Supporting the development of environmentally sustainable technologies and products: the role of innovation, informal cooperation and governmental agency

Sustainable, economic, environmental and social development will require substantial improvements in the efficiency of present environmental and resource use, which in turn will increase the focus on a broader set of environmental, economic and social linkages. These are the result of dynamic interactions, in which changes in one set of factors will impact on others, and vice versa. This paper discusses the role and potential of technology, innovation and interorganisational collaboration as strategic drivers of a renewed market-driven green development in industry, and it discusses the ways in which governments have and can nurture and support an environmentally more sustainable development.