Kestävän kehityksen innovaatiot: Katsaus YK:n Agenda 2030 kehitystavoitteisiin ja vastaaviin suomalaisiin innovaatioihin

The study explored the importance of innovation and business development in addressing global sustainable development challenges and, more generally, how these challenges and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals can be met. The study was conducted through four sectors: agriculture and food production, urbanization, energy and materials, and health and well-being. The study highlights the key innovations in these sectors, international competitive landscape, market opportunities and the potential for added value from innovation. At the same time, it is the beginning for a road map to achieve SDG goals through innovation.
Innovation is an important tool in meeting the challenges of sustainable development. Innovation is a new or substantially improved, economically useful product, process, or service. Sustainable development innovations not only bring new value and growth to the companies that develop and commercialize them, but also solutions to societal challenges that meet the goals of sustainable development. Innovation creates new, more sustainable technologies, services and business models. Nearly 90% of all Finnish innovations of this decade include directly, or at least in partially, sustainability as their goals.
Of the examined business ecosystems, Finland is performing best in the areas of transportation and industrial renewal, as well as in the “new work” and the forest industry ecosystems. In many cases, the value of a business ecosystem’s production can also potentially increase significantly with the growth of sustainable business. These ecosystems include agricultural sector, forest industry and healthcare.
In emerging markets, it is essential to know the customer's need and provide a solution to that need. We need to be able to form networks of expertise that can provide comprehensive solutions to the needs of the target countries, and to be able to conceptualise our offerings to be an effective and understandable solution to the need. The lack of knowledge sharing and cooperation was highlighted as a barrier to business. Drivers for the sustainable business, on the other hand, were diverse and varied widely across sectors.