instruments and tools with a general focus on ecoinnovation, knowledge-intensive services, innovation management and cluster co-operation. Moreover, the innovation tools are tailored towards the needs of specific sectors such as sustainable construction, the renewable energy sector or manufacturing. In co-operation with national innovation agencies, a range of projects are testing sector-specific innovation vouchers allowing easy access to technical and business expertise. Since small companies are generally afraid of time-consuming administration, these versatile instruments have proven very successful with SMEs.

While new Europe INNOVA projects for services in sustainable construction as well as recycling and resource efficiency for the manufacturing industry will start in autumn 2009, the first-generation project KIS-PIMS has started to provide business advice to young companies in the renewable energy sector. The Austrian, Finnish and French innovation agencies are providing eco-innovation vouchers which can be used directly with a qualified eco-innovation consultant.

A French entrepreneur who aims to offer an innovative business service renting solar-roofed industrial workshops was looking to improve his return on investment thanks to the PV electricity feed-in tariff. After talking to the eco-innovation consultant, he changed his mind.

“I understood that we had to give a more innovative orientation to our initial project. With the future outlook of the expected energy regulations in hand, we developed an approach that lowers the regulatory risk on our business model in the long run. We concluded on a higher potential by providing electricity autonomy to the client by adding storage facilities and an intelligent control system. This will lower the impact of changing regulations and thus be more attractive to investors,” he says.

“The green voucher has given me easy access to experts that understand my business and offer the technical, economic and legal expertise out of one hand. Their advice will help me to realise the next steps of my project and to open the doors of investors and new markets.”

The green innovation experts of Greenovate! Europe hope that this French entrepreneur has received the support he needed to expand his business EU-wide and that many other innovative renewable energy companies use the opportunities of the voucher system to boost their green business.

For more information, contact:
Astrid Severin, Managing Director, Greenovate! Europe
E-mail: astrid.severin@greenovate.eu
or
Vincent Morfouace, KIS PIMS Project Coordinator, Technofi
E-mail: vmorfouace@symple.eu
Website: www.greenovate-europe.eu

HOW TO GET A GREEN VOUCHER?

Do you have an innovative renewable energy company? Do you need access to business expertise on how to minimise risks and boost your business? The green voucher scheme has been developed for entrepreneurs that need practical advice quickly and have no time for lengthy procedures. If you are interested, sent a short e-mail to:

Austria: LandesEnergieVerein Steiermark, Christian Sakulin s.sakulin@lev.at (voucher value €5,000)
Finland: Motiva Oy, Timo Määttä, timo. maatta@motiva.fi (voucher value €50,000)
France: OSEO, Jacques Gautray, Jacques. gautray@oseo.fr, (voucher value €15,000) Or visit:

www.greenovate-europe.eu