This paper discusses the need for a Canadian clean innovation policy agenda to focus on organizational and institutional innovations within the public sector. The paper provides an introduction to innovation policy and how innovation can be directed to promote environmental sustainability. It then discusses the pitfalls that can lead to government failure in attempts to promote technological change. It then lists key institutional design principles to produce effective public-sector organizations capable of fruitfully engaging with the private sector to promote sustainability while avoiding the pitfalls discussed earlier. The article concludes by calling for further case-study research on how good institutional designs are achieved and what institutional designs best fit the Canadian context.
The paper begins with some basic innovation definitions and quickly reviews evidence of the relatively weak innovation performance of Canadian business.
History is replete with evidence that innovation can improve our lives in some circumstances and devastate them in others.
Municipalities can play an important role in promoting sustainable development by pricing services correctly.
Canada faces environmental problems that threaten stock of natural capital— endowment of natural resources such as water, forests, land, and atmosphere—and the flow of goods and services that natural capital generates, known as ecosystem services.