SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION

This isn’t about saving the planet. In all scenarios, eventually the Earth will be just fine. Over the past four billion years, there have already been five mass extinctions, and new life has always appeared. Nature can do without humans – but humans can’t do without nature. This is about saving humankind, in a liveable world.

Wrong metrics. Chasing GDP as the only KPI is something of the past. The debate about economic degrowth is radicalising opinions, when we collectively need to find innovative solutions: despite all the necessary efforts to reduce everyone’s footprint (individual degrowth), in current scenarios this will not suffice to match the global impact of a world population increasing until at least the 2060s (demographic degrowth being absent of political agendas). The main challenge of the XXI century probab

Innovation isn’t technology. Graveyards are full of exciting technologies that never made it to the market; this is because technology is often confused with innovation. To make an impact, sustainable innovation will be polymorph and typically combine technology, social innovation, nature-based solutions, new business models or novel financial approaches.

Sustainable innovation is part of the answer. Solving the tremendous challenges of climate change, biodiversity collapse and natural resources depletion requires a combination of political will, societal engagement, and financial commitment. Innovative solutions have the potential to unlock current status quos and bring breakthrough ideas to the table. This is specifically true in key sustainability verticals:

• There is no such thing as clean energy. All energy sources come with negative externalities: even low-carbon sources come with industrial risk, waste streams scope 3 carbon footprint, biodiversity impact, or socio-economic blowbacks. Unfortunately the sterile political debate, endlessly opposing nuclear and renewables, is shifting priorities away from where they should be: massively electrifying energy usage (mobility, buildings, industry) and decarbonising power production. At LGI our stance is clear: we need a mix of all low-carbon energy sources, and a radical shift away from fossil-fired, carbonated options, combined with increased emphasis on energy sobriety. And innovation has the potential to address all of the above.
• Mobility is an essential commodity. A conversation seems to emerge abou “demobility” as a means to decarbonise human patterns. Pushing this line of thought to an extreme would result in a world where human societies become virtual – like dystopic new dark ages. Mobility of people, goods and services is absolutely essential for an enlightened global village, and new solutions will be needed to enable low-carbon, low-impact transport, all the way from urban micro-mobility to long-distance air travel.
• Material resources are finite. Economies cannot tap indefinitely into primary raw materials and other natural resources. The Earth Overshoot Day, symbolising the time where our global footprint matches what our planet can provide in a year, is falling earlier on the calendar year after year. Solutions will need to come from circularity, sobriety and relocation.

Many if not most companies pursue one sole objective: to increase shareholder value. The “triple bottom line” (Planet, People, Profit) is still too often limited to impactless extrafinancial reporting (at best) or pure greenwashing (at worst). However, we believe the 2020s can be the decade of change: business models are shifting, impact is now a thing, and stakeholders want to become actors of change. Understanding this is the only way to work together on sustainable innovation without misunderstandings and smokescreens.

Humans are the heroes of their change. Last but not least, innovation cannot reach its expected impact if humans are not on board. Ambitious but clumsy change policies have led to massive backlashes – e.g., the Yellow Vest movement on socially-blind carbon tax in France, or the historic failure of a radical shift to organic farming in Sri Lanka. Engaging all stakeholders, including citizens whenever relevant, is the new innovation paradigm for systemic, sustainable change.