The environment, innovation and industry: a case study of south Wales

To achieve sustainable development there is a need for policies to make the economic-ecological relationship a more positive coupling. This paper conc entrates on the part that innovation may play in helping to achieve sustain ability. The paper examines the sources of variability in firm innovation a nd size, regulation and sector are identified as key variables. Using surve y data the stimuli and the type of environmental improvements that companie s have made are explored. The results indicate that large, permit-based reg ulation and leading sector companies are nearly twice as likely as other co mpanies to have made environmental improvements.