In its initial meaning, the term transition defines the physical change of state of a substance moving, for example, from a liquid to a gaseous state. It was then applied to the analysis of other types of systems: social systems (transition from an agrarian society to a market society), political systems (transition of communist countries to a market economy) and more recently to technological systems. The transitions discussed in this book relate to the field of sustainable development and its three pillars, which are economic, social and environmental. They are considered sustainable transitions or sustainability transition.

The year 2015 was marked in France by the promulgation of the law on energy transition (18 August 2015) and COP21 in Paris. For the first of these, its objective is to modify the impact of human activities on the environment (the stated objectives of the law on the energy transition are to make buildings and economic housing efficient in terms of energy consumption, giving priority to the development of clean transport, achieving zero waste and making today’s wastes tomorrow’s materials, continuing the growth of renewable energy, fighting against energy precariousness), and for the second, its objective is to limit climate change to a rise in global temperature of 2°C by the end of the century compared to the pre-industrial period.¹ These events question the implementation of structural changes (transition) that will make socio-technical systems respectful of the emerging and environment, and thus create a dialogue of innovations, technology, and environment, and reconcile man and nature, the economy, society and the environment. This is, in other words, to achieve a balance of the three constituent pillars of sustainable development to ensure sustainability of the implemented solutions.

Resource management practices, individual behaviours, organizations and other forms of groups, which structure the contemporary patterns of consumption and production, are tested here. The issue is the transformation of our societies to make them resilient, inclusive and sustainable. The challenge is matched only by the complexity of the subject and the abundance of literature that seeks to understand, analyse and to propose solutions.

When discussing the concept of sustainable development, a definition often put forward is “A [mode of] development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” according to Mrs. Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway and President of the World Commission on the Environment and Development, given in 1987 in the report Our Common Future (Brundtland report). What can be considered as “sustainable” is certainly subject to discussion, and the awareness of the need to establish immediately global solidarity, beyond intergenerational solidarity, appears increasingly strong. This process was initiated following a series of alerts. Economic alerts, such as the one initiated in 1971 by The Limits to Growth by the Club of Rome², taken in 1972 to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm where it was then a question of eco-development. Ecological alerts about environmental and climatic imbalances (acid rain, hole in the ozone layer, melting glaciers, deforestation, etc.), the multiplication of industrial disasters, Seveso (1976), Amoco Cadiz (1978) and Chernobyl (1986), Exxon Valdez (1989), and more recently Fukushima (2011). Social alerts related to health risks.

Gradually, instead of the opposition between economy, ecology and growth, a reflection on the relationship between these concepts and terms of sustainable integration of these three dimensions (economic, social and environmental) has taken place. It is clear that “our growth patterns are not sustainable given the resources and limits of the planet; we must go through a transition to rebuild our models and achieve sustainable development”³. The dualistic vision opposing economy, growth and ecology, environment, which still appears in the different transition scenarios [DAV 14], leaves room for the expression of other views of society. Systemic approaches to transition emphasize the fact that the structural changes that appear unavoidable today cannot be solely borne by the development of new technologies or the introduction of technologically innovative solutions, nor by the way of the market. Social models that are being redefined will be the result of multidimensional developments where economic, technological, sociological and environmental constraints intersect in a multi-stakeholders? co-construction process.

Beyond the simple greening of the current model of society, the ecological transition is based on two inseparable components: “social and societal innovation […]: the ecological transition implies the emergence of a new governance, new ways of acting, producing, new and more sober consumption practices that are built and shared by all the stakeholders to gradually build new collective references; technological innovation and research and development in the fields of organization and industrial processes: it is necessary to work on all the modalities to save natural resources and reduce environmental impacts. This is particularly the case for sectors with a low rate of infrastructure and equipment (production of energy, construction, transport, etc.) renewal, for which the choices of the next few years will be crucial to influence the long term trajectory”⁴. However, does innovation allow the achievement of environmental objectives cheaper and faster? Can eco-innovations form the basis of a new model of society?

The underlying assumptions for our purpose are the following:

• – The ecological transition can be increased by new technologies, but it cannot be reduced to this one technological dimension
• – Technologies are primarily social constructs and innovation is by its nature a systemic process
• – Energy, mobility based and agro-ecological transitions constitute an inseparable converging whole, carrying the same citizen social remobilization.

To address the issue of the relationship between innovations and transitions, this book is divided into three chapters. The first chapter aims to set the scene, both theoretical and factual, of the issue of sustainable transition and its necessity. In doing so, it shows that the structural change of a company can be analysed through technological, societal and institutional innovations. This applies to all the major social functions, that is to say socially structuring economic activities, which fall within “innovation systems”. Two of the major functions receive special attention, and these from the following two chapters: first of all the energy, then agriculture and food processing sectors. Not only are these societal functions vital to maintaining the human condition, but they are supported by combinations of territorial scale where tensions between the local and the global are expressed. In doing so, they invite us to question the “classical” models of innovation in the context of socio-technical transitions. We will seize the chance in each of these chapters to review the conditions of implementation of these innovations, but also the blocking and locking factors that hinder the success of the transition. The conclusion will question the territoriality of the studied processes and review the nature of the required changes.