As companies and large organizations consider their sustainability impact, many quickly realize that their influence goes well beyond the four walls of their organization. Greenzu.com - the green business resource library - offers step-by-step guides for sustainability covering energy audits, waste audits, water conservation efforts, and alternative transportation programs. However, Greenzu's Sustainable Supply Chain guide could go a step further. The key question is how can powerful innovations be made throughout the supply chain and at every stage of a product's lifecycle? One possible solution lies in the value of a System Innovation Session, which represents an often effective platform for multi-stakeholder engagement.
What is System Innovation?
A System Innovation Session aims to bring together a diverse set of stakeholders to identify sustainability challenges and opportunities throughout the lifecycle of a product. If you want to learn more about who these stakeholders might be, check out Greenzu's "Forming a Green Team" guide. Here is an example of how it would work: What if NIKE wanted to explore sustainability innovations for its footwear products? The company could convene multiple participants in a System Innovation Session. The session might include NIKE's product design and packaging team; the company's leather, rubber, and textile suppliers; transportation providers and distributors; representatives from major NIKE retailers; representatives from a waste management company; and processors and recyclers of scrap rubber and leather.
How can it be effective?
To be most effective, a System Innovation Session takes the form of a 2-3 day interactive workshop, where participants are encouraged to seek creative solutions to existing challenges through their cumulative knowledge. This multi-day session is typically convened by an individual company or industry that seeks solutions to a multi-dimensional question. This question becomes the session's main focus point, and the workshops and interactions between participants all revolve around exploring answers and possibilities for this question. As an example, NIKE's session might be titled "Bringing Air Jordan Back to Life: How to Close the Loop on NIKE Footwear?."
Why it's important?
The ability to gather and use the collective wisdom of passionate employees, also known as Greenzu Teams to further sustainable innovation is invaluable. The key objective is to identify new ideas and opportunities, and bring together a full spectrum of knowledge and expertise. This is also a powerful tool for forging closer partnerships and re-engaging stakeholders. A System Innovation Session benefits all parties and serves the interests of direct and indirect stakeholders, including the planet at large. This type of session is particularly effective for organizations looking to find innovative solutions to their current challenges. For example, NIKE could discover new uses for discarded footwear, or better understand and re-evaluate the technological barriers to packaging alternatives.
Conclusion
A System Innovation Session is particularly effective for organizations exploring closed loop opportunities. Convening stakeholders who represent the entire lifecycle of a product presents a unique opportunity to challenge, draft, pilot, and discover closed loop solutions. In the above example, NIKE could leverage the System Innovation Session to push participants to think about unique ways to close the loop on NIKE footwear. These sessions encourage companies to re-think their status quo, and provide an efficient avenue for addressing sustainability questions at each stage of a product's lifecycle. The collaboration and sharing of knowledge between recyclers, product designers, retailers, and waste experts can often lead to surprising results for even some of the largest most established multinational companies.
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