Sabina Scarpellini

Economic and environmental analysis of the wine bottle production in Spain by means of life cycle assessment

The articles objective is to analyse the improvements obtained by the implementation of eco-efficiency in wine production. The principal aim is to achieve the rational energy and materials consumption in the whole wine production process implementing the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) methodology. The production processes and the products are analysed taking into account their LCA from the raw materials and the intermediate process products, to the final product, the waste and the emissions generated. Their possible re-utilisation and the process integration are also analysed in order to minimise the load pollutant. Through LCA, energy, material requirements and waste are identified and described quantitatively for each process. Moreover the associated impacts are evaluated and explained identifying the processes with higher improvement potential. Finally the innovative solutions implemented for eco-efficient wine production are described and analysed.

R&D and eco-innovation: opportunities for closer collaboration between universities and companies through technology centers

It is widely accepted that eco-innovation is the direction to make progress towards a sustainable innovation. Public and private actors seem to share a common point of view and agreement on the benefits of implementing eco-innovation. If this is the case, why eco-innovative activities are still exceptional and exemplary instead of being the usual reasoning and inspiring driver for all kind of actions? Going in depth into the reasons why eco-innovation techniques are not broadly spread, the main one is the lack of internalization of this attitude in all the everyday actions taken by companies and employees in the form of social responsibility. Definitively, society as a whole is responsible for the eco-innovation promotion. Large companies have long ago incorporated Social Responsibility into their strategic planning and invest on innovation as a competitive advantage. However, they are reluctant to contribute to the eco-innovation. Therefore, universities and technology centers (TCs) have to play this role and link the private sector, specially medium, and small size companies, with the society needs. However, Universities are not often leading the eco-innovation initiative. Currently, in the case of Spain, it is observed a huge gap between the scientific research efforts made by the Public University and the academic offering and the real needs of the private companies. In fact, mixed structures as TCs are needed in order to overcome this disconnection, increasing opportunities for subsequent cooperation in eco-innovation projects. This paper points out the causes of the Spanish R&D and innovation lag, and highlights the reasons of the disconnection between public and private research for innovation, while giving hints on what is working fine and what needs to be reviewed to catch up with the R&D reference countries in Europe.

Pro-Environmental Change and Short- to Mid-Term Economic Performance The Mediating Effect of Organisational Design Change

The aim of this study is to contribute empirically to the understanding of the economic effects of pro-environmental change in firms. First, we analyse whether pro-environmental changes performed in different sections of firms’ value chain (products, processes and supply and distribution channels) generate positive economic returns in the short- to mid-term. Second, we analyse whether measures implemented by firms to improve environmental performance (pro-environmental change) have been complemented with changes in organisational design, and whether these changes help increase short- to mid-term economic performance. Through an analysis of a sample of 303 firms, we have collected empirical evidence that confirms that pro-environmental change improves short- to mid-term business performance both directly and indirectly, through the mediating effect of improvements in organisational design that often go hand in hand with these processes.

Proactive environmental strategy development: from laggard to eco-innovative firms

Purpose The environmental management literature has focussed on the analysis of the variety of strategic options with regards to environment protection, without providing an interesting detail of the transformation and change process between the different alternatives. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study pro-environmental change processes in firms, focussing on the width and the intensity of environmental measures implemented in a three-year period in different areas (productive process, product, management and supply chains). Design/methodology/approach Performing a cluster analysis based on a sample of 303 Spanish firms, the study finds four categories of pro-environmental change. Findings The comparative analysis of these categories leads the authors to describe the pro-environmental change process as one with four stages that firms can go through. The first pro-environmental stage focusses on process measures. The second stage focusses on the adoption of management measures together with process measures. In the third stage, the firm moves after including measures in the product and in the supply chains. Companies that wish to advance further in this process, reaching the fourth stage of pro-environmental change, do so by increasing the intensity of the different measures adopted in previous stages, and through eco-innovation. Research limitations/implications The main contribution of this paper relative to the previous literature is a more detailed vision of the strategic possibilities in environmental protection, providing information about the process of change and about how firms evolve to more advanced environmental strategy stages. Knowledge of this evolution process, little studied in the previous literature, helps us to understand the complexity and strategic significance of adopting environmental protection measures. This knowledge is useful for academics and for public and private managers responsible for designing and developing environmental strategy. Originality/value One of the most original findings of this paper points out that it is possible to identify a pattern of environmental change through which firms can evolve. In this change process, firms start by adopting process measures, while they adopt eco-innovation behaviour only in the most advanced stage of environmental proactivity.

Policies for the setting up of alternative energy systems in European SMEs: a case study

Abstract SMEs—which provide two-thirds of all jobs in the European Union—have proven to be particularly dynamic vehicles for innovation so they must be given easy access to available advanced energy systems. In this scenario, renewable energies represent the most adequate resource to supply SMEs, included in rural areas, assuring continuity and without dependence to the fluctuations of energy market. SMEnergy project results have to be taken into account because the project, specially designed for the Spanish Region of Aragon, can be implemented to specific European Areas needs and integrated at a wider key synergy’s project.

MEDIOAMBIENTE E INNOVACIÓN EN LA EMPRESA ESPAÑOLA: REDUCIENDO DISTANCIAS ENTRE LOS ACADEMICOS Y LA EMPRESA

Recent decades have witnessed an increase in the number of eco-innovative solutions which improve the environmental performance of firms whilst also helping them remain competitive. However, the implementation of eco-innovation in Spain has faced certain difficulties, and the number of eco-innovations being put into practice is limited. This paper conceptualises eco-innovation processes, in order to assist their adoption by firms. Also, the most relevant obstacles and incentives to eco-innovation are analysed, as well as the specific capacities and changes that eco-innovation involves for the firm.

Human capital in the eco-innovative firms: a case study of eco-innovation projects

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain the influence of human capital (HC) on the organizations in terms of eco-innovative entrepreneurship, and the existing relations of these resources with economic and financial resources as well as other capabilities of the firms. A secondary challenge in the research is to define and measure the availability of HC in firms for those eco-innovative processes. Design/methodology/approach The targeted population for the study was eight eco-innovative companies in Spain. Within each company, a detailed CEO questionnaire was collected to measure HR information, certification or the existence of internal initiatives to promote eco/innovation, and secondary source records to measure economic and financial performance. This data collection strategy eliminated the possibility of percept-percept bias, since the data for each stage of the model were collected from different sources. The database has been analyzed through a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). Findings The main conclusion from the QCA analysis indicates that the role of the specialized HC involved in the R&D and innovation activities, the environmental management of firms and the resources (energy) management are relevant factors in the eco-innovative process and they have to be specifically managed for the development of eco-innovations. The qualitative analysis shows that firms that devoted specialized HC to the eco-innovation activities are companies at least ten years old, which have R&D and innovation departments as well as a specific department for the environmental management. They have been certified through some environmental certification standards, have human resources devoted to the product design, promote entrepreneurship for innovation among their own employees and also have higher than the sector average rates of leverage. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of this paper is linked to the number of analyzed study cases, although all of them are sufficiently representative. Nevertheless, given that the empirical research addressing the interrelated factors of eco-innovation and HC is still not abundant, this study provides an interesting starting point for discussion and the improvement of the qualitative method applied in this paper. Moreover, further research is still needed to fully elucidate how the corporate entrepreneurship is promoted to respond to the eco-innovation strategy of firms, as well as to deeply explore the characteristics of the intellectual capital concerned to the eco-innovation processes. Originality/value As a novel application, the influence of HC in organizations in terms of eco-innovative entrepreneurship has been analyzed through the measurement of the level of HC specifically devoted to eco-innovation in eight eco-innovative companies. One of the contributions of this study is to define the variables to measure the HC that is available for eco-innovation in an eco-innovative firm. The main conclusions are of interest to practitioners concerning the eco-innovation development in firms.

What are the preferences in the development process of a sustainable urban mobility plan? New methodology for experts involvement

Sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMP) have been trying to solve mobility issues by identifying suitable measures to be implemented according to citizens behaviour and their expected impact. With the aim of improving the actual process of urban mobility development, here it is presented a new methodology, the mutual learning workshop (MLW). This methodology is specially designed to facilitate the joint work of experts advising SUMPs development. A total of 4 MLW were organised and 12 different urban mobility topics were approached. Discussion processes were moderated by experts in urban mobility from nine countries, who were leading the worktables and role playing activities. Using such methodology, the results of the 36 topics discussion and 12 role play activities are presented as important topics detected in the development of SUMPs and best practices found throughout Europe.