Eco-Innovation Observatory

The European Eco-Innovation Observatory provides a comprehensive information source on eco-innovation in Europe for policy makers and business.

The Eco-Innovation Observatory (EIO) monitors eco-innovation activities in the European Union, both on the level of Member States and regarding specific markets and sectors. The EIO thus supports various EU activities, such as the Europe INNOVA Eco-Innovation platform and the Eco-Innovation Action Plan. The project team provides market and strategic intelligence that can enhance eco-innovation potentials of companies and generates concrete policy recommendations.

SERI is leader of the work on “data collection and analysis”, where SERI in cooperation with the Wuppertal Institute and the other project partners
• set up a comprehensive data base on eco-innovation in the EU27 countries on different levels of eco-innovation, i.e. products/companies, economic sectors and the macro level. This data base will be the empirical basis for the various eco-innovation briefs, country profiles and annual reports produced as part of the Eco-Innovation Observatory.
• constructed an innovative European Eco-Innovation Scoreboard from a core set of eco-innovation indicators, allowing for comparative analysis across the EU.
• analysed eco-innovation developments in various industrial and service sectors in order to contribute to market and policy intelligence.

The Eco-Innovation Observatory produces a number of reports, which are available from the EIO website:

• Annual Reports, which are the flagship documents of the Observatory.

The Annual Report 2010 focused on the eco-innovation challenge from an environmental perspective and discussed the key role of eco-innovation to achieve environmental improvements.

The Annual Report 2011 illustrated the economic benefits companies could generate through expanding their eco-innovation activities.

• Thematic Reports, focusing on specific areas of eco-innovation, such as Water Innovation and eco-innovation in the context of sustainable construction.

• Annual Country Profiles for each of the EU-27 countries here.

• An animated presentation of the key messages from the Observatory  here.