How to Generate Strategic Innovation for a Sustainable Future

Abstract

We are warned louder and louder by sustainable issues and the consequences for our future welfare. There is no green revolution. But there is an evolution toward a green society. The first global warnings against the unsustainable characteristics of the industrial growth curve came in the 1960s. The report of Rome signalized scarcity of resources when extrapolating demographic development and industrial growth. Another highlight mentioning cracks in the existing industrial system and our current way of life came from the Brundtland Commission in the late 1980s. The Brundtland Commission came up with the notion of sustainable development as an alternative to the unlimited and linear growth models of most industrialized countries. Despite all these and other warnings, it took decades before some real changes toward a greening of society really took off. The warning was not always rightly interpreted. The first green wave reaching the top management board meetings and governments started in the early 1990s. In Europe, environmental issues were top priority of some NGOs and pressure groups like Greenpeace, but much less these ideas were accepted by (top) managers. These ecological aspects were more or less regarded to be disturbing for running business. Some NGOs like Greenpeace took the road of hard action instead of paper work to direct attention toward overfishing of the world seas or misuse of natural resources. There were only a few governments in the West who took these reports and action seriously and tried to formulate new policies.