Environmental Technologies and Eco-innovation in the Czech ...

significantly lower environmental impacts than comparable technologies. The
production and application of environmental technologies of the second generation
are also strongly motivated by legal requirements. Compared to technologies of the
first generation, however, economic motives (i.e. the necessity to utilize resource
and energy outputs more efficiently) play a more prominent role. For environmental
technologies of the second generation, the definition can be complicated in some
cases.
The best defined category of environmental technologies is best available techniques.
They are also mentioned in legal norms. According to Section 2(f) of Act No. 76/2002
Coll., on integrated prevention, the best available techniques are the most efficient
and most advanced technologies and methods of operating them that demonstrate
a practical value of certain technologies designed for preventing emissions and their
environmental impact or, if prevention is not achievable, for their reduction.
At the EU level, BAT for selected industrial and agricultural activities are defined and
qualified in Best Available Techniques Reference Documents.
In the new draft of the Directive on industrial emissions, which will include and
replace the existing Directive 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention
and control, the scope of the binding character of BAT and the reference documents and
their efficiency in the process of issuing integrated permissions may be strengthened.
For evaluating and assessing individual environmental technologies, it is
necessary to consider the entire life cycle, which is the most objective of the
available criteria for evaluating the environmental impacts of a specific technology,
product or service.
Eco-innovation is a special case of innovation that can be defined as a process of
establishing new knowledge and its transformation into useful products, services and
technologies for the domestic and international markets, which leads not only to the
creation of economic value, but also to an increase in the quality of life.
Eco-innovation is thus any form of innovation aimed at achieving significant
and demonstrable progress in the area of sustainable development so that
environmental impact is reduced, or a much more efficient and more responsible
utilization of natural resources, including energy.
Most member countries of the EU and OECD have started considering eco-innovation
as a way of reaching environmental goals and of increasing the competitiveness of
domestic companies. Eco-innovation creates new opportunities for entrepreneurial
activities in all areas of the economy, especially energy production, construction,
industry, transport and logistics, agriculture, the food industry, the travel industry, the
mining industry, waste and water management and environmental protection itself.
In addition to these areas, the OECD expects eco-innovations in the “green” chemical
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