Sustainable Service Innovation Practices

Sustainability = Innovation 🌍 Environmental and social pressures are reshaping how companies approach growth, risk, and competitiveness. When strategically integrated, sustainability becomes a framework to identify operational inefficiencies, anticipate future demands, and respond to evolving market conditions. The starting point is recognizing how sustainability issues reveal opportunities for innovation. Rising input costs require rethinking material choices and supply strategies. Climate risk drives the need for resilient product design. Regulation, customer expectations, and resource constraints all point toward reconfiguring business models and value chains. Each business function faces specific triggers. Operations teams respond to inefficiencies in energy or water use. Procurement can reduce exposure by transitioning to circular sourcing. Product development must address the growing demand for low footprint design. Sales and marketing teams face increasing pressure from clients and regulators to demonstrate real, measurable impact. Several innovation pathways are already proving effective. These include redesigning products with lower impact materials, modular components, and take back systems. Business model shifts such as repair programs, resale strategies, and service based delivery models can extend product value. Digital tools enable smarter operations and transparency for customers. Functional teams require clear prompts to connect sustainability to their daily work. Operations can identify areas where reducing emissions also cuts costs. R&D teams should explore how to design for circularity from the beginning. Sales teams can develop solutions that align with client ESG targets. Finance can evaluate payback periods and risk adjusted returns. HR can focus on building a culture of sustainable problem solving. Impact measurement is essential to validate innovation efforts. Metrics may include revenue from sustainable offerings, product carbon intensity, emissions avoided, client retention linked to ESG solutions, and time to market for low impact products. Implementing innovation at scale requires specific tools. These include life cycle assessment platforms, circular design processes, materiality assessments, innovation accelerators, and sustainability linked finance instruments to fund new initiatives. Sustainability driven innovation is a strategic process embedded across the business. It enables long term value creation by aligning environmental and social imperatives with product, process, and business model development. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #innovation

I was invited to speak to the Chief Sustainability Officer group at the World Economic Forum during climate Week. I urged us all to take control of the narrative. Here is a summary... Let’s shift the narrative. As sustainability leaders… Let’s not talk about decarbonization as emissions. Let’s talk about it as innovation that drives: ·    energy cost savings, ·    avoidance of energy pricing volatility ·    avoidance of carbon fees ·    reduced maintenance ·    increased productivity ·    sales lift Let’s not talk about tons of waste diverted from landfill and reused, let’s talk about it as innovation that reduces: ·    virgin input costs ·    waste disposal costs ·    exposure to geopolitical risk in supply chains ·    exposure to tariffs (e.g. Renault is putting 45% of used car components into new cars) Our research into the Return on Sustainability Investment (ROSI) shows that sustainability is just good management.   The methodology (developed with companies) has found nine value drivers associated with sustainability, including operational efficiency, risk reduction, employee retention and productivity, sales and marketing, and and innovation and growth. For example, innovation is about identifying a problem or an opportunity. It can be focused on process, product or service. It can be incremental or transformative. From a sustainability perspective, innovations fall into two broad buckets:  ·    innovating sustainability improvements in an industry or a category ·    innovating with a process, product or service that is needed by society. The first approach requires understanding the material ESG issues for the sector and designing solutions that tackle that issue, while also improving the underlying value proposition - -which sustainability can do. The second approach is tougher, but has more potential to go big: Innovating to solve broad societal problems such as water scarcity, plastic packaging pollution and health impacts, tackling the carbon transition, social inequity and so on. Here we might look at innovation such as 3D printing (e.g. on demand) using recycled inputs – tires, dresses, construction materials etc. We might look at bio-based plastic made from air and methane-based greenhouse gas dissolved in saltwater, recyclable through biological digestion. We might look at how to give immigrants and others with no credit history access to credit through tracking ontime rental payments. So as you work with your companies, help them understand that managing the material ESG issues for their sector and company is not a reporting and compliance exercise. It is a good management exercise that can drive everything from operational efficiency to sales and customer loyalty to innovation that will help the bottomline. Put in place methods such as ROSI with your finance team or ESG controller to track the financial benefits so you can get sustainability to the speed and scale you and the planet want and need. 

#BadassBookAlert Kate Tarling's The Service Organization offers a blueprint for organizations that want to deliver high-quality services efficiently, with a strong emphasis on customer needs and internal alignment. This book delves into the systemic issues that affect service delivery and proposes practical steps for creating service-oriented cultures. "A service is not what the organization thinks it provides but what a user experiences." Kate stresses that services should be designed based on real user experiences and needs, not around internal processes or organizational structures. This is vital for both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. "A service organization needs to design for the entire system, not just the touchpoints." Organizations often approach service improvement with isolated fixes or one-off projects, which she argues are insufficient. Systemic, organizational change is necessary to build sustainable service improvements. "We can't design effective services if each part of the organization is working in isolation." Modern service organizations have to break down silos and ensure departments collaborate effectively. Cross-functional teams are key to ensuring that services meet user needs and organizational goals. "Good services are designed and then redesigned as we learn more." Service organizations should not view their work as static. Tarling advocates for iterative design processes that involve ongoing testing, learning, and adaptation. "The people who work on services must be trusted to shape them." To build a truly service-centric organization, employees must be empowered to make decisions and provide input into how services are delivered. This fosters accountability and innovation. In the age of digital transformation, companies that focus on the customer journey and needs will outperform those that remain focused on internal metrics or outdated processes. For example, the approach resonates with businesses that prioritize service design and UX, ensuring all touchpoints are seamless and intuitive. Many modern businesses, especially large corporations, still struggle with departmental silos. Applying Tarling’s insights can help these organizations unify their efforts, ensuring that all teams (from customer service to IT) are aligned around shared goals. Tarling’s emphasis on continuous improvement ties into modern agile and lean methodologies, where the focus is on testing, learning, and evolving quickly to meet changing needs. This book is a great read for companies and designers looking to thrive in today’s service-driven economy. Her work underscores the importance of designing services with users in mind, embracing systemic change, fostering collaboration, and focusing on continuous improvement. This approach is highly applicable to businesses across industries, from healthcare to technology. #SystemsDesign #ServiceDesign #BusinessDesign #OrgDesign #Strategy

How can companies embed technology into sustainability—and ensure lasting impact? In my recent Q&A with Sustainability Magazine I explored how our clients are effectively integrating technology into their sustainability strategies, and tackling some of the biggest challenges of our time. Here are a few expanded insights I shared: ✔️ Real-time carbon tracking and ESG performance tools are transforming decision-making. Companies now have access to unprecedented data on emissions, resource use, and supplier practices—but the key is converting that data into action. Leading organizations use tools that not only monitor but also predict and optimize their sustainability performance. ✔️ Harmonizing financial and non-financial data is a game-changer. Sustainability isn’t just about tracking emissions. Companies that align financial and non-financial data sets gain a clearer view of long-term risks, opportunities, and value creation, helping leaders make informed decisions that drive both business, environmental, and social outcomes. ✔️ Sustainability isn’t just a function—it’s a mindset. Embedding tech requires more than new systems; it demands breaking silos between functions like IT, supply chain, and sustainability teams. Successful companies foster collaboration across these functions, ensuring sustainability is woven into the fabric of how they operate, innovate, and deliver value, together. ✔️ Bold leadership drives real change. Adopting technology is only part of the solution. The organizations achieving scalable impact are the ones where leaders champion sustainability as a core business priority. This requires pairing innovation with accountability and investing in solutions that drive both financial and environmental ROI. And Nature is a stakeholder too! Technology is a powerful enabler, but it’s only as effective as the people and strategies behind it. 📖 Want to dive deeper? Check out the full Q&A here: https://lnkd.in/e5JFzWMb What’s one innovation or strategy your company has used to embed sustainability into your operations? Let’s share and inspire each other. #Sustainability #supplychain #Innovation

Prof. Rebekah Russell-Bennett and I are delighted that many recent Journal of Services Marketing authors have turned attention to sustainability issues in services. Nitha Palakshappa, Sarah Dodds, and Loren Stangl discuss "sustainable service ecosystems," and they do so by entering the world of fashion. These authors explain a sustainable ethos, how to implement sustainable strategies that embrace innovation, transparency, and stakeholder collaboration; and incorporate sustainable communication practices that engage stakeholders. See https://lnkd.in/gzjf7BZa Prof. Rebekah Russell-Bennett, Michael Polonsky, and Ray Fisk propose a new service framework for managing nature and physical resources that balances the needs of people and planet, in-line with ServCollab's mission. Everyone will enjoy learning about the "regenerative service economy framework," especially those pursuing societal impact research. See  https://lnkd.in/gAUdzmBG Jorge Grenha Teixeira, Andrew Gallan, Hugh Wilson, attempt to change our planet via services. That is, these authors take on the task of exploring how service can address the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 14 (life below water) and SDG 15 (life on land). This paper proposes a novel conceptual framework that incorporates the natural environment into transformative services. See https://lnkd.in/gBNes3r7 Services dominate global economies; therefore, we can improve both human and planetary conditions by exploring services, service systems, and service design. If it's interesting, and can change the world, then it's in Journal of Services Marketing #transformativeserviceresearch Richard Whitfield