While an Oil Company trying to portray itself as Green is unlikely to convince many members of the public, its attempts to do so will instill doubt in the public over the validity of any business that uses the label ‘Green’. This is the real danger that Greenwashing presents, not that a single company can make erroneous claims, rather that the reputation of an entire sector can be tarnished.

Recognizing the potential for such a widespread negative impact, this week saw the release in the UK of Government guidelines on the use of Green and environmental claims in advertising, particularly on use of phrases such as or “eco”  or “environmentally friendly”, and according to Fred Pearce in the Guardian the new guidelines call for Green claims to be “clear, accurate and verifiable”. While unfortunately these guidelines do not carry the full force of law, they do acknowledge the concerns of the public and seek to reign in some of the more outlandish advertising practices.

This was in my mind last night as I followed the reports of yesterday’s Cabinet reshuffle, specifically with the rebranding of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment as the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, and started to wonder are we now entering into an age of “Innovationwashing”? To be clear less than 24 hours after the creation of a new Government department there is no way that any judgement can be passed on the legitimacy of its new name and focus, rather I have been struck by the frequency with which the word “innovation” is appearing in conversations in both the Public and Private sector, alarmingly with little explanation of what exactly is meant by the term. I am reminded of meetings I had with Irish political groups in the immediate aftermath of Barack Obama’s successful Presidential campaign in the US, where more than once I heard people profess “well I don’t know what the Internet is, but by God we have to have it”.

In the last week alone we have seen the launch of the Innovation Ireland report by the Taoiseach, the establishment of an Innovation Center in San Jose to help Irish companies target Silicon Valley,  and our own EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn issue a report that placed Ireland in the middle tier of EU Innovation nations.

But does anyone actually know what ‘Innovation’ is?

According to the Oxford Online dictionary ‘Innovation’ is “the action or process of innovating“. A search for “innovating” refers you back to the definition for “Innovation”.

Innovation is thus a nebulous Ouroboros, forever consuming its own tail. We don’t know what it is but by God we have to have it.

To be fair to the Oxford Online, it does offer a second definition of ‘an Innovation’ (the object, not the process) as “a new method, idea, product, etc.”, so the process of Innovation can best be described as ‘The act of creating something new’. However a criticism that has been leveled at the recent Innovation Ireland report is that it simply seeks to expand the loose regulation and tax regimes existent in the Irish Financial sector to other sectors in an effort to attract more multi-nationals to establish operations in Ireland. Within the report are proposals for attracting IP (Intellectual Property) Rich businesses to Ireland on the basis of our tax regime, which as TASC highlights would mirror the current environment where large corporations funnel their global revenue through their Irish subsidiaries without the creation of any local R&D jobs, or the fostering of a local culture of innovation. Again as TASC points out ” In this report, the word “tax” is mentioned 127 times, the word “food” eight times and the words “manufacture” or “manufacturing” just 24 times”.

To me this does not seem to be “a new method, idea, product, etc.”, it simply means the expansion of an existing scheme with no ongoing sustainable benefits for Irish society. While this would see increased returns for the exchequer, it would make no contribution to the creation of a sustainable culture of research and development in Ireland, and we would make no progress towards establishing an environment of Innovation Independence unaffected by the turmoils of the international market. It highlights the need to critically examine the use of the word ‘Innovation’, and ensure that such claims are “clear, accurate and verifiable”.

I would suggest that a successful government policy towards Innovation should not be focused excessively on encouraging international investment into Ireland through Multinationals attracted by liberal tax regimes, rather it should concentrate on fostering a strong native Micro-enterprise and SME sector, developed by a highly educated entrepreneurial workforce who are equipped by a world-class education system for 21st century creative ventures, not 19th century factory jobs.

Anything else is just “Innovationwashing”.

Dave

Organised by our good selves and Dublin City Council, 4 groups took to the stage to give talks and present the participants with a Burning Question for them to answer. The event was very kindly and excellently chaired by Mr. Noel Casserly from Comhar Sustainable Development Council with Michael Stubbs of Dublin City Council providing a very informative keynote to kickstart the event.

Presenting each question was Mark Bennett from Dublin City Council, a team of Masters students from the College of Europe in Brussels working on a report on how to promote green business in Dublin and two Innovation Studios members. I spoke about the core concept of Innovation Studios from a workspace point of view followed by David and Erik who presented our new concept in learning called “Integral Learning”.

The event took the form of a World Café, where after each talk we presented a Burning Question for particpants to chew over amongst roundtables of 6 people and write down their ideas collaboratively. At the end of each talk/question the participants moved to a different table so as to mix with other people and share ideas. We’ve posted slideshows below to show the contributions made by each table.

All in all, the day was a fantastic success with many people enjoying the World Café format which afforded them the opportunity to mix with peers they wouldn’t normally have the chance to. From our point of view, much of our reasons for the importance of Innovation Studios was reinforced with many people innately understanding the need for a grass roots driven enterprise space with open membership to support our country’s micro enterprises. We also had the opportunity to pitch our relavance to those who didn’t understand / appreciate the need for micro enterprise supports and their input gave us a much stronger ability to demonstrate the importance of an Innovation Studios Space.

Here are the transcripts of the sheets… DCC Hub CoE Workshop Transcripts
Here are the slideshows of participant’s contributions from the day, broken down by each Burning Question.

1. What must we do to ensure Dublin realises the potential of the Green Economy by 2010?

Mark Bennett (Dublin City Council)

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2. Could a Green Hub add Value in Dublin? Would a Green hub Work in Dublin?

College of Europe

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3. How do we Utilise the Nation’s/Region’s Strengths? We want your help – How can we help you?

Patrick O’Connor (Innovation Studios)

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4. How Can We Kickstart Green Business Through Innovation Studios?

David Johnson & Erik van Lennep (Innovation Studios)

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Photos taken during the afternoon.

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SMEs – Sustainability Minded Enterprise

New places of work and new ways of working -

A response to emerging enterprise opportunities

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Wood Quay Venue, Civic Offices, 8^th March 2010

Registration from 14.30, event starts 15.00 sharp, networking from 17.30

The Dublin Hub Innovation Studios and Dublin City Council with partners invite you to a workshop event followed by refreshments.  We would value your input and collaboration on our ideas for stimulating and supporting green business in the city, such as the creation of a green innovation and hotdesking enterprise space with a uniquely tailored training programme.

The event is being hosted by Dublin City Council in cooperation with Dublin Hub Innovation Studios and the College of Europe and invitees include city-based entrepreneurs, public authorities, NGOs and private sector.

Places are limited so please fill out a short form to request an invite. We’d love to have a diverse mix of people attending to demonstrate the wide range of interesting and dynamic entrepreneurs making up the micro-enterprise community in Dublin.

Click here for the invite request form.

food available, but probably won't look like this...

Also, if you would like to come and see the very exciting “Infectious” Exhibit at the Science Gallery ( http://www.sciencegallery.com/infectious )or would just like to relax and have a drink before we get started come along from 6:30.

We’ll be kicking off at 7pm sharp!