Abstract
The following text provides a brief discussion of the development of new technologies and how they affect the environment. After explaining the effects, the focus shifts to response mechanisms, which the society has created, to limit the impact of innovations on environmental factors. These include both government responses, through the regulation of emissions, waste disposal, and the use of toxic chemicals, as well as public responses through defense groups, and the effects of each of them. Finally, the study evaluates how these response mechanisms affect the competitiveness of enterprises and nations as a whole and whether the increasing necessity for organizations to be "green?, is sustainable in a modern, capitalist economy.
