Innovation For The Sustainable Development

Social Innovations

One of the main pillars of Sustainable Development is Social Innovation. Unfortunately, we perceive this is often disregarded and pushed aside in favour of literature focusing on Technological Innovation. Taking its importance in mind, this paper will attempt to further our understanding on this area, suggesting that Social Innovation should be taken into consideration to a greater extent than nowadays. The body of the paper will be divided into three sections.

The first will outline what is Social Innovation and how it is relevant for us and for Sustainable Development. The second section will look into two case studies concerning best practices in regards to Environmental Social Innovation, discussing it from different outlooks. The first will revolve around the field of repairing, reusing and recycling, examining how Workshops Without Frontiers (AFF) is working in Romania. The second will explore the field of alternative and sustainable food production and distribution, focusing on the evaluation of the social innovation Iss mic (eat me) in Austria. The third and final part of the essay will attempt to signal recommendations for the future, taking into consideration contexts in which social innovations are more likely to emerge.

Preliminaries

Before analysing social innovations in the environmental sector, it is of crucial importance to define social innovations more broadly: “ Social innovations are new solutions (products, services, models, markets, processes etc. ) that simultaneously meet a social need (more effectively than existing solutions) and lead to new or improved capabilities and relationships and better use of assets and resources. In other words, social innovations are both good for society and enhance society’s capacity to act. ” (Caulier-Grice et al. , 2012)The core elements that distinguish social innovations from any other type of innovation are the following:

• Novelty, meaning that social innovations have to be original. This does not necessarily mean that they have to be completely unique, but that they bring about added value to the field, sector, region, market or user.
• From ideas to implementation, meaning that social innovations should not just be good ideas, but must have a potential to be applied in a sustainable way.
• Social need, meaning that social innovations must have a social scope
• Enhance society’s capacity to act, meaning that social innovations should bring about new relationships and a better use of resources. Why is Social Innovation relevant for Sustainable Development? Social Innovations are relevant for Sustainable Development because they aim to tackle issues, through technologies, that aim to bring about social equity, an healthy environment, and a sustainable economy. They indeed work closely in the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030.

Social Innovation and the Environment

The paper aims at analysing the role of social innovations in the environmental sector. Social innovations in the environmental sector are particularly relevant because due to their participatory and creative nature, they represents a good prospect to fight environmental global challenges. Social innovations in the environment particularly deal with problems such as waste issues, transport and pollution problems, as well as declines in biodiversity and degradation of ecosystem services, such as, for example, pollination and flood protection by wetlands and food sustainability.

We will be analysing two particular case studies which present social innovations in, respectively, the repairing, reusing and recycling field and food was and sustainability field. AFF, Romania: Repairing, Reusing and Recycling.

Outline of Initiative

The model of AFF in Romania is based on Ateliers Sans Frontières. This non-profit organization was created in France in 2003. The goal of the former was to help individuals in precarious conditions gain the necessary capabilities to build a stable life project. Since its creation, they achieve this through solidarity activities, with a social & environmental scope in the domains of recycling, circular economy and the donation of materials, which they assert, give a sense to the work done by the remunerated participants, directly impacting their motivation positively. Taking this as a structural guide, since 2008, AFF collects and provides donated devices, such as computers, to those who lack the equipment, creating jobs for them in workshops of social economy as they learn how to refurbish them, which in turn aim to fully reintegrate these people to the regular labour market. The wider mission of AFF is to narrow the digital knowledge and skills breach in Romania. AFF has managed to create partnerships engaging job and ICT equipment providers. APANOVA, Carrefour and BRD Bank belong to its strategic partners, as they claim to be willing to consider the people trained in AFF. While Vodafone, Auchan, Microsoft, Vaillant, Complete Training, DHL, as well as other private companies, support the non-profit-organization through material donations of used tech devices.

The results have been so positive, AFF has accomplished institutionalization via its reach; in 2014, 36 individuals took part in trainings, 4 of them integrated in the regular labour market, 60 partnerships were done, 99100 people benefited through solidarity projects, 1890 computers were donated, and 7744 products created in the ateliers were sold nationwide. Evaluation of the initiativeAFF is focused on achieving higher resource efficiency, having both a positive impact environmentally and socially wise; granting a second life to technological devices which would otherwise be thrown away helps reducing waste, while providing job opportunities for the least fortunate supports long-term reintegration schemes which are socially beneficious. This is the first organization in Romania which combines these two goals, therefore it could be plausible to suggest it contributes to configuring the practice field in Romania to a great extent.

However, if we analyse the results it is possible to conclude AFF has a greater impact ecologically wise than socially wise. As exposed above, in 2014, eight years after the AFF had been established, just 4 individuals had integrated into the conventional work market, while approximately 1890 computers had been donated and given a second life. One could understand why the organization has been successful in terms of giving a second life to re-used technological products. Since AFF followed an existing model in France, it managed to initiate relations with companies of french origin in Romania. These links made cooperation simple and fast and gave the organization the necessary credibility and reputation to find strategic partnerships elsewhere. Indeed, they managed to create an alliance with Ecotic which represents more than 500 electric and electronic equipment (EEE) producers and importers. They support the organization’s access to reusable products by disclosing information with it regarding whether clearances from consumers are likely to yield a high proportion of reusable equipment, allowing one to comprehend the great number of computer donations. Similarly, there are multiple reasons which can explain the organization’s failure in improving the employment opportunities in Romania.

AFF has not managed to build governmental partnerships. Without the help of the state, once individuals finish the trainings offered by this non-profit organization they face competition from real job seekers who may be more skilled than them, impacting negatively on their chances of getting regular employment, as posts are not secured. Moreover, constant development in technology can render its trainings obsolete, if AFF doesn’t manage to live up to new requirements. Dynamic adaptation to the current context is a must for AFF to be successful in widening the job opportunities of people who are looking to become more competitive through their programs. However, it is important to not disregard their work on raising awareness and establishing recycling and reuse in the culture and values of the Romanian society, which has a greatly positive social impact. Even if their scope of success in changing cultural attitudes is hard to measure, the fact they have published along six other environmental organizations the RRR white book in Romania demonstrates their effort in influencing society for the better.

Moreover, AFF has worked inside ENSIE and RReuse to push policies in favour of the development of the sector at a national and European level, and for improvements on legislation regarding the social economy. This enables us to suggest the organization has had (and is still having a positively) social impact in this regard. Taking all of the above in mind, it is possible to suggest AFF, being a pioneer in Social Innovation in Romania, has a strong leverage in shaping a combined methodology concerning waste reduction and work integration of unskilled workers in the country, as internationally, through its involvement in European institutions. Iss mich (Eat me): Food waste and sustainability in Austria. Outline of InitiativeIss Mich! is a delivery and catering service working to reduce the problem of food waste in Austria. A considerable amount of fresh, high-quality produce is discarded due to retail standards of appearance, shape, and size. Iss Mich! offers an innovative solution involving both a catering and a delivery service, which serve meals made from organic vegetables that would have otherwise gone to waste. Through labor-intensive cooking and manipulation, the marginally lower quality vegetables can be transformed into premium products, which are sold at comparable prices to similar products prepared with retail vegetables.

The processing involves cooking, storage in glasses, and then pasteurization, which increases the overall shelf-life of the vegetables by three to six months, without the use of preservatives or chemical additives. Iss Mich!’s innovative solution to food waste is an example of upcycling― the process of transforming waste materials into products of greater value. Beyond addressing problems of food waste and sustainability, Iss Mich! offers another core component of a social innovation: citizen empowerment. The organization partners with an international organization called Caritas, which provides humanitarian aid and help for the homeless and impoverished. The goal of the alliance between the organizations is to help young women find first employment opportunities. Iss Mich! hires young women residing at Caritas’ welfare houses, allowing them to gain work experience while working part-time with flexible schedules (Schartinger, D. et al. , 2017).

Evaluation of the initiative

To evaluate Iss Mich! as a social innovation initiative, the first criteria to consider is the sustainability of the organization. All aspects of the organization’s supply, from human resources to energy consumption to kitchen cleaning materials, are comprehensively sustainable. In the interest of food waste, the organization’s efforts reduce about 1000 kg (1 t) of food waste per month, resulting in about 12 tons/year. Framed in respect to the 168. 000 tons of food waste generated annually in Austria, this figure seems marginal, but the methods employed by Iss Mich!, like upscaling, are scalable and help reduce food waste across both households and processing, two sectors which contribute to the majority―roughly 72 percent―of the country’s food waste.

A social innovation can also be evaluated based on its contributions to reframing perspectives and inciting sustainable social change. Many consumers were previously turned off by the idea of consuming “waste”, but the organization has helped reduce the stigma against imperfect produce through premiumization of their products. Iss Mich! also educates the community on the issue of food waste, and they have organized high-profile awareness campaigns with major companies, such as IKEA and H&M. The Iss mich! initiative and its methodologies can overall be deemed as highly successful in diverting food waste and employing sustainable methods across multiple frames of reference. The business has surpassed the two-year mark and grown in size, from two to seven employees, and they are looking to expand their product range to also include a physical grocery store.

They also plan to partner with Austrian Postal Service to expand their carbon neutral delivery service across all of Austria, which will vastly increase the impact on food waste across the country (Schartinger, D. et al. , 2017). Final remarks and recommendationsSocial innovations do not always happen easily, even if people are driven by genuine curiosity and and have a strong feeling of initiative. It is worth mentioning that in some societies innovations are prevented from flourishing since the moment of birth, particularly in societies where power is monopolized, where communication is not free, or where there are no independent sources of money. Social innovation is thus likely to work, and happen, in positive-backgrounded conditions. Below are few examples explaining the meaning of this:

• In business, social innovation can be triggered by competition, open culture and accessible capital.
• In politics and government, social innovation may take place in a system where there competing parties, innovation funds and different markets.
• In social organisations, social innovation may be fostered by the presence of networks, allies in politics, the support of philanthropists and strong civic organizations. Some of the characteristics we would attribute to an emerging social innovation with the potential of being successful are the following:
• The “worst-case” scenario does not look so harmful and can be contained.
• There is failure in existing models tackling that precise issue.
• Users and citizens have the decision to do what they want (so they would be able to choose a different model of school, or doctor rather than having it forced on them).
• Expectations are carefully managed (acknowledging the risk to fail)
• There is competition rather than monopoly in the state. However, it is important to keep in mind that social innovation is still not as effective and not as spread as the world would require them to be in such a difficult and challenging time of our era. If social innovation is still to be left to chance the risk is that pressing problems will become even worse. Social innovators and entrepreneurs are still not working enough to achieve what is needed to bring about sustainable development in various fields. Thus, new methods and structures should be approached to improve social innovation:
• Leadership and structures suited to innovation. Create a board of directors with the aim of promoting new innovations. Foster entrepreneurship and healthy risk taking. Structures are important as well: innovations should be developed in separate structures from the organization, insulated from the day to day pressures of existing organisations.
• Finance focused innovation. In business, a significant proportion of funding for innovation comes from governments. Social innovations need to get of course the funds from the government, but also they will need funds to come from foundations, which have greater freedom to experiment and to target controversial fields.
• Public policy frameworks that encourage innovation. These include: more developed markets for social solutions, decentralisation of power, collaboration between entrepreneurs and policy makers, expert user laboratories to test out ideas, ecc.
• Research and faster learning. More knowledge on social innovation is needed, including an analysis of the critical success factors and potential inhibitors at each stage of the innovation.

In conclusion, although social innovations have a long path of improvement and growth in order to become more effective ahead of them, it is also important to bear in mind that social innovations may be more effective than some top-down processes. This is because the former include “higher levels of public trust, improved decision making on local issues, shifts towards new social norms, values and practicers, and a context to conduct innovative experiments” (European Commission, 2014).