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The Foundation’s first major initiative was the Pollution Abatement Technology Award Scheme (PATAS), at a time when end-of-pipe solutions were seen as the answer to environmental problems. In the eighties and nineties, industry began to see competitive advantage in producing innovative technologies that would avoid such problems at the design stage. Today, as information and knowledge become increasingly available on a global basis, such competitive advantage is seen as temporary, as the need for continuous innovation knows no bounds. Clearly, changes in technology can deliver real progress, but they can only ever be part of the solution. The impact on sustainability of some of the new technologies themselves is now being brought into question. Biotechnology is one of the most obvious examples. The Fourth Consultation identified the seeds of a backlash in the agricultural sector but, longer-term, some health care applications of genetic modification could prove to be even more controversial. Then there are the IT and communications sectors. Are we in danger of coming full circle, when end-of-pipe solutions to the problems posed by these technologies once again become the norm? Some of the questions to be addressed include:
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