The Challenge

Despite the enormous wealth that is created by our global market economy, environmental degradation, economic underdevelopment and abject poverty still exist. Systemic innovations are needed to address fundamental root causes of many challenges of sustainability.

It is obvious that many current approaches to sustainable development are inadequate, especially in developing countries. Many people at the ‘base of the (economic) pyramid’ (BoP) still do not have access to basic goods and services, such as energy, health, education and food, at affordable prices. There are approximately four billion people at the BoP whose income is less than a few dollars a day (purchasing power parity).

Innovative products, processes, services and business models are needed to meet the challenges of sustainability in low income countries. To be sustainable, innovations must yield social and environmental, in addition to economic, returns in the short and long term – sometimes called the triple-bottom line: People, Planet, Profit.