Win the Future

During the last 30 years the climate challenge has primarily been approached as a risk and as a problem for companies. The focus has been on reducing emissions in companies and their value chains. Policies, tools and incentive structures have been developed based on the assumption that the best a company can do is reduce its own emissions and reach “Net-Zero”. This is based on a “static problem approach”, an approach where the large companies, the infrastructure and consumption patterns, are assumed as static and companies are only sources of emissions. Hence innovation has largely been limited to improvements, often incremental, in existing systems.[1] This static problem approach made sense from 1997 when the Kyoto protocol was agreed and the rich countries agreed to reduce their emissions by 5%. But since 2015 and the Paris agreement, when the world agreed to deliver solutions to stay below 2 °C and aim for 1.5 °C while supporting global sustainability, a static problem approach is not enough. It is time to expand the climate and innovation agenda. 

While companies must ensure that the emissions over the value chain are compatible with a 1.5 °C development path, these emissions are only one side of the coin, and the less important from an innovation and a long-term perspective. Now the time has come for companies to stop taking their current business model as given and start to focus on what society needs and how they can deliver such solutions in ways that are globally sustainable.

The original reason society developed the idea of companies with limited liability was to accelerate innovation in areas where companies could deliver important contributions to society. As we now urgently need solutions that can deliver on human needs in sustainable ways, companies need to use their innovation capacity as solution providers. For this to happen the innovation ecosystem must shift focus from only a static problem approach to also include a dynamic solution approach where companies move from only climate risk innovation to also embrace climate solution innovation.

The need for companies as solution providers becomes even more important when we shift the focus to what is ultimately needed, i.e. not just solutions to stay below 1.5 °C, but a future where everyone can live flourishing lives on a flourishing planet. Instead of the reduction of emissions from existing companies and structures, the main challenge from a long-term perspective is to avoid emissions as we make people’s lives better, with the help of innovation. For this innovation to happen we need a new approach – a dynamic solution approach – an approach that focusses on companies as solution providers that deliver on human needs in ways that are globally sustainable.

When it comes to changes that are more than optimization of existing systems it is important to focus on start-ups, as it is among these where the future is born. This is where most groundbreaking innovations in areas such as energy, mobility, and nutrition have reached society the last 30 years. It is also among start-ups where innovations have been born that allow us to meet, find information, work, and find friends in totally new ways. Hence, we need also to shift focus from large established companies to start-ups and new clusters with new innovative ways of delivering on human needs if we want to support global sustainability.

In order to unleash the full potential of companies they must move beyond product substitution. The four-step strategy developed by the Net-Zero Compatible Innovation Initiative was created to support a shift from a narrow product substitution and profit driven approach among companies, to a purpose driven approach with a focus on flourishing lives on a flourishing planet, where profit is a tool for positive change. It also encourages large companies to go beyond thinking of start-ups as only helping them to reduce scope 1-3 emissions. Instead, the four-step strategy supports and encourages large companies to approach start-ups as crucial partners for business model innovation that identify new revenue opportunities linked to delivering sustainable solutions that deliver on human needs, i.e. deliver avoided emissions in society. 

Through Win the Future, clusters of multinational companies and start-ups, together with key stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem will gain information, tools, and training to implement an expanded climate and innovation agenda, supported by:

• New tools such as scanning for human needs- and solution leadership
• Business model development for climate solution providers
• Innovative matchmaking
• Capacity to use established tools and concepts such as Planetary Boundaries and Science Based Targets to support an expanded climate and innovation agenda.
• New roles for the innovation ecosystem, including incubators, will also be explored.

Welcome to becoming a part of the future we need.