Environmental impact bonds as a transformative policy innovation

Frames and frictions in the construction process of the Nutrient-EIB

Bibliographic Data

ID6057940
AuthorsOlli Tiikkainen (0000-0002-8799-8699), Matti Pihlajamaa (0000-0002-6656-1906), Maria Åkerman (0000-0001-6895-3375)
Year2022
Volume45
Pages170-182
Publication date2022-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental Innovation and Societal Transitions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2210-4224 • E-ISSN: 2210-4232
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.eist.2022.10.006
OpenAlexW4308345464
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited55

Impact bonds have emerged as a policy innovation with the potential to change public policies towards being more outcome-based and pre-emptive – and more effective in answering sustainability challenges. This financial instrument has been used for social problems and only recently for environmental issues. One example is the Nutrient-EIB (environmental impact bond) which is in preparation to be implemented in Southwest Finland. We study involved stakeholders’ framings of the Nutrient-EIB's potential for solving problems of eutrophication of the Baltic Sea and the lock-in situation of recycled fertiliser development. Based on stakeholder interviews, we identify three interpretative frames: applying the impact investing logic, challenging agri-environmental policy, and extending experimental policy-making. We recognise frictions between the frames regarding the required knowledge base and scale. We discuss how visions of transformative outcomes may challenge each other and what kinds of barriers transformative policy innovations may face

Business · Economics · Environmental resource management · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Stakeholder · Sustainability · Transformative learning · Vision · Community Development and Social Impact · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Public-Private Partnership Projects · Ecology

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