Sustainable Innovation: the Evolutionary JourneySustainable Innovation
The concept of sustainability is an evolving one driven by many factors. While business organizations face risks if they ignore the social, political and regulatory shifts that accompany the movement toward sustainability, they also have the opportunity to significantly differentiate themselves from competitors by creating new business models to address sustainable challenges. Reimagining sustainability as a central strategic issue for the firm is, however, easier to talk about than to do. After more than twenty years of attempts to achieve sustainable innovation in various business organizations, it is now apparent that plans often go awry. Even the most sophisticated technologies, the best business models, and the leadership of powerful, inspiring, energetic, and frequently highly capable individuals do not always lead to what Esty and Winston have called "green gold. The path to sustainability has not necessarily been paved with gold, though many hoped it would be. The proposed symposium would consider what has happened and the challenges that lie ahead. The purpose would be to have discussion and debate about the routes organizations so far have taken and where the journey could go next with the focus being on two new books that document what has happened: Innovations in Sustainability by Alfred Marcus and Leading Sustainable Change edited by Rebecca Henderson, Ranjay Gulati, and Michael Tushman.