This month, researchers at the University College London (UCL) released a study that found America’s “Green Economy” generates $1.31 trillion in annual revenue, or about 7% of U.S. annual GDP. They also concluded that almost 9.5 million Americans, or about 4% of the workforce, are employed in the “Green Economy”.
They reported that this represents 16.5% of the green economy worldwide, and that from 2013-2016 this sector’s revenue increased more than 20%. This was led primarily by the renewable energy sector, but significant growth was also seen in other environmental businesses, including, reducing air pollution, recycling and waste management, land remediation, and improving water treatment.
The report also states that “low-carbon” sectors—including electric vehicles, energy efficiency, and green finance, are making a rising contribution to the Green Economy.
According to Professor Mark Maslin, one of the authors of the study, “Just look at the data and be hard-nosed about it, and say, Okay, if we’re going to support the economy and make it grow and have lots of employment, this is where I need to invest.”
Environmental Impact Advances Involving Innovation
How does this relate to the topic of this newsletter, innovation?
When many people think about innovation, the primary thing that comes to mind is the newest device or software app. However, in reality there are nine different types of innovation, one of which is Environmental Impact Advances.
Environmental impact advances involve applying innovation to environmental issues (e.g., development of a system that provides real-time monitoring of specific smoke-stack pollutants which enables the immediate adjustment of the equipment generating the pollutants).
The increasing awareness of the need to save our planet through innovation was underscored by the recognition of International Climate Action Day on October 24, 2019 and we are seeing more and more indications that the business community has tuned into the fact that besides making the world a better place to live now and in the future, applying innovation to environmental issues can also generate huge earnings.
Growing Interest in Environmental Impact Innovation
This growing interest in environmental impact innovation was reflected in some recent announcements:
- The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design on the campus of Georgia Tech opened, which is a $30 million marvel that will be the first major Living Building Challenge-certified education and research facility in the Southeast.
- Apeel Sciences, a California-based startup announced they developed an odorless, tasteless, edible coating that can go on produce and delay it from spoiling. The coating is made itself from plant materials. Founder and CEO, James Rogers, said “Apeel is made from materials that are found in every bite of fruit,” “These materials are found in high quantities in the seeds, skins and pulps of fruits or vegetables. Using those materials, we created a formula that, when mixed with water, farmers and suppliers can apply to the surface of produce”, resulting in doubling the shelf life of the items.
- Burger King announced a 5% increase in their same-store sales, which was driven by the introduction of the plant-based, Impossible Burger.
The Growth of Plant Based “Meat”
To examine how the area of environmental innovation can affect the business community, let us look at the 
tremendous interest and growth of plant based “meat” like the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat Burger.
Plant-based burgers, sausages and “chicken” are becoming increasingly popular and available in fast-food restaurants and grocery stores across the United States. This has come to the attention to a new group of companies that is moving into meatless meat: the food conglomerates and meat producers with which Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods directly compete.
In recent months, major meat producing companies like Tyson, Smithfield, Perdue, Hormel and Nestlé have introduced their own meat alternatives, thereby increasing the competition with plant-based burgers, “meat”-balls and “chicken” nuggets for supermarket shelves.
Many consumers are looking to reduce their meat intake in light of concerns about its health effects and the significant negative environmental impact and consumption of resources the production of meat entails. Pat Brown, Impossible Foods CEO stated, “Every aspect of the animal-based food industry is vastly more environmentally disruptive and resource-inefficient than any plant-based system”. These have resulted in the interest in the innovative area of plant-based “meat” growing tremendously.
Recently, stock prices of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have soared and starting with the Impossible Whopper at Burger King a number of fast food restaurant chains are testing similar plant-based products for future introduction. Analysts forecast that the market for plant-based protein and lab-created meat alternatives could be worth as much as $85 billion by 2030. This underscores the attractiveness of focusing innovation on environmental areas.
Environmental Issue Innovation Opportunities
What are some of the areas that businesses can focus their innovation initiatives related to environmental issues?
- Carbon “footprint” reduction
- Clean energy
- Climate change
- Dealing with increasing natural disasters
- Deforestation
- Depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer
- Environmentally compatible housing
- Food production and distribution
- Land management and urban sprawl
- Loss of biodiversity
- Loss of endangered species
- Overpopulation
- Pollution reduction
- Public health
- Recycling
- Rising sea levels
- Sustainable agriculture
- The reduction of arable land as the result of long-term droughts
- Waste disposal
- Water scarcity and quality
Taking Advantage of Environment Impact Innovation Opportunities
How can a business develop a game plan to target its innovation program on environmental issues?
Step one: Develop a strategic, long-term approach to innovation by determining what markets, sectors, applications, product types, and technologies have significant growth potential. Ideally, these are areas that are at least somewhat adjacent to existing markets in which it currently participates.
Step two: Perform an assessment to identify your company’s core competencies. This includes identifying the unique capabilities of your business that could be leveraged to an advantage in these or other environmental markets, applications, and sectors. The goal is to work from an organization’s strengths and base of knowledge instead of starting from zero in an entirely new market about which nothing is known.
Step three: Communicate to your personnel the specific environmental areas in which you want them to focus their innovation efforts. The objective is to get the entire company and its work force on the same page because, to effectively innovate, the organization’s leadership needs to fully communicate where it wants to go with regards to innovation. This will result in the employees functioning as a unit, developing a team atmosphere, and instilling the goal of operating as a group focused the company’s innovation objectives.
If you could use assistance with targeting your company’s innovation effort in the environment impact arena, please contact us using the information below so we can be a resource to you in this growing area that can both save our planet and yield big bucks to innovative organizations.
Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17, years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive, and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program™, Innovation Academy™, and Structure of Success™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century enterprise.
Office: (770) 642-4220
www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
Tags: entrepreneur, front end of innovation, innovation, invention, small business consulting, small business planning, start a business
