Convened by Dave Witzel, EDF

Attendees include:
Fred Abbey
Gordon Steen
Katherine Mowers
Sara Zellner
Sean Brady
Odin Zackman
Harriet Hentges
Michelle Harvey
Karen Healey
Abby Chroman
Michael Mossoba
Tom Dawkins
Tom Murray


We need a google for CSR.
All content vs. highly filtered content. How to handle so much information and information with lack-of-authority
Will sources of authority emerge?
Or can authority be shared, instead of 1 or 2 authorities. e.g. community based action like in A Civil Action
Participation takes longer but solutions maybe better meet actual issues. Need authorities for validation.
Creating the right environment for innovation. E.g., in this conference do we have the right mix of people, skills, experiences. Different techniques and tools for different phases.
All sorts of information/disinformation.
Alexandria Real Estate, Affinity Labs - fostering innovation by aggregating people.
Seemed like WiserEarth was moving in a good direction, but may have stalled. E.g., there aren't any tools being cataloged.
Importance of face-to-face meetings for group building. E.g., to get activity on a wiki. Meeting helps to bring trust.
Do we care if 90% of the group peters out if the idea is getting better.
Open Source problem solving. e.g., Innocentive. Lessons: 1) people solving problems weren't experts in the field.
We don't know the flowchart of innovation - it loops, is coincidental.
Inventors, early adopters, early adapters. We want to look at what exists and use it. Do you want to be the inventor of the wiki or Wales and Wikipedia.
Different people - people good at ideas, may not be good at carrying them out.
Stakeholder engagement is critical. Need feedback.
How to use cohorts, peer-to-peer networks. We did a press release with a pharma company and every other pharma company called.
Cases, stories. That's what excites people.
Tension is - I don't want to tell people. Tell you just enough to get interested.
Market component. Because you've figured it out doesn't mean you want to share. There are climates which are ripe for a certain type of innovation. e.g., Cap & Trade drives carbon reduction. A good idea isn't enough. How to make people ready to move.
Big companies vs. small companies vs. gov't
Many channels very fragmented.
How did you hear about the event - direct from EDF, Net Impact (3), twitter, circulated by EPA, Ashoka.
Different levels of innovation will have different kinds of barrier.
Value of "green" can be negative. Its a fad, negativity from the '70s... The last word you want to use is "green".
A "collaborative sector" which is a melding of civil and business sectors.
Ashoka finds that its Fellows are some of the best nominators of entrepreneurs. They recognize each other. Help innovators to help each other.
Institutions can stifle innovation by encouraging it and then not acting on it or actively squashing it. Aversion to failure - not allowing failure will force incremental change.
Better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Better to take the risk because not acting will be judged failure.
How to innovate in time of contraction. Instinct to retract during downturn is counter-productive because that's when we need new ideas. "I have no money therefore I must think." If I'm not needy I don't need to innovate. What's my incentive to innovate?
Lee Scott saying that sustainability will be part of your profile initiated WMT focus. Wasn't there before.
Do only certain people have the DNA to innovate? Quick "i don't think so" from several people. Environment matters - e.g., smaller research labs. Resident in everyone is the capacity for innovation. Humans are born innovators and adapters - evidenced by the fact that we've colonized the world.
Can we innovate in time? probably not... We won't avoid disaster but we'll avoid complete disaster.
It isn't innovation its implementation. Need the ability to look ahead.
Real Innovation is applying innovations to the right needs. Need the right people at the right stages of development. Without application it is just an interesting idea.

What to do in the next year?

Share best practices. need layers to make it practical in different situations.
e.g., EDF buyer-training for WMT. starting to make a tool but then got it reviewed by buyers who said "just give me a cheat sheet". This isn't fancy innovation.
Simple billboard. Make information not complicated.
Filtering. Help with the decision-trees. check-lists.
Challenges: x-wing, clean tech open
WMT doing Innovation Labs by convening everyone in their supply chain. 75% of all magazines never leave the shelf they get printed then pulped.
identify problems where people need solutions and then create cross-expert groups to address.
moving from "i can't afford a sensors to reduce energy costs" to "have security personnel taping switches to encourage behavior change" is that innovation
x-prize - the problem was clearly defined. leveraged large investments for a relatively small prize. frame the opportunity so that winning is just the beginning of a new enterprise.
make the objective to reduce carbon X%.

(Partial notess from the Smoke-filled Room on Innovation (How do we accelerate it?)

- Idea of perpetuation of innovation over actual numbers of short-term followers
- Trust needs to be cemented – meet in person to maintain online exchanges
- Strength of early adopters and what they do with innovation – i.e. creating Wikipedia years after invention of a wiki (Tom Dawkins)
- What is the process innovation to get people to pick the low hanging environmental fruit?
- Tipping point of social norms – where is that?
- Market component w/innovation

• Figuring something out doesn’t mean the thought is shared right away – there is a right time, a right climate for sharing and adopting

- Don’t use “green” to describe innovation/change – tell story of what the innovation does because saying it’s “green” doesn’t do
much – why would a business care just because something is “green”?
- Support innovators together and not just the innovations themselves
- Must make it safe to fail – otherwise, innovation would be stifled