Resumo

DIELEMAN, Hans. Cleaner production and innovation theory; social experiments as a new model to engage in cleaner production. Rev. Int. Contam. Ambient [online]. 2007, vol.23, n.2, pp.79-94. ISSN 0188-4999.

This paper discusses the concept of cleaner production and proposes a new model to stimulate cleaner production, in the first section the historical development of cleaner production is sketched. It is indicated that the approach gained much attention in the early ninety nineties, and generated an optimistic belief that cleaner production was soon to become a new practice within industry. In the second section the results of evaluation studies on cleaner production in Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand are presented. These studies indicate that the rate of implementation of cleaner production is much slower than anticipated in the early ninety nineties. Section three presents various innovation theories. All of them help to explain why the rate of implementation is slower than anticipated, each pointing at slightly different aspects of cleaner production as an innovation. In section four the various theories are combined. It is explained how processes within companies are interrelated with institutional arrangements outside companies, such as legislation, education and knowledge transfer. Based on insights the combination theories it is proposed to organize social experiments to stimulate cleaner production. These social experiments can be considered as a third generation model to stimulate cleaner production, following the demonstration projects as the first generation and the regional network-based approach as the second generation. The social experiment is not to implement cleaner production in the narrow sense but to confront actors more fundamentally with the consequences of cleaner production for their own standards and ways of working. It adds the element of social change in order to create a comfortable socio-technical cleaner production network.

Palavras-chave : cleaner production; innovation; innovation theory; institutional learning; social experiments.