Allowing adoption of innovation and making a contribution to sustainability

Many public and private parties wish to make a contribution to a more sustainable society by setting up all kinds of cool projects, implementing innovative technologies and systems. However setting up and managing an innovative project may prove very complex. At the one hand guaranteeing financial viability and at the same time ensuring to contribute to sustainable development and making a real lasting impact may prove a challenge.

In order for sustainable innovation projects to be successful there are some prerequisites. First of all it is important to have an understanding of how the innovation will fit in conventional systems, models and institutions.  An overview of the project in comparison to conventional technologies, markets and believes will indicate the opportunities and barriers the innovation may encounter.

A simple example comes from our experience in Argentina. The project resolved around the building of a school completely relying on its own renewable energy supply. Furthermore the building was based on bioclimatic architecture. At first renewable energy, like solar panels, seemed to face a no-go market in Argentina because of the heavily subsidized fossil fuels. However in the relative distant rural area where the school was being build the majority of people live on big farms without grid-connection. People depend on big fossil fuel fired generator for their energy supply. Due to the noise and smell of these generators and the annoying time consuming effort of getting fuel from the nearest town, there is actually an opportunity for solar panels in these areas. The school will well serve as an demonstration project for solar panels in these distant areas.  

The bio-climatic building proposed for the school may prove more difficult to be adopted. The conventional contractors are not yet familiar with the technology, there are no proper certification systems that suit the Argentinean market, there are no government incentives for more sustainable building by requiring certain standards, and people may still be reluctant towards adopting this way of building since they are not familiar with it.

However there is always need for entrepreneurial champions willing to invest in sustainable alternatives and first movers willing to adopt them. Wider adoption of innovations is usually a gradual process and as a project manager you will face many barriers on your road to achieving your sustainability goals.

There are some factors to be taken into account by projectmanagers that can improve the possibility for innovations to be adopted and cause wider change. First of all it is important to have a shared project vision, mission and objectives. It is very important to align expectations between the involved stakeholders to provide guidance. But also beyond the project there may be experiments and projects related to similar innovations that can be learned from by sharing expectations with stakeholders from these projects and organizing into networks to share lessons between projects.   

Another key issue for innovation projects is to generate user acceptance. Involving users in an early phase, being transparent and allowing for feedback contributes to users trust, both trust in the project developers and in the technology. The trust generated by proper user involvement and an open attitude may prove crucial for the acceptance and adoption of the technology.

To allow for adaptation in status quo systems and institutions it is important to involve influential persons from within these status quo systems and institutions. Involving and informing already interested first movers from industry takes away skepticism. If these people are influential within their organizations they may contributes to wider acceptance and enthusiasm for the innovation. This may then lead to further adoption, investments, or development of the innovations. The same accounts for influential policy-makers that may prove valuable to lobby for adaptations in the policy realm and respected public persons, media channels and ambassadors may prove important to gain broader societal acceptance.

VERDUR assists projectmanagers in understanding the opportunities and barriers for innovation projects in their context of implementation by making comparative analysis between projects and status quo institutions. Furthermore VERDUR gives recommendations to projectmanagers regarding their network, the sharing of expectations and the organization of learning processes.