Inclusion of Nature
In the context of the investment theme, a particular sustainability focus is on how the production, consumption, and disposal of textiles and building materials influence the natural world and on the importance of preserving the environment. To gain a deeper understanding of the environmental challenges and opportunities associated with bio-based materials innovations, the program is developing and implementing two main approaches: a nature-readiness framework and a workshop to raise the environmental awareness.
Nature-Readiness framework for assessing an innovation's scaling readiness
This integrated workshop framework is being developed and is being piloted of process for developing a scaling Innovation workshop, adapted from Sartas et al. (2020). The purpose of the workshop is to engage a diverse group of researchers and other stakeholders (see ref to the description of the general workshop). We have further adapted it by adding an additional nature readiness scale derived from the approach taken by the WBCSD (2022). The nature-readiness scale provides, in addition to the innovation readiness and societal support scales, a quick-scan method that assess the scaling readiness of an innovation from an environmental perspective. Together, these three scales can be useful to help development teams (e.g., entrepreneurs, companies, researchers) to understand the readiness of their innovation to scale and as a prompt to consider all sustainability dimensions.
Nudging the environmental dimension: integrating environmental considerations into the thinking and actions of researchers working on sustainable innovations
An environmental awareness workshop is being developed to support researchers while working in the bioeconomy transition. The environmental dimension plays an essential role in the sustainability performance of an innovation. Integrating the environmental dimension from the innovation outset is an essential step if we want to increase and guarantee the potential of an innovation to be environmentally sustainable. We designed a workshop to understand researchers' environmental awareness and their ability to act more environmentally in their everyday work. The workshop is aimed at researchers that are working on sustainable innovations and it uses interactive and collaborative methods to engage with the participants. If you want to know more about these projects, please do not hesitate to contact: Anna Niutta, Solen le Clec’h, or Sinéad O’Keeffe.