Industrial Transformation: Environmental Policy Innovation in the United States and Europe

Overview

The United States and European countries are experimenting with a new generation of policy approaches for combating environmental degradation. Industrial Transformation evaluates the effectiveness of twelve innovative voluntary, collaborative, and information-based programs, focusing particularly on the effectiveness of these programs in bringing about industrial transformation — changes in production and consumption structures that will help move their societies toward environmental sustainability.

The twelve programs analyzed have the potential to create incentives for industry leadership, stimulate beyond-compliance behavior, address environmental degradation not currently regulated, and encourage innovative solutions by involving a wide range of stakeholders. The programs — six in the United States and six in Europe — include Energy Star product labeling in the United States, R&D collaboration in U.S. Department of Energy programs, the U.S. Toxic Release Inventories, the EU's Eco-Audit Regulation in the UK, the Dutch Target Group Policy, and the German End-of-Life Vehicles Program. The comparative analysis of the twelve programs proves that these new approaches are not a panacea for industrial transformation. Taken together, the cases provide a range of experience from which to draw lessons for future policy design.

Theo de Bruijn is Senior Research Associate at the Center for Clean Technology and Environmental Policy at the University of Twente, the Netherlands.

The late Vicki Norberg-Bohm was Director of the Energy Technology Innovation Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.