Measuring ‘Sustainable’ Innovation in Greece: A Patent Based Analysis

Abstract

This paper is the first attempt to measure ‘sustainable’ innovation in Greece. ‘Sustainable’ innovation is a critical dimension of sustainable development and a process where sustainability considerations, such as environmental, social, financial, are integrated into the generation of new ideas, leading to new R&D and to new commercialisation. This applies to products, services and technologies, as well as new business and organisation models. This paper focuses on the environmental considerations of ‘sustainable’ innovation, namely innovation that aims at reducing impacts on the environment, achieving a more efficient and responsible use of natural resources, saving energy, promoting ecological building, contributing to sustainable agriculture, etc. Patent data has been used for the measurement of ‘sustainable’ innovation in Greece. The analysis shows that Greek innovation follows the existing industrial pattern, which is characterized by its traditional orientation. The majority of new technologies and probable innovations are related to chemicals, the construction industry and the agricultural sector. Almost the 15% of patents could be directly linked to ‘sustainable’ innovation, focusing on the optimization of the exploitation of natural resources. On the contrary we have no patents in ‘sustainable’ agriculture. Deepening our analysis it can be shown that Greek inventors develop patents aiming at the saving of energy in buildings. Greece faces very severe structural and fiscal problems, while is now discussing its new development agenda. This paper could contribute to this discussion, particularly to this part of policy which is related to environmental issues and related measures.