Petrus Kautto

How does industry respond to waste policy instruments—Finnish experiences

Abstract This multiple-case study, which combined diverse data collection methods, evaluated the impacts of waste policy instruments on 14 mainly large Finnish industrial companies in the 1990s. The management response to waste policy in the firms appeared to be small and most of the interviewees felt that the primary pressure to upgrade environmental performance came from their customers. The waste policy instruments were not considered to have contributed to waste prevention in the case companies. In contrast, the recovery and safe final disposal of wastes had developed favourably. In order to promote the source reduction of waste, the scope of policy should be drastically shifted from waste management to society’s overall cycles of materials and products.

Finnish waste policy—effects and effectiveness

More than 20 ordinances on waste have been issued in Finland since the National Waste Act came into force in 1994. Effects and effectiveness of this regulation have recently been analysed in an R&D project called WAPO. The materials and methods used in WAPO were mainly based on case studies on regional and company scales. According to WAPO, the infrastructure of waste management and the recovery of wastes have greatly improved in Finland in the 1990s. By contrast, the waste policy has not been able to upgrade waste prevention, the primary objective in the hierarchy defined by the Finnish Waste Act and the EUs waste policy. To overcome this drawback, the use of economic policy instruments are recommended to be extended and directed towards enhancing efficient use of natural resources and materials. Self-regulation within industry, e.g. the use of environmental management systems (EMSs), is one solution that has been proposed as an alternative to more intensive use of economic instruments. Although the attitudes and experiences of enterprises with respect to EMSs are positive, their real influence on company behaviour needs to be further studied. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems in waste management appear to have great potential. However, their main effect hitherto has been intensified recovery of waste. This fact may have influenced the slightly dissatisfied general attitude towards the Finnish EPR systems. New initiatives are needed in waste policy because the amounts of waste in Finland, as well as in other parts of Europe, are continually growing. Simultaneously, the scope of policy should be drastically broadened from mere wastes to societys overall cycles of materials and products.

Recently Introduced Policy Instruments and Intervention Theories

Evaluation of recently introduced policy instruments (RIPIs) is especially problematic, because only some effects have occurred, and information on them is imperfect. Policy makers and the public at large are, however, particularly interested in early evaluations. This article examines problems with the retrospective evaluation of RIPIs, and explores the advantages of using intervention theories in these evaluations. Two case studies from the field of environmental policy instruments are used as examples. It is argued that when evidence on final outcomes is largely unavailable, an intervention theory is a useful tool to overcome information problems. By using intervention theories, it is possible to identify observable prerequisites that precede intended, but not yet occurred, outcomes.

Making or breaking environmental innovation? Technological change and innovation markets in the pulp and paper industry

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of internationally changing market conditions versus national innovation systems (NIS) for environmental innovation in a transforming industry sector, the Nordic pulp and paper industry. Design/methodology/approach - Based on several case studies of technological innovations in the sector, using data triangulation, crucial factors for environmental innovation are analyzed. The cases focus on bioenergy technologies in pulp mills and on new products from fiber. Findings - While NIS still supports the networks through which innovations are created, the formation of innovation markets is increasingly dependent on international developments. Environmental innovation is most likely to occur when momentum is created by simultaneous changes in private and policy-created markets. Environmental policies, increasingly originating at the EU level, have added the final impetus for bioenergy technologies, while for new products the policy effect has been smaller. Practical implications - National innovation policies must be designed to take into account the internationalizing influences on environmental innovation. Originality/value - The paper shows the continued importance of NIS in a low-and-medium technology sector despite internationalizing markets.

Nokia as an Environmental Policy Actor: Evolution of Collaborative Corporate Political Activity in a Multinational Company*

Although companies have been studied quite widely as political actors, the majority of this research has treated companies as a homogeneous group. This article inquires how Nokia, a multinational corporation, has anticipated legislation initiatives and how it has tried to influence policy development in interaction with industry associations and EU institutions.

The use of policy formulation tools in the venue of policy appraisal: patterns and underlying motivations

As described in the introductory chapter, this book is concerned with the ways that actors in particular policy formulation venues gather and apply knowledge derived from using particular policy formulation tools. This chapter examines the venue of policy appraisal, which has received widespread attention from both policy formulation researchers and practitioners in the past two decades (Turnpenny et al. 2009; Adelle et al. 2012). As a formalized venue in which analysis is undertaken when formulating policy, it corresponds to the ‘InternalOfficial’ type as defined in Chapter 1. Indeed, the use of policy appraisal is often required by law: by 2008, all 31 OECD countries had either adopted, or were in the process of adopting, a formal system of policy appraisal (OECD 2009). Policy appraisal systems may in turn harness a wide range of policy formulation tools to carry out the analysis (Carley 1980; De Ridder et al. 2007; Nilsson et al. 2008). All these elements mean that the study of policy appraisal can yield revealing insights into policy formulation as a whole, since it covers, often mandatorily, the key ‘tasks’ of policy formulation noted in Chapter 1, namely: characterization of the current situation; problem conceptualization; identification of policy options; assessment of potential policy options and recommending and/or proposing a specific policy design. This chapter uses policy appraisal as a window into policy formulation activities as a whole.

Beyond the 'indicator industry': use and potential influences of sustainable development indicators in Finland and the EU

In order to assess progress towards sustainability, various indicators and indicator sets have been developed at multiple levels and sectors. Relatively little is known on whether they are actually used and what influences they may have. We examine the use of sustainable development indicators in Finland and across the EU based on document analysis and interviews with indicator developers and expected end–users. The results show that the indicators are used, but their use is largely confined to within what is known as the indicator industry, which comprises actors who are associated with indicator development. Barriers of use and possibilities to generate wider impacts on society are discussed. Possibilities for increasing the direct instrumental use of indicators outside the indicator industry appear less likely and less relevant than possibilities for advancing conceptual or political use. This has important implications on the attempts to enhance the influence of indicators in the industrial ecology and beyond.

Cosmopolitics of a Regulatory Fit: The Case of Nanocellulose

ABSTRACT Nanocellulose is an organic material envisioned to have the capacity to replace potentially harmful, non-renewable materials such as plastics. Before the material can be utilized commercially within the EU, its safety needs to be officially proven. This is envisioned to happen through the REACH chemicals regulation that controls the market entry of new substances. The regulation proposes concepts to support regulatory discretion and test methods to be used in risk assessments. While so doing, REACH puts forward assumptions pertaining to the critical qualities of innovations. However, when regulation is used to appraise radically new innovations, the assumptions need to be re-evaluated. Yet, analysis of expert accounts suggests that nanocellulose cannot be easily fit into the categorizations and analytical engagements that REACH proposes. For the purposes of a regulatory adoption, the problems are transformed into epistemological issues to be resolved through the incremental closing of knowledge gaps. Some of the key qualities of the material seem not to gain recognition in the regulatory realm that is in the making. At worst, the official strategy may create conditions for risks which the regulation is supposed to eradicate while, at the same time, hindering the development of plastic-substituting solutions.

What drives Environmental Innovations in the Nordic Pulp and Paper Industry? : Green Markets and Cleaner Technologies (GMCT)

Policy initiatives have highlighted the importance of environmental innovations as a solution to environmental problems, and looked into ways to promote them. Based on empirical cases in the Nordic pulp and paper industry, this report explores environmentally sounder technological innovations and their relation to societal and economic drivers. The cases studied include the use of production by-products for energy, new products in the core business areas and new product value chains. The report shows that public policy has directly influenced environmental innovation in the P&P industry through providing public R&D support, funding development projects and encouraging cooperation. It has also facilitated the crucial stage of demonstration by creating or enforcing markets for environmental innovations. The success of policy-created markets in supporting innovation is, however, crucially dependent on other market changes that push the development towards improved environmental performance. Environmental policies alone are seldom sufficient drivers for innovations.