admin Perpetually fuelling the fire of innovation is the uncontested key to unlocking success in the industry. Brands that live and breathe this philosophy have registered its myriad fruitful benefits. However, given the growing need to become more environmentally conscious, we must remember that sustainability is equally critical to make a difference in the market today.
Sustainable innovation becomes an important aspect of business ideation at this juncture. This implies that brands no longer must think about different campaigns that showcase their ingenuity, but they must also work ardently to make these campaigns more sustainable and conscientious. In the contemporary times, the inseparable bond between business innovation and sustainability has thus become apparent. Brands that deny the importance of this seminal connection are bound to face the ill-effects of such negation.
What is Sustainable Innovation?
The concept of sustainable innovation is quite elementary. It refers to the same traditional ideation procedures that create innovative products, services, and campaigns, but with an added sense of concern for scarce resources and the environmental tool of such procedure. In other words, it simply refers to business innovation that’s driven by an environmental and social consciousness.
The environmentally aware designs and practices of a business invariably help achieve economic growth while simultaneously ameliorating the harmful effects of such practices on our ecosystem. Businesses are becoming more attuned to the doctrine that they must be able to use the scarce resources of the ecosystem in a much more judicious manner in order to secure those reserves for the future generations. This has in-turn become the cornerstone of sustainable innovation that’s guiding business models in the current era.
Sustainable Innovation is Changing the World of Business
The disruptive capacities of sustainable innovation cannot be doubted for even a brief moment of time. With a large-scale adaption of this principle across the business domains, we have witnessed a corresponding change in the very nature of brands and what they have to offer. Sustainable innovation has altered the market landscape and with it a brand’s approach to growth in the following ways:
- Creating Better Business Models
With the incorporation of sustainable innovation strategies, brands have been able to curate better business models that are much more streamlined and effective. Since the focus of innovative sustainably is invariably upon the reduction and recycling of waste materials, brands that have opted for this strategy have minimized wasteful excesses and embraced a more streamlined approach to business development and growth. With such improved processes dominating the market it has become almost next to impossible for large corporations to defend the existing status quo. They too have been forced to embrace this changing wave of sustainability.
- Satiating Evolved Customer Demands
One of the core factors that has contributed towards the popularity and acceptance of sustainable innovation in the market is the change it has ensued in the hearts and minds of the consumers. Consumers today are more likely to purchase from brands that believe in sustainability. As highly informed and conscious individuals, consumers today are much more concerned about connecting with brands that align with their own values- whether it is in terms of fair and ethical labor practices or environmentally conscious business processes. Thus, with a change in consumer attitudes, a corresponding change in businesses is almost impossible to resist.
- Making the World of Business a Collaborative One
Another way in which sustainable innovation has transformed the market is that it has contributed towards making cross-industry collaborations not only necessary but also easy. As a concept that needs the support and help of others, sustainable innovation has ensured that the value of its strategies can only be unlocked with cross-industry collaborations, thereby changing ‘value chains’ into ‘value webs’.
Instances of Sustainable Innovation
- While the market is teeming with such examples, here are a few that have been the most conspicuous and revolutionary in the recent past:
- The production of carbon-neutral plastics has been undertaken by industries all over the world to reduce the use of traditional plastic that takes years to decompose and is harmful for the environment.
- The Green Building Initiative has instituted new, environmentally conscious standards of constructing and repairing new and old buildings.
- The PowWow mobile app has been developed as a result of sustainable innovative strategies and is known for notifying farmers of their excess water and electricity usage. This helps prevent wastage as well as seal leaks as soon as the problem starts.
- The Fitbit like app Joro, measures your carbon consumption and analyzes your relative carbon impact. It also suggests ways of reducing your carbon footprint.
Sustainability is undoubtedly the only way forward. Given the rapid environmental decline of the present day, we ought to take these business practices quite seriously. Although most brands are trying to embrace these practices, there are still a few who have been unable to adopt them holistically. However, both the time to innovate and help save the environment is now, and we must take stock of this moment as soon as possible!
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