Sustainability and Innovation. Business & Marketing Essay

Sustainability and Innovation
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Sustainability and Innovation
Sustainability innovation refers to a process in which sustainability considerations on the environment, social and financial situations are integrated into an organization’s system from the generation of an idea to its development and commercialization. Innovation is essential as it reflects on the economic growth in the future and the environmental protection of natural systems (McKinsey, 2020, p. 1). The tool aims at delivering critical goods and services with the notion of business while protecting equality, environmental justice, and human health. Sustainability innovation encompasses the commercialization of technologies, entrepreneurial products and services, and the adoption of new systems and processes at society levels. It involves incremental and progressive improvement on consumer goods and services and significant re-design on concepts of production. The new ideas of production should satisfy the same functional needs and create sustainability in society.
Part A question 1
One of the significant barriers toward innovation and sustainability is economical and financial barriers. Most development models focus on economic growth rather than focusing on human rights, welfare, and environmental factors (McKinsey, 2020, p. 4). The world innovation is lagging because we tend to think that the environment is part of the economy rather than treating the economy as part of the situation. If we incorporate the economy as part of the environment, then environmental services will be maintained. Also, innovation barriers in schools still lack because innovation-oriented research is still limited. This implies that there should be a closer connection between research centers and economists to ensure the world overcome various problems.
The wake of COVID-19, increasing world population, and unsustainable production due to laying off of employees is a significant barrier towards sustainable innovation (McKinsey, 2020, p. 2). Sustainability encompasses initiatives and projects which go beyond the company and the factory walls. The pandemic has also shifted the leaders’ attention toward the lives and livelihoods of their employees and the clients. In the face of many death incidences, the leaders cannot champion for sustainability or set start dates for the campaigns on the environment and sustainable practices (McKinsey, 2020, p. 4). The concrete priorities established by the leaders towards creating sustainable innovations have shifted toward solving the COVID-19 crisis rather than creating a sustainable future. After the disaster, leaders will turn their attention in the quest to uplift the economy instead of focusing on environmental issues. Instead, the leaders should take action on hard topics such as water use, waste generation, and disposal, environmental pollution, labor conditions in factories, and all the positive steps they can take to create and support sustainability in the post-Coronavirus world.
According to the former CEO of Unilever, Polman, sustainability can be achieved with the right leadership (McKinsey, 2020, p. 3). The leaders of a ...