Innovation and Environmental Voluntary Approaches

Criteria have been developed in general terms for evaluating voluntary approaches. Nevertheless, there still remains limited assessment regarding the performance of environmental voluntary approaches as there is a general dearth of empirical information. In relation to innovation and voluntary approaches there are two main schools of thought, namely, the no innovation scenario and innovation through collective learning. This paper outlines the arguments regarding environmental voluntary approaches and innovation and reports on an empirical study of an Irish packaging voluntary agreement. Its findings would indicate that the no innovation scenario is applicable to the Irish packaging voluntary agreement.