The “economic–finance interface” for eco-innovation projects

• Eco-innovation can be implemented with all levels of investment.
• The in-depth analysis of determinant factors provides a basis for allocating financial resource.
• There is an “interface” between project results and the economic-finance structure of the concerned firms.
• Eco-innovation is focused on optimising resources, which generates not only environmental but also economic benefits.
• The economic benefits derived from saving resources are the most efficient way to convince companies to be eco-innovative.

It is widely accepted that eco-innovation is a feasible direction if we want to progress towards sustainable development. However, in many European countries, eco-innovation projects are currently not common because of the significant barriers to and the negligible culture of including eco-innovation in an organisation's strategy. In this scenario, the analysis of eco-innovation project determinants offers a new strategic approach for industries to manage sustainable innovation initiatives.A specific methodology has been developed for this purpose to analyse the main characteristics of 44 applied eco-innovation projects. The purpose of the methodology described in this paper is to define the “economic–finance interface” between these projects and the main characteristics of firms in which such eco-innovation has been applied and to provide guidance in the implementation of eco-innovation to align project management with business strategy.