Eco-innovation refers to any innovation that limits the use of natural resources and reduces the exposure of harmful substances into the environment within a whole life-cycle. Since Greece has multiple islands it is important to monitor climate changes and intensive ecosystem pollution because these environmental issues will have a greater impact. This is why Greece has focused on eco innovations and renewable energies. Solar, wind, and hydropower are a few renewable energies sources that have been implemented. While Greece does use these renewable energies, in 2018 it only scored 75 on a EU average of 100 in terms of eco-innovation performance. The country continues to reach the EU’s average for eco-innovation performances, which is a score of 82. I was quite surprised to learn this as I saw multiple solar panels on buildings as well as multiple wind turbines on different islands I traveled to in Greece. This made me think that they were a more renewable energy friendly country. However Greece was ranked 25th overall globally on the environmental performance index. The EPI states that the country’s air quality, fish stocks and GHG emissions intensity are all averagely ranked. Greece is faced with many challenges including destruction of coastal zones, loss of biodiversity in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems, transportation air emissions, electricity power stations, and overexploitation of its water resources. The region of Thessaly is the main area where overexploitation of groundwater resources occur. Within Thessaly region high levels of energy and water are used for agricultural irrigation. Although there are many groundwater irrigation systems that run illegally and are not accounted for. I was surprised to learn that the bathing water in Greece was assessed as excellent. I just assumed since you can’t drink the tap water there that meant the water quality was poor. Waste is a major issue for Greece, there are many illegal landfills as well as illegal metal foundries that can be found within the country. However by reducing the illegal landfills there are still no proper facilities to remove the hazardous wastes. Personally I was unaware of how big the waste issue was in Greece. I read about how hydra has a major problem with waste and how they do not properly dispose of it. They burn the waste which releases toxic fumes into the atmosphere, polluting it. However I thought this was an issue only Hydra was facing, not the entire country.