Sustainable Innovation: a step by step process

Sustainable innovation in ABCD
A simple, step by step innovation
process

-Joris Depouillon-

Outline
• Introduction 7’
• The challenge 5’
• ABCD sustainable innovation process: 190’
– Awareness: 30’
– Baseline assessment: 45’
• Principles of sustainability
• Sustainability assessment

BREAK: 10’
– Create solutions: 60’
– Decide on priorities: 45’
• minimum Viable Product

• Best practices: 10’
• Questions and Feedback: 13’

The challenge (5’)
• Madame Ekobié
• Situation économique
• House

Challenge
• Traditional building
– Wood was rotting
– Collapsed

Challenge
• Solution
– Roof in tin
– Cost
– Now worn out

ABCD sustainable innovation process
• Awareness
• Baseline assessment
– Principles of sustainability
– Sustainability assessment

• Create solutions
• Decide on priorities
– minimum viable product

(A) Awareness (30’)
• Existing challenge or search your challenge
– Identify one need you want to tackle
– Go to a community
– Ask the right questions
• What are the greatest socio-environmental challenges
in the community?
• Why are these socio-environmental challenges and
unsatisfied needs present in the community?
• How will the community look like if these challenges
where addressed successfully?

(A) Awareness
• Existing challenge or search your challenge
• Get to know your challenge
– What is the need you want to fulfill?
• E.g. waste on the street

• Get to know the context
–
–
–
–

Dig into the need
the current solution and its dynamics
Who what, where, when (5)why
What are opportunities/assets? What are
weaknesses?
• Physical, knowledge, skills, community…

(A) Awareness
• Role: Explorer
– Go out and observe the need and the current
solution to the need
– Talk to, Listen and learn from the people and
community

• Dig deeper
– 5 WHY?!
• Ask questions until you are at the root cause

(A) Awareness
• Output:
– Definition of the need
– Definition of the current solution
– Understanding of the context
– Vision of a better solution

(A) Our Challenge
• Talk to
– Madame Ekobié
– Other villagers
– The leaders of the village

• Find additonal
information
– Reports
– Experts

(A) Our Challenge
• Former houses
– bush timber for roof and load-bearing
construction

• Problem timber
– Population growth
– Deforestation
– Climate change

(A) Our Challenge
• Current solution
– Import tin sheets
– Import foreign wood from
tropical forest

• Implications
– Health: bad thermal properties. Too hot during day, too cold during
night.
– Safety: tin roofs can be blown away by strong wind, damaged by rain
(corrosion)
– Economic
• have to pay material in cash – informal economy. Use little savings for
materials instead of schooling, health etc. 65% of her savings
• Structure has to be replaced every 7 to 10 years
vicious circle of poverty

– Roofs are thrown away in nature after use

(A) Our Challenge
• Background information and context
– UN report: in Sahel, 70% lacks access to decent
and safe housing.
– Survey: people see this as the second most
important priority after paid work and before
access to water.

(A) Awareness
• Output
– Definition of the need
– Definition of the current solution
– Understanding of the situation
• Why current solution?
• Scale of the problem?
• Importance?


(A) Our Challenge
• Output
– Definition of the need:
• People need shelter to offer protection from external circumstances
(temperature, animals, wind, other people)

– Definition of the current solution:
• Currently, people make their shelters from earth walls, imported
wood and a thin layer of tin for the roof.

– Understanding of the context:
• deforestation
• High priority
• Large scale problem: 70% of people lacks decent shelter

• Vision: A new way of housing should be locally
sourced, affordable/economic, safe, healthy, environmentally
sustainable, longer lifespan

(A) Do it Yourself!
• Definition of the need
• Definition of the current solution
• Understanding of the situation
– Why current solution?
– Scale of the problem?
– Importance?

• Vision of a better solution

(B) Baseline Assessment (45’)
• Define principles of sustainability
• Assess today’s solution to these principles

(B) Sustainability
• Sustainable development
– "Sustainable development is development that
meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs.”

• A movie

(B) Sustainability
• Sustainability challenges
– Climate change
– People forced into migration
– Water scarcity
– Biodiversity loss
– Air pollution
– Rising sea levels, floods, extreme weather events
– Loss of soil fertility

(B) Sustainability
• A day in the life of Joris
– Woke up and took a long shower
– Worked on his laptop to prepare the workshop
– Ate a tagine with eggs and beef
– Drove to the workshop by taxi
– Is giving the workshop in a well-heated room

(B) Sustainability
Climate change

shower
laptop
tajine
taxi
Heating

Water scarcity

Biodiversity loss

(B) Sustainability
Climate change

Water scarcity

Biodiversity loss

Shower

Heating water by gas

Water is scarce?

Waste water?

laptop

Transport, electricity

Mining

mining

tajine

Cows

Meat + vegetables

Agriculture, pesticides

taxi

Gasoline

washing?

Heating

Gas/coal/oil/wood

Mining / wood

(B) Sustainability
• Rule of thumb. A society is sustainable if it is
not systematically
– Extracting non-renewable resources
– Increasing waste
– Using renewable resources faster than nature can
renew them
– Undermine people’s capacity to meet human
needs

(B) Sustainability
• A society is sustainable if it is not
systematically extracting non-renewable
resources
• = the systematic increase of concentrations of
substances extracted from the Earth's crust
– metal ores
– Chemicals (e.g. Western Sahara)
– Energy

(B) Sustainability
systematically increasing waste
• = the systematic increase of concentrations of
substances produced by society
– Pollution of water, earth, …
• Eg. DDT
• Eg. plastics

– Greenhouse Gases: climate change.
• Extreme weather events
• Rising sea level

(B) Sustainability
systematically using renewable resources
faster than nature can renew them
• = the systematic physical degradation of
nature and natural processes
– Overharvesting forest
• Eg. Rainforest => enhancing climate change

– Overfishing
– Destroying habitats

(B) Sustainability
systematically undermine people’s capacity to
meet human needs
– unsafe working conditions
– Insufficient payment for work
– Unhealthy living circumstances
– Child labour
–…

(B) Baseline Assessment
• Assess today’s solution
– Is it respecting or violating the four principles of
sustainability?
– Search beyond than the obvious

(B) Baseline Assessment
Criterium
Non-renewable resources
Waste
Renewable resources
Human needs

Violating? How?

(B) Example smartphones
• Awareness phase: a movie.
• Note down all violations

Criterium
Waste
Renewable resources
Human needs

Respecting / violating? How?

Criterium
Non-renewable
resources


Waste

-Chemicals to extract metals from ore
-short lifespan: quick new models, no reparation, apps
latest model, mobile providers
-heavy metals in waste
-no efficient recycling system

Renewable resources
Human needs

-Surface mining: destroying habitats large areas of land

-Raw materials: Ta, Co, Cu
-fossil fuels for transport
-chemicals
-energy to use smartphone

-Mines: long hours, low wages, protection
-Mines: financing civil wars
Manufacturing: long hours, no social rights, unhealthy
conditions (suicides)

(B) Our Challenge
• Baseline assessment current housing solution
with imported wood and metal
Criterium
Waste

Renewable resources
Human needs

Violating? How?

(B) Our Challenge

-

Extract Tin ore
Energy for producing the tin
oil for transportation to import

Waste

-

waste metal after 7-10 years
thrown away in nature instead of recycled

Renewable resources

-

uses wood (imported)

Human needs

-

takes the money for schooling, food and medicine
unhealthy due to bad insulation
dangerous because roof can be blown away by wind

(B) Do it Yourself
Criterium
Waste
Renewable resources
Human needs


(C) Create Solutions (60’)
• What possible alternatives / improvements
could be made to eliminate the violations of
the principles of sustainability?

(C) Create Solutions
• General brainstorm principles
– Use each other’s ideas
– No constraints
– Don’t limit yourself

• Have a facilitator
– Asks the right questions
– Challenges the participants
– Make sure the principles are respected

• Write things down on post-its
– Can be rearranged afterwards

1. Violation brainstorming
– Take each violation of the principles of sustainability
and think of a way to overcome the violation
– This can be done by
• Reduction of violation.
– Eg. Make a fossil fuel engine car use less energy

• Substitution of practice to
– Eg. Use solar energy to fuel your car

– 5WHY: for each reason, find a solution
– Link the different elements
– Note: not every problem has feasible solution

Sustainability
Croteroa

Nonrenewables

Waste

Renewable

Basic needs

violation Root cause (5WHY) solution

(C) Example smartphones
Criterium
Non-renewable
resources


Waste

-Chemicals to extract metals from ore
-short lifespan: quick new models, no reparation, apps
latest model, mobile providers

Renewable resources
Human needs

-Surface mining: destroying habitats large areas of land

-chemicals

-Mines: long hours, low wages, protection
Manufacturing: long hours, no social rights, unhealthy
conditions (suicides)

Sustainabi violation
lity
Croteroa
Nonrenewabl
es

-chemicals

Waste

-Chemicals to extract metals from
ore
-short lifespan: quick new models,
no reparation, apps latest model,
mobile providers

Renewabl -Surface mining: destroying habitats
large areas of land
e
Basic
needs

-Mines: long hours, low wages,
protection
Manufacturing: long hours, no
social rights, unhealthy conditions
(suicides)

Root cause (5WHY)

solution

Sustainabi violation
lity
Croteroa

Root cause (5WHY)

solution

Nonrenewabl
es

-no recylcing of metals
-no local production,
wages too high here,
profit comes first

-create recycling scheme
-local production

-chemicals

-make smartphones more
efficient

Waste

-Chemicals to extract metals from
ore
-short lifespan: quick new models,
no reparation, apps latest model,
mobile providers

-no recycling

-profit always comes first -create non-profit manufacturer
- Very difficult recycling
process

Renewabl -Surface mining: destroying habitats -no ethics in mining,
profit comes first
large areas of land
e

Basic
needs

-Mines: long hours, low wages,
protection
Manufacturing: long hours, no
social rights, unhealthy conditions
(suicides)

-create recycling schemes
-create cooperative mining
company

-Apples don’t care, they -push Apples
want highest profit,
-make customers aware
customers don’t care
-push governments
-governments want jobs

2. Vision Brainstorming
– Ask for each element of your vision how to fulfill
this element.
– «Give me ten ways to make ‘housing’
sustainable!»
– E.g. Vision Smartphone
•
•
•
•

Locally produced
Build to last
Everyone gets fairly paid
sustainable

3. Best practices
– What best practices do you know already?
• Related sectors
• Similar context

– How to adapt the solution to this context?
• What are the elements that are useful in our case?
• How can we adapt them to our context?

Example smartphone
• Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working
conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of
trade for farmers and workers in the developing
world
• The sustainable electronics initiative.
By analyzing the complete life cycle of a product,
SEI will take into consideration the design,
processing, manufacturing, use, and disposal
stages of electronic equipment. With the use of
life cycle analyses, SEI plans to make the overall
process of computers and other electronics more
sustainable and less environmentally harmful.

4. Criteria backcasting
– Environmental
– Social needs
•
•
•
•
•

Food, water
Security
Employment
Health
education

– Economic
• Who will earn money?
• Who will cut costs?
• Who needs it the most?

– Self-sustaining: how can local communities
implement the solution without external inputs?
•
•
•
•

How to make the solution spread?
Supply of materials
Training
Incentive (making money?)

How to make improve smartphones in these
criteria:
– Environmental
– Social
– Economic
– Self-sustaining

• Finally: linking up
– Use 4 categories to put all post-its in:
•
•
•
•

Environmental
Social
Economic
Self-sustaining

– Combine different elements and solutions
• Put post-its in different criteria (ecological, social,
economic, self-sustaining)
• Try to see which elements are combinable
• Link up different elements to attain different solutions

(C) Our Challenge
• Use the different brainstorming techniques
– Violation brainstorming
– Vision brainstorming
– Bast practices
– Criteria backcasting

• Linking up

Sustainability
Croteroa

violation

Nonrenewables

-

Extract Tin ore
Energy for producing the tin
oil for transportation to import

Waste

-

waste metal after 7-10 years
thrown away in nature instead of
recycled

Renewable

-

uses wood (imported)

Basic needs

-

takes the money for schooling,
food and medicine
unhealthy due to bad insulation

-

Root
solution
cause
(5WHY)

(C) Our Challenge
2. Vision Brainstorming
– Ask for each element of your vision how to fulfill this
element.
– «Give me ten ways to make ‘housing’ sustainable!»
– Vision

• Vision
–
–
–
–

locally sourced
Affordable
Safe
healthy

(C) Our Challenge
3. Best practices
– What best practices do you know already?
– How to adapt the solution to this context?
• What are the elements that are useful in our case?
• How can we adapt them to our context?

(C) Our Challenge
– (Environmental)
– Social needs
•
•
•
•
•

Food, water
Security
Employment
Health
education

– Economic
• Who will earn money?
• Who will cut costs?
• Who needs it the most?

(C) Our Challenge
– Self-sustaining: how can local communities
implement the solution without external inputs?
•
•
•
•

How to make the solution spread?
Supply of materials
Training
Incentive (making money?)

(C) Our Challenge
• Finally: linking up
– Combine different elements and solutions
• Put post-its in different criteria (ecological, social,
economic, self-sustaining)
• Try to see which elements are combinable
• Link up different elements to attain different solutions

(D) Decide on priorities (45’)
• Evaluate concepts developed during (C)
=> Choose solution you want to develop

• Think of a Minimum Viable Product
=> Test your solution asap

(D) Evaluate
• Set your criteria
– Basic set of criteria
•
•
•
•
•

Non-renewables
Waste
Renewables
Basic human needs
Economic

– You can add your own criteria. Cf. Enactus
• Self-sustaining (<-> sustainable)

(D) Evaluate
• How to use criteria?
– Discuss each criterium (most important!)
– Score each criterium
• Respects the criterium: +1
• Neutral to criterium: 0
• Violates criterium: -1

– Sum the score
– Rank the solutions
– Choose your solution

NonWaste
renewable
s

Sol 1

Sol 2

Sol 3

Sol 4

…

Renewable Basic
Potential economi SelfSCORE
s
human and
c
sustainin
needs flexibility
g

(D) Our Challenge
• Evaluate
• Minimum Viable Product

Non- Waste
rene
wabl
es

Sol 1

Sol 2

Sol 3

Sol 4

…

Renewable Basic
s
human and
c
sustainin
needs flexibility
g

NonWaste
renewa
bles

Renewable Basic
s
human and
c
sustainin
needs flexibility
g

-1

-1

0

+1

-1

-1

0

-3

+1

+1

+1

0

-1

+1

0

+3

Make bricks +1
locally and
teach other
people
Buy bricks -1
to make
roof

+1

+1

0

+1

+1

+

+6

+1

+1

-1

-1

-1

-1

-3

Double
layer of
iron with
earth in
between
Use earth
to make
roofs

…

(D) Minimum Viable Product
• Your solution in its most basic concept
– A prototype with the most basic features
– “that product which has just those features and no more
that allows you to ship a product that early adopters see
and, at least some of whom resonate with, pay you money
for, and start to give you feedback on”
– The MVP is that version of a new product which allows a
team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning
about customers with the least efforts.

• Movie

(D) Minimum Viable Product
• minimum what?
– Use this to experiment and get feedback
•
•
•
•
•

Test the most basic functions
With a group of intensive users / early adopters
Get feedback
Improve
Redesign MVP

– Do this ASAP

(D) minimum Viable Product
• Example Dropbox
– The MVP: a movie of how is his product would look
like with fake screenshots
– Posted on the internet
– Made it go viral
– Got feedback from viewers to see what most
interesting features were
– Got 70k signups for a product he had not made yet

• Was enough proof of concept to attract investors

• Examples
– ‘Food on the Table’ (website) provides easy
weekly recipe and grocery lists based on sales at
your store
– A new BMW model
– Online shoe sellin

• Benefits
– Know your target group
– Their preferences
– Detect most important features
– Don’t waste time developing a product which is
not useful

(D) Our Challenge
– Most essential features?

(D) Our Challenge
– Phase 1: Try to make building material from local
resources. Eg. Produce first bricks
– Phase 2: Try to build a first small building out of
that material
– Ask people to live in it for a week
– Gather feedback

(D) Do it yourself
– Most essential features?

Best Practices
• Possible solutions to the case studies

The FairPhone (10’)
• The Fairphone

La Voute Nubienne
• Association La Voute Nubienne
– un maçon français, Thomas Granier, et un
cultivateur burkinabé, Séri Youlou
– Processus
• old technique for building with water and earth
• Make sun-dried bricks

La Voute Nubienne
• Result
– safe, sturdy, well-insulated vaulted roofs of mud
bricks
– Lower cost
– Life span of 50 years
– Safe

• Realization:
– 800 buildings: houses (85%), schools, community
center

La Voute Nubienne
• Started with a basic solution. Now have a
global solution: Roof + Skill + Market
– a construction technique for appropriate roofs
– built professionally by masons with the
necessary skills
• On site training and recruiting

– as part of emerging and actively
promoted markets in affordable housing
• Self-sustaining

Contacts
•
•
•
•

Email: joris.depouillon@gmail.com
Blog: http://jorisdepouillon.blogspot.com/
Facebook: Joris Depouillon
Twitter: @JorisDepouillon

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