Author: E. Jefferson Hynds, Virginia Brandt, Susan Burek, Walter Jager, Peter Knox, Jamie Pero Parker,
Summary:
This article describes the development of a maturity model for assessing and guiding R&D organizations in creating innovative sustainable products and services that drive growth. While sustainability in the broadest sense includes people, planet, and profit, the opportunities for R&D and new product development (NPD) organizations to influence sustainability are typically focused on the environmental aspects of sustainability. Therefore, the maturity model developed in this work focuses primarily on environmental sustainability. The assessment tool allows a company to benchmark itself as it progresses along the maturity continuum from beginning through improving, succeeding, and leading. The sustainability maturity model and assessment tool can be used by teams or individuals to benchmark progress on the journey to integrate sustainability into NPD for competitive advantage. The model was validated using data gathered from 20 companies and by comparing this model with other sustainability ranking systems.
