How can companies promote the use and diffusion of ESTs?

• Changing the process or manufacturing technique
• Changing input materials/Changes to the product
• Reusing materials on site
• Establishing a corporate or individual company policy on the use of ESTs
• Making information available to stakeholders that illustrates the environmental performance and benefits of using ESTs
• Refocusing research and development towards 'design for sustainability'
• Use of a life cycle assessment in the development of new technologies and products
• Employing Environmental Technology Assessment (EnTA)
• Examining investment criteria and the sourcing policy for suppliers and contractors to ensure that tenders stipulate minimum environmental criteria
• Co-operating with industry partners to ensure that 'best available technology' is available to other organisations

Encouraging the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technology is a longer-term challenge for a company that will draw on both the management and research capabilities of the organisation. For the purposes of engaging with the Global Compact, environmentally friendly technologies are considered to be those that are described in Chapter 34 of Agenda 21 as being "environmentally sound".

Important here is an understanding that this broad definition includes end-of-pipe and monitoring techniques, but that it also explicitly encourages more progressive preventative approaches, such as pollution prevention and cleaner production technologies. The aspiration of this principle is, therefore, towards clean technology where the function is to provide a human benefit or service, rather than concentrating on products, per se.