Business innovation and sustainability go hand-in-hand. The evolution of technology and the demand for sustainable products and processes is becoming one of the main drivers of revenue growth and cost reduction across industries. Today’s sustainability leaders are 4 times more likely to be considered innovation leaders compared to those not focused on sustainability. Sustainable innovation finds ways to ensure resources. They aren’t used faster than they are replenished and limit the negative impact of business activity on society and the planet. This belief is driving innovations in all areas of business.

Three Ways Sustainable Innovation Transcends Ordinary Innovation

Compared to innovation in general, sustainable innovation is more disruptive, fueled by a better rationale, and is more collaborative. Sustainable innovation is disruptive because it can result in better business models, improved processes, streamlined resource flows, reduced waste and cost, and the creation of new market segments. Sustainability is also changing how consumers shop. A 2020 study from Deloitte found that consumers were buying less single-use plastic, studying the sustainability practices of the brands they buy, changing their eating habits, and even limiting their purchases. Consumers want to buy from companies that align with their values, whether it’s fair working conditions or climate change. Finally, sustainable innovation is more collaborative because it’s a cross-discipline concept. Companies must reach out across industries to unlock the value of sustainable innovations. It changes the corporate “value chain” to more of a “value web.”

Sustainable Innovation is Good Business

Sustainable innovation is good for business in many ways. It addresses consumer demand for sustainable products while limiting costs and reducing the chances of price shocks. For example, between 2016 and 2018 alone, UPS was forced to spend over $1 billion more on fuel, a key driver in its push to go electric. The result is a cleaner, healthier, fairer, and more stable world – a higher tide that propels economic growth across the board.

Sustainable innovation is just plain good business.

Moreover, ignoring the need for sustainability is becoming more difficult as consumers press from below and investors apply pressure from above. As this pressure increases, so does the market power of the sustainable business, with non-sustainable businesses ultimately being left behind.

Innovative Ideas for Sustainable Development

Sustainable innovation is happening all around us, and that is something to celebrate. Here are just a few of the many sustainable innovation examples taking place in the world today:

  • The Green Building Initiative (GBI) establishes standard best practices for building new and upgrading existing structures. The goal of this initiative is to make buildings more resource-efficient, healthier, and environmentally sustainable.
  • In-store supermarket herb gardens significantly reduce plastic packaging needs for fresh herbs. Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn started using them in 2017. Customers can cut their own herbs in the store and only buy as much as they need.
  • Introducing many types of sustainable plastics some are not made from petroleum like traditional plastics, and others use carbon-neutral production. Still, others are studying using waste plastic to capture CO2.
  • A green alternative to plastic cutlery, Bakey’s edible alternative comes in 3 different flavors—plain, savory, and sweet. They’re 100% natural and will biodegrade if not consumed.
  • AgMonitor is a simple mobile app that notifies farmers when sensors in their irrigation systems indicate problems. It allows farmers to monitor their own water usage data and identify pipe leaks or breaks right away. This way, they can avoid waste while maximizing crop yields.
  • Created by researchers at the University of Warsaw, B-Droid is developing robotic bees that can pollinate crops as effectively as their organic counterparts. B-Droid’s mission is to help boost the natural bee population by giving robotic bees more high-labor pollination tasks.
  • Joro is like Fitbit for your carbon consumption. It’s an app that sucks in your purchase data and analyzes it for its relative carbon impact. So that you can see how much of a footprint that you are leaving behind each day. It also has great features like the ability to immediately offset your flight once you purchase one.
  • UBQ just may save plastic recycling as it automatically transforms unsorted heaps of garbage into reusable plastic pellets that can be used to make a number of new products.
  • Developed by Daan Roosegaarde, the Smog Free Tower measures almost 23 feet high, sucks in polluted air, and cleans it via a process of ionization before releasing it back into the atmosphere.
  • Gates has funded Heliogen, which recently hit a new milestone. By using artificial intelligence to direct a field of mirrors to reflect sunlight to generate heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius (about a quarter of what you’d find on the surface of the sun). This means we can sustainably generate heat to manufacture.
  • We are still at the beginning of the electric flight. But Harbour Air’s e-plane has already flown the first fully electric flight.
  • An important aspect of protecting against the worst impacts of climate change is reforestation and protecting those green spaces still left to us. It turns out that drones can plan trees 150 times faster than other methods. And Dendra Systems has a goal of planting 500 billion trees!
  • One idea emerged in an IdeaScale challenge: ROCAPET. The recycling of plastic bottles and combining those with processed sand to make a new form of roadway material.
  • The Commission of Environmental Cooperation (CEC) recently collaborated with IdeaScale to implement a crowdsourcing initiative. That would enable youth aged 18 to 26 to submit their ideas to North America’s top environmental officials, meet with CEC officials, and receive $5,000 in project seed funding.
  • In 2015, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) partnered with IdeaScale to launch the Living Progress Challenge, which aimed to find out which software applications and digital services users would create to improve people’s lives. With hundreds of submissions to choose from, they choose four solutions and deploy them with the help of HPE technology and expertise.

Sustainability and innovation are natural partners because innovation is about making things better in the long term.

Business innovation and sustainability go hand-in-hand. The evolution of technology and the demand for sustainable products and processes is becoming one of the main drivers of revenue growth and cost reduction across industries. Today’s sustainability leaders are 4 times more likely to be considered innovation leaders compared to those not focused on sustainability. Sustainable innovation finds ways to ensure resources. They aren’t used faster than they are replenished and limit the negative impact of business activity on society and the planet. This belief is driving innovations in all areas of business.

Three Ways Sustainable Innovation Transcends Ordinary Innovation

Compared to innovation in general, sustainable innovation is more disruptive, fueled by a better rationale, and is more collaborative. Sustainable innovation is disruptive because it can result in better business models, improved processes, streamlined resource flows, reduced waste and cost, and the creation of new market segments. Sustainability is also changing how consumers shop. A 2020 study from Deloitte found that consumers were buying less single-use plastic, studying the sustainability practices of the brands they buy, changing their eating habits, and even limiting their purchases. Consumers want to buy from companies that align with their values, whether it’s fair working conditions or climate change. Finally, sustainable innovation is more collaborative because it’s a cross-discipline concept. Companies must reach out across industries to unlock the value of sustainable innovations. It changes the corporate “value chain” to more of a “value web.”

Sustainable Innovation is Good Business

Sustainable innovation is good for business in many ways. It addresses consumer demand for sustainable products while limiting costs and reducing the chances of price shocks. For example, between 2016 and 2018 alone, UPS was forced to spend over $1 billion more on fuel, a key driver in its push to go electric. The result is a cleaner, healthier, fairer, and more stable world – a higher tide that propels economic growth across the board.

Sustainable innovation is just plain good business.

Moreover, ignoring the need for sustainability is becoming more difficult as consumers press from below and investors apply pressure from above. As this pressure increases, so does the market power of the sustainable business, with non-sustainable businesses ultimately being left behind.

Innovative Ideas for Sustainable Development

Sustainable innovation is happening all around us, and that is something to celebrate. Here are just a few of the many sustainable innovation examples taking place in the world today:

  • The Green Building Initiative (GBI) establishes standard best practices for building new and upgrading existing structures. The goal of this initiative is to make buildings more resource-efficient, healthier, and environmentally sustainable.
  • In-store supermarket herb gardens significantly reduce plastic packaging needs for fresh herbs. Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn started using them in 2017. Customers can cut their own herbs in the store and only buy as much as they need.
  • Introducing many types of sustainable plastics some are not made from petroleum like traditional plastics, and others use carbon-neutral production. Still, others are studying using waste plastic to capture CO2.
  • A green alternative to plastic cutlery, Bakey’s edible alternative comes in 3 different flavors—plain, savory, and sweet. They’re 100% natural and will biodegrade if not consumed.
  • AgMonitor is a simple mobile app that notifies farmers when sensors in their irrigation systems indicate problems. It allows farmers to monitor their own water usage data and identify pipe leaks or breaks right away. This way, they can avoid waste while maximizing crop yields.
  • Created by researchers at the University of Warsaw, B-Droid is developing robotic bees that can pollinate crops as effectively as their organic counterparts. B-Droid’s mission is to help boost the natural bee population by giving robotic bees more high-labor pollination tasks.
  • Joro is like Fitbit for your carbon consumption. It’s an app that sucks in your purchase data and analyzes it for its relative carbon impact. So that you can see how much of a footprint that you are leaving behind each day. It also has great features like the ability to immediately offset your flight once you purchase one.
  • UBQ just may save plastic recycling as it automatically transforms unsorted heaps of garbage into reusable plastic pellets that can be used to make a number of new products.
  • Developed by Daan Roosegaarde, the Smog Free Tower measures almost 23 feet high, sucks in polluted air, and cleans it via a process of ionization before releasing it back into the atmosphere.
  • Gates has funded Heliogen, which recently hit a new milestone. By using artificial intelligence to direct a field of mirrors to reflect sunlight to generate heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius (about a quarter of what you’d find on the surface of the sun). This means we can sustainably generate heat to manufacture.
  • We are still at the beginning of the electric flight. But Harbour Air’s e-plane has already flown the first fully electric flight.
  • An important aspect of protecting against the worst impacts of climate change is reforestation and protecting those green spaces still left to us. It turns out that drones can plan trees 150 times faster than other methods. And Dendra Systems has a goal of planting 500 billion trees!
  • One idea emerged in an IdeaScale challenge: ROCAPET. The recycling of plastic bottles and combining those with processed sand to make a new form of roadway material.
  • The Commission of Environmental Cooperation (CEC) recently collaborated with IdeaScale to implement a crowdsourcing initiative. That would enable youth aged 18 to 26 to submit their ideas to North America’s top environmental officials, meet with CEC officials, and receive $5,000 in project seed funding.
  • In 2015, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) partnered with IdeaScale to launch the Living Progress Challenge, which aimed to find out which software applications and digital services users would create to improve people’s lives. With hundreds of submissions to choose from, they choose four solutions and deploy them with the help of HPE technology and expertise.

Sustainability and innovation are natural partners because innovation is about making things better in the long term.

Business innovation and sustainability go hand-in-hand. The evolution of technology and the demand for sustainable products and processes is becoming one of the main drivers of revenue growth and cost reduction across industries. Today’s sustainability leaders are 4 times more likely to be considered innovation leaders compared to those not focused on sustainability. Sustainable innovation finds ways to ensure resources. They aren’t used faster than they are replenished and limit the negative impact of business activity on society and the planet. This belief is driving innovations in all areas of business.

Three Ways Sustainable Innovation Transcends Ordinary Innovation

Compared to innovation in general, sustainable innovation is more disruptive, fueled by a better rationale, and is more collaborative. Sustainable innovation is disruptive because it can result in better business models, improved processes, streamlined resource flows, reduced waste and cost, and the creation of new market segments. Sustainability is also changing how consumers shop. A 2020 study from Deloitte found that consumers were buying less single-use plastic, studying the sustainability practices of the brands they buy, changing their eating habits, and even limiting their purchases. Consumers want to buy from companies that align with their values, whether it’s fair working conditions or climate change. Finally, sustainable innovation is more collaborative because it’s a cross-discipline concept. Companies must reach out across industries to unlock the value of sustainable innovations. It changes the corporate “value chain” to more of a “value web.”

Sustainable Innovation is Good Business

Sustainable innovation is good for business in many ways. It addresses consumer demand for sustainable products while limiting costs and reducing the chances of price shocks. For example, between 2016 and 2018 alone, UPS was forced to spend over $1 billion more on fuel, a key driver in its push to go electric. The result is a cleaner, healthier, fairer, and more stable world – a higher tide that propels economic growth across the board.

Sustainable innovation is just plain good business.

Moreover, ignoring the need for sustainability is becoming more difficult as consumers press from below and investors apply pressure from above. As this pressure increases, so does the market power of the sustainable business, with non-sustainable businesses ultimately being left behind.

Innovative Ideas for Sustainable Development

Sustainable innovation is happening all around us, and that is something to celebrate. Here are just a few of the many sustainable innovation examples taking place in the world today:

  • The Green Building Initiative (GBI) establishes standard best practices for building new and upgrading existing structures. The goal of this initiative is to make buildings more resource-efficient, healthier, and environmentally sustainable.
  • In-store supermarket herb gardens significantly reduce plastic packaging needs for fresh herbs. Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn started using them in 2017. Customers can cut their own herbs in the store and only buy as much as they need.
  • Introducing many types of sustainable plastics some are not made from petroleum like traditional plastics, and others use carbon-neutral production. Still, others are studying using waste plastic to capture CO2.
  • A green alternative to plastic cutlery, Bakey’s edible alternative comes in 3 different flavors—plain, savory, and sweet. They’re 100% natural and will biodegrade if not consumed.
  • AgMonitor is a simple mobile app that notifies farmers when sensors in their irrigation systems indicate problems. It allows farmers to monitor their own water usage data and identify pipe leaks or breaks right away. This way, they can avoid waste while maximizing crop yields.
  • Created by researchers at the University of Warsaw, B-Droid is developing robotic bees that can pollinate crops as effectively as their organic counterparts. B-Droid’s mission is to help boost the natural bee population by giving robotic bees more high-labor pollination tasks.
  • Joro is like Fitbit for your carbon consumption. It’s an app that sucks in your purchase data and analyzes it for its relative carbon impact. So that you can see how much of a footprint that you are leaving behind each day. It also has great features like the ability to immediately offset your flight once you purchase one.
  • UBQ just may save plastic recycling as it automatically transforms unsorted heaps of garbage into reusable plastic pellets that can be used to make a number of new products.
  • Developed by Daan Roosegaarde, the Smog Free Tower measures almost 23 feet high, sucks in polluted air, and cleans it via a process of ionization before releasing it back into the atmosphere.
  • Gates has funded Heliogen, which recently hit a new milestone. By using artificial intelligence to direct a field of mirrors to reflect sunlight to generate heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius (about a quarter of what you’d find on the surface of the sun). This means we can sustainably generate heat to manufacture.
  • We are still at the beginning of the electric flight. But Harbour Air’s e-plane has already flown the first fully electric flight.
  • An important aspect of protecting against the worst impacts of climate change is reforestation and protecting those green spaces still left to us. It turns out that drones can plan trees 150 times faster than other methods. And Dendra Systems has a goal of planting 500 billion trees!
  • One idea emerged in an IdeaScale challenge: ROCAPET. The recycling of plastic bottles and combining those with processed sand to make a new form of roadway material.
  • The Commission of Environmental Cooperation (CEC) recently collaborated with IdeaScale to implement a crowdsourcing initiative. That would enable youth aged 18 to 26 to submit their ideas to North America’s top environmental officials, meet with CEC officials, and receive $5,000 in project seed funding.
  • In 2015, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) partnered with IdeaScale to launch the Living Progress Challenge, which aimed to find out which software applications and digital services users would create to improve people’s lives. With hundreds of submissions to choose from, they choose four solutions and deploy them with the help of HPE technology and expertise.

Sustainability and innovation are natural partners because innovation is about making things better in the long term.

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