The concept of sustainable development were social, ecological and social aspects are to be considered, easily becomes something complex, and often seen from a reductionistic perspective without clear benefits. All human activity leads to environmental or social impacts. A environment to which we are totally dependent on for our survival.
But can sustainability be a key driver for innovation and design? We belive sustainability can be a important driver, and by using design as catalyst and a broad “toolbox” we focus on the possibilities that often lies “out of the box”
Current research also support this and shows that for proactive companies that see sustainability as a strategic issue, and has started a journey to integrate sustainability aspects in their organizations. They can be much more competitive than more reactive companies.
In the article “Why Sustainability Is Now the Key Driver of Innovation“published i Harvard business review there is several examples of benefits for companies to work more strategic with sustainability issues in their organizations.
But even if the organisation sees sustainability as someting important there is a lot of difficult challenges ahead. Questions like; how to develop a internal learning process that continuously takes in and produce new knowledge that is relevant for the organisation?
Like in the game “picking sticks” its important to have a steady hand and go for the right sticks to stay a head of the competitors.
