There are two ways of looking at the current situation. Dread and fatalism when faced with the state of our planet. Or optimism and a profound wish to be part of the solutions yet to be invented, especially when it comes to guarantee people’s health and well-being. Sure, the situation is critical. News coverage and scientists are constantly trying to raise awareness, to jolt people into action. The reality of climate change and the threat it poses to humanity as a whole, combined with economical tensions and shaken democracies demand a reaction.
An outdated model
In this context, current models seem to have reached their limits. Purely technology-driven innovation pushed from the top by companies towards citizens appears increasingly obsolete. Especially in a post-digital-revolution world marked by social networking, digital tools, co-working and the generalisation of 3D printing and Fablabs.
There’s a need for more. A need for sense and ethic. A need for collaboration and co-creation. A need for ethic, transparency, traceability and accountability. This aspiration is giving birth to a new vision of innovation that is slowly seeping into every aspects of society: finances, economy, sciences, politics... Everywhere, from civil society to companies, ideas and experimental models are emerging, looking to reconcile progress and sustainability.
Emulating nature
Biomimicry, crowd-funding, cross-fertilization, local and circular economy are driving this revolution of sense, taking innovation to the next step for the greater good, without weighing on the planet.
With biomimicry, innovation takes inspiration from Nature to seek sustainable solutions to human challenges. Such as these researchers from Penn, who took inspiration from the onion structure to devise a slow release formula for drugs. Or the recent development by a German research team, of an aluminum composite material being considered for use in safety applications, inspired by thePummelos as a biomimetically concept of low weight structures with excellent Damping Properties.
“When we look at what is truly sustainable,
the only real model that has worked over long periods of time is the natural world.”
Janine Benyus, Funder of Biomimicry Institute
Cross-fertilisation also emulates nature and biology, based on the notion that importing and mixing ideas from different places, markets or people will help design better meaningful products and services. And it works! Look at the success of Hackathons, these creative events where people from various horizons meet to come up with an innovative solution to a problem within a limited amount of time. And they can be applied to any field, from food to cosmetics.
New ways to create purpose
With crowd-funding, the way money is raised to fund innovation becomes innovative in itself. And the trend is picking up speed the world Bank estimates that by 2025, amounts raised through crowdfunding will reach a staggering 325 billion dollar. This tremendous success speaks loudly of people’s desire to take part, to seize back the power to act and join a community supporting local, creative business that matter and make sense to them. A platform like Sowefund specialises in the participative financing of start-ups committed to change the world.
Finally, circular economy has become a great source of turning a constraint into an opportunity. What if waste was actually a resource? What if instead of throwing, we could recycle and produce new, innovative products? Sure, the idea is by no means a new one. But once applied to an entire economic system, sustained by new ways of cooperating, it becomes revolutionary!
What about the blue economy?
This concept, theorized by Gunter Pauli, founder of ZERI, is inspired by natural ecosystems where nothing gets wasted; everything that is produced is used and useful. He explain how the blue economy aims to “respond to the basic needs of all with what’s around you, introducing innovation inspired by nature, generating multiple benefits, offering more with less”. This philosophy in actions pleads for the use of nature as inspiration. Because “Nature responds to basic needs and then evolves from sufficiency to abundance. The present economic model relies on scarcity as a basis for production and consumption.” State Pauli.
Blue economy merges the above-mentioned approaches into a meaningful innovation model, based on the idea that innovation is everywhere, in everything, all the time. “In nature the constant is change. Innovations take place in every moment”. Over 110 examples of blue economy innovations are giving validity to the approach. Their range goes from rethinking food packaging to a new sugar with surprising potential in several areas including the manufacture of no-refrigeration vaccines, or the usage of coffee waste for mushroom farming leading also to an impact on women empowerment…
“Brilliant ideas are not the product of a genius,
rather the culmination of dialogues with open-minded individuals who care to share.”
Gunter Pauli, author and founder of 'The bleu Economy'.
Back to the basics
In the end, is this cloud of trends not an appeal to return to the roots of disruptive innovation? The concept, was invented in 1994 by Clayton Christensen, a Harvard professor. According to him, disruptive innovation happens when a new player enters the market with a less efficient, less profitable product, which addresses a market segment not yet served. Think IBM’s mainframes being disrupted by Microsoft and its PCs.
What does it mean today?
Probably that established companies should be aware of the current rewriting of the rules. That they should not ignore the possibilities opened by using unproven or inferior technologies and business models to offer better alternatives. That they should take inspiration from nature and from what is currently spontaneously happening all around society: collective solutions being designed for the betterment of the environment and humanity. Disruptive innovation could become the norm in the near future.
The golden age of collective intelligence
Today, and more importantly tomorrow, the secret to “good disruptive innovation” will lie in collective intelligence and the ability to implement circular and “Blue” approaches. Therein resides innovation’s new paradigm. No more top-down business-driven approaches. Innovation for people and the planet will come from collective thinking and shared creativity.
One certainty emerges from these observations: only those who collectively disturb standards today will invent the solutions of tomorrow.
Who knows what breakthrough innovations will happen with the pressure that the entire planet is undergoing by the COVID-19!
Fariel DIF
