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The United States and European countries are experimenting with a new generation of policy approaches for combating environmental degradation. Industrial Transformation: Environmental Policy Innovation In The United States And Europe 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 US Department of Energy programs, the US Toxic Release Inventories, the EU's Eco-Audit Regulation as implemented 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 experiences 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.
"This is an important contribution to what is currently a very hot field. As an original (and sobering) analysis of the failures and shortcomings of important experimental programs, it provides significant evidence that needs to be taken into account by both the scholarly community and policy professionals in designing future alternatives to regulation."
– Norman J. Vig, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and Society, Carleton College
"This excellent book evaluates the 'new governance' in environmental policy. It compares the impacts of innovative policy initiatives in the US and Europe over the past decade. All of these initiatives sought to inject new dynamism into industrial environmental policy, by breaking with conventional regulation and emphasizing voluntarism, collaboration, and transparency. While the results are sobering, de Bruijn and Norberg-Bohm's broader conclusions are significant. Only by integrating new policy instruments with elements of coercion and obligation are such proposals likely to be successful. This important and timely book sets the standard for policy studies in the field."
– Frans Berkhout, Professor of Innovation and Sustainability, Institute for Environmental Studies, Free University of Amsterdam
"Industrial Transformation provides an excellent assessment of the need for change in public policies, especially regulatory policies. It gives us good case studies, in a common format, of several important initiatives. The distinctions between the sector- and firm-based approaches is useful, as is the combination of US and European initiatives. The book will provide an excellent resource for researchers and practitioners in the field, and should draw interest on both sides of the Atlantic."
– Daniel J. Fiorino, American University
"This excellent volume offers a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of new governance approaches in transatlantic comparison. It reveals the potentials and shortcomings of voluntary and persuasive instruments to achieve an encompassing ecological modernization."
– Martin Janicke, Environmental Policy Research Center, Free University Berlin
