SD Vision - Halyps Cement

4
Global
Environmental sustainability
for a higher quality of urban life
We need to work and invest with a sense of urgency for the sake
of our environmental quality and our international competitiveness.
As an international expert on sustainable
economic development and related
policies, Professor Sylvie Faucheux has
led for more than twenty years programmes of
economic research respecting the environment
and social equity. She has acquired a worldwide
expertise in the areas of eco-innovation with
more than 150 publications in English and French
on sustainable development and climate change.
She created and led the Center for Economics
and Ethics for the Environment and Sustainable
Development and Fondaterra (European Institute
for Sustainable Development). Sylvie Faucheux
is the editor of the International Journal of
Sustainable Development. She is President of the
University Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
since 2002, and Professor in Economics at that
University since 1990. She is also a Knight in the
Ordre des Palmes Academiques and Knight in
the National Order of Merit. sdVision has asked
to Professor Faucheux her point of view on ecoinnovation
as a key factor for the future of a
more sustainable world.
The economic recovery seems to be under
way, but slower than expected. In this
situation, many think that governments
and companies should focus more on their
economic than on their environmental
issues. Others think that the green economy
Interview with Sylvie Faucheux
President Versailles Saint Quentin University
might be the driver of future growth. What
is your opinion?
The green economy is the driver of the future
growth we need: sustainable growth which
recognizes that we are in the midst of a
necessary transition to low-carbon economies.
Whether one looks to an increasing scarcity of
fossil fuel resources, to the effects of climate
change, or to other factors, it is increasingly clear
that responsible governments and societies must
act now to change the basis of their economies.
Now is the time to make a virtue out of necessity,
something we have done very well in the past
and are well-equipped to do now as the skills
and technology of the knowledge economy are
brought to bear on the opportunity and demand
of the emerging green economy.
What do you think should be the role of
public policies in a perspective where the
green economy represents a key factor for
economic and social development?
Public policies are a key driver of green growth,
from eco-innovation R&D policies encouraging
collaboration between public and private sector
actors, to public procurement policies creating
markets for eco-innovators, and on to introduction
of performance standards which encourage
entrepreneurial balancing of people, planet and
profi t in implementation of eco-innovations. The