Dow Chemical
Project
Sustainable Innovation Workshop, October 2006
Need
Product and service innovation is one of Dow Chemical’s focus areas for its ‘2015 Sustainability Goals’, and as part of its commitment to this goal, Dow is rolling out a program aimed at raising awareness and building capacity within Dow to understand sustainability as a source of business opportunities.
Work or Service
Sustainable Innovation Workshop and Methodology
Development of ‘The World in 2015’ Vision Document
Summary briefings on key sustainability issues
Approach
In collaboration with Dow Chemical, we adapted our Sustainable Solutions methodology to a 1-day workshop format with senior product and new business development managers from Dow Chemical’s Performance Plastics division.
The objectives of the workshop were:
To clarify what ‘sustainability’ means and what impact it may have on Dow’s future business.
To develop creative thinking around what products or services will be required in 5-10 years to address key sustainability challenges.
To provide participants with a set of tools to help identify opportunities, as well as structure and frame the prioritisation of these opportunities.
Insights
The Sustainable Innovation process enables companies to think about sustainability as a potential revenue generator, thus enabling a very different type of interest and energy from mainstream business than the more typical ‘risk-based’ approach. Furthermore, the group emphasized the importance of involving business managers early-on in the process, to ensure maximum buy-in for the identified opportunities.
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