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Playing with Hyenas:Renovating Environmental Product Policy Strategy
Author(s) -
Vries Jan L.,
Riele Harry R. M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1162/jiec.2006.10.3.111
Subject(s) - product (mathematics) , environmental economics , industrial ecology , consumption (sociology) , economics , macro , product category , sustainable consumption , circular economy , business , sustainability , environmental resource management , operations management , production (economics) , computer science , microeconomics , mathematics , sociology , ecology , social science , geometry , biology , programming language
Summary The 1990s policy trend of intervening at the specification level over a broad range of products has ended. Today's environmental product policies focus, rather, on a few arbitrary product groups. Selectiveness should serve absolute environmental impact reduction, which asks for a rational product‐selection and target framework. The authors propose “life‐cycle impact per consumer expenditure” as a key criterion. This criterion helps to connect macro environmental impact reduction aims with product innovation targets, even under continuous economic growth, consumption pattern shifts, and rebound threats. The authors analyze the Dutch economy as an exercise. This results in 44 product groups, labeled “Hyenas” by the authors, that need to improve their ratio score drastically between now and 2040. Some magnitudes of desired change are given. Finally, intervention processes at the Hyena group level along the lines of sustainable transition management are proposed. Joint visioning, experimental portfolios, interaction between micro, meso, and macro change levels, and gradual pressure building are crucial elements in this concept of complex change management.