Recently, innovation processes towards sustainable development have received increasing attention in academic literature. This research introduces the combination of insights from innovation theory, sustainable development practice and small business characteristics to unlock new knowledge on factors that infl uence the translation of sustainable innovation within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into practice. The sustainability themes and activities as described for large companies (i.e. in the sustainability reporting and management literature) were used as starting point in this study. It presents empiric results of the PRIMA Project conducted within the rubber and plastics industry (RPI) on sustainable innovation activities.It will show that many sustainable innovations are directed at the improvement of technological processes (eco-effi ciency) and to lower costs of production. These innovations can be seen as incremental. Companies with sustainability integrated in their orientation and innovation processes show value creation: the development of products new to the market (radical innovations) and cooperation with stakeholders. The PRIMA project shows that more insight in SME innovative characteristics and (e)valuation of sustainable innovation efforts provides opportunities to improve the sustainability performance of SMEs.Nowadays, sustainable innovation has become the focal point to deliver evidence for the commitments of companies to the triple P bottom line. Recent literature on both corporate sustainable development and innovation focuses mainly on large, often multinational, companies. Because of this focus, they are overlooking the signifi cant contribution from small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). There are signifi cant differences in innovation processes between large companies and SMEs. Policies as well as theories and instruments suited for large companies do not necessarily lead to successful outcomes within an SME environment. Therefore, specifi cation for SMEs is necessary.These observations lead to the conclusion that there is a caveat in the literature on sustainable innovation processes within SMEs. To close this gap, the research objective of this paper is to gain more insight in the translation process within SMEs to put sustainable innovation themes and activities into practice. Here, insights from literature review are combined with empirical data to present answers on the why and how of the translation of sustainability into an SME context. This leads to the following research questions. (1) What is sustainable innovation and how is it different from conventional innovation processes? (2) In which ways are innovation processes within SMEs different from those in large companies? (3) How is sustainable innovation translated into practice within SMEs? (4) How can similarities and dissimilarities in practice be explained? Data for this qualitative study were derived from the PRIMA Project, 1 executed in January-December 2005 in the rubber and plastics industry (RPI). The...

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Executive summary and key recommendations FUSIONS (Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising waste preventioN Strategies) is a EU FP7-funded project running from 2012 to 2016, that has the ambition to contribute to achieving a resource efficient Europe by significantly reducing food waste across the supply chain through socially innovative approaches. To achieve this ambitious goal, FUSIONS focuses on the harmonisation of the definitions of food waste, on the assessment of different methodologies and information sources to collect reliable data, on the identification of opportunities to improve food use by developing and evaluating feasibility studies for creating a better understanding of the impact and appropriateness of specific social innovation options. Moreover it contributes to policy making at the EU and national level by identifying and analysing socially innovative solutions for optimised food use, including socio-economic incentives and improved legislation aimed at food safety and hygiene regulation, labelling, food redistribution, and awareness and education campaigns, based on the discussions and findings of the FUSIONS European Multi-stakeholder Platform.Based on the findings of the FUSIONS project, six groups of recommendations concerning policies, practices and effective approaches for food waste prevention and reduction in the EU-28, on both European and Member State (MS) level, are suggested. These recommendations and guidelines can support the development and implementation of a common European policy framework for food waste prevention. The recommendations are listed below. On defining food waste and developing a methodology for its measurement Recommendation 1.1: Establish a common framework for food waste definition.A major finding within FUSIONS entails the establishment of a harmonized definitional framework to measure and monitor food waste across EU-28. The advantages are manifold and deliver a baseline for progress monitoring and identification of hot spots for prevention and reduction measures. It support facts-based policy development as well as serving as a benchmarking instrument demonstrating successful endeavors to tackle food waste on MS and EU level. Therefore, the EC should adopt a common definition of food waste to be used by Member States as a reference for food waste quantification, monitoring and reporting. We recommend using the definition and related definitional framework developed within the FUSIONS project through careful and concise analysis and consultation, resulting in a flexible, encompassing framework, that allows for different perspectives in scoping desirable and undesirable destinations to fractions of food removed from the food supply chain. Recommendation 1.2: Establish a standardised methodology for data collection. The FUSIONS food waste baseline estimate study (published March 2016) identified the gaps and lack of sufficient, high-quality data to measure food waste across EU28. This largely originates from a lack of standardised methodologies used ...

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The information and/or data as presented in the underlying report are part of the project STV Actielijn 4 Spelregels veranderen (line of action 4: changing the rules) , commissioned and financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, and under embargo until