BC Business
Looking at four categories of eco-innovations, and whether they're worth anything
Creative destruction, eco-frivolity and 67 other innovations I saw this week. For anyone with even a passing interest in innovation, the Trendwatching Brief should be considered mandatory reading. Apart from providing a refreshing perspective on international creativity, the brief challenges you to rethink consumption, values and human behaviour. Plus, of course, it’s a fun read.
Looking at four categories of eco-innovations, and whether they’re worth anything
For anyone with even a passing interest in innovation, the Trendwatching Brief should be considered mandatory reading. Apart from providing a refreshing perspective on international creativity, the brief challenges you to rethink consumption, values and human behaviour. Plus, of course, it’s a fun read.
So it was with great interest that I opened the latest brief titled Innovation Insanity. It presented 67 innovations from around the world that were ‘on trend’ – perfect for living better, saving the planet or just plain looking cool.
My interests lie at the intersection of green, brands and innovation. With these filters in place, I scanned the new ideas and found they generally fell into four buckets:
1. Revolutions – According to the theory of creative destruction, revolutionary innovations lead to the undoing of the status quo. Digital usurped analog, Wal-Mart displaced Woolworths and so on. These ground-breaking ideas don’t come along every day and they’re difficult to predict. But I thought there were a few in the list that might qualify.2. Evolutions – The ‘reality TV’ of innovation. Take a successful idea, give it a minor twist and position it as something new. Familiar enough to be comfortable, different enough to be talked about, these ‘purple cow’ ideas comprise the vast majority of innovation. They keep us consuming while we wait for the next big thing.3. Differentiators – Differentiators lie somewhere between revolutionary and evolutionary ideas. These innovations make us sit up and take notice, but won’t inspire us to tattoo the company’s logo on our head.4. Fast Failers – It took Thomas Edison 3,000 failures to invent the electric light. A number of the ideas I reviewed seemed like they’d fall into the fast fail category – destined to be more valuable for their learning than their success.[pagebreak]
As aesthetically pleasing as they may be, windows are typically a drain on a building’s energy. These windows from the Netherlands, however, are the opposite. Not only can they be set to filter out light (preventing heat from entering the building on sunny days), but they act as solar panels, feeding power into the home or grid. When you consider how many windows are in the average building, this take on solar power seems to come with a brilliant insight to match its technological breakthrough.
Leave it to the folks at Method to create a completely brand-centric, unique and fun way to donate your clothes. Their glass-walled washmobile cruises the streets of NYC, offering to take the clothes off your back, wash them and donate them to local charities. Expect impulse fashion buying to go through the roof as people selflessly give up last season’s jacket to justify getting that cute little piece in the boutique window.
I can’t quite see the innovation here. Anyone who’s lived in Asia or Europe has seen the same concept countless times. Now, if they actually made the soup while cycling, that would be worth examining.
Every eco-consultant in the world has their business card printed on seed paper. Last Christmas I received a half dozen greeting cards printed on same. Now my refrigerator will come in a box impregnated with tree seeds. Not that new. That said, perhaps the cardboard-box concept will be a differentiator – taking a niche product to the mainstream.
I can already round up my bill payment for a good cause. I can give to charity as part of my purchase at some boutiques. Now I can send half my ATM transaction fee to a cause of my choice. Nice idea, convenient and only half as annoying as paying full service fees for the privilege of withdrawing my own money from a machine.
When Tom’s Shoes created its ‘buy a pair of shoes and we give a pair of shoes’ program, it was fresh and inspiring. So much so that pretty much everyone is doing it now. Warby Parker is giving a pair of eyeglasses for every pair you buy, a wine vendor is giving water for every bottle of wine you buy, and a tie-maker is giving a school uniform for every tie you buy. Nice, yes. Innovation, no.[pagebreak]
Tesco has introduced shelf displays that document the carbon footprint of food items in the UK. Wal-Mart is working on the same idea in the US. But now, Australian restaurant Otarian is introducing the idea to its restaurant menu. If nothing else, this should boost liquor sales as diners experience the stress of trying to find entrees that are local, organic, solar-powered and ethical.
I met the folks from One Block Off The Grid at last year’s Sustainable Brands Conference and thought their idea (essentially, ganging solar buyers together by geography in order to negotiate favourable deals from suppliers, installers and financiers) was a great one. Plus, it addressed several real consumer needs. Glad to hear they’re doing well. Look for this model to set the tone for how clean energy is sold to consumers in the future.
Fiat came up with the idea of eco-tips for drivers with their ecoDrive software. The follow up includes coaching in real time, in your car. From giving you the most efficient routes to telling you to lay off the lead foot, this innovation taps into the insight that modifying consumer behaviour can create incredible efficiencies. Expect this idea to be copied by all when it’s introduced. [pagebreak]
Dutch designer Daniel Schipper will show you online pictures of his ‘100 x 100’ lamp. But he won’t produce one for you to buy until he’s received a hundred orders. Not only does this planned scarcity provide a good status story, but it allows Schipper to tweak his design until he gets one that really triggers sales.
Kopernik is a go-between connecting inventors, donors and non-profits in developing countries. Inventors pay to display their technology on Kopernik’s site. Non-profits write proposals outlining how they would use those innovations. And donors pledge money to the proposal/invention they believe has the most merit. Although Kopernik’s business model isn’t a fast failer per se, it has the power to weed out all but the strongest innovation ideas for those in need.
I’ve seen solar-recharging backpacks. I’ve seen power-generating dance floors. Now there are rubber boots that recharge your iPod using the heat of your feet. Expect this idea to either join the ranks of the ‘nice novelties’ and quietly die, or explode as the next ‘must have’. My bet is on the former.
So there you have it. My thoughts on the latest green innovations to pop up on international radar. Only time will tell if my insights hold water. If I get it wrong, I’ll buy you a solar-powered, locally brewed, ethical beer at Otarian.
This article first appeared in Fast Company #147, July/August 2010.