Created a new sustainable concept? Great… Now articulate the value! This is a crucial step to get right. Value proposition statements are often skipped-over or poorly understood by innovation teams. Sustainability focused value proposition statements are especially important to get right for sustainable innovation concepts because they are complex and involve many ecosystem stakeholders.

This article will help you to quickly and clearly design a compelling value proposition statement for each of your key sustainability focused stakeholders. This is a crucial step to get right before moving on to uncovering your leap of faith assumptions. Read-on to learn how.

Mapping Sustainable Business Value Types

STEP 1

The first step to creating sustainable value proposition statements is to understand the value types you are creating across People, Planet, Profit and Progress dimensions.

• Learn more about the 130+ Value Types to choose from, in this article.

Discover which value types you are creating within your new concept or business model using the 130+ Value Types for Sustainability, Business & Innovation Projects in B2C & B2B using the poster above.

STEP 2

Once you have selected the value types for your new sustainable innovation concept, the next step is to articulate them into a succinct value proposition statement.

Sustainability Focused Value Proposition Design

STEP 5

Next, use following ad-lib structure to help you formulate your sustainable business value proposition statement based upon the 130+ Value Types Wheel tool.

Example

Ample EV Car Battery Value Proposition

Here is a quick example of how an Ample, an EV battery company could formulate their sustainable value proposition statement using the 130+ Value Types poster as inputs.

Ample modular EV car and truck battery solutions.

In this example you can see that a number of different value types across: people, planet, profit and progress have been inter-woven into the sustainability-focused value proposition statement.

Ample uses fully modular EV batteries, with replaceable units available across cities.

Note that the statement does not focus on the specific features and functionalities of the batteries themselves, but instead, stays more abstract and only talks of the value that is being created, captured and delivered to stakeholders and wider environment.

Used in this way, value is the primary way of communicating how the proposed concept will add value and sustainable impact on People, Planet, Profit and Progress dimensions.

Key takeaways

Articulating the real value you are creating across People, Planet, Profit and Progress can be difficult to figure out due to the fact that value is an abstract concept.

You can make the job of creating your sustainable business value proposition statements a whole lot easier, by using our Sustainable Value Proposition Canvas. Use the canvas to structure how you uncover the value you are creating with your new concept or business model.

Sustainable value proposition statements are a powerful way for you to articulate what you intend to do and how the impact of your efforts will be felt to all your different stakeholder types.

It is a good idea to craft sustainable value proposition statements targeted at each of your major stakeholder groups e.g. customers, UN SDG’s, sponsors, partners, funding bodies, investment panels etc.

Consider you value proposition statements as mini elevator pitches for your stakeholders. As you go through the subsequent (in)validation process, your value proposition statements will also evolve.

Good luck creating sustainable business impact!