Sustainable Innovation

Many of us wish we could design inventions and make decisions that were optimal and sustainable, but we do not know how to begin the approach. This book offers a guide to dramatically improve the quality of innovation and solution-making through the respectful use of existing and abundant, but often-ignored, resources. Sustainable innovation is about creative combination of ideas, materials, methods, and people, courage to derive value from opposition and diversity, integrative intelligence, virtuous planning, minimal consumption of resources, and definition of alternative plans. Using the method successfully requires that we are truly interested in the common good of humankind, that we care about our environment, and that we take time to think carefully about consequences before we act, invent, or make decisions. It is a call for a much-needed collaboration between people of different backgrounds, skills, and opinions with the intent to preserve individual and local integrity and adopt a win-win mindset. Try it, and partake in its positive and long-lasting effects! Key Features - Description of sustainable innovation and the untapped innovation potential - Sustainable innovation requirements - Sustainable innovation attitudes - Step-by-step guide to sustainable innovation - Application to 21st century challenges - A global win-win scenario Table of Contents: Innovation Attitudes / Inspiration from the Natural and Behavioral Sciences / Untapped Sustainable Innovation Potential / Step-by-Step Guide to Sustainable Innovation / Notes on the Application to 21st century challenges/ Personal Step-by-Step Work Section / Looking to the Future

Auteur

Lisbeth Borbye, Ph.D., is a pioneer in alliance building between industry and universities and development of innovative, need-based instructional materials for students and professors. Dr.Borbye holds the positions of Assistant Dean for Professional Education at North Carolina State University and Director of the University of North Carolina's System-wide Professional Science Master's (PSM) Initiative. PSM programs seek to meet the needs for an improved graduate workforce in industry, non-profit organizations and government by providing interdisciplinary career-specific education with both depth and breadth. In addition, these degree programs bring important cultural changes to universities through collaboration with employers and inclusion of professional skills such as basic business skills, teamwork, leadership, effective communication, innovative thinking and entrepreneurship. Dr. Borbye is chairing university-wide, system-wide and national PSM advisory boards. She is the author of the books entitled "Secrets to Success in Industry Careers: Essential Skills for Science and Business" (Academic Press), and "Out of the Comfort Zone: New Ways to Teach, Learn, and Assess Essential Professional Skills" (Morgan & Claypool Publishers), and co-author of "Industry Immersion Learning: Real-Life Case Studies in Biotechnology and Business."