Project Breakthrough spotlights the best thinking and examples in sustainable innovation that demonstrate a commitment towards an exponential scale of change and impact – across mainstream companies and next generation innovators and entrepreneurs. It also features analysis of innovative business models and disruptive technologies that will be crucial in driving the next wave of sustainable solutions.
In this way, Project Breakthrough aims to stimulate transformative insight and corporate action – geared towards the sense of urgency and stretch ambitions outlined by the Sustainable Development Goals.
Why Breakthrough?
The world has set a very ambitious and necessary agenda for 2030: the Sustainable Development Goals. All member states of the UN have committed themselves to solving the world’s biggest challenges within the next 15 years: ending global poverty, protecting our planet and ensuring a life of dignity for all.
Business has a critical role to play in fulfilling these ambitions calls. Now more than ever, companies are taking action to transform their business models to serve society and tap into new markets, but much more is needed.
We use the term Breakthrough as shorthand for a business agenda that: (1) accepts that, while incremental change has its place, it is no longer remotely enough for what comes next; (2) market disruption is happening—and is likely to accelerate; (3) such times offer huge new opportunities for those who can move fast—and in the right directions; and (4) companies that do business responsibly and find opportunities to innovate around the SDGs will be the market leaders of tomorrow.
What you’ll find on this website
The website is a portal into the world of Breakthrough. On the homepage you’ll find videos and case studies that spotlight some of the most exciting pioneers of breakthrough thinking and action from around the world. We’ve recently added new sections featuring accessible and actionable briefings about transformative business models and disruptive technologies for the SDGs, as well as a showcase following the journeys of young professionals participating in the Breakthrough Innovation Challenge. Further resources on exponential mindsets will be added soon.
The website will evolve over time with new videos, case features, opinion pieces and other business tools to be added. Subscribe to our mailing list, follow the Project Breakthrough publication on Medium, and follow us on Twitter (@breakthrough_io) to stay updated.
Our three focus areas:
Exponential mindsets: What can leaders in all spheres learn from the “anything-is-possible” approach that is common among successful innovators? How can we shift away from an assumption that addressing sustainability is about slowing down and imposing costs towards seeing it as a matter of accelerating towards opportunities?
Disruptive technologies: How will developments in a range of fields – from big data, artificial intelligence and the internet of things through to driverless vehicles, 3D printing and synthetic biology – transform what’s possible in terms of sustainable performance and longer-term system change?
Tomorrow’s business models: How are new disruptive technologies enabling more sustainable, collaborative and circular business models? What new business models are emerging with the potential to up-end industries and reconfigure the way we think about value creation?
Get involved
Through Global Compact LEAD, companies have the opportunity to engage their young professionals in this work through the Breakthrough Innovation Challenge, designed to apply the emerging findings to company-defined challenges.
If you’d like to discuss how you can contribute to Project Breakthrough in other ways, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please get in touch.