Green Edge — Turning Green Innovation into Sustainable Advantage at Alpina Domus

A four-round, advanced corporate-sustainability and competitive-strategy simulation set inside Alpina Domus d.o.o., a mid-sized Slovenian household-appliance maker in Velenje — €218M revenue, 7.2% EBIT, 1,180 staff, a full EU energy-label class behind the two market leaders, and 71% of its manufacturing power still drawn from the grid. On 4 March 2026 the EU confirms a tightening of Ecodesign and Energy Labelling effective in 24 months: 38% of SKUs (€83M of revenue) will become unsellable without redesign, and Alpina Domus has just lost a €19M white-label tender to a greener rival. Playing the Strategy Director, you have one planning cycle and a fixed, board-authorised €9.0M of green-innovation budget to convert into a defensible competitive advantage — not a compliance receipt. The simulation operationalises Čater's innovation–strategy nexus (technological innovation → green product/process innovation → environmental strategy → sustainability-based competitive advantage). Round 1: diagnose the position — name the binding constraint (product performance, manufacturing emissions, brand), audit the SKU portfolio against the new thresholds, place the firm on the reactive↔proactive axis, and weight the 46% white-label channel risk. Round 2: place the core bet — allocate the €9.0M between green PRODUCT innovation (jump energy classes, raise recycled content — differentiation, slow payback) and green PROCESS innovation (on-site solar, heat recovery, waste cuts — cost and Scope-2 emissions, low customer visibility), then pick a stance (reactive compliance, selective proactivity, full leadership) and an advantage thesis. The math rewards the product/process complementarity at the heart of the nexus and punishes both all-in extremes — a green appliance made in a brown factory, or a cleaner plant with nothing visible to sell. Round 3: commit under live policy uncertainty — the 30% clean-manufacturing subsidy is revealed as enacted, delayed, or cancelled and a ±€2.4M/yr carbon-border adjustment is confirmed or shelved; you go, phase, or hold the process tranche, decide how much of your case rode on the subsidy, hedge the carbon swing, and set pricing, with real-options discipline (phasing, hedging, conditioning) beating an all-in bet on an un-enacted policy. Round 4: defend the advantage before the board chair and a sceptical white-label partner — name what protects the edge against the imitability test (capability, scale, brand, lock-in), defend the threatened white-label channel (€41M at risk), and present the four-KPI scorecard. The simulation tracks differentiation index, cost position, emissions reduction and market share, and wires the five classic errors — compliance mindset, product/process imbalance, subsidy dependence, differentiation without defensibility, and the channel blind spot — directly into the scoring so that wrong strategies measurably underperform.