The Determinants and Effects of Environmental Product Innovations

The aim of the Integrated Product Policy (IPP) is to promote product-related eco-innovations. These, in turn, depend on both support for the development of environmentally-friendly products and stimulation of demand for such products. However, it is companies that play the crucial role in the ecological optimisation of products as it is they who - during the R&D phase - determine the basic environmental characteristics for the product utilisation and disposal phases. This paper therefore examines the main determinants and effects of environmental product innovations, including several case studies of companies in the German manufacturing sector.