Systems change to address complex problems, including climate change, is hard to achieve. What little optimism remains to tackle such complex challenges is mostly placed in supranational schemes, such as the COP climate change conferences, or transformational national policy, such as the Green New Deal in the US. Solutions of grand design regularly disappoint, however, because of their high costs, the challenges of translating big plans to local needs, and ongoing disagreement and polarization about what works and what is detrimental.

There is hope on the skyline though. Urban innovation ecosystems can provide an alternative to grand schemes, and cities’ social sectors provide a source of ongoing innovation. Companies like Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet that develops technologies for sustainable urban design, are transforming business as usual to solve complex urban problems. Social enterprises such as car-sharing programs are changing the nature of urban transportation and providing alternative options to individual car ownership. Through its iconic mobile showers, the San Francisco nonprofit LavaMae has found new ways to serve the homeless in the absence of more radical reforms of affordable housing. And the US Green Building Council (USGBC), an intermediary promoting energy-efficient construction, developed guidelines and rating systems for sustainable cities and neighborhoods.

Promising ideas are in ample supply, but the crucial question is: How can social innovators scale such innovations so that their local impact adds up to big solutions?

Green construction—one of the biggest frontiers of climate change mitigation—offers some important lessons about turning small wins into big solutions. What today looks like a no-brainer started with a daring experiment when, in 2003, the Chicago Center for Green Technology became the world’s first municipal building that was LEED Platinum-certified by the USGBC. The building features a ground-source heat pump system and an industry-leading building automation system that allows for central control of the building’s systems, showing what is possible in energy-efficient building design. The building served as a proof of concept for green construction, inspiring a long list of best practices in sustainable construction in Chicago, and the city is now one of the bright spots of energy-efficient buildings.

What are the implications of these findings for social innovators and for achieving systemic change through the development of urban innovation ecosystems?

  • Encourage scalable innovation.
  • Create synapses for within-city learning.
  • Invest in civic capacity.
  • Orchestrate inter-city learning.

Read the full article about scalable innovation by Christof Brandtner at Stanford Social Innovation Review.