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“The food processing industry in Sri Lanka is bigger than apparels, thus the right sector has been chosen to introduce this new approach in improving our businesses. Sustainable consumption production practices using eco-innovation can lead to better profits, better environment and better social inclusiveness,” he added.
Positioning eco-innovation in national innovation system
Professor Ajith De Alwis, Professor of Chemical and Process Engineering at the Engineering Faculty of the University of Moratuwa, enlightened the audience on positioning eco-innovation in the national innovation system.
He mentioned that Sri Lanka still does not have an eco-innovation system but has a lot of potential to create one and sustain it.
“The most important point is that creativity doesn’t come unless you have curiosity. Curiosity is very important to innovation. You need to be curious, you need to explore, you need to get ideas and then you need to work on them. You may sometimes think it’s a risk; but it’s the risk taking organisations that grow and risk-averse organisations hardly grow,” he asserted.
“Innovation is the end point of invention. The creativity leads you to the invention sign. The prototype, and the working solution, demonstrates that something works but that doesn’t mean it’s out there in the market. You need to push it through a system of production so that everyone out there can purchase what you have produced. At the end of the day, it benefits the individual who has purchased it, and those who seek that solution. As a result, it generates value and the society benefits.”
He also highlighted the importance of embracing novel concepts for innovation is a factor in organisational growth as well as economic growth.
“We want SMEs to be a very strong component of the economy because 90% of the organisations in any developed economy would be SMEs; of course the definitions maybe slightly different. SMEs are vital to the economic development and you need to constantly innovate yourselves there,” he added.
Innovation activity to eco-innovation activity
It’s important that we understand this in the context of our consumptive behaviour, even as an organisation. He explained how to classify an organisation from an innovation activity to an eco-innovation activity.
In an eco-innovation activity you really need to ensure by doing that innovation, you actually reduce your resource consumption. You should be actually contributing to lowering the energy intensity and basically support resource conservation of all times. It can be land use, water use, energy, resources and other material resources biotic or non-biotic. You really need to demonstrate that your activity is giving such a benefit before you classify yourself as being an eco-innovation tool.
That’s a big difference from a typical innovation. The typical innovation path exists. You have to be curious, you have to be creative, you have to build your prototype, and work it out but you need to ensure that the substances you are going to use is reduced and it has to be across the lifecycle.
Evolving needs
Emphasising on our evolving needs Prof. de Alwis said; “Needs and challenges of the ’60s and today are different. We do have the need for innovation because we have benefitted from the general innovative spirit. We have got the World Wide Web, high speed vehicles and so on. Now we are very much wiser to what is going on around us. Some of these things have also given us extended lifespans and a different quality of life. Then we have to think that there is a population growth and we have to secure all our materials from this one planet. Then we have to think how we can continuously innovate so that our material footprint is not changing and we can fulfil the needs of everybody.”
Giving an example, he showed that in the 2006 to 2008 period when both China and India had a middle class that was changing as a result of the change in the per capita income, the world faced a very interesting food and energy related crisis. The energy prices and food prices went up because for some time what was given for food was used for energy. The Chinese started bringing cereals from Brazil to feed the animals and started consuming meat instead of having a low meat diet. This drastically impacted the cereal requirement. However, the consumption cannot be curtailed, but made sustainable. You will find that you can’t talk of sustainable development unless you have sustainable consumption which leads to sustainable production.
Resources overused, pollution on the rise
Moreover, he discussed how resources have been overused and pollution is seriously increasing. He took an instance of a high-end vehicle which consumes a large amount of fuel. It only takes a few seconds to burn the fuel which has taken millions of years to form. We just don’t understand the connectivity the irresponsibility of this action.
“We are talking about 50% more energy, 50% more food and 30% more water in 2030. We are living in a world where we are desperately trying to control climate change. Sadly not all businesses are into that equation. So we have to take the right decisions today, because we’re in the decision making time for 2030. With respect to climate change we have crossed the vale 400 ppm in carbon dioxide in 2013, a value people on Earth have never seen before,” he stressed.
Increasing awareness
He further mentioned that on the positive side, people are responding to eco-innovation and we have a push and pull scenario. There is an increasing awareness of what’s happening. Policies will be made and regulatory and mandatory scenarios will come into practice. However, from a business point of view if you can be the first to implement eco-innovative mechanisms regardless of whether the regulations have been imposed yet, you will have a better chance of success.
There’s also an increasing demand for green products and services now. Anyway, remember that we have other burning issues because of using chemicals in somewhat an ad hoc manner creating a ‘body burden of chemicals’. These are chemicals in our blood and system which have not yet killed us but have caused human beings to walk around with an additional set of chemicals. This is serious and we have to be responsible about it.
“The world is shifting towards a circular economy and we should adapt our businesses to become a part of the circular economy rather than the linear economy model that our policies still propagate. Linear economy is to produce, use, dispose and then advertise. Then more is being used and when the demand is over more is being disposed and then more reproduction has to be done. This linear economy has a big issue even though we still haven’t realised it. The concept of circular economy has now been slowly brought into major economies like Japan and even China. The significance in circular economy is that there is a biological system. There is no such thing as waste in a biological system in contrast to an industrial ecosystem which has a lot of waste. We are trying to understand waste treatment but we just don’t understand how to recycle waste to complete the loop. Basically, when you eco-innovate you are working towards a green grow, a circular economy, without asking for more resources you are trying to close the loop,” he emphasised.
Positioning a product
Further discussing the factors required to position a product, he mentioned that advertisements alone are not going to help position a product. “We are missing the real essence of positioning a product. For when you position, research and innovate in the wellbeing of a product you are 
eco-innovating. Then you could be solving some issues that medical systems have to overdrive if to solve it afterwards.” Speaking of mega trends in the food industry, he drew in a few examples of packaging such as aluminium cans that cost too much in terms of resources. He showed how far aluminium needs to be transported to be extracted, processed and made into cans and yet how easily it is thrown away after use.
Concluding his informative session, Prof Ajith underscored the importance of tracking and measuring the footprints of our products and services. He showed that by calculating the material, land, water and GHG footprints, the resource consumption can be reduced and profits can be increased.
Overview of the eco-innovation project
An overview of the eco-innovation project was presented by Eng. Samantha Kumarasena, Chief Operating Officer of NCPC Sri Lanka.
He explained that this project aims to develop local resources and capacities for eco-innovation in developing and emerging economies.
“We are talking about a new business model led by a business strategy and throughout all business operations based on lifecycle and then across the value chain. This is something that is going to happen in a new way. We need to innovate a novel way of doing business which is environment friendly and more profitable. These are the key areas we are going to focus on: business strategy, business model and business operations,” he said.
Benefits of eco-innovation to industries
He then elaborated on the benefits of eco-innovation to industries. It enables to reduce cost through reduced resource usage such as raw material, energy and water. Revenue growth can be achieved by targeting new markets and expanding existing markets where buyers are interested in moving towards eco-friendly products and services.
Compliance with regulations and buyer requirements can be ensured by implementing sustainable solutions. It also enables the industry to network, enhancing symbiosis between international and local service providers. Moreover, it gives the opportunity to learn from success stories or business cases from around the world.
Kumarasena further explained the process of identifying potential companies for this pilot project. Out of the 40 companies that were present, 20 would be selected based on how the provided questionnaire was answered. It was assured that this process will be fair and transparent. Preliminary assessments will be conducted on the selected 20 companies in order to shortlist eight companies which will qualify for detailed assessments. However, this is no reason to be discouraged as technical assistance and guidance will be given on request to any interested company.
Sustainability
The event wrapped up with a discussion with the audience on the involvement of industries in the project and benefits. Several questions regarding the awareness of eco-innovation and the introduction of the sustainability concept were raised.
There was a comment from the audience that Sri Lanka may not be going in the right direction despite the projects that are being implemented. This was regarding items that were traditionally manufactured using natural products such as clay pots and coconut husk brooms which are now being substituted with plastic items. The panel replied to this by mentioning that several programs have been implemented to raise awareness from low levels to high levels, that is school children to companies, on how to eco-innovate in order to make a change in the current system.
Moreover, questions regarding the process to enter the project and get assistance from the NCPC were discussed in both English and Sinhala languages for the benefit of all those who were present.
Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe
