MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Driving Sustainability-Oriented Innovation

Organizations can innovate to address environmental and social problems — but they need to build the right culture.

It’s no surprise that many large multinational corporations are paying increased attention to sustainability-oriented innovation (which we’re broadly defining as improvements for social good, not just “green” initiatives).1 Faced with mounting challenges and pressure from governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), investors, and employees to be more aware of the environmental and social impacts of business activities, companies are searching for ways to do things differently while also seeking opportunities for growth.2 As a result, many are attempting to tap into the creativity and entrepreneurial potential of their employees, encouraging them to develop new products, services, or business models that create value for both the company and society.

About the Author

We would like to show our gratitude to our respondents representing participating companies – AkzoNobel, Interface, Johnson & Johnson, Pearson, Philips, UBS, and Unilever – for sharing their experience and delivering most valuable input leading to this manuscript. We especially thank our contact persons André Veneman of AkzoNobel, Geanne van Arkel of Interface, Adrian Thomas, Cori Vail, and Garrett Barr of Johnson & Johnson, Teodora Berkova of Pearson, Frans van Houten, Henk de Bruin, Robert Metzke and Saskia Verbunt of Philips, Angela Wiebeck of UBS, and Kelvin Hughes, Hanneke Willenborg and Florian Vernay of Unilever who were most supportive and greatly assisted the research. We are also grateful to André Nijhof, Björn Atterstam, Hidde-Jan Lemstra, and Jason Jay for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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