Sustainability Sparklab Workshops

A Holistic Approach for Complex Challenges

Embarking on the journey of sustainability requires organizations to tackle highly complex challenges interconnecting multiple domains. This complexity demands a holistic perspective that considers an organization’s entire ecosystem.
Sustainability Spark is a set of two collaborative sessions in which a systems thinking approach is used to help business and IT leaders understand challenges and evaluate ideas within a broader context. By considering the influence of economic, social, environmental, technological, political, and cultural factors, these sessions assist participants in identifying projects that drive sustainable change. Furthermore, it leads them through the first steps to turn those ideas into reality with SAP technologies.

Two ways to spark change

The Sustainability Sparklab consists of the Explore Workshop and the Vision Workshop. Both sessions are designed to take place early in the Human-Centered Approach to Innovation. Select a session to start with depending on your needs.

Explore Workshop

If you’re seeking to uncover potential innovation projects and have no specific use case in mind, start with the Explore Workshop to identify opportunities with business value and sustainability impact.
Check the Explore Workshop

Vision Workshop

If you already have one or more innovation projects, dive directly into the Vision Workshop to align stakeholder expectations, and amplify the impact of your projects.
Check the Vision Workshop

Explore Workshop: Identify innovation opportunities worth pursuing

This one-day workshop format guides participants in generating and evaluating solution ideas to help them achieve their sustainability targets. As outcome, participants agree on one solution idea to start with.

The Explore Workshop structure

1. Identify focus challenges

Use the Sustainable Targets card deck to align with your team and stakeholders on sustainability related targets and issues to focus on, based on sustainable and business impact.

2. Identify root causes

Examine the organization’s ecosystem to identify root causes considering economical, environmental, political, cultural, technological and social factors.

3. Prioritize and define ideas

Brainstorm solution ideas to address the identified issues and evaluate them based on feasibility and impact. Detail out your most promising ideas in the form of a use case brief and select one to start with.

4. Define next steps

Align on follow up actions and responsibilities to turn the selected idea into reality.

The Sustainability Targets card deck

This card deck is designed to ease the process of identifying relevant challenges to focus on during the Explore Workshop. It contains twelve relevant sustainability targets for organisations to become sustainable enterprises. They are categorized into four sustainability topics: Zero Emissions, Zero Waste, Zero Inequality and Holistic Steering and Reporting.

Run the Explore Workshop

Vision Workshop: Define impactful sustainability solutions

This workshop guides participants in defining a vision for a previously selected innovation project. Here, participants explore the potential impact their project can have for relevant stakeholders and the world at large, considering influencing factors from social, technological, economical and ecological dimensions. Finally, all participants agree on next steps and develop a concrete game plan.

The Vision Workshop structure

1. Select a use case idea (optional)

Prioritize existing solution ideas based on organisational targets and select one to start with.
If an Explore Workshop has been done before, this step is not necessary.

2. Envision the impact of the project

Understand the challenges the solution would solve and the possible unintended long term consequences for the organisation, its partners and the planet. Identify stakeholders.

3. Create a project vision

Align on main aspects of the project, such as expected benefits, success criteria, user roles and define a common vision for the project.

4. Define an action plan

Identify action items to follow up to achieve the project vision.

Run the Vision Workshop