The disruptive approach to low-carbon innovation
To tackle climate change we must stop relying on 'quick fix' technological solutions and start adopting new low-carbon ways of working and living, says Dr Michael Harris.
Looking beyond quick-fix solutions
There's no shortage of research on tackling climate change, but many existing reports focus mainly on how technological innovation will help us to reduce carbon emissions.
The high profile Stern Review, which was commissioned by the government and published in October 2006, is one report that falls into this category.
NESTA's new report, The Disrupters, challenges this approach by asking: are we harnessing the full potential of innovation to respond to the challenge of climate change
The Disrupters builds on two other recent NESTA reports – The Innovation Gap and Hidden Innovation – which explored how current government policy is neglecting important strands of innovation.
Michael Harris, Senior Research Fellow at NESTA, says that we need to recognise that technology can only be a part of our response to climate change.
"Technology can sometimes be seen as a 'quick-fix solution' but it's important that we don't get complacent and think that technological innovation alone is the answer. The technological solutions will only work if we also change our behaviour and adopt new low-carbon ways of working and living."
Redefining innovation
The research emphasis on technology stems from a common assumption that innovation equals new technology. Technology clearly has a role to play in reducing carbon emissions, but the scale of the challenge demands that we make full use of other types of innovation – and this is where 'disruptive innovation' comes in.
Rather than developing new technologies or products, disruptive innovation takes existing products and services and makes them cheaper and easier-to-use. Disruptive innovators often operate outside of the mainstream and the innovations themselves often target new customer groups.
For innovators whose focus is not on developing completely new inventions, getting work acknowledged as innovation can be a challenge - and this can make it difficult to obtain the support and funding that they need to succeed.
Current UK policy on environmental innovation concentrates on new technologies, with initiatives such as environmental technology research centres and tax credits for businesses involved in R&D. Support for low-carbon innovators working outside of the technology arena is less well developed.
Michael Harris explains the need for policy reform in this area: "The government has set ambitious targets for reducing the UK's carbon emissions by 60 per cent by the middle of this century.
Disruptive forms of innovation can help us move towards a low-carbon economy, but at the moment policy doesn't tend to support this kind of innovation. We need to learn more about disruptive innovation so that we can work out how policy can support it more effectively."
Getting users involved
As well as political transformation, our response to climate change requires significant social change. There's an increasingly high level of public awareness about the problem of climate change and the need to drastically reduce our carbon emissions. We're bombarded with messages about recycling more, conserving water and not using cars for short journeys, but many people still see these kinds of actions as a chore.
Getting users actively involved in low-carbon innovation could help to trigger a shift in attitudes across large groups of people. Initiatives like public competitions and challenges or dedicated innovation zones would bring users into the innovation process – and give all of us the chance to become disruptive innovators.
See also
- Hidden Innovation Report
- Innovation Gap Report
- Policy briefing: New types of innovation for a low-carbon society
Add a comment
Comments on this article
Added: 17/03/2008 3:30pm
Graham Lucas, Utopia Arts
Your thinking is too small scale. Putting carbon compounds into the air is but one small aspect of a much greater crisis. Humanity is on the cusp of its greatest challenge for 10,000 years, brought on by the fact that, for the first time in human history, the majority of us are now living in towns and cities.