News and events published on the EcoAP Community Platform

• Have you read the latest from EASME?
• Green Growth - the Nordic Way! New web magazine from the Nordic Council of Ministers
• NETGREEN Thematic Policy Workshops on "Maximizing resource efficiency throughout the EU economy" and "Eco-innovation and opportunities for the EU economy"

Designers and manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment have a new tool at their disposal for measuring the resource efficiency of their products. The European Commission's in-house science service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), has developed a methodology that can be used to identify the “hot spots” of energy-using products, meaning the points at which improvements can be made to make products more recyclable, or to reduce their environmental impacts in other ways.

Frank Geels is a professor of system innovation and sustainability at the Sustainable Consumption Institute, Manchester University, UK. He is also chairman of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network. His work focuses on “socio-technical transitions,” in particular the conditions that are needed for a true societal shift to sustainable production and consumption within planetary limits. He argues that eco-innovation is part of such a transition, but transition will not be a question of technology alone.

Ferry company Stena Line has found an innovative way of heating its 155 metre ship the Stena Danica while it is at dock in the Swedish city of Gothenburg – the company plugs the ship into the city's district heating network.