By Angela Nahikian
Nov. 3, 2011
Have you ever had that feeling of regret, like when you put off that $5K roof repair only to incur five times the cost in water damage repairs later? Well the good news is, it’s not your fault. It’s a product of brain evolution. Brain science tells us that the human brain has evolved to be expert at reacting to eminent danger. Although our brains also have the unique capability to anticipate future risks, our emotional brain always has the last word, and that word is usually ‘wait…wait until the danger is clear and eminent.’ This has worked pretty well for perpetuating the human species. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work so well for perpetuating business — or social and economic prosperity.
The long-term success of companies depends on their ability to anticipate the future -- to create and prepare for opportunities ahead. Business must constantly generate new insights and imagine new ways of working, and ultimately, deliver innovations that set them apart. This work is done by people, people with human brains averse to acting on future scenarios. They need tools.
Sustainability is one of the newest tools companies use to drive innovation, yet it may prove to be one of the most powerful. Why? Because sustainability-driven innovation is inherently a systems problem, and innovating in this dimension requires understanding the system.
In trying to innovate something as simple as packaging – or more accurately, product protection - one is forced to think about a host of things:
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the design of the product itself;
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the origins and social and environmental impacts of any materials that might be used to protect it;
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fabrication and transport impacts;
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the manufacturing system and logistics methods within which the solution will be deployed;
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the entire user experience, and;
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end of use and end of life impacts.
One can’t compartmentalize the problem or the solution. It requires integrated, systems-level design thinking.