Technology and the environment as business and competitiveness mechanisms

a study in Great ABC Region companies

Abstract

Due to growing challenges posed to more sustainable practices of solid waste management and pollution control, companies have modified their ways of acting and privileged the use of new technologies that mitigate the negative impacts of their productive processes on the environment. This orientation has led to a rethinking of the steps of the company’s innovation process with the inclusion of new institutional arrangements such as knowledge networks and partnerships that can function as a co-creative process. The combination of innovations and the environmental issue opens up a broad front of business opportunities and improvements in competitive business standards. Thus, the present article seeks to discuss the nature, implications and consequences of the use of environmental technologies by companies in the ABC region in the automotive, furniture, petrochemical, plastic, cosmetic and metalmechanic sectors. Based on the data collected through the application of interviews with professionals responsible for the area of business innovation, it is concluded that although companies have dealt with more sustainable environmental practices, they are not linked to internal processes of innovation, products and processes . Companies, therefore, have not taken advantage of the business opportunities that open from the inclusion of the environmental issue as a business practice