An eco-innovation process is proposed to identify and select at a strategic level and with limited time and resources eco-innovative R&D projects for complex industrial systems. First, an eco-ideation stage is performed with a multidisciplinary working group. Then the group qualitatively assesses the projects with a multicriteria approach that takes into account the individual expertise on each topic. An application is proposed on complex electrical substations. It is further validated according to its ability to generate R&D ideas in terms of their quantity, quality, variety and novelty.