Hold on a minute
Really interesting article, however there are two issues I'm struggling with:
- the shift from profit/productivity to innovation -- innovators aren't necessarily creating productivity, so the dramatic intro is actually quite unrelated to the rest of the article.
- the chill effect of regulation -- it's an old saw, but is there actual evidence of that? It sounds pretty logical with those examples, but US food safety as described in The Jungle really did need regulation, didn't it?
Regulation simply can't be dismissed out of hand.
How about the opportunities such a framework would create for green-minded innovators? Big companies may have an advantage with the administrative aspects, but they aren't any more apt at green innovation than anybody else, really. In fact, regulation creates rewards for innovation in this specific field.
And we've all seen that in our companies: until an energy-efficient approach is made part of the cost of doing business, it'll never get priority. External pressure can change that order of priority.
So while I agree with many of the issues raised in this article, I differ in my conclusion: let's get the right framework, and the right enforcement.