EMBED

Embracing Eco-innovation for Sustainable Development (EMBED)

EMBED was a proposal coordinated and submitted by Eco Innovation in April 2005 to the European Union Framework Programme 6. The proposal was not accepted at this time, although the evaluation was encouraging. Eco Innovation believes a revised version of this proposal has a potential for funding in the future.

Abstract

Sustainable development is now an undisputed principle, engraved in European and international treaties. Much more debated is what governance could foster sustainable development. No matter how well defined rules are, it is their context that gives them a meaning. Accordingly, ‘green’ rules don’t spontaneously get across. But what does ‘getting across’ mean? What is ‘translating rules into acts’? EMBED aims to test and demonstrate an approach of eco-innovation as a governance tool for sustainable development. The project gathers research teams from 11 countries. After a methodological consolidation drawing on three pillars (life cycle assessment, integrated institutional analysis, and social learning), the teams will investigate the barriers and potential solutions through case studies on selected eco-innovations. During a subsequent phase, dissemination activities are complemented with outreach ones targeting relevant stakeholders, and using innovative educational approaches. The last phase consists in exploitation and development of a selection of cases and in disseminating broadly the lessons drawn.