Interviews: Innovation for sustainability (for UCL ISR)

These interviews were originally conducted for a module in the Masters in Sustainable Resources: Economics, Policy and Transitions at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources (UCL ISR).

The module has a slightly out-of-date title (BENV0077: Eco-Innovation and Sustainable Entrepreneurship). It is essentially on the intersection of business, innovation and sustainability. Other course materials cover theories and case studies.

The interviews are with people who are putting innovation for sustainability into practice. We wanted to give students the grit under the fingernails of real experience.

You can read more about the interview series here.

If you can’t find the feed to favourite podcast app, please follow this link.

Latest episode

Anna Birney: Multi-Level Perspective case study – Innovation for sustainability (for UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources Masters)

Dr Anna Birney is CEO (Chief Executive / Enabling / Evolving Officer) of The School of System Change, which enables personal and collective agency to cultivate change in the world with a multi-method approach to systems change learning – with networks, organisations and individuals (Anna's LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter).This episode is a little unusual. We dive into the Multi-Level Perspective ('MLP'), one of the leading theories of system transition which we teach in the module (here for the Wikipedia explanation). MLP has been used in academic research for the last decade or so. However, there are not a lot of good case studies of using MLP for change. The #OneLess project, run by Anna when she was at Forum for the Future, is a rare example. Anna uses slides to explain the story. You can watch the presentation on YouTube here and download the slides here.Through the course of the interview, we cover (amongst other things):-Sustainability as "finding the collective of capability to address a complex world and a changing world".-All models are wrong, just some are more useful than others.-How the OneLess project came out of the Marine CoLABoration, funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.-The standard 'story' of change in MLP: the macro level ('Landscape')  trends put pressure on the mainstream ('Regime'), which has been dynamically stable but now is struggling, making space for mature new innovations to come in from the bottom level ('Niche').-Part of the practice of systemic change is paying attention the the boundaries you are choosing, because there is a dance between the boundaries people believe form the system and what interventions can act with that system.-Four different uses of MLP in the proejct:  1. As a frame of research questions to understand the challenge.  2., As a diagnostic analysis of the dynamics.   3. Create a strategy for systemic impact.  4. To keep on testing assumptions against experiences. -Relating the project to the Taxonomy of Innovation used in the Module.-The importance of keeping an experimental mindset, and to be actively learning-by-testing.-Also, the importance of having a portfolio of interventions of different types, each justified by the underpinning rationale provided by MLP; not just relying on technological silver bullets.This is part of a series of interviews about innovation for sustainability conducted for the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, as a contribution to a module in this Masters. You can find out more about these interviews, and the module, here.
  1. Anna Birney: Multi-Level Perspective case study
  2. Molly Webb
  3. Sarah Goodenough
  4. Paul Miller
  5. Stuart Wilkinson

All posts and episodes, in reverse order