Since the dawn of civilization, humans have innovated new methods and processes to harness the natural world and enable our species to thrive. Early examples like tools made of flint and the use of fire to provide light and heat may seem vastly different to how we see innovation today, driven by digital technology, but the same process of experimentation in the search to create value is consistent.
Gadgets and Tools
As well as stone age gadgets and tools, innovation can be seen in the advent of agriculture, with the first farmers and shepherds learning to master nature to cultivate plants for food and rear animals for food or clothing as they settled from hunter gatherer societies. From these first ‘early adopters’, we increasingly came to attempt to control and exploit the natural world for the ingredients and raw materials that go into many products and drive critical industrial processes today, moving from the harmonious balance of people who just took what they needed.
For this supposed advancement, innovation has also long caused damage as well as progress. Even as far back as the prehistoric era, there are signs in the archaeological record of how these innovations caused damage to the environment. There is evidence of concentrated industrial pollution blighting nature and human health as far back as 7,000BC when copper production was picking up momentum, and the study of arctic ice cores has shown that air pollution has been a problem as far back as ancient Rome.
The human population was so small, however – the population of the USA today is greater than the entire global population 2,000 years ago – that this pollution was at a relatively small scale with a relatively low impact on the wider environment compared to today. It’s possible that just one week of global industrial activity today releases more pollution into the environment than the entire bronze, iron and steel ages combined.
Sustainable, regenerative and circular innovation
As our population and activity has grown, it’s become more important to understand the negative impacts industrial processes have on the planet and society, so we can minimise the negative impacts and increase the positive ones. As Professor Paul Dolan discusses in Happy Ever After, we are becoming more aware that all innovation is not necessarily good for us or society. Mindful of this, a new generation of start-ups are taking this idea to heart and incorporating sustainable, regenerative and circular innovation at the heart of the way they do business.
This new approach is critical for the sustainable development of society and planet earth. Over history, a lot of innovation has focused on extracting more value from natural resources with little consideration for the environment or people. Not only do activities like open cast mining for coal leave scars on the landscape, but the processing and use of the minerals they produce can also generate even more pollution, such as through burning coal or processing metallic ores.
Agricultural expansion is decimating the environment too. Just look to the Amazon, where endless miles of the forest has been replaced by pastures for cattle or land for plantations to feed our ever-growing population.
What’s to be done?
So, what is to be done? You might think that we’re advocating for a return to the prehistoric era, before business and industry started to cause such damage on the world. This is not our position. We believe that businesses need to rethink how their activities impact the world, and align their strategies to maximise regeneration and sustainable value creation over destructive value extraction. These are precisely the sort of business we are looking to support in the accelerator.
There are many great examples of companies that embed environmental and social sustainability into how they do business. More and more companies are applying principles aligned with the circular economy system, which aims to eliminate waste and encourage the continued use of resources.
Oatly is a great example of this. While the oat milk producer has drawn flak recently for it’s decision to take investment from Blackstone, the core business remains the same – to develop and scale a delicious alternative to dairy, one of the world’s most polluting industries.
One company we are excited about is Bedstraw & Madder, who we are working with to raise investment. Bedstraw & Madder use circular economy and regenerative farming practices to vastly reduce the negative environmental impact of growing cotton and dyeing cotton products. The production of their central product – sustainable knickers – has a minimal negative impact on the planet, and actually recharges the agricultural potential of the land used to grow their cotton. At scale, Bedstraw & Madder have the potential to disrupt a multi-billion pound market segment and make the world a better place in doing so.
These are just two examples of the sort of start-ups we are looking to support through the Impact Central Accelerator. If you have a business with positive environmental impact at its heart, or know someone who does, get in touch to find out more about how we can work together.