Do it yourself - a lean startup toolbox for employee-driven green product innovation

Abstract

Green product innovation (GPI) has become a key strategic issue for companies that aim at improving their environmental and economic performance. In order to harness their entire innovation potential, companies are well advised to integrate all employees into GPI processes. The concept of employee-driven innovation (EDI) recognises an underutilised potential of employees who are not formally assigned to innovation tasks. Still, there exists only limited research on tools and practices which employees can apply when engaging in GPI activities. With the aim of filling this void, this conceptual paper draws on the lean startup (LS) approach which applies lean thinking to entrepreneurship and innovation processes. LS principles complement GPI development since lean and green paradigms share the objective of resource efficiency and waste avoidance. This paper develops a process framework and toolbox which employees can use to validate and refine their GPI ideas before presenting them to their managers. Furthermore, it discusses to what extent the application of the presented LS framework enables employees to propose valuable GPI ideas.