Kennedy is definitely tapping into this. The problem is all the ideological and legislative baggage that goes along with organic food. Our institutions are so firmly in place that it makes the rapid change required (isn’t that innovation almost by definition?) difficult or impossible. What will it take to get institutions to innovate and change? Individuals are one matter, but they are to many degrees at the mercy of their institutions. Until they agree to change them. Or they change because they must.I think that these changes have to be both top-down and bottom-up.

I have been passionately advocating for almost 20 years that the key innovations we need are environmental. We really don’t need any new flavors of Special K. We need sustainable packages, sustainable farm practices, sustainable lawn care and home heating.
Keep that great feedback coming.

1) I think there’s a great opportunity for building Canada’s green economy via innovation. Specifically coming out from the overlap between design, business and sustainability, however, not necessarily Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR]. One thing I have observed is that various organizations put up a CSR front, perhaps because green is the new gold, proclaiming policies and procedures that assert a commitment to environmental responsibility. The challenge is that most are missing the opportunity to move beyond “risk management” towards “innovation management”; pro-actively developing new products and/or services that first and foremost meet consumer needs for functionality, while aligned with CSR. In the Stanford Social Innovation Review article, The Other CSR, the authors demonstrated that consumers are eager to seek out products that meet functional needs, however, are not willing to compromise on functionality for features of social responsibility. I agree that consumers cannot be sold on CSR claims alone, and there is a heightened value proposition for business in connecting emotionally with people in a way that promotes behaviour change, while enhancing economic prosperity. Perhaps a great example of this would be serial sustainable entrepreneur Chef Jamie Kennedy who takes a slow-food approach to food, advocating local food choices as part of his brand proposition. In a recent Toronto Life [July 2007] article Kennedy said “We can change the way people source their food – not by preaching, but by making it delicious.” That for example, focusing on consumers’ desirability and functionality of food is a route towards change through emotional and needs-based responses, rather than force-feeding CSR messages. There is something to be said for making things delicious…

2) The three initiatives sound exciting! Specifically the course on new product development and innovation. Sounds familiar to courses being offered through Stanford’s d.school and Rotman’s Designworks centre, which have students taking an empathetic approach to innovation; having spoken with Heather Fraser of Designworks where she demonstrated how storytelling, visual thinking were leveraged for a collaborative project with Princess Margaret Hospital, developing patient waiting rooms to be human-centered. I am curious to see these schools apply the lens of sustainability.

I am hopeful and excited to see what’s to come, despite some of those dreary report findings!