By Kelly Lawrence, Founder & CEO, Lawrence Innovation

In January, I shared that my commitment in 2022 is to have more fun - both personally and professionally. A key element of “fun” for me is continuous learning. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to collaborate with and learn from other Innovators every month through InnoQuest. I recently had the expanded good fortune of meeting fellow innovators and sustainability experts Danielle Doza and Victoria Avi. These two remarkable female entrepreneurs co-founded Venture Forward Strategies to help companies take actionable steps toward sustainability, defined as positive impacts on people and the environment that contribute to a flourishing planet. They also challenged me to think about sustainability a little differently. So with March being Women’s history month and April focused on Earth Day, what better time to dig into the topic of sustainability and how it relates to innovation and company growth? Thank you to Danielle and Victoria for the inspiration.

Drivers for Sustainability in Business

Earth Day 2022 is themed “Invest In Our Planet.” EarthDay.Org states “This is the moment to change it all — the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate. Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihoods… together, we must Invest In Our Planet.”

In case that call to action isn’t strong enough to jump start your Discovery engine, in March 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission for the first time said that public companies must tell their shareholders and the federal government how they affect the climate. The New York Times reported that the proposed rule “aims to give investors a clearer picture of the risks that climate change might pose to companies, because of disasters like drought and wildfires, changes in government and environmental policies or consumers’ declining interest in products that contribute to global warming.”

And suddenly, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) referenced in our corporate annual plans just got a lot more real. Almost daily, I see a press release with a company announcing reduced carbon emission targets. Ms. Doza and Ms. Avi have informed me that there continues to be mounting pressure from regulators, governments, stakeholders and consumers for companies to address sustainability and climate change. They kindly advised that the time to build or reassess corporate sustainability strategies - including product line strategy - is now. Doza explains, “the risk and cost of an unstable climate will impact every entity and person on this planet. Climate risks to supply chains will only increase. Stakeholders will only raise pressures for companies to take action. Wherever a company is on their sustainability journey is a good place to start.”

Can Sustainability Positively Impact Corporate and Product Line Profitability?

For those of you who appreciate case studies, Doza shared two. The first story is how Interface leveraged their sustainability strategy to transform their business model and enhance profitability while significantly reducing their carbon footprint. You can read more in this HBR article. The second example is a case study for how Rohner Textiles leveraged their sustainability strategy to create a Cradle-to-Cradle certified product - a fully compostable fabric. The Cradle-to-Cradle Centre provides more information on how the product is Cradle-To-Cradle certified. The case study has also been featured by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an NGO dedicated to the Circular Economy.

So my fellow innovators, we have proof of concept. There are companies actively engaged in sustainability that are incorporating sustainability into products that are regarded as good for both business results and the environment.

How Can My Company Take Action On Sustainability to Accelerate Results?

In the often overwhelming world of sustainability, where do we start? At the beginning. Let’s break it down. Is sustainability (however your organization defines it) known or unknown? (Note, If any of you claim sustainability is known, I encourage you to open your own consultancy.) Sustainability has a reputation as a big hairy beast in the business and new product development world. New regulation tells us there are trends pushing for change. The signals are there that it’s time to investigate. So, I encourage you to set aside fear, bring out your new market and new technology development tools and apply them to the big broad topic of sustainability.

The AIM Institute argues there are 6 steps to commercialize new technology. Why not apply these to an investigation of sustainability, develop a business case and use the insights to help guide your strategy and tactics? This can be done at the corporate level and at the technology level. In the case of sustainability:

• Accept you are trying to tame a jungle animal - you are not caring for a farm animal or well-understood family pet. You have a lot to learn and there are jungle guides - experts in sustainability - to help us along our journey. Reach out to them.

• Select your first target market segment. Sustainability is a broad topic and means many things to many people. Break it down into meaningful chunks.

• Investigate all assumptions that must be true.

• Explore assumptions about customer unmet needs first.

• Kill projects quickly that can’t go anywhere. Focus on the ones that are meaningful.

• Test the next market segment.

How will you incorporate sustainability into your corporate growth strategy? Into your next innovation? Into your business model for sustainable growth? Contact me, I'd love to hear from you.