Sustainovation

Today I came across an interesting video from the TEDx conference in Warsaw two weeks ago, where Sebastian Straube presents a recent study designed to promote sustainable innovation processes in the private sector.

Based on the open innovation model that advocates a collaborative approach to innovative technology instead of the closed system of exclusive research, production, marketing and distribution of new technologies, he has supervised a study on how this can be related to sustainability.

He presents some results of this “sustainovation” study (excerpt here) , such as a Europe-wide survey in which companies were asked how sustainability was incorporated in their business strategy. The results were:

- Environmental technology Innovations: 42% (energy & resource efficiency; CO2 reduction)

- Catalytic Innovations: 28% (societal benefits created by focusing investment on simpler solutions that serve a broader audience instead of increasing sophistication for a selected audience)

- Bottom –Of-Pyramid Innovations: 13% (serving needs of 4 billion people living on less than $2/day)

- Cradle to Cradle Innovations: 12% (closed material cycles-> 100% recycled)

I found it especially nice to have this overview in terms of the specific trends, as it gives an impression of the potential that businesses can carry when it comes to contributing to sustaining our planet and people.Of course it is only a short glance onto the study and as the actual study costs 129 Euros, one can only hope and guess that more explanations or at least references to issues such as the connections between cradle-to-cradle technology development and catalytic innovation are touched upon. Because what is the use of a magazine that is completely recyclable (btw: what about the CO2 emissions of “sending it back to the producer?”) if it simply too expensive for the average consumer… Well, in the end you see, at least its another little video to get you thinking about this stuff ….

Here the actual video: