A STUDY ON EVALUATING THE IMPACTS OF ECO INNOVATION CONCEPT ON MANUFACTURING ORGANIZATION IN SRI LANKA; WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ASIAN-AGRO (PVT) LTD

Abstract

In the face of today’s rapidly growing environmental problems, more attention has been paid in the past few years to eco innovative processes and sustainability practices aimed at sustainable development. The food industry uses more natural resources. It affects the environment, economy, and society not only during the life cycle of a project but also for future generations. Eco innovation is a process to help you develop and diversify sustainability business models that reduce social, environmental, and economic impacts as well as the impacts along the value chain. In Sri Lanka, eco innovation is a new concept. Under the UN Environment Program, they selected a small and medium-scale agri-food sector company named Asian-Agro (pvt) Ltd. Eco innovation has been implemented to reduce the impacts on their business model and there is no record of their recent situation. The researcher has studied this in depth using literature reviews related to all areas covered by eco innovation. A qualitative case study research approach was chosen to conduct this research. Finally, the data was analyzed with the content analysis method. A telephone interview was conducted with the CEO of Asian Agro Company to gather data. And researchers referenced the company’s reports and documents. NCPC is the authorized institution in Sri Lanka that guided them on this eco innovation project. The researcher also conducted an interview with their project coordinator and collected data. According to the objectives of the research, the researcher presents his research in detail from two aspects. Based on the data collected in the years after the implementation of eco innovation, describing the success of the eco innovation according to the improvements in the company’s triple bottom line due to the eco innovation and relating the transformation of the traditional business model into a sustainable business model due to eco innovation, the researcher has tried to present the success of eco innovation. Based on these improvements or positive impacts, the researcher has proved that eco innovation has been successful in this company and is effective for it. Apart from that, the researcher has suggested further improvements. The findings are applicable to any other organization that willing to adopt eco innovation. It also helps to spread the eco innovation concept in Sri Lanka. The researcher recommends the future researchers to try to conduct studies on the implementation of eco innovation for large scale companies and service sector.