Workshop: Defining Sustainable Innovation from a Life Cycle Perspective

The workshop will be organized jointly by the Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle Innovation e.V. (FSLCI) and the Innovation for Sustainable Development Network (inno4sd).

The workshop ahead of our Life Cycle Innovation Conference (LCIC 2018) in August is meant to help us shape our understanding of what constitutes sustainable innovationand thus guide discussions at the conference in August. The specific objective of the workshop is to bring together a small group of key experts from the Life Cycle and Innovation communities that can help us lay the ground work for the establishment of a better understanding of sustainable innovation.

According to Sheryl Sandberg (COO, Facebook), “What Mark worries about the most is the lack of change, the lack of innovation, becoming the innovator’s dilemma company that gets big and stops moving and stops staying ahead.” Innovation is one of the buzzwords and key drivers in businesses and companies around the world who strive to be as innovative as possible to keep up with the continuously changing environments in which they operate.

Innovation, however, much like sustainability, is a word with many different meanings and interpretations. Still, the focus on innovation in companies and businesses could offer an avenue to advance sustainability by addressing sustainability considerations as part of innovation processes. Putting both together, thus requires not only a good understanding of what constitutes innovation, but also sustainability. In view of our upcoming LCIC 2018, we would hence like to use the workshop to define sustainable innovation together with you.

Questions to be discussed during the workshop include:

• What is (break through / disruptive / incremental) innovation?
• How define start-ups vs big companies innovation?
• What processes can lead / manage to innovation?
• Which are the key stakeholders in innovation processes?
• How do we define sustainability from a life cycle perspective?
• What is life cycle assessment / management / information?
• What constitutes sustainable innovation?

The workshop will be organized as a lunch-to-lunch meeting on 17 – 18 May in Berlin, Germany at the iac Berlin, the alumni community space of the Robert Bosch Foundation in the centre of the city. We plan to use the workshop to develop a white paper around sustainable innovation which will be presented and further discussed during LCIC 2018. A tentative program for the workshop has been developed which you find below:

Day 1:

• 13:00: Registration & Lunch
• 14:00: Welcome & Introduction
• 14:30: Input 1 | Linking Innovation & Sustainability
• 15:30: Input 2 | Sustainable Innovation from a Start-Up Perspective
• 16:00: Coffee Break
• 16:30: Workshop Sessions with Break-out Groups: Defining the meaning and role of innovation in various contexts
• 18:30: Workshop Presentations
• 19:00: Summary of Day One
• 19:30: Networking Dinner

Day 2:

• 08:30: Coffee & Welcome
• 08:45: Recap of Day One & Intro to Day Two
• 09:00: Input 4 | Defining Sustainability from a Life Cycle Perspective
• 09:30: Input 5 | Introduction into Life Cycle Assessment and Management
• 10:00: Coffee Break
• 10:30: Workshop Sessions with Break-out Groups: Combining innovation processes with a life cycle perspective
• 12:00: Workshop Presentations
• 12:30: Summary of Day Two and Next Steps
• 13:00: Networking Lunch
• 14:00: End of Workshop

Participation

Participation at the workshop is free of charge, however, we only have a limited number of spots left to fill. If you are interested in joining us, please send us an email to [email protected] along with a short paragraph as to why you would like to participate and what experiences in the topic you have!