Corporate Innovation Strategies

Introduction to Part 2

Since the beginning of the 1990s and the end of strong growth, States, driven by public opinion, have created many laws and agreements in an attempt to deal with the environmental problems caused by industrialization and urbanization. Prior to this period, nature was only of concern to a few idealistic philosophers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th Century, or the geographer Élisée Reclus in the 19th Century. May ‘68 was undoubtedly an important date, although it did not lead to a real political decision in environmental terms. Today, the environment is undergoing phenomena (hurricanes, floods, droughts, the melting of Arctic glaciers, rising sea levels, etc.) that threaten populations and businesses in all countries. Climate change and increased pressure on natural resources are increasingly leading to negative environmental externalities. Winston (2017) has identified a set of such externalities. For example, in 2011, Thailand experienced devastating floods that disrupted the supply chains of many companies, including Toyota, which could not be supplied with car parts and lost $1.5 billion in revenue. The same was true in 2012 in New York City, where Hurricane Sandy produced waves over four meters high and damaged an electrical transformer at Con Edison, plunging Manhattan into darkness for four days, costing the company over $500 million and other New York companies over $6 billion. One year later, Typhoon Haiyan – considered the most powerful ...