Eco-innovation in the context of sustainable development between 2000 and 2024

Abstract The European Union recognizes environmental sustainability and innovation as key drivers of economic growth, competitiveness, and environmental protection. To monitor progress in this area, the European Commission launched the Eco-Innovation Index in 2011, managed by the Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV). The index tracks the performance of EU Member States in eco-innovation, evaluates their contributions to sustainable development, and helps to identify best practices and lagging regions to support evidence-based policymaking. This study, conducted in connection with the December 2024 update of the index, analyzes the evolution of eco-innovation research in the scientific literature over the past 25 years. Using bibliometric analysis with the Biblioshiny application, the study examines data from Scopus and Web of Science to identify key trends and developments in the field. The results reveal the growing importance of the topic, the three periods of research, and highlight the most influential journals in eco-innovation research. It sheds light on the geographically fragmented collaborative networks among authors (led by Spain, China, Italy and Slovakia), and traces the evolution of thematic areas over time. It is clear that research should move towards more practical applications, as the theoretical foundations have been developed in recent years. These insights offer valuable guidance for companies, SMEs, policymakers, and future scholars by mapping influential contributions, emerging research directions, and potential policy applications. It is inevitable to keep an eye on the economic part and based on the literature we can state that economic development and eco-innovation should go hand-in-hand.