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To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5965.2008.01834.x Byline: PETRUS KAUTTO (1) Abstract: Abstract Although companies have been studied quite widely as political actors, the majority of this research has treated companies as a homogeneous group. This article inquires how Nokia, a multinational corporation, has anticipated legislation initiatives and how it has tried to influence policy development in interaction with industry associations and EU institutions. Author Affiliation: (1)Finnish Environment Institute Article note: Petrus Kautto, Research Programme for Environmental Policy, Finnish Environment Institute, PO Box 140, FIN-00251 Helsinki, Finland, Tel +358 20 490 2335, Fax +358 20 490 2382, email petrus.kautto@ymparisto.fi

Nanocellulose is an organic material envisioned to have the capacity to replace potentially harmful, non-renewable materials such as plastics. Before the material can be utilized commercially within the EU, its safety needs to be officially proven. This is envisioned to happen through the REACH chemicals regulation that controls the market entry of new substances. The regulation proposes concepts to support regulatory discretion and test methods to be used in risk assessments. While so doing, REACH puts forward assumptions pertaining to the critical qualities of innovations. However, when regulation is used to appraise radically new innovations, the assumptions need to be re-evaluated. Yet, analysis of expert accounts suggests that nanocellulose cannot be easily fit into the categorizations and analytical engagements that REACH proposes. For the purposes of a regulatory adoption, the problems are transformed into epistemological issues to be resolved through the incremental closing of knowledge gaps. Some of the key qualities of the material seem not to gain recognition in the regulatory realm that is in the making. At worst, the official strategy may create conditions for risks which the regulation is supposed to eradicate while, at the same time, hindering the development of plastic-substituting solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of internationally changing market conditions versus national innovation systems (NIS) for environmental innovation in a transforming industry sector, the Nordic pulp and paper industry. Design/methodology/approach – Based on several case studies of technological innovations in the sector, using data triangulation, crucial factors for environmental innovation are analyzed. The cases focus on bioenergy technologies in pulp mills and on new products from fiber. Findings – While NIS still supports the networks through which innovations are created, the formation of innovation markets is increasingly dependent on international developments. Environmental innovation is most likely to occur when momentum is created by simultaneous changes in private and policy-created markets. Environmental policies, increasingly originating at the EU level, have added the final impetus for bioenergy technologies, while for new products the policy effect has been smaller. Practical implications – National innovation policies must be designed to take into account the internationalizing influences on environmental innovation. Originality/value – The paper shows the continued importance of NIS in a low-and-medium technology sector despite internationalizing markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sheds light on the interaction between the European Commission and different stakeholders via an illustrative example, the preparation of a proposal for what is known as the EuP directive. The main aim is to inquire how a multinational Finnish corporation, Nokia, and related industry associations anticipated legislation under preparation and how they tried to influence the preparation process. Thus, it contributes to the discussion on the role of business in public policy. The paper is based on a combination of different data collection methods and it covers approximately the period from spring 2000 to July 2003. As a result, it highlights how industry associations, Nokia and some other major companies thoroughly reformulated the proposal using issue based strategies. Besides, it describes which venues Nokia selected for lobbying, and illustrates the dependency of the Commission on companies and interest groups as sources of information. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the focus of environmental policy and management is shifting from cleaner production at the process level towards greener products, there is a need for new kinds of policy instruments and initiatives. Environmental management systems (EMSs) and extended producer responsibility (EPR) systems are efforts to overcome the limitations of the traditional regulatory approach. In this paper, I illustrate how EMSs and EPR systems have influenced the emergence of greener products in three case companies. These case studies are complemented by results from a survey on design for the environment in the electrical and electronics industry. Both the case studies and the survey indicate that the linkage between EMSs and product development is weak or completely missing. Therefore, the mere existence of an EMS can hardly be used as a convincing indicator of the implementation of an environmentally friendly design process. The results regarding the EPR systems are more positive. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation of recently introduced policy instruments (RIPIs) is especially problematic, because only some effects have occurred, and information on them is imperfect Policy makers and the public at large are, however, particularly interested in early evaluations. This article examines problems with the retrospective evaluation of RIPIs, and explores the advantages of using intervention theories in these evaluations. Two case studies from the field of environmental policy instruments are used as examples. It is argued that when evidence on final outcomes is largely unavailable, an intervention theory is a useful tool to overcome information problems. By using intervention theories, it is possible to identify observable prerequisites that precede intended, but not yet occurred, outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]