Can Innovation and Sustainability Co-Exist?
Twenty years ago, we didn’t have smartphones or social media. Facebook was just a twinkle in the eye of a socially awkward frat boy who wanted revenge against the women who had rejected his advances. This week, someone spent $650,000 on a yacht that doesn’t actually exist, in Zuckerberg’s Metaverse.
The speed of innovation in the digital sphere alone is enough to give us all whiplash.
We tend to think of innovation as being a net positive benefit to society. Which is funny, when you think about it, because we’re also a species that doesn’t particularly like change. Cognitive dissonance aside, our tireless pursuit of innovation bears at the very least, some in-depth questions. Is innovation always good for us? Should we pursue innovation at all costs? Can innovation sometimes cause harm?
Like any question worth asking, the answers aren’t straightforward. So, break out your scrunchies and your pocket protectors because, in true high school debate style, we’re going to dive into the arguments for and against innovation as a path to sustainability – and you get to be the judge.
For the affirmative: Innovation and Sustainability can Coexist
Human evolution and innovation are inextricably linked. If our ape ancestors hadn’t learned to use and then refine tools, we would never have come down from the trees. In fact, so intertwined are innovation and sustainability that our brains need innovation. The making and using of tools enabled early humans to hunt. Having access to high-value protein enabled our brains to grow, which enabled us to develop more complex innovations, like the wheel. These in turn connected more synapses in our brains, and we began to form societies, develop agricultural practices and, eventually, enter one of the greatest periods of innovation in history – the industrial revolution. Thanks to innovation, human quality of life has increased across almost every measure.
Innovation is not only a hallmark of our species, but it is necessary to our survival. As Darwin observed, survival comes down to the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and what is innovation if not adaptation?
The question then, is whether innovation and sustainability can coexist, as human needs continue to change and grow. The opposition will no doubt alarm you with tales of planetary doomsday, but here on the affirmative side, we are optimists. We believe that not only can innovation coexist, but that innovation can be a path to sustainability.
First, you can’t begin a debate without a definition. Merriam-Webster defines sustainability as, relevantly, “able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed”, and “able to last or continue for a long time.” Another way of thinking of that is, creating a world where the current generation can meet their own needs, without detracting from the ability of future generations to meet their own.
When we think of innovation, we typically think of the creation of new products, which, intuitively is hard to reconcile with sustainability. But innovation should not be conflated with invention. Innovation can be the perfect partner for sustainability, by encouraging better and more efficient ways of doing things. Innovation can be a driver of sustainability, just as sustainability can be a driver of innovation.
Consider this quote from Deloitte, leading consultants and researchers in the field of innovation:
“Sustainability assumes greater relevance in the context of innovation. While it is valid to discuss sustainability as an important driver in value creation, differentiation of products and services will ultimately play a greater role in shaping a company’s prospects in the market. Increasingly, that differentiation is the product of sustainability-driven innovation.”
What the authors are getting at, is that companies’ increasing desire to integrate sustainability across their businesses, is leading to innovation that promotes sustainability, by introducing new design constraints that shape how resources are used. This could be anything from the development of sustainable products, to reducing how much water is used in manufacturing processes, to the installation of energy-efficient LED lights across offices.
The innovation-sustainability virtuous cycle is not limited to environmental sustainability, either. Consider the benefits that the digital revolution has brought to society – charities can now shorten their go-to-market funnel and reduce philanthropic costs by accepting online donations. Families separated by distance can see each other and speak in real time.
Innovation has brough substantial social benefits for millennia. There are too many examples to enumerate, but we can highlight just a couple. The innovation of underground sewers stands out as one such innovation. Where once sewerage flowed through open streets, causing diseases such as dysentery to run rife, the simple innovation of creating enclosed sewer pipes underground changed the face of public health. Another example comes from the UK, which experienced high rates of truancy amongst low income families. By looking at the problem in a new way (innovation), authorities realized that there wasn’t a lack of desire for education, but the costs of getting to school were prohibitive for many families. By eliminating public transit fares for students and providing hot lunches for primary school children, attendance has sky-rocketed.
Similarly, innovation has created opportunities for more sustainable governance. The advent of blockchain has allowed business to create contracts and supply chains that are fully transparent and traceable, clarifying responsibilities, reducing fraud, and lowering legal and compliance costs. Or, you could look at the push toward Net Zero that many companies and even governments across the world are making – this sustainable goal is driving innovation in decision-making, ensuring that leaders factor in carbon emissions in their growth strategies.
Innovation and sustainability are inextricably linked. They drive each other, and it is indisputable that we see environmental, social and governance benefits as a result.
For the negative: Innovation and Sustainability Cannot Coexist
The affirmative team has some pretty persuasive sounding arguments, don’t they? Perhaps you were moved by the idea of innovation allowing you to connect with long-lost family, or by gentle-hearted corporations trying to reduce water waste. And truly, those things are wonderful. They are.
But the argument about sustainability and innovation falls down when you take out the purist element, and factor in human nature, which craves growth – a constant pursuit of more, in a world that needs us to use less in order to survive. Not convinced? Think we’re a little cynical? Well, possibly. But think about this. As human standards of living increase across the world, studies show that societies eat more meat and dairy (in spite of the known health risks), requiring more and more land to be used for cattle and crops to feed those cattle. If all humans on earth ate the average diet of a North American, we would need 5 planets to sustain us. Five. We simply can’t help ourselves.
Our opponents said it themselves – humans have never stopped innovating, but instead of better societies, our insatiable appetite has led to deep inequalities within and between countries, a climate on the brink of disaster, and corruption across every strata of society.
Many innovations have occurred with good intentions, or so the innovators say. Let’s take the example of social media, raised by the affirmative team as an example of social sustainability – an innovation that brings us together. Yes, it may be easier these days to find out what Aunt Mavis cooked for dinner last night, but social media surely divides us more than it connects. Facebook (now Meta) knows that its products are harmful for teenage girls, but rather than addressing the problem (through, say, innovation), it chose to cover it up in order to continue its stratospheric growth ambitions. It deliberately prioritizes the spread of misinformation that disrupts our hard-won democratic processes and endangers minority groups, because misinformation sells more ads.
We’ve also heard about the governance benefits of blockchain, but what our opponents failed to mention was that this innovation was created to facilitate the trade in bitcoin – a cryptocurrency now concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and permitting anonymous transactions that achieve the opposite of fairness to everyday consumers.
Perhaps the starkest indictment of innovation is when it comes to our environment. Humanity currently has all the tools it needs to address the climate crisis. Innovations like solar panels, wind power and hydrogen fuel cells should allow us to continue our high-energy western lifestyles without destroying the planet, but we lack the will to implement them at scale, because we have bought into the message that fossil fuels equate to growth. Growth in industry, growth in economies, growth in our pension funds. Our ‘me first’ human nature prevents us from being able to truly use the power of innovation to create sustainable futures. Heck, we even lie about the value of innovation in order to avoid creating a sustainable future. (Yes, we’re talking about carbon capture).
Sustainability, that concept of taking only what we need, in order for future generations to be able to meet their own needs, is indeed a noble thought. And innovation holds an alluring promise of helping us to get there. There are plenty of passionate, well-intended people working towards this aim as we speak, developing new products, ideas and ways of doing things. But, as a species, we are simply not capable of limiting our own desire for more. Anyone who has studied the tragedy of the commons will tell you this.
Humans are inherently self-interested, and this self-interest results in a never-ending quest for more. Our entire capitalist system is built on the notion of perpetual growth. Of course, though, we cannot have constant growth on a finite planet.
Like Communism, innovation is a wonderful idea in theory, but as humans we lack the ability to put society before our individual needs. We take the potential good of innovation and put instead towards personal gain which harms our planet and our communities. Innovation and sustainability simply cannot coexist.
