Abstract
Sustainable development will be a major driving force for future developments in businesses. Most companies are fully aware of that, but find it difficult to translate this insight into concrete actions. We have observed that companies, in particular small and medium enterprises, find it difficult to determine how sustainability can affect their business. The FOCISS (Focussing Innovation Strategy for Sustainability) approach offers that assistance. We have developed FOCISS in collaboration with enterprises from diverse industry sectors. By this approach the ‘agenda’ and the conditions for sustainable business of a company, in its specific situation, can be established. Stepwise, key areas of relevance, major issues therein and finally the most promising innovations, in view of economics and sustainability, are assessed. The approach uses primarily the views and expertise of the people working in the company, which improves the exchange of views and information and strengthens the collaboration on such issues through all parts of the company. A clear focus on sustainability can also improve the basis for collaboration with outside stakeholders. It strengthens the commitment and ambition to integrate sustainability in business strategy.
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- 1.
E.g. the HAZOP (Hazard and Operability) analysis method for process safety issues operates in the same manner (Lawley, 1974).
- 2.
the author worked at that time for all four institutions partly as adviser, partly as professor Sustainable Business Operation
tertsoindicates that the publication is available as PDF on http://www.tertso.eu: look under ‘publicaties’.
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Acknowledgments
The initial development of the method (under the name DOSIT) received a grant from the Province of Gelderland and was carried out in 2004 and 2005 by a consortium, which consisted of TNO (the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), the University for Professional Education Arnhem-Nijmegen (HAN), Avans University for Professional Education (Tilburg) and Tertso Innovative Pathways for Environment and SustainabilityFootnote 2 (Berendsen, Ansems, Appelman, & Venselaar, 2006). The subsequent development into FOCISS was carried out by the Avans Research Group Sustainable Business Operation as part of its research program with the purpose of assisting SMEs to introduce effective and profitable sustainability in their business operations. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the various partners, companies and the students and in particular John Hageman who coordinated part of the research and prof. Tom Reith for his comments on this paper.
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Venselaar, J. (2010). FOCISS for an Effective Sustainable Innovation Strategy. In: Sarkis, J., Cordeiro, J., Vazquez Brust, D. (eds) Facilitating Sustainable Innovation through Collaboration. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3159-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3159-4_6
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