Unsustainability reduction in enterprises by incremental innovations implementation and management

Abstract

The concept and the word “sustainability” in relation to industrial processes and products have been so heavily overused, with too many different meanings applied to it (Aras and Crowther, 2009). Sustainability takes much more than simple problem-solving or some improvements in the existing consumption and production system. It needs a discontinuous leap from the existing level of actions leading to transformations where the reality changes its form. Even though reducing unsustainability is not the same as creating sustainability, it still makes great sense to prevent and remove the causes and sources of unsustainability; however, at the same time it should be recognised that this is just attacking the symptoms. In this context, reduction of unsustainability of industrial development may be considered as a process of continuous improvement of environmental, economic and social performance in industry. Such approach allows the specialists to identify particular process performance parameters that could be controlled and managed. Integration of sustainability management into the overall business planning is a very important aspect to be tackled because the efficiency of management systems largely depends on connections between the management systems and strategic/financial decision-making. Enterprises often lack explicit information about their activities, particularly reliable quantitative information on technological processes and various sustainability aspects. Moreover, the existing information is seldom systemised in a form suitable for effective decision-making. The main research goal was the evaluation and analysis of the performance of incremental innovations and their introduction in two types of management system (single-loop and cascade), providing continuous reduction of industrial enterprise unsustainability. The innovations developed and implemented by authors together with financing facility and companies' experts by using modified resource efficient and cleaner production (RECP) approach. The research method based on the performance analysis of 177 resource efficient and cleaner production incremental innovations implemented by the authors’ team in industrial companies in the period 1995–2015. To ensure effective decision-making aimed at reduction of performance unsustainability, a cascade management system based on three hierarchical levels (process, activity and strategic decision-making) recommended for use in the enterprises because it introduces the social component of sustainability, ensures involvement of decision-makers at all management levels and enables effective decision-making at different managerial and operational levels. The procedure for unsustainability management involves the compliance of enterprise's processes, activities, and strategic decision-making with legal and other requirements (life quality, etc.), new scientific knowledge, and stakeholder expectations, which all together constitute the system's input information. Decision-makers at different management levels were provided with feedback information based on the indicators of enterprise's sustainability performance. The material presented in this paper based on the authors' theoretical and practical research conducted in the course of different national and international projects.