AbstractsEngineering

This research is an analytical study of the introduction of a new non-governmental organisation’s innovation into a specific sectoral and national context. The study looks at this introduction through the analytical lens of organisations, institution and socio-technical theory. It combines elements of the multilevel perspective and institutional theory and proposes a scenario where the innovation is interpreted both as a niche-regime level innovation challenging an existing socio-technical regime; and as a proto-institution trying to institutionalise within a national socio- technical and socioeconomic sector. Green Buiding Council Denmark’s innovation is the DGNB certification system for sustainable building. The study presents a simplified scenario of the journey from the conditions prompting the creation of the DGNB as a proto-institutional innovation, to its potential institutionalisation in the Danish building sector, and suggests some of the defining characteristics, opportunities and barriers in this transformation and translocation.