Q&A with
Marc Buckley
Member of the Expert Network for the
World Economic Forum for Innovation,
Social Innovation, Climate Change,
Agriculture, Food and Beverage |
Innovation Special Adviser, Bayer Cares
Foundation | UN SDG Advocate
What does ‘impact
innovation’ mean to you?
Impact innovations disrupt, help or
solve more than a million people’s
problem or address a Global Grand
Challenge through meaningful impact to
society and markets. It means bringing
exponential impact innovations to solve
people and planetary problems in
exponential times.
How important is it to
align innovation and
the SDGs?
The world is moving away from
linear thinking and the silo
approach for solving problems. The SDGs
are a systemic approach and are all tied to
the basic needs of life especially those of
humanity. Let us say it this way - it is
harder not to align innovation with the
SDGs than it is to do so. If you do not see
our world from an ecocentric/ecosystem
view you are stuck in a linear/silo view
of the world.
This ‘business as usual’ model is ripe for
disruption in 70+ markets of the world.
Businesses that want to be around in
the future need to make sure they have
dynamic systems and business models,
and include the SDGs as the foundation
that provides the resilience to hold their
business together well beyond 2030.
How should we tackle
the SDGs?
It’s important we understand and
begin to see SDGs as a component of
a holistic system that will help us to
transition to a resilient, sustainable future.
The goals are the largest open
consultation ever held, and represent a
tremendous opportunity to again make
humanity aware of the Golden Rule as a
guiding principle. They were agreed by 196
countries at the 2015 UN Climate Change
Conference in Paris and aim to enable us to
meet the goal of the conference—known
as the Paris Agreement—to keep global
warming below 1.5 degrees by 2030. The
goals are: no poverty; zero hunger; good
health and well-being; quality education;
gender equality; clean water and sanitation;
afordable and clean energy; decent work
and economic growth; industry, innovation
and infrastructure; reduced inequalities;
sustainable cities and communities;
responsible consumption and production;
climate action; life below water; life on land;
peace, justice, and strong institutions; and
partnerships for the goals.
They are often depicted in a linear
poster, but that may disguise the fact that
they must be achieved within the safe
operating space of a resilient and stable
planet. We need to transition the planet
into a safe operating space. Looking at an
exponentially growing problem in a linear
way may not be the best way to understand
it. In the same way that Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs depicts our physiological needs,
it is helpful to look at the SDGs in the guise
of a wedding cake, as devised by Johan
Rockström, Executive Director of Stockholm
Resilience Centre, and Chairman of the
EAT Advisory Board, and Pavan Sukhdev,
Founder and CEO of Gist Advisory. The
base layer is the biosphere: life on land; life
below water; clean water and sanitation;
and climate action. The central layer
contains society: no poverty; sustainable
cities and communities; peace, justice, and
strong institutions; afordable and clean
energy; good health and well-being; quality