About the Innovations Review

Each year, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) surveys the landscape of environmental innovation in business. Our search is for the most compelling, and implementable, new practices and technologies—those that drive operational efficiency, create new business opportunities and carve out competitive advantages.

What we found this year is no surprise: That especially in these lean economic times, sustainability is business positive. From the Fortune 100 to the smallest start-up, U.S. companies are competing to be the most green.

EDF hopes that the Innovations Review offers actionable models, inspires further innovation and continually redefines what is "business as usual."

It is important to note what the Innovations Review is not: it is not a comprehensive inventory of all worthy initiatives. There are simply too many good ideas out there. Nor is it a list of "top green companies." The companies named could be coping with huge environmental footprints. However, the innovations they have developed represent a positive step in the right direction.

Details about the Innovations Review criteria, data collection, assessment and contributors are provided below.

We welcome your input, and most importantly, we want to hear what you are doing. We look forward to highlighting more innovative practices on innovation.edf.org.

 

Criteria

All innovations (business practices, systems, technologies, policies or products) considered for this report were assessed against the following four criteria:

Environmental Benefits: To what extent does the innovation generate one or more of the following environmental benefits?

• Greenhouse gas emissions reduced (e.g., carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide)
• Energy use reduced or efficiency increased
• Hazardous pollutant releases to air, water or land reduced
• Environmental health risks reduced
• Solid waste reductions, materials use reduced or efficiency increased
• Supplier behavior influenced, resulting in environmental benefits
• Natural resources (land, water or wildlife) protected or restored
• Employee or consumer behavior influenced, resulting in environmental benefits

Business Benefits: To what extent does the innovation present a solid business case and generate one or more of the following business benefits?

• Cost savings
• Increased revenues or earnings
• Reduced liability or risk
• Return on investment/payback period
• Market creation
• Investment attractiveness
• Employee retention or recruitment
• Benefits for customers
• Brand/reputation enhancement

Replicability: Is the innovation ripe for wider replication? Factors include:

• Applicability to more than one business sector or in wide-reaching business areas, like retail, manufacturing or office environments
• Commercial availability
• Stage of development (at least tested at the pilot stage and ready to be taken to scale)

"Innovativeness":

• Is the innovation original or does it provide a new twist on an existing practice?
• Is it not yet in widespread use?
• Has it yet to be widely discussed and documented?

 

Data Collection

The EDF team completed exhaustive research to uncover a wide range of environmental innovations. We explored specific industries and issue areas, as follows:

Research Categories

Industries	Issue Areas
Agriculture Construction & real estate Financial services Food & beverage Hospitality Media & entertainment Mining & forestry Retail Telecom & IT Transportation Utilities	Chemicals & green chemistry Data centers E-waste Green building Packaging Renewable energy Supply chain management Water

Nearly 200 innovation candidates were gathered through a three-step data collection process:

• Expert interviews: In-depth interviews were conducted with more than 100 academics, sustainability consultants, entrepreneurs, industry analysts, key Environmental Defense Fund staff and other experts.
• Literature review: We conducted a comprehensive literature search, covering trade press, published academic research, blogs and other online resources and industry and NGO reports.
• Call for nominations: The Innovation Exchange website encouraged submissions through an online nominations form.

 

Assessment

A three-tier screening and evaluation process, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative data, was used to evaluate the pool of candidate innovations based on the criteria established for this report.

Tier 1
The research team reviewed the nearly 200 innovation candidates gathered through the data collection process for environmental benefits, business benefits and replicability. Those that failed to meet these basic criteria did not move to Tier 2.

Tier 2
We collected more data on the remaining innovation candidates to answer questions brought up during the Tier 1 assessment and to continue to assess environmental benefits, business benefits and replicability. Questionnaires were collected and/or additional interviews were conducted with the companies involved with each potential innovation. Additional third-party sources were consulted to verify and expand upon preliminary data. An internal EDF review committee assessed a list of semi-finalists with a focus on "innovativeness" relative to current best practices and the potential for greater impact. Those that best met all criteria moved on to Tier 3.

Tier 3
A preliminary slate of innovative ideas was sent to the external Advisory Committee for review. Additional information was then gathered to address remaining questions and finalize in the contents of the report.

 

Contributors

Experts consulted: Andrea Asch, Don Atwood, Wayne Balta, Dave Bennick, Bruce Bilbrey, Shelley Billik, Ken Brill, Anne-Leonore Boffi, John Buffington, Gail Chandler, Marshall Chase, Melissa Clack, Nancy Clanton, Robert Clarke, Julie Clugage, Reuven Cohen, Jordan Daniels, Rob Day, David DeFiore, Sylvester Egan, Craig Engelbrecht, Bob Falk, Betsy Fargo, Fay Feeney, John Finisdore, Tim Finley, Catherine Fought, Chris Fox, Marc Fox, Nicol Gagstetter, Dan Geiger, Dave Godwin, Megan Good, Steve Greenberg, Brad Guy, Craig Hanson, Sara Hessenflow Harper, Erika Herz, Ted Huang, J. William Hudson, Lara Hussein, Emily Jaklitsch, Anne Johnson, Michael Jones, Jill Kaufmann Johnson, Jeffrey R. Keitelman, Mukesh Khattar, Harlan Lachman, Lance Laven, Drummond Lawson, Scott Leavengood, Clifton Lemon, Mike Lenox, Andrew Logan, Mychele Lord, Mike Lubberden, Doug Ludlow, Todd Lukesh, Diana Lyon, Sarah Mack, John Markel, Andres Marquez, Emily McAteer, Marilee McInnis, Alexandra McPherson, Terry Medley, Tori Miller, Jason Morrison, Michael E. Murray, Steve Murrow, Erica Naone, Sam Newman, Ken Nigro, Bruce Nordham, Liz Ogbu, Ken Olson, Doug Parker, Mitch Peters, Tim Pohle, Tom Pyle, Ted Reiff, Dawn Rittenhouse, Thomas Rubio, Steve Ryan, Adam Saphier, Raj Sapru, Robin Schneider, James Schrack, Elizabeth Schueler, Bob Seese,. Shannon Sentman. Scott Shell, Elizabeth Singleton, Daniel Sisk, Meri Soll, Martha Stevenson, Rick Strawn, Wes Sullens, Pat Tiernan, Lindsay Tiffany, Bill Van Amsburg, Peter Paul van der Wijs, Jeanne Von Zastrow, Joe Wanninger, Doug Washburn, Frances Way, Theodore H. Wegner, Frederick Weston, Peter Williams, Frank Wong, Eric Wunderlich, Derek Young, Jim Young, Eva Zabey, Julie Zimmerman.

Staff contributors and reviewers: Greg Andeck, Cal Baier-Anderson, Mark Brownstein, Kyle Cahill, Richard Denison, Suzy Friedman, Jason Funk, Laura Harnish, Michelle Harvey, Andrew Hutson, Mary Kelly, Ron Luhr, Britt Lundgren, Laura Marbury, Jason Mathers, Margaret McMillan, Thomas Murray, Boris Popovic, Jennifer Pitt, Elizabeth Seeger, Elizabeth Sturcken, David Witzel.

Project team: Editor: Beth Trask, Website: Bryan Williams, Production: Julie Stofer, Graphic Design: Amy Braddock, Writing: Marc Gunther, Editing: Jocelyn Climent, Research: Eric Bloom (RMI), Maria Harris, Jana Holt, Daphne Medina, Cherlyn Seruto (RMI), Robyn Scrafford, Scott Walsh, Andy Wunder, and Bashar Zeitoon, Executive editor: Gwen Ruta.

Posted: 06-Apr-2009; Updated: 21-Apr-2009