Strategies for addressing threats of climate change with disruptive innovation

Identify threats:

The policy and regulatory framework to mitigate climate change

Wilson et al (2018) “The potential contribution of disruptive low-carbon innovations to 1.5o C climate mitigation”, Energy Efficiency, 12(2): 423-440

Review and familiarise yourself with innovation theory and briefly summarise:

Disruptive innovation

Incremental innovation

Game changing innovation

Write a management report recommending one or more disruptive innovations (a product or a service) to address threats to your business from climate change.

Who will be the early adopters of the innovation?

How will the innovation lead to a reduction in GHG emissions?

Do library research – this means actually reading academic papers NOT websites.

No theoretical discussions about climate change or innovation

Evidence critical thinking and writing

Read the marking rubric:

Descriptions of threats to business from climate change and policy frameworks (20 marks)

Summary of three types of innovation (20 marks)

Description of disruptive innovations to address threats to business (40 marks)

Clarity of writing, references and report structure (10 marks)

Should contain:

Brief synopsis of the paper – an overview of what will be covered including the type of business selected and the disruptive innovation to be introduced and discussed

Brief sign posting to the structure of the paper

What are the threats from climate change to the selected business?

How – practically – does climate change threaten the business?

What policy and regulatory frameworks pose threats to the business and again, how?

Any images (which must be properly referenced and appropriate) are to be put into the Appendix.

Briefly review innovation theory with specific reference to three types of innovation

Disruptive innovation

Incremental innovation

Game changing innovation

The reviews should identify clearly what each type means and give an example of it in practice.

Keep this section down to about 600 words – 200 for each type

This is the heart of the assignment

Address the two key questions:

Who will be the early adopters of the business’ innovative products/ services?

How will the business innovation contribute to a reduction in GHG emissions?

Be sure to state what type of innovation you are recommending and why

Specify clearly how you anticipate this innovation will help address the threats of climate change and policy regulations

I don’t expect calculations or estimates of reductions

I do expect to see a clear logical path linking the innovation to anticipated reductions in GHG – it should be reasonable and realistic

I do expect to see evidence of critical thinking and writing.

This is a management report – so it is important that you make a business case to support your recommendations. This means clearly stated and logical arguments in favour of the innovation.

Here, you review the foregoing content of your report in a summary format This should emphasise Section 4 The Business Case more than the innovation theory

Properly formatted references please.

Learn how to reference websites, journal articles, and books

Any reference included in your list that is either not cited in the text or is irrelevant will be considered poor academic behaviour and may cost you marks

I do check references to make sure that they are appropriate

Websites must be referenced with a complete URL and also the date it was accessed.

Please use an Appendix for all diagrams (must be properly referenced and relevant to the topic) and any additional information. Anything in the Appendix must be referred to in the body of the text. This should be in the form of “See Appendix A”. No more than four (4) pages of appendices.

Each page of your Appendix must be labelled appropriately as: Appendix A, Appendix B, …, Appendix E. Contents of the appendices are not included in the word count.

What are not included in the word count?

How can you use these creatively?