Fostering Conscientious Innovation

This chapter shows how companies are using their powers of innovation to address some of the problems of over-consumption of goods and a disposable mindset that pays little attention to what happens after we discard things. Our argument is that companies should recognize the importance of desire, but instead of satiating it through new products to focus on new positive experiences. While there are some consumers who are deliberately trying to minimize their footprint, for most a hairshirt approach isn’t desirable. Therefore, conscientious companies look to meet consumers’ desires, but to do so through different strategies that generate less impact, which we categorize as slowing down (better management of supply and demand and longer product life cycles), circularity (recycling, upcycling and servicification) and extending (reselling, renting and repair). In this chapter, guest author, Sandro Kaulartz uses his experience to develop these arguments and show how challenger brands are rethinking established markets with products that address the rising value-based, conscientious consumer with innovations that bring guilt-free products, carbon-neutrality and a transparent sustainability agenda.