The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of workshops and social innovation. A speaking engagement at the 3P conference in Kitchener had me talking to technologists, business leaders and academics about how to use Design Thinking to make social change. A week of planning sessions in Montreal was about designing extended social programs for people with chronic illness. A productive few days in DC with the World Bank had us working on distributed innovation experiences for offices around the world.

I’ll be honest. I’m exhausted. But when you’re talking about innovation change, it’s hard not to focus on the greater good.

These days, there’s a lot of interest in Idea Couture’s social innovation practice. Much like design thinking, any new and fuzzily-defined term that enters the business world is at least partly cause for buzz. But on the plus side, I know that the majority of the interest is based on the opportunity that Social Innovation presents.

This isn’t CSR. This is business. It’s making money by doing good. And it works.

From pharmaceutical companies who know that their social impact will lead to financial impact, to technologists who are looking for new learning opportunities that extend their definition of value through solving problems of social change, these last few weeks have shown me that the social innovation world is alive. The great Peter Drucker said that, “Every single social and global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise”. It seems as though the business world is starting to catch on.

Three years ago, I sat down with a good friend from MaRS to talk about his experience working with not for profits. At the time, I had been hitting a wall doing some business model design work for a now-defunct not for profit. To this day, I’ll remember that conversation as a turning point in my career. “The problem with so many of these (not-for-profits) is that they’re completely afraid of money,” he said. Over the next few years, I’ve grown to understand what he meant.

It’s not necessarily a fear of income – very few organizations have the ability to raise funds like a well run not-for-profit. But for some reason, the dialogue of multiple winners from a giving scenario seems to make many not-for-profit’s uneasy. But whenever a problem is solved, new value is created, and in many cases, that value is being left on the table.

Thankfully, with the number of social-entrepreneurs that I’ve met since that fateful conversation, both through our incubation experience and through talks at a number of universities, a shift is on its way. It seems as though many people realize that one possible future of giving is to also get, be it through new organizational experience, new revenue streams, or reduced operational costs. With benefits like that, it’s no wonder there’s buzz.

The shame of making money through solving real social problems is on its way out the door.

Read any CSR book, and it will tell you that companies will eventually change – not out of the kindness of their hearts, but because their customers are demanding it. While this is certainly true (our design research constantly confirms that customers are asking for social-embedded products and services), I’m now seeing a lot of companies that are shifting based primarily on operational benefits. That puts a smile on my face because the social innovation mandate is coming from both the top down and the bottom up.

I’ll make this very clear – for Idea Couture, Social Innovation means using social impact as a business strategy. It’s about creating real, tangible value for organizations through tackling social problems with ties to their core business model. The expectations are high, both in terms of financial impact, but also delivering results on social impact.

Social innovation is the future of business. It’s hard not to read that and feel a little more optimistic about what’s to come.

Two weekends ago, I had the privilege of representing Idea Couture at the Compost Modern conference here in San Francisco. Organized by AIGA SF, “‘Compostmodern’ engages designers, sustainability professionals, artists and entrepreneurs to collaborate in realizing a more environmentally, culturally, and economically sustainable world.”

While you can read many recaps on the conference that have already been published (check out posts on Cnet, Dwell, and Core77, and moderator Alissa Walker‘s fantastic summary-in-a-poem), I’d like to take the conversation a step further. As a product designer turned MBA and now innovation strategist, I’d say I’m as much a realist as a idealist, and I strongly believe that one of the greatest challenges we face as designers is balancing inspiration with solid and thoughtful execution. In my day-to-day, I work with leaders and managers in large corporations who are not as far along the design-thinking and “good business” kool-aid as we as a community are. We have to ask ourselves some hard questions in order to, as Christopher Simmons said during the conference, earn a seat at the leadership table.

So after some reflection on the event, I’d like to share some of my thoughts and comments on the ideas presented (and not presented) at the conference:

Tackling Sustainability as a system: Beyond materials and packaging

The conference kicked off with Yves Behar showcasing much of his latest work, which yes, of course, was beautiful and clever. But my eyes and ears didn’t perk up until he showed his work with Puma, called “A Clever Little Bag“, an alternative to cardboard shoe packaging. It wasn’t the design that caught my interest though. It was the photos of a distribution center and his mention of the challenge of coordinating the design concept with Puma’s supply chain. I waited to hear more about how he navigated that very-real business challenge, but unfortunately, he breezed right by.

We need to hear more about those challenges in order to push our awareness as designers beyond materials and packaging. Yes, there is a lot of potential there for designers to reduce material use, and I applaud it all. But while we design thoughtful and less-wasteful packaging, we have to consider the entire supply chain and the constraints it presents – how the product is manufactured, loaded up in to freight, stored and moved around in distribution centers, presented in retail stores, and finally taken home by the consumer who then owns its end-of-life fate. And how is that information shared between numerous stakeholders and how does that dynamic affect adoption? It’s not as simple as designing an object – but imagine what impact we can have if we addressed all of this complexity as part of our design challenge? It was a missed opportunity for the entire audience to not hear the more implementation-heavy side of the Behar-Puma story.

As an aside, I’d like to point out that evolving into system sustainability designers (imagine that on a business card!) means we may have to give up some of our own thirst for recognition. We as designers love pointing to tangible evidence of our contributions – a designed object, a space, a poster, a website.  No awards are given out for thoughtfully changing a distribution strategy or tweaking a process in a factory to be more sustainable. But if we want to elevate our impact, we need to be willing to accept the (perceived) diffusion of our contribution. Are we ready for that?

Success Metrics for Healthy Work Cultures.

Given my involvement with the founding of Idea Couture’s San Francisco team, I was very excited to hear Janine James, president of The Moderns in New York City, talk about what she’s doing at her firm to build a healthy and thoughtful work culture. Beyond chemical-free cleaning products and healthy, catered lunches, she also supports “personal development” Fridays, where client work is put aside and the day is devoted to workshops, retreats, lectures, yoga, and other activities that stimulate both mind and body. I absolutely love this idea and the focus on fostering the creative development of employees as individuals. It’s just lovely.

However, these amazing work culture practices are more easy to implement when you own the company (and thus the company’s purse strings!). What if you don’t have that privilege – how might one make a strong case for fostering this type of work environment to upper management? Are there proof points that show the benefits of these practices in a language business leaders might better understand.? Concrete success metrics like increased productivity, reduction in employee turnover, lower energy costs, or, the most powerful, reduction in health care expenses, would have been nice to measure as a before-and-after. Put simply, what’s the business case for work culture investment and its potential ROI?

Yes, turning human good into impersonal numbers is no fun and not sexy at all. But it can be very compelling and powerful to the higher ups. We must remember that we operate in a world of skeptics, which means we have to be smart and thoughtful about the language we use to talk about meaningful change.

Supporting Others to Take it All the Way.

Two highlights for me were talks by Kate Daughdrill of Detroit Soup and Debera Johnson of the Pratt Design Incubator. Both were stories of supporting others to bring inspiration to reality – from Detroit Soup’s $5 dinners with proceeds going to the most-popular local art project to Pratt’s Design Incubator’s work in bringing the most promising student work to market with innovative new business models. Scott Thomas‘ story also speaks to this point – micro-donations from individual supporters  on Kickstarter.org allowed him to raise the money he needed to self-publish his Designing Obama book. So he benefited from the “micro-help” of others, and now we benefit from his work as a public.

Sometimes, it takes just a little something to ignite a wave of action, and we as designers can encourage that. Our opportunity isn’t just about what can we do, but what we can do to help others do what they want to do (you still with me?). By nature, we as designers are fantastic do-ers, so how can we be thoughtful and generous in how we might support others to become do-ers too?

Inspiration is Easy. Execution is Hard.

I loved Scott Thomas’ slides on what it actually took for him to get Designing Obama published. Countless revisions, numerous phone calls and emails, lots of small decisions, thank you notes, individually filling out paperwork and wrapping books for mailing,…as an audience, we laughed but we got it. Turning an idea into an actual, real-life thing, whatever it is, is really really hard, and takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I worry sometimes that we as designers get caught up in the elegance of our ideas and inspiration, and then denounce others that “just don’t get it”. Why wouldn’t someone love what we’re working on and take it upon themselves to make it reality?

Sometimes, if you want something done, you need to do it yourself, or assemble a team of people to really carry an inspiration forward. That means a lot of work, much of what you won’t be familiar with and much of what seems like petty menial labor (Scott Thomas had to fill out 400+ postal forms by hand to get his book to his supporters – how boring is that!). Are we ready to do that grunt work, fight the hard battles, and do the political maneuvering that has to be done in addition to the beautiful, inspiration-fulfilling work we designers love to do? The answer to that question is hopefully a resounding yes!

I truly and deeply believe in the potential that design can have in making this world a better and more sustainable place. But we must balance inspiration with hard work and execution. I left Compost Modern feeling inspired, yet more determined than ever to make things happen. So let’s do it.

Coconuts- Eat The Meat, Use The Shell

Coconuts are a superfood when its comes to physical activity- coconut water for example, has all the essential electrolytes your body needs to keep nerves firing and muscles moving. One cup of cocunut water has more potassium than a banana, 15 times more electrolytes than most sports drinks, and also prevents cramping, promote recovery, and re-hydrates the body. Coconut shells are usually discarded, but they are now being used in exercise clothing. Recycled coconut shells are roasted, turning them into activated carbon and they are then combined with polyester fibers to enhance their performance properties. The result: a greener, softer, quick-drying apparel that provides both UV and odour protection.

Drink Your Coffee, Wear Your Coffee

A cup of coffee before my workout definitely gives me the energy boost I need- in fact a new study suggest that caffeine also kills some of the pain of athletic exertion. Now coffee has another use- the usually wasted ground coffee beans are being infused into the thread of fabrics.  The Coffee grounds are perfect for sports apparel because they control moisture, absorb odour, and are most often concentrated in sports bra’s cups.

Wearable Corn- Grill It, Wear It

Freshly picked corn-on-the-cob is often synonymous with summer- loaded with many essential nutrients including dietary fibre and vitamin C, corn is a summertime BBQ staple. Corn however, is not only great on the grill- it is now being used in exercise clothing. Using corn in fabric is not only environmentally friendly but the fibres wick away sweat and increase sun protection. Also, as your body temperature rises, the fibres let in cool air and post work-out they retain heat.

These active ingrediants are good for you and the environment too.

The supply chain for products we use is something that has undergone rigorous analysis and innovations that have resulted in improved efficiencies, but what about the “removal chain”?  Could a better understanding of what happens to products after we use them promote behavioral change and encourage people to make more sustainable decisions about what they consume and how it affects the world around them?

A team of researchers from MIT SENSEable City Lab (http://senseable.mit.edu/) recently embarked on a major project called Trash Track, which aims to get people thinking about what they throw away and how it impacts the environment. Like an urban equivalent of nuclear medicine–where a tracer is injected and followed through the human body, the project uses custom-designed electronic tags to track different types of waste on their final journeys through the disposal systems of New York and Seattle. Waste Management and Qualcomm funded the study.

The project’s objective is to reveal the disposal process of everyday objects and highlight potential inefficiencies in the recycling and sanitation systems. In mid-July, Trash Track enlisted volunteers in New York and Seattle, who allowed 3000 pieces of their trash to be electronically tagged with special wireless markers or “trash tags”. Working with Waste Management, the SENSEable City Lab team is monitoring the path of trash in real-time using the tags, which report data to a central server at MIT, where it is processed and visualized into dynamic maps showing a slice of the city’s waste stream.

Trash Track was initially inspired by the Green NYC Initiative, the goal of which is to increase the rate of waste recycling in New York to almost 100% by 2030. Currently only about 30% of the city’s waste is diverted from landfills for recycling.

This week, the preliminary results of Trash Track are being unveiled in two new exhibitions in New York and Seattle. For more information, visit http://senseable.mit.edu/trashtalk/index/php

And once they are on, there’s no guaranteeing they’ll stay on; within seconds, wiping or washing can erase a parent’s best efforts and force another round with the little champ. Even more frustrating than that, sometimes the very act of trying to care for your child is risky: many skin care products sold for babies and children contain an alarming amount of carcinogens, toxins and allergens.

Crayola Rainbow Skin Care takes the fight and fear out of kids’ skin care and puts fun in their place. Designed in collaboration with a panel of leading child physicians, medical herbalists, ayurvedic practitioners, naturopathic dermatologists and cosmeticians, this 100% natural, organic and waterproof line of draw-able skin care products relieves pain and irritation caused by the most common childhood crises, including: scrapes, bruises, chicken pox, eczema, bug bites, sunburn, sunscreen, diaper rash and, of course, those invisible boo-boos.

Case Study: Chicken Pox Party
It’s inevitable, when one child gets the chicken pox, they all get them. This can be a pint size epidemic for childcare centers. Rainbow Skin Care is easily the one and only upside to a daycare full itchy-scratchy munchkins. Turn it into an arts and crafts task. Kids can paint themselves, color each other and let their creativity run wild while soothing their itchy skin. The possibilities are endless. This could expand into a daily painting session with sunscreen before they head outside to play.  Pool-parties where the kids actually want to come out of the water to be painted wonderful (and protective) colors. Little league games that seem to always result in scrapes and tears, can now be filled with players sporting their team colors on their skin. Bug bites and bruises are no longer to be feared thanks to Rainbow Skin Care. Natural, creative juice.

• Sure I’m upset that the smug not-so-genius bar told me the problem was my fault.
  [Poor Customer Service]
• Sure I’ll have to spend 30 minutes on the phone negotiating to fix the problem with Apple Care – who, from all accounts is basically useless unless you push them to the edge. (As an aside, I’ve seen Dell’s warranty program in action – next day product replacement – no questions asked) [Poor Product Support]
• Sure Apple’s being irresponsible by not owning up to this obvious manufacturing defect and at the end of the day, I may need to shell out $800+labor+tax for a new screen[Poor Corporate Policy]

But to top it off, this issue exposes such a fundamental design flaw in the Mac Air that they are unwilling to take responsibility for [Poor Product Design]. Oh Apple – can your ego really be that inflated you can do no wrong?

Let’s have a look at Apple’s environmental policy taken from their site:

“Protecting the environment is critical to the conservation of precious natural resources and the continued health of our planet. Apple recognizes its responsibility as a global citizen and continually strives to reduce the environmental impact of the work we do and the products we create.”

The way this laptop is designed, this little hing issue requires a complete replacement of the LCD screen. This one design flaw, negates all their talk about lower carbon emissions. Cradle-to-Cradle? More like Cradle-to-Dump. The back half of the life cycle hasn’t even been considered. This is not environmentally sustainable. Another highlight from their history of environmental achievements:

“In 2008 MacBook Air is the first product to use mercury-free back light technology with arsenic-free LCD display glass.”

Great – so when my perfectly functional screen ends up in the dump, at least there won’t be any mercury leaking into the soil. Who thought it was a good idea to attach a constantly moving part to a major (expensive) part of the computer? This machine needs to be redesigned. Message to the industrial designers at Apple – think, prototype, build and test before you send your machines into the market. While some have had their airs fixed with a brand new screen, and others have put knives through theirs,

to save one more perfectly perfectly good LCD from ending up in the Apple graveyard, you’ll find my air fashionably affixed with duct tape.

Thank you Apple.

1. It’s just good business to be sustainable Reducing consumption is good for business and good for the environment. Dell is walking the talk with reductions in waste from manufacturing process and packaging. Mattel has reduced unnecessary packaging by redesigning the boxes that toys come in – no longer do they use the little plastic twist ties. Barbie and Ken are held in place by pop out cardboard slits made in the external box.

2. Customers drive requirements
Listening to consumers and solving consumer’s problems came across as the number one priority. Consumers vote for business practice with the dollars they spend. Organizations can use this basic premise to do two things. 1/ Redesign products and services that don’t meet consumer needs from a quality, price and sustainability standpoint. 2/ Look for those needs that are unmet, unarticulated and underserved and solve for x. This is where true consumer innovation takes place.

3. The reduction of risk is a key consideration in any operation – service or manufacturing
77% of Starbucks coffee is procured from free trade sources. While they spend a more for their green coffee, the reduction of supply risk is factored into the business model. Going with a cheaper source doesn’t guarantee translation to the bottom line if there is risk that the source will be cut off. Ben & Jerry’s mission of social and economic justice is well known. They have been a model for sustainability with their cow to cup philosophy. Neither company has sacrificed quality with their practices and as premium brands, can command higher price points from consumers.

Smart companies will find ways to weave sustainability into their operations – inherently lowering cost and delivering consumers economic and experiential value.

Think about some of these statistics presented by Jez Frampton of Interbrand at the opening plenary tonight:

• 95% of consumers say they would consider buying green products
• 25% actually do buy green products
• 45% purposefully don’t

Look at that last statistic. Why would a person choose NOT to buy a product that is better for the environment? Is there intent to destroy our planet? No – I would venture that consumers have been disappointed by green products – they have either performed worse and are more expensive. That is not a sustainable strategy – especially in our bleak economic times. Firms producing products and services must understand that consumers expectations are high. Recycled tissue shouldn’t irritate my nose. Environmentally friendly detergent must clean my clothes as well. It’s just not good enough to slap a “green” label on products and services and expect it to be a differentiator on its own.

To appeal with the masses, sustainable products and services MUST offer the same standards as other products. Quality, performance and price come first – sustainable, green, environmental friendliness are added benefits and eventually, should be a given. The economics of sustainability must align with a consumer’s personal economics and value. Some examples for sustainable experiences include:

1. Cleaning products made from all natural ingredients found in the home (baking soda and vinegar)
2. Small living spaces
3. Local, in season produce
4. Car sharing and car pooling

There are so many ways consumers can choose to be sustainable AND economical. Today, I rented a car to drive down from San Francisco to Monterey. I’d reserved a compact car for cost and fuel efficiency. The person at the counter told me I could get a hybrid car that was slightly larger, more comfortable and give me better the mileage than the compact – all for $4 more. It was a no brainer – the experience value of the hybrid far outweighed that of the compact car.

Sustainability simply must be sustainable economically to gain traction. Green energy must become cheaper, better and more available than fossil fuel energy. Green manufacturing must produce a quality product that rivals non-green product. Green service must be just as good as non-green service. There will always be a segment who can afford to choose sustainability – but to gain momentum with the general populous, the design of sustainable products and service must take into consideration consumer needs and expectations to service demand in a responsible way.

How do we make the 4Ps of working in harmony? People, Planet, Purpose and Profit is rapidly becoming the new mantra of a new generation of managers, they are now challenged as never before to deal with a myriad of issues that go far beyond creating shareholder value. What good is shareholder value when we are selling our future short? What good is shareholder value when there are no jobs? Some argue that outsourcing to some lower cost countries can help a company to make money. When there are no jobs, there won’t be any pension funds to provide capital for these corporations? When we run out of natural resources there won’t be any customer or markets.

The 4Ps are the framework for a more sustainable world. Corporations are beginning to understand the importance of adopting this new “sustainability” business paradigm—one that focuses on creating a better balance between social, environmental and economic factors for short- and long-term performance. Innovation is not creating more products that no one wants or brand extensions that only the brand managers understand. Innovation needs to be about new business models; new partnerships and new social behavior.

Unfortunately, our economic system is not designed that way. How can a “sustainable” business climate ever be possible in a quick return capital driven economic system? Do we continue to reward those who design and manufacture products that only serve the purpose of making money at all costs or laughing at those who design “green” products that are no more than a quick green wash?

We need to start at the shareholders level. Here’s a story. When Jeff Bezos was addressing shareholders in Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting this week, the sustainability issue was raised. They questioned some of Amazon’s business seemed not very eco-friendly. It’s an online retail company that sell products with lots of extra packaging to prevent breakage and it relies on delivery trucks to deliver to people’s homes, but Bezos was well prepared and he was quick to highlight the company’s greener side:

First, he said, consumers will drive a 2,000-pound car to buy a 5-pound item from a brick-and-mortar store. “It’s much more efficient to use a full truck to drop off packages than when everyone does point to point delivery,” he said, noting that delivery trucks use an optimized route.

Second, Amazon’s investment in the Kindle – and it is indeed still in investment phase, he confirmed – is one that could lead to less paper printed later on.

Third, Amazon unveiled “frustration-free” packaging last fall that eliminates the need for dozens of wire ties and hard plastic encasements.

And finally, Amazon has dubbed hundreds of employees as “Earth Kaizens” who identify waste and look for more energy-efficient practices. As a result of the Kazien recommendations, Bezos said, the company eliminated light bulb in its food vending machines company-wide, saving $20,000 per year on energy costs.

Bezos was giving a lot of funny one-liners during the meeting, I’ve seen him doing that in the past. When he was talking about his company’s philosophy versus that of his competitors, he threw out “Advertising is the price you pay for having an unremarkable product or service…” That is a great one.

Sustainability is a wicked problem, with high energy and food prices, the debate about biofuels, water stress, agricultural subsidies, deforestation, and environmental degradation is proving too difficult for anyone to handle. The short-sightedness of governments and big institutions continue to push us down the wrong path.

As for businesses, we need to stop thinking more products. Let’s think better products. Better means products that are socially responsible. It starts with planning, not with marketing. Decisions such as what to make, where and when to make it and where to locate inventory are focused on profit or revenue maximization,, it needs to extend to include carbon emissions and exploring options to educate the customer to participate, even if it means doing more work. I think consumers are happy to do that provided we can put a compelling case together. This is the future of business. As least I hope it is the case.

At Idea Couture, we speak often about consumers’ needs – unarticulated and unmet. These exhibits bring to the front of consciousness these needs in a raw, ‘in your face’ way. Who wouldn’t want the elixirs and cures filled with promises? As I head to Monterey for Sustainability Brands 09, I ponder questions about the human condition and what it will take to satisfy our subconscious, ego and superego in a way that is sustainable.

To check out Flow Market go to http://theflowmarket.com.