A life cycle–based framework for environmental assessments of eco-entrepreneurship

Abstract

In the 1930s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were developed as safe, non-reactive alternatives to toxic and explosive refrigerants and propellants such as ammonia, chloromethane, and sulfur dioxide. American engineer Thomas Midgley famously demonstrated these properties by inhaling Freon (CFC-12) and blowing out a candle with it. He was presented with many awards for his discoveries, such as the Perkin, Priestley, and William Gibbs medals. In today's jargon, CFCs might have been called an eco-innovation, because they provided solutions to several environmental issues. However, CFCs solved environmental problems by creating others. In 1974, Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina published their pathbreaking research that demonstrated CFCs were depleting the ozone layer. In 1989, the Montreal Protocol, which regulates a global phaseout of CFCs, entered into force. A few years later, in 1995, Rowland and Molina received the Nobel Price in Chemistry. The new substitutes for CFCs, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), have no known effects on the ozone layer but are extremely potent greenhouse gases (GHGs) and thus subject to the Kyoto Protocol.

Citation

Geyer, R. and DuBuisson, M. (2009), "A life cycle–based framework for environmental assessments of eco-entrepreneurship", Libecap, G.D. (Ed.) Frontiers in Eco-Entrepreneurship Research (Advances in the Study of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth, Vol. 20), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 53-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1048-4736(2009)0000020007