The Organisation of Cleaner Innovation

The environmental innovation literature is dominated by accounts assuming that ever-improving environmental performance is the result of the mechanistic implementation of management strategy. This study instead investigates the politics and contingent organisational dynamics of investment projects, with the aim to shed new light on how environmental concerns are integrated into them. Four case studies in the chemical and dairy industries of Scotland and Sweden are compared. The analysis of the cases is focussed on three themes: the relationship of environmental work and staff with engineering and management, the formation of environmental championing behaviour and the integration of environmental motives into the projects. The book is aimed at academics and policy makers, as it offers a critique of the notion of cleaner technology and explores the structural limits of greening, alongside practical advice on how to promote and manage such greening. It will also be relevant to those with an interest in the interplay between technology and organisation or in the greening of industry.

Dr Nils Markusson is a sociologist of technology, with degrees in science and technology studies from the University of Edinburgh. He has worked as an innovation policy analyst at the Swedish government agency for innovation systems. Currently, he works at the University of Edinburgh researching carbon capture and storage innovation.