Earthenterprise Tool Kit - International Institute for Sustainable ...

EarthEnterprise Tool Kit
Because of environmental and regulatory pressures and scientific advances, a
broad range of innovative technologies is advancing rapidly. In order to
spark ideas for developing and marketing new technologies, this section looks
at many different market drivers.
To keep abreast of rapid changes and potential markets, entrepreneurs need to:
• Follow trends in regulations and standards, where markets can be created
or destroyed overnight. Governments change regulations for a variety of
reasons, among them lobbying and scientific evidence.
• Become familiar with international env i ronmental agre e m e n t s . W h i l e
countries enter into agreements for the same fundamental reasons they
make regulations, an international protocol or convention signifies both
broad international accord on a problem, and government commitment to
tackle it. The markets created from these agreements will be massive —
cutting across many regions and industries.The technologies developed to
comply with the agreements will focus on eco-efficiency, p o l l u t i o n
prevention, and sustainability.
• Monitor rapid technological advances, such as those now taking place in
electronics and photovoltaics. Technical advances, and reduced costs, make
new activities, products or services possible, thereby opening new markets.
• Watch for economic and social trends that are“pulling”the development of
sustainable technologies. These include higher, market-based prices for
many resources, and a move by governments away from regulation toward
the use of economic instruments and performance standards.
The following tools offer ways to organize or select from the vast range of
technical developments constantly under way.
• Technology trees, developed as part of the EarthEnterprise Project,
organize technologies into functional groups.(See pages 50-55).They show
which technologies should be regarded as competitors, which might be
especially promising, and which have the largest potential markets.
• Assessment criteria for technology opportunities help evaluate the
appropriateness of a technology for a particular market and entrepreneur.
Useful criteria include the state and timing of the technological
development, its physical and financial scale, its potential market size, and
barriers to entry.
• Characteristics of the technology that make it sustainable.
The question answered here is not “What are the winning technologies?”, but
“What are the techniques or tools for identifying winning technologies?" The
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