According to a well-spread definition, we call it research, when we exchange money for knowledge, and we call it innovation, when we trade knowledge for money.
Innovation is key to development and a vital means of promoting sustainability. However, there are many types of innovation. We usually meet innovation in the technology sense: new machines or new software solutions. Besides, social innovation or process innovation are just a few examples of how innovation may have different and valuable contributions to development in general.
Improving human awareness and behavior are key to pursuing new, more sustainable development trajectories, however, they are difficult to introduce and they take long to show impact. Emerging technology and process solutions burden us less, offering more comfortable ways of living a more sustainable life. Both approaches are separately viable, but their real power lies in acting in synergy.
As we are approaching a climate catastrophe, we do not really have the privilege to chose: we have to commit ourselves to both.
New ideas and projects require professional support and money. Mentoring (to be elaborated in detail in a separate post) is a means often applied by venture capital (VC) companies to lower their risk by not only providing funds, but knowledge and guidance as well. Innovation in policy intervention areas (sustainability is a flagship among them) is often supported by state grants and EU funds, as interventions in such cases are usually duly justified.
We, at DevEco Consulting are devoted to innovation as a means of more sustainable development. In recent years, we have had the chance to support both state-owned VC funds, EU funds and private VC funds in assessing sustainability (mainly energy) related business ideas, start-ups, the providing them with mentoring and professional support in building a robust business, acquiring the next stage of investment or going international.
We are positive, that by unleashing the brain power of mankind for the good cause, ‘new’ innovations should come up with solutions that may catch up with and overcome the environmentally devastating effects of ‘old’ innovations.
— The DevEco Consulting Team
#innovation #venturecapital #mentoring #sustainability #DevEco
(source of photo: Benelux Office for Intellectual Property)