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This workshop is the sequel to Harnessing Innovation to Achieve the SDGs (Part I), which introduced students to the role of entrepreneurial thinking and innovation ecosystems in tackling sustainability challenges.

While Part I focused on the design and launch of sustainable innovations—be they technological, policy-based, or financial—Part II shifts focus to what happens after the launch: How do innovations scale? Why do some achieve broad adoption while others stall, despite early promise?

Scaling is not simply a matter of replication. It requires a robust interplay between policy, capital, stakeholder alignment, and timing. It also requires adaptation to evolving market, social, and regulatory conditions. This workshop investigates that critical juncture—where pilot becomes policy, where startup becomes system, and where early wins either grow into transformative change or fade away.



Course Focus

Drawing from real-world case studies—including plastic pollution, ocean health, public policy and technology—this workshop explores why some sustainability innovations scale while others stall. The course examines the essential elements of scale: stakeholder coalitions, procurement policy, systems alignment, standards and certifications, and investment architecture. The course integrates tools from the entrepreneurial and policy innovation playbooks—such as scaling readiness assessments, systems mapping, and lean iteration—tailored to the sustainability context.

Through real-world examples, students will explore:

• What makes a sustainable innovation scalable?

• Which policies, incentive structures, and stakeholder coalitions support scale?

• What threats or bottlenecks commonly arise—and how do innovators pivot?

• How can tools from Silicon Valley’s innovation playbook—lean launch, agile adaptation, iteration—be applied in sustainability contexts?



Learning Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, students will be able to:

• Diagnose the conditions for scale by assessing innovation maturity, stakeholder alignment, and system readiness.

• Analyze real-world scaling efforts, identifying enabling factors and common pitfalls in both public and private sector contexts.

• Evaluate the role of policy in enabling or constraining scale—examining regulation, procurement, subsidies, and standard-setting.

• Apply entrepreneurial tools such as lean experimentation, agile pivoting, risk mapping, and business model iteration to the scaling phase.

• Develop a strategic scaling roadmap for a selected innovation, including scenarios for replication, adaptation, and systems integration.

• Engage with ecosystem dynamics at the scale-up stage—understanding how capital, policy, and institutional stakeholders shape outcomes.