Innovation and institutional change: the transition to a sustainable ...

4 Chapter 1
1995: 25). A basic tenet of ecological modernisation is “that the capitalist
political economy needs conscious reconfiguring and far-sighted action so
that economic development and environmental protection can proceed handin-hand
and reinforce one another” (Dryzek, 1997: 143). Ecological
modernisation theory advances the idea that collaboration of key actors such
as government, industry, reform-oriented environmentalists, and science, can
generate win-win outcomes of economic development and environmental
improvement 6 . These paradigms suggest that sustainability is possible via
more sensible and innovative uses of resources through a process of
continuous, incremental improvement.
Others point out that higher efficiency will not be enough. It may slow down
the rates of contamination and depletion, but does not stop these processes
(McDonough and Braungart, 1998). Moreover, eco-efficiency does not pay
attention to social dimensions of sustainability (for instance inter- and intragenerational
equity). This leads to a plea for more structural changes. The
second perspective therefore can be called ‘systems change’. Several
approaches can be identified with different accents on how this change
process may come about and who will be the main actors driving the
process.
The engineering approach to systems change stresses fundamental changes
in design parameters, principles and requirements that are necessary.
McDonough and Braungart (1998, 2002) argue for a ‘next industrial
revolution’, a completely different way of designing industrial production 7 .
Instead of becoming more efficient they argue for new design principles that
eliminate dangerous emissions altogether and adopt concepts such as ‘waste
equals food’ and ‘cradle-to-cradle’. An example is the elimination of 7,962
chemicals used in the textile industry for carpet production on a total of
8,000. The fabric was to decompose naturally and effluents of the
manufacturing process were as clean as the influents 8 (McDonough and
Braungart, 1998). Parts of products composed of materials that do not
biodegrade should be kept at a minimum and be designed as technical
nutrients that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles (‘cradle-tocradle’).
Related ideas are those of biomimicry (Benyus, 1997), natural
6 Note however that scholars such as Spaargaren (2000) and Huber (2000) reject reducing
ecological modernisation to a simple efficiency approach, and explore how more structural
changes may come about.
7 The next industrial revolution will in their perspective built on three basic concerns:
equity, economy and ecology which they have developed into a design tool called the
Triple Top Line (McDonough and Braungart, 2002).
8 The carpet was not sold as a product but provided customers with the service of the carpet
while still owning the material (Presentation at GIN Conference, Chapel Hill, USA, 1999,
and McDonough and Braungart, 1998).