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Strengths from adopting green technologyBog'liq 34. FS-Green-TechnologyStrengths from adopting green technology
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Ability to meet strict product specifications in foreign markets: Manufacturers in developing countries
typically need to meet stricter environmental requirements and specifications to export their products to
industrialized countries than vice versa. The adoption of green technologies can help exporting
companies to gain advantage and market share over competitors.
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Reduction of input costs: Green technology can improve production efficiency through the reduction of
input costs, energy costs and operating and maintenance costs, which can improve a company’s
competitive position.
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Environmental image: Adopting green technology can improve a company’s environmental reputation,
which is crucial if other competitors and consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious.
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Ability to meet stricter environmental regulations in the future: Companies that invest in green technology
are more likely to be better equipped and ready for stricter environmental regulations as well as product
specifications that are expected to be imposed on them in the future.
Box 2: Transfer of green technologies
Technology transfer is not a passive, one-way process. To entice the transfer of green technologies from industri-
alized economies to the developing world, both supply and demand factors must be considered. On the supply
side, investors and businesspeople who participate in the transfer of technology seek an enabling environment
in recipient developing countries, specifically the capacity and infrastructure to support production and man-
agement and the regulations that encourage further development of green technology. On the demand side,
there must be local demand (pull factors) in order for green technologies to be successfully absorbed.
If developing countries want to embrace sustainable strategies for green growth, they must nurture the transfer
of green technologies by building technical capacity and by creating an institutional framework that enables
them to absorb, adapt and improve the transferred components and systems.
Currently, most of the green technology transfer is happening in the biggest emerging economies, such as
China, Brazil and India. But it is not entirely unidirectional. It also takes place between, within and across industri-
alized and developing countries in many ways. The most frequent transfer path is the straightforward buying and
selling. Additionally, there are also in-licensing and out-licensing agreements regarding potential technologies
and associated know-how and the creation of more sophisticated platforms aimed at developing, transferring
and using technology, such as joint ventures, strategic alliances and R&D services. Another transfer path is the
acquisition of knowledge of different technologies through specialized programmes, technical assistance, train-
ing and education.
Source: World Intellectual Property Organization, World Intellectual Property Report 2011: The Changing Face of Innovation (Geneva, 2011).
Available from www.wipo.int/freepublications/en/intproperty/944/wipo_pub_944_2011.pdf (accessed 05 March 2012).
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