The three-year Green Leap Initiative (GLI) was started in July 2008. The initiative will look at a new approach to development that drives economically and environmentally-sustainable growth through the commercialization of green technologies. This research involves collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise and Cornell University’s Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise.
The past few years has seen an explosion of sustainable innovation. However, the vast majority of these clean tech start ups are focused purely on sustainable technology development looking to penetrate the high-end “green” markets at the top of the economic pyramid. The hope is that the technology will “trickle down.”
Little attention is being paid to creative commercialization strategies or distribution models for these clean technologies targeted at the base of the economic pyramid.
A new strategy is needed. Because clean technologies are almost always “disruptive,” the BoP is often the best place to focus initial commercialization attention. Unlike the traditional model of rapid industrialization, which relies heavily on conventional, unsustainable technology, this new approach to development seeks instead to fuel growth through the incubation and rapid commercialization of the green technologies of tomorrow. Through such a strategy, the emerging economies of the world could become the breeding ground for the Green Leap Revolution.