Organisations, environmental management and innovation

In recent years, people are more preoccupied by the problematic of the environment with climate change, global warming and then it introduces a new way of thinking, consuming and living. For example, there’re the eco-friendly trend, eco-conception, plastic bashing, … that’s why I choose the course “Organisations, environmental management and innovation”.

This course focus on the development of environmental issues and innovations by many organisations that are aware of their environmental connections and responsibilities, and then have significant impacts on the environment. So, it presents examples of how organisations have tried to develop, adopt, adapt to or even ignore innovations related to environmental management. Then, keys questions are included in this course like:

- How do we understand innovation in relation to environmental management?
- What kinds of innovations are organisations using in relation to environmental management?
- What are the external and internal drivers for innovative environmental management in organisations (e.g. legislation, costs, leadership, learning, public pressure)?
- What practices does an innovative organisation engage in with respect to environmental management?

I – Reflecting on organisations

First what’s an organisation in this course?

The term of organisation according to the OED (2014) mean, “an organised body of people with a particular purpose [such] as a business, government department, charity”. This definition offers an insight into organisations irrespective of their size, location and type. Then, it suggests that organisations are, fundamentally, about three or more people engaging in some kind of organised activity for an agreed and mutual purpose.

If organisations are based on a group of people organised for an agreed purpose, determining this purpose becomes central to understanding the structure and the way that organisation might act, including the implication for innovation and environmental management. There are different kinds off organisations and then many different purposes. There’s often some tension encountered between the individual working and the organisation but in principle, the purpose of all organisations is to make profit. For some of them is to affect public interest in the form of governance like the local authority or regulator and some organisation just fulfil an identified need that is non-profit-making like social group, charity or non-governmental organisation.