Disruptive innovation can lead to new ways of thinking

Anna Simpson reveals the simple strategies that can give you the trick, whatever your hand.

Basket in hand, you bustle your way through the fruit and veg, round the home growns, and take a sharp left down the main aisle, swiftly past the chilled dairy, through the cereal pick ‘n’ mix, to the cleaning products. There, creature of habit, you head for the last vendor on the left, ease your basket onto the shelf, and touch start. The choices parade before you, colours first: cornflower, pearl, mandarin – then the scents: lemongrass, lavender. You go for lime-blossom and pearl, and breathe in deeply as your refill pouch swells. It takes you back to your aunt’s kitchen, the special tea she would brew on a Sunday afternoon, and the slice of cake you’d dunk into the cup…

In this dreamy scenario, high-level customisation of a product turns your average supermarket trip into a sensual experience. It’s just one bonus to result from a simple, but highly effective, design technique. Speaking to leaders in the field, I’ve learnt that – like much good art – innovation doesn’t come from a divine muse, but is carefully devised within boundaries set by the raw materials to hand. Something as simple as a set of questions can provide these boundaries and help people to think in more exciting ways.

So, when Unilever’s R&D team started asking questions about how to minimise the carbon footprint of products with a high water content, like fabric softener, in-store vending machines were the answer. Water makes up 95% of fabric softener in its ready-packaged format. But if you put off diluting it until you reach the point of sale, you can save over 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, 1.8 million kilometres of transport, and £750,000 a year on fuel and packaging. What’s more, the happy shopper gets to choose their preferred scent and shade as they refill their pouch, which means a discount at the till and increased loyalty to the brand.

Dulux used a specially devised set of questions, called the Environmental Impact Analyser, to cut 25% embodied carbon, waste and water – and 84% potentially harmful VOCs – from a commercial paint. The analyser also revealed that transporting paint to construction sites in 500 litre reusable bulk containers – instead of 10 litre cans – could save 98% of packaging, while cutting costs.

Phil Taylor, a Research Associate at AkzoNobel, was involved in both projects. As he sees it, innovation is no longer simply about gaining an edge in a crowded market. It’s a necessity, driven by a recent surge in demand for sustainable goods.

Taylor reckons that this is partly down to George Bush’s “ridiculous” stance that ‘climate change is nothing to do with me’. “It made people see that he was wrong,” he laughs. But Taylor insists that industry has to lead on sustainability, rather than simply responding to demand. “The only way [to stay ahead of the competition] is to see these trains coming before they arrive.”

This sense of urgency has industry leaders from across the world asking questions – and, strange as it sounds, playing cards. Forum for the Future has developed a set of these to help R&D departments select the least energy intensive designs and think about the full life cycle of their products.

“It’s about engaging people in the process, helping to embed sustainability in organisations in a more playful, appealing way than simply monitoring spreadsheets,” explains the Forum’s Ilka Weissbrod, Senior Sustainability Advisor, who works on the scheme.

VOX POP
Nigel Stansfield, Senior Director, Product, Design and Innovation, InterfaceFLOR

“For many companies, sustainability is about supply chains, good management systems, governance, leadership. At InterfaceFLOR it’s still all these things, but it’s also a major opportunity for innovation. This allows me to rethink and reinvent our core products, and in the longer term, even the business we are in. It’s the way we’ll continue to lead on sustainability.”

Arup has also come up with a set of cards called “Drivers of Change”, to initiate debate in all contexts from think tanks to classrooms. The idea is to turn the mirror on the soul, asking the player, “How much are you costing your country?” and “Are you generating power?” Even supermarket giant Walmart has joined in the game, sending each of its 60,000 suppliers a 15-question survey to look into their use of natural resources and efficiency.

The effect? A rush to create a new generation of products and services that go beyond incremental improvements, changing the business model itself. “So instead of thinking about concentrating shampoo more,” advises Weissbrod, “think about how you can have a different haircare system, what that would mean.”

This sort of ‘disruptive innovation’ is already changing some markets for good. Take music. You no longer find music lovers with hungry thumbs flicking keenly through rows of records, fingering the ones with the most quirky designs and taking a few over to the listening point for a minute or two. They’re sitting on their sofas with a laptop on their knees and a beer on the coffee table, searching Spotify for their favourite artists and any others their friends have come across.

The waves of disruption have reached the design sector too: it’s no longer a game for professionals only, and an influx of amateur players means the rules are changing. The driving force known as consumer demand is metamorphosing into a more free-spirited ‘user demand’. Local sharing schemes like Landshare, Hospitality Club and Freelender.org mean you don’t need to own your allotment, car or drill, and you can sofa-surf your way around

the world without ever having to book a hotel. Such schemes were predicted only two years ago in Forum for the Future’s project ‘Low Carbon Living 2022’, but are already proliferating on the web.

According to Ezio Manzini and Francois Jégou of EMUDE (Emerging User Demands for Sustainable Solutions), a “new, fascinating role” is emerging for designers. “They have to consider themselves part of … the interwoven networks of individuals, enterprises, nonprofit organisations [and] institutions that are using their creativity and entrepreneurship to take some concrete steps towards sustainability.”

More eyes are scanning our everyday lives on the look out for those high impact habits and must-haves, the ones with the greatest potential to change the way things work. So, who’s holding the cards?

Anna Simpson is Deputy Editor, Green Futures.

4 January 2010

Anna Simpson