Sustainability Innovation Cube: A Framework to Evaluate Sustainability of Product Innovations

Corporations increasingly subscribe to the principles of corporate sustainability, which is generally described as the integration of economic, environmental and social dimensions. Of particular interest are sustainabilityoriented product innovations: products are perceived to be a major source of sustainability issues and crucial for tapping into new customer segments and new markets. Yet sustainability-oriented innovations are very risky: Not only is the product’s market success uncertain, but also the direction of innovations’ sustainability effects, i.e. whether they contribute positively or negatively to sustainability. This paper presents a generic model termed ‘Sustainability Innovation Cube’ for structuring innovations’ sustainability effects and, thus, enabling business to minimize the ‘directional risk’ of sustainability-oriented innovations. A qualitative expert study reveals the opportunities and challenges related to the developed model. Limitations are discussed and a brief outlook is given.