Towards Sustainability Oriented Innovation - Insights from the Sustainable Innovation Lab (SusIN Lab) Bettina von Stamm* Innovation Leadership Forum, Old Rectory, North Wootton, Norfolk PE30 3RD, United Kingdom. E-mail: Bettina@InnovationLeadershipForum.org * Corresponding author Dorothea Ernst Previously Dorothea Seebode, CelViva, Am Tivoli 25, 52070 Aachen, Germany. E-mail Dorothea@celviva.org Sally Jeanrenaud Business School, University of Exeter, Streatham Court, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4PU, UK E-mail S.Jeanrenaud@exeter.ac.uk Abstract: Innovation has been high up on the agenda of commercial, not-for- profit and government organisations alike and is considered to be key for our future. More recently companies have begun to wake up to the fact that current business models based on abundance are no longer sustainable - a fact that international sustainability research has emphasised for quite some time. This paper will introduce some experiences and lessons learned from case studies shared in the SusIN Lab, an initiative of the University of Exeter. Three workshops and a conference were held between 2012 and 2013, exploring the 3- level NBS model of Innovating for Sustainability in a multi-stakeholder setting: (1) Operational Optimisation, (2) Organisational Transformation, and (3) Systems Building. The SusIN Lab methodology provided an active learning environment, and confirmed that innovating for sustainability is generating new forms of value and competitive advantage for companies. Further research is required to understand the dynamics of innovating for sustainability at different levels; to help populate and generate a maturity model; and to help guide thinking related to large scale system transformation urgently required for a sustainable future. Keywords: sustainability-driven innovation; experiential learning; operational optimisation; organisational transformation; systems building 1. Introduction Innovation has been high up on the agenda of commercial, not-for-profit and government organisations alike and is considered to be key to our future. Knowledge on this topic has expanded rapidly over the past decades - a quick search on amazon.co.uk reveals that over 400 innovation related books have been published in 2013 alone. International sustainability research has long drawn attention to the urgent challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, water and energy security, declining resources, population growth, poverty and growing social inequalities (WCED 1987; Meadows et al, 2004; WWF 2012). Many of these ‘crises’ are interdependent, develop faster than most policy makers could have predicted, and have profound implications for business. This paper was presented at The XXV ISPIM Conference – Innovation for Sustainable Economy & Society, Dublin, Ireland on 8-11 June 2014. The publication is available to ISPIM members at www.ispim.org . 1