The purpose of the innonatives online platform is to connect people, who have identified sustainability-related problems with those who can creatively solve them. innonatives also helps people organize adequate funding and collaboration to support their sustainability ideas and solutions. Support for sustainability initiatives is generated through access to a large international network including the public, field experts, businesses and organizations. innonatives is also an online market place for sustainable solutions. 

Who can participate?

Everyone can get involved with innonatives. We want you to become a Seeker, Solver, Voter, Funder, Trader, Expert, a combination or all of the above. 

SEEKER

identifies a sustainability related problem and is in need of a Solution. Seekers become Challenge Owners, if they propose a Challenge that the innonatives platform shall solve and their Challenge is published.

SOLVER

would like to develop or has developed sustainability related Solutions together with a group of other Solvers or individually.

VOTER

participates in voting for the most relevant Challenges and the best Solutions.

FUNDER

invests or donates money so that the best Solutions can be implemented.

TRADER

offers or buys sustainable products, services or solutions on the innonatives online marketplace.

EXPERT

consults on the development and implementation of Solutions.

The innonatives platform offers five main functions: Challenges, Solutions, Crowdfunding, Implementation and Shop.

CHALLENGES at innonatives are innovation and design projects seeking sustainable solutions that invite contributions by all (or specific) members of the innonatives community. The Challenges section has two main functions:

You can join existing sustainability Challenges started by others and develop innovative Solutions to solve them individually or in teams. Under the Challenges tab you will find a series of sustainability Challenges. You can scroll through them and click on the ones you find interesting to get more information. While reviewing them, think about whether or not you have, or can come up with, realistic ideas for how they can be solved in a sustainable way. Each Challenge runs through phases from the initial Idea to final Solutions, this can be seen in the Challenge timeline. Depending on the phase you can submit your own Ideas, Concepts and Solutions by using the “Submit” button on the top, right-hand side of the page. Fill out the form and click “Submit” to send in your contributions. Each Challenge has specific terms & conditions and rewards, which you will need to accept before participating in the project.

You can start your own sustainability Challenges for others to solve. We would love to help you solve your sustainability related problems and issues. You can post your own Challenges on innonatives that you would like other people to solve. Simply click on “Start Your Own Challenge” on the home page and fill out the Challenge submission form. Once we have received your Challenge we will review and post it or contact you for more information and to support you in the process. Once your Challenge is online, others are able to post ideas and the below defined process will begin. 

The Challenge Process: Generally Challenges can have up to 3 phases: Ideas, Concepts and Solutions. This can be defined by the person/ organization suggesting the Challenge, the Challenge Owner. For the Idea phase solvers will submit general Ideas. During the Concepts phase solvers will be asked to make a more in-depth outline of the Ideas to create an overall Concept. It may be suggested that solvers collaborate with each other if they have similar Ideas or have ideas that can be combined. Solvers can invite each other to join forces. In the final Solutions phase solvers will need to post a final thorough overview of exactly how their Solutions work and should be designed and implemented. During the given time period for each phase, defined by the owner of the Challenge, the innonatives expert panel, the Challenge Owner and the Crowd (general public) will vote on all contributions. If contributions are ranked high enough, they will advance to the next phase of the Challenge. When the Solutions phase is over, one final round of voting will occur and winners will be selected. Each challenge has a pre-defined prize for its winners.

Ideas – Your initial thought on how a Challenge can be solved. A rough draft of your Idea outlined during the initial stage of the Challenge. 

Concepts – If your Idea graduates the Idea stage you will be asked to outline it in more detail, thus becoming a Concept.

Solutions – A Solution is a detailed Concept that is at its final stage before it can be implemented. You will be asked to submit a Solution if your Concept advances to the final phase. Challenge winners will be selected from Solutions. 

Given time period – When a Seeker posts a Challenge they will determine how many phases the project should have (Idea and/or Concept and/ or Solution) and how long each phase will last before voting is closed and contributions advance to the next round. 

Pre-defined prize - When a Seeker posts a Challenge they decide what the winner(s) will receive if they are selected. This can be a cash-prize, a contract with an organization to implement the idea, or anything in-between. The maximum number of winning Solutions will also be pre-defined for each challenge. 
 

The SOLUTIONS tab offers two functions:

1. It is a library of completed winning Solutions for specific Challenges for you to browse. Click on the Solutions you find most interesting to find out more information about them and how you can get involved.

2. The Solutions tab also offers to post Solutions without answering to specific Challenges. Do you have a great sustainability Solution? We want to make it come to life! Under the Solutions tab you can post it and ask others to support you in improving and implementing it. Maybe you lack the right partners or a technical detail is still missing? Maybe it needs to become even more sustainable or you would like to know what your target market thinks about it? Once your Solution is posted on innonatives others will be able to comment, vote, add ideas or suggestions, collaborate and stimulate its development. If you only lack funding, the innonatives Crowdfunding module is the right tool for you.
 

CROWDFUNDING is used to raise money to support the implementation of Solutions. All people from around the world can use our Crowdfunding tool to donate to projects. At the moment we offer two options: (a) donation based crowd funding, (b) reward based crowd funding, for instance pre-sales (to pre-purchase the product or service and receive it once it is implemented).

The innonatives Crowdfunding tab has two main functions:

1. It allows you to financially support your favourite sustainability projects by making a donation or investing in a reward that is offered by the project.

2. You can post a request for others to fund your idea and turn it into a reality! To get your project funded, it needs to be in line with innonatives’ Sustainability Criteria and you need to describe it in the form provided in the Crowdfunding tab and post it to us. Once we have checked your project and it fits to innonatives’ purpose we will publish it and the funding period can start.
 

Under the IMPLEMENTATION tab you will find an archive of sustainable Solutions that have made it past the theoretical stage and been implemented practically. There will be detailed case studies on the implementation process of specific Solutions and their success in the real world. 
 

innonatives’ ONLINE SHOP offers a catalogue of truly sustainable products, services and solutions. Browse through and purchase new and innovative sustainable solutions from around the world or apply to sell your products in the Shop. Just fill out the request form and our experts will evaluate your product to make sure it fits our sustainability guidelines.

Sustainability Guidelines

A sustainable Solution must be environmentally friendly, beneficial to society and support long-term economic development. See our list of criteria and check if your contribution is pointing in the right direction here <link>.