This book questions the way contemporary innovation processes develop and become embedded in territories. Drawing on 12 case studies aimed at fostering sustainable development and conducted by an experienced team of international scholars, a new conceptual approach to sustainable innovation is proposed.

Contents: Foreword: Sustainable Innovation and Regional Development: Rethinking Innovative Milieus Leïla Kebir, Véronique Peyrache-Gadeau, Olivier Crevoisier and Pedro Costa Introduction: Sustainability, Innovative Milieus And Territorial Development. Leïla Kébir, Véronique Peyrache-Gadeau, Olivier Crevoisier and Pedro Costa PART I SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION, GLOBAL ANCHORING OF TERRITORIAL PRODUCTIVE SYSTEMS, AND COMPETITIVENESS 1. The Territories of ‘Sustainable’ Innovation: From Local Milieus to ‘Responsible’ Communication: The Case of Photovoltaics and Sustainable Finance in Western Switzerland Christian Livi, Pedro Araujo and Olivier Crevoisier 2. Innovation in the Sustainable Renovation Sector in Île-De-France Leïla Kébir 3. Border-Crossing Sustainable Innovation Processes – German Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) in Green Construction Simone Strambach and Frederik Lindner 4. Living PlanIT and the Development of the ‘PlanIT Urban Operating System tm’: The Geographies of an Innovation Luís Carvalho, Inês Plácido Santos and Mário Vale 5. The Sustainable Water Campus in Leeuwarden: Towards an Anchoring Milieu or a ‘Hollow Term’? Miranda Ebbekink and Arnoud Lagendijk PART II SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT 6. Bairro Alto Revisited: Sustainable Innovations, Reputation Building and Urban Development Pedro Costa 7. Innovative Rurban Networks in Rome Marcello De Rosa and Ferro Trabalzi 8. Innovation in Sustainable Tourism Projects in Alpine Resorts Véronique Peyrache-Gadeau, Sarah Rutter and Jeannie Bélicard PART III SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION, ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING AND REGIONAL PRODUCTIVE SYSTEMS 9. The Great Basque Transformation Towards Sustainable Innovations Jaime Del Castillo, Jonatan Paton and Belen Barroeta 10. Atlantic Nautical Network: An Inter-Regional Organizational System to Promote Innovation in Support of Sustainable Development Bernard Guesnier 11. From Regional Production System to Regional Innovation System – Evolutional Changes of Suwa Industrial Region in Japan Mitsuru Sato and Yoshiyuki Okamoto Conclusion: Relaunching GREMI: A Scientific Trajectory Roberto Camagni Index

'This book makes several major contributions to regional innovation and sustainability research. Besides collecting very substantive cases, it provides an inspiring and generative conceptual framework. It argues convincingly that we have to move beyond narrow competitiveness concerns and embrace broader social, environmental and economic processes in their interdependence to better understand recent regional innovation trends. Thus, the term sustainability becomes much more analytical, and less normatively charged. The book deserves to become a standard reading in transitions studies, regional studies and economic geography.' --Bernhard Truffer, Eawag, Switzerland and Utrecht University, the Netherlands'This ambitious book is at the vanguard of the debate on regional development and innovation. It revisits the classical concept of Innovative Milieus to interrogate more capacious forms and modes of innovation and articulate new ways of thinking about regional development. Drawing on highly inspiring case-stories, it offers a thought-provoking and timely contribution that goes well beyond the classic innovation-for-regional-competitiveness paradigm. A recommended read for scholars interested in new ways to analyze, understand and explain innovation in and for regions.' --Lars Coenen, CIRCLE, Lund University, Sweden