Green business opportunities

Paper in proceeding, 2011

The paper outlines a framework combining and connecting various answers to the question ‘what are the ways that a firm can leverage superior environmental performance to increase revenues or reduce costs?’ It does so by utilizing the idea that valuable problem-solution pairs correspond to opportunities and by describing why many environmental problems are ‘valuable’ problems. By connecting the various social causes of environmental problems with relevant literature on economic institutions, five general categories of ways that firms can appropriate environmental value are compiled and described. These five categories together constitute a framework that provides one possible answer to the initial question. They are labeled eco-efficiency, eco-branding, eco-lobbyism, eco-transaction design and eco-learning.