Open Vodafone’s 2014 sustainability report and you’ll find two distinct sections. One is arguably more exciting than the other: Transformational Solutions and Operating Responsibly. As the titles suggest, the former focusses on Vodafone’s initiatives to make a positive difference to the world through deploying its technology, in seven areas from smart working to agriculture, ‘unleashing the power of Vodafone to contribute to sustainable living for all.’ Vodafone’s mobile money transfer product, M-Pesa was launched in 2007 and supports millions of low-income customers without access to banking services.  The company sees much opportunity to play a role in women’s economic empowerment and low-carbon solutions such as smart metering and M2M technology.  By contrast, the Operating Responsibly section is focussed on preserving Vodafone’s licence to operate, majoring on the issues you’d expect such as mobile masts and health, and minimising the company’s environmental footprint.

Unilever takes a similar approach. The company’s Sustainable Living Plan sets out goals under three overarching themes; pledging to help more than a billion people improve their health and hygiene by 2020 whilst enhancing livelihoods and halving the company’s environmental footprint. The Plan focusses on how Unilever can use their scale and reach to effect systemic change, and the level of ambition is high. The company states:

“We have set a bold ambition to achieve change within our own company – through our brands, innovation, sourcing and operations. But we are only one company among many and the change needed to tackle the world’s major social, environmental and economic issues is big - and urgent. What’s really needed are changes to the broader systems of which we are a part – whether that is in food, energy or health. We have decided to deepen our efforts in three areas where we have the scale, influence and resources to create ‘transformational change’. By that we mean fundamental change to whole systems, not simply incremental improvements.”

For companies where sustainability has become a central strategic driver, there has been a palpable shift away from incremental improvements in favour of audacious goals.  IKEA’s Steve Howard is a strong proponent of this view, claiming ‘the only target worth setting is 100% change.’ The Guardian’s Jo Confino reinforces this: “The truth is that resource efficiency is only going to get us so far, and it's hardly the stuff of excitement that is going to get people leaping out of bed in the morning.”

This is not to say that companies should not use resources wisely, set targets for cutting carbon emissions and water usage, source responsibly, everything that falls within their traditional boundaries. Many of these initiatives save money and reduce exposure to risk. These activities make sense from an efficiency standpoint and from a purely ethical point of view- but they are quite simply the very minimum society and a prudent shareholder should expect.

Increasingly, the more progressive companies recognise that by harnessing commercial nous and capacity for innovation to tackle social and environmental challenges, they can open up new revenue streams and help to trigger systemic change, thus safeguarding their organisation’s long-term prospects. Unilever is amongst the private sector leaders which has also recognised the need to work more collaboratively with governments, NGOs and other players within its own sector to speed up progress- ‘by working together, we believe that fundamental change is possible in the near term.’  Regular readers will not be at all surprised to hear how much I am in favour of this partnership approach when executed well, for reasons I explain Here and Here. It’s also something the post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda looks set to endorse.

This shift from corporate responsibility to a more deliberate social innovation strategy is also visible in the rise of corporate venture capital (CVC) investing, in which large companies take an equity stake in a business to which it also provides expertise and guidance. Crucially, CVC investors increasingly look for a positive social and/or environmental impact as well as a strategic match with their core business and a sound financial return. The Volans report ‘Investing in Breakthrough’ provides an interesting study of this trend, featuring case studies from Intel, GE, Patagonia and Pearson and highlighting the potential of corporate venture capital as a driver in the social economy.

I am encouraged by Vodafone and Unilever’s attempts to use their considerable resources for good. The execution may not be perfect- but their programmes share a willingness to go beyond operating responsibly, to think creatively about the transformational change they can effect using their organisation’s unique access to technology, skills, scale and influence. It is something Walmart CEO Doug McMillan and SVP Sustainability Kathleen McLaughlin call long-term capitalism. In a recent essay for McKinsey they observe:

“If in the past 20 years the discussion has been about the need for business to serve stakeholders beyond just the customer and the shareholder, the next 20 years will be about the need for companies to improve the networks and systems they depend on. Leading businesses are actively using their scale and their particular assets to accelerate progress on tough social and environmental issues”

Are there any downsides? There are vocal detractors, such as George Monbiot who forcefully question the right, and desirability of corporations to assume the role of societal do-gooders- attempting to tackle social ills that, in his view, should remain the domain of government and NGOs. Perhaps, also, you might reasonably argue that this focus on transformational solutions encourages a bias towards product and service innovation, feeding an obsession with growth at all costs when we are in need of innovative ideas to cement responsible operations, rein in consumption and bring resource use safely within planetary boundaries. This may be true, but handled right, and with sensitive leadership, I think the transformational trend could have many other benefits.

Harnessing the power, ingenuity and influence of the private sector for good has enormous potential. Not least- people will get this. Employees will feel galvanised by it in a way that they quite frankly don’t by a plea to put their recycling in the right box. Do it right, resource it well, and this is as exciting for employee engagement for sustainability as it is for the potential impact it could have on the wider world. This new appetite to tackle systemic change opens up all sorts of possibilities for cross-functional, cross-organisational and cross-sectoral project teams. It has always nagged at me that perhaps we have been trying to engage people on the wrong things- because tinkering is dull. It is still hugely important to manage operational impacts- but they should not spearhead our employee engagement efforts. Where the exciting stuff happens- the new business models, ideas, services, circular economy thinking- that’s where people will want to get involved- and where they will be able to use their existing skills most effectively.

There is an excellent organisation called the League of Intrapreneurs dedicated to supporting employees in large organisations to innovate for good, 'transforming business from the inside out'. If companies do more to legitimise this sort of intrapreneurial spirit, to encourage work on ‘transformational solutions’ such as those attempted by Vodafone and Unilever,  I think we would find employees coming to work with a renewed sense of purpose.

And how powerful would that be?

by Jenny Ekelund

It’s quite likely you will have heard of Pavegen, the revolutionary floor technology company that converts kinetic energy from footsteps into renewable power. The brainchild of Loughborough University graduate Laurence Kemball-Cook, the company’s concept generated a huge amount of media and commercial interest whilst still in the testing phase.

Much to the envy of many entrepreneurs, Kemball-Cook found that the market not only wanted his product- it was banging on his door and asking him to get a move on. Within a few months, Will I Am was dancing across Pavegen flooring and Number 10 had been in touch to request a demonstration. The company now has permanent installations in several railways stations, schools, airports and sports stadiums across the world.

Kemball-Cook came up with a footfall energy harvesting solution with the potential to provide renewable, and storable power in cities. Each tile, pounded and tested to exhaustion to withstand millions of footsteps, vomit, jumping, stiletto heels and floods, can generate 7 watts at 12 volts DC per footstep- and can be used immediately to power off-grid solutions such as streetlights (one step powers an LED lamp for several seconds) or be stored in a battery. 

The Pavegen story is a shining example of innovation for sustainability. It’s the stuff of dreams- one of those devastatingly simple and elegant ideas you wish you’d come up with. If you delve deeper into Kemball-Cook’s story you find some interesting nuggets, and I believe, some food for thought for anybody trying to change the way their organisation, society or market system does things for the better:

• Kemball-Cook’s inspiration was born of repeated failure. It was during a placement at one of Europe’s biggest energy firms that he first encountered the problem of generating renewable power in dense urban environments. Tasked with rolling out urban wind and solar solutions, Kemball-Cook found challenges at every turn. Conditions in cities just aren’t wind and solar friendly. He finished his placement dejected- but returned to University determined to continue working on his quest. He was energised by the knottiness of the problem.

• Kemball-Cook approached the problem differently- instead of asking ‘how can I overcome the obstacles presented by wind and solar in cities?” he asked “what other sources of plentiful renewable energy could I harness in the built environment?” This approach led to his eureka moment.
  

• The company’s early history is, ahem, paved with non-conventional actions- when based in Brixton, the plucky start-up made use of a number of illegal ‘test’ installations which got them into trouble, but no doubt generated some welcome publicity as well as a few encouraging watts of power.
  

• Pavegen has incorporated commercially interesting features such as on-board wireless technology meaning data on the amount of energy harvested and footfall can be sent to any website- this is not just a tile that harvests energy from footsteps, it is an intelligent device with knowledge to share on how people use urban environments. 

• Brilliantly, the technology also taps into our innate desire to have fun- inbuilt lights in the tiles give an instant glow when stepped on contributing to what Kemball-Cook calls ‘the gamification of energy.’ Studies have shown that tiles with these inbuilt lights use only 5% of the footfall power and attract up to 30% more pedestrians- successfully harvesting more energy.
  

• The company’s vision to make Pavegen products available to every community in the world and to bring the cost level with conventional flooring is both inspirational and commercially astute. For as long as Pavegen remains an entertaining but comparatively expensive niche product coveted by big brands and top-flight football stadiums, its potential remains untapped. The technology’s real power lies in its applicability to urban environments all over the world- and mass production and implementation is essential to make a real contribution to renewable energy production in tomorrow’s smart cities.

by Jenny Ekelund

Whether you work in sustainability or simply take an interest, it can be hard to envisage what a more sustainable world might actually look like. We know what we want to avoid, but looking decades into the future and imagining an alternate reality can be a challenge for even the most imaginative amongst us. It can be even harder to describe what technologies, actions and events might get us to this point.

Jonathon Porritt's latest book 'The World we Made' takes on this challenge. The seasoned environmentalist and founder of Forum for the Future writes from the perspective of Alex McKay, a teacher in 2050 looking back on recent decades and reflecting on the changes he has seen. With the help of a research team of students, he describes the social, technological, ecological and financial events and trends that shape the years 2020-50. The world in 2050 is by no means one without problems, but it is by and large more stable and more content. 

Porritt uses an entertaining mix of sketches, photos and mocked up covers of magazines from the future to paint his picture. The result is an accessible 'future-history' book (if that wasn't already a word, I've just invented it.) 

Alex McKay's reality is quite different from our own, and it is far from being a utopia. There is still a gap between the rich and the poor, for example, but it is not as yawning as it once was. Empathy is far more central to society and competition co-exists with collaboration. As I suspect Porritt intends, you are left feeling heartened and excited by some developments (Malaria is beaten! Coral reefs recover! 90% renewable power!) and decidedly uncomfortable, nay freaked out by others. He describes how governments still haven't really got a handle on regulating biotech, and the threat of cyber-terrorism looms large. Personal genome sequencing is the norm leading to huge advances in preventative healthcare, but ethical concerns relating to brain enhancing 'implants' divide opinion. Personal 'home' robots, with processing power far superior to our own brains look after the elderly and provide companionship. The debate rages over what constitutes a human. 

There are deft, heart-warming little touches too- we learn that Detroit, once an industrial powerhouse and centre of the US car industry, sank first to industrial wasteland, then emerged gradually as a shining example of urban farming used as a case study worldwide. In fact, it seems we're now so good at urban food-growing- using everything from traditional allotments to vertical farms, that 40% of our food comes from our cities.

There is an attempt to describe how the international community finally got its act together on reducing carbon emissions, and you may not be surprised to learn that China leads, followed somewhat tardily by the US. I won't spoil the rest for you- but suffice to say coal is consigned to the history books and wind, solar and in the interim, natural gas play a huge part.

Alex McKay's research students are part of the generation still clearing up after their grandparents' excesses, but it is their parents who first begin to put civil pressure on governments. The book describes pivotal, and peaceful popular uprisings calling for a fairer and more sustainable world- the 'Enough!' demonstrations of 2018 and the intergenerational justice movement led by school children in the late 2020s. These events, Alex recalls, were pivotal moments. I read this section as the People's Climate March set off in New York and around the world. As the Guardian's Jo Confino observed, this was the first time socialists have marched alongside big business heads, alongside NGOs and ordinary citizens. It made me think that Alex McKay's experience of popular movements creating real change may not be so far off.

I suspect that some readers may be disappointed not to find more detail on technological solutions, but I don't think that's the purpose of this book. In any case, if you are hungry for more, there is a helpful bibliography at the back pointing to further resources. For me, it served as an accessible and thought-provoking window on a possible future- you may not find all the scenarios plausible, but it's a great way to prompt your own thinking and kick-start your imagination. 

Overall, the tone is upbeat- and goodness knows we need more of that- 'a world that works for the majority of people, if we play our cards right.' I'd love to see this book used in schools as in inspiring textbook. And I can certainly see 'The World We Made' making excellent fodder for vision and future planning workshops- whatever sector you work in. 

by Jenny Ekelund