We as the Next-Incubator have been thinking about how to choose the right projects when it comes to impact on our sustainability goals a lot & this is how we set first steps with the help of Solved – The Cleantech Company

Impact! We discuss a lot to keep focused on the right projects and not downgrading our purpose. That’s the challenge we face. For our ‘Innovation-Hub for Sustainability’ we thought we might be better off if we get some professional help. We have a long-term partnership with SOLVED that is a platform and a marketplace for on-demand experts for sustainability. We know them & we trust them, so it was a natural decision to use this resource helping us with the challenge we’re facing. The task: We want to measure the impact of our projects assessed by experts in the field of sustainability.

The preliminary phase was characterized by discussions and approximations on how we can evaluate the impact on sustainability of our projects based on the sustainable pillars – what information is required and in what detail. In collaboration with the experts of Solved, we were able to set up an approach that gives us a quick quantitative score and provides us with detailed know-how and qualitative feedback from international experts.

The selection of experts was based on the following premises:

• international experts (at the end Mauritius, Hong Kong, Singapore, USA, Germany, Finland and Austria)
• gender balanced
• different expertise in the wide field of sustainability
• absolute independence – Our goal was honest feedback on the project from an ecological, economic and social perspective, to achieve a base we can work with.

After the evaluation, we were able to analyse the results by looking from other point of views and discussed insights and adjustments on future projects. As project manager of some of the projects, I must admit that it’s not always easy to deal with the given score and the statements. But it’s important being shown different points of view and putting aside the internal view.

The evaluation is a another step in order to be able to select our projects even more specifically and to further develop our hub step by step. Because we only get better with honest feedback from the “outer world”. And of course, we’ll continue this way.

Gernot Schröck