What is the Relationship Between Sustainability, Innovation and Entrepreneurship? 

Sustainability, and the wide range of issues it encompasses such as inequality, climate change, and food insecurity, is a clarion call to reimagine nearly every product, process, and business model. In other words, it is a challenge tailor made for entrepreneurs and innovators.

In fact, sustainability represents the defining innovation challenge and opportunity of the 21st century, and likely of the centuries to come. Sooner or later, every industry and sector will be disrupted by social and environmental pressures, as well as by the entrepreneurs who bring forward profitable, transformative solutions. This is precisely why Nidumolu, Prahalad, and Rangaswami declared in their landmark 2009 Harvard Business Review article Why Sustainability Is Now the Key Driver of Innovation that sustainability is no longer a constraint but a catalyst for growth and creativity.

Finally, sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship are critically important because social and environmental impact must be core considerations for every entrepreneur, venture fund, and angel investor. We must ensure that new products, services, and ventures do not replicate or worsen the unintended health, ecological, and inequality problems that past innovations have too often left in their wake.