Partnering for Sustainable Innovation

Our society faces many social, societal, and environmental challenges. Companies can and should contribute, as evidenced by the United Nations’ call on organisations to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, companies do not create the desired change on their own. Tackling societal challenges requires changing systems. Established companies increasingly realise that they are part of the problem. It is up to them to actively pursue economic, environmental, and societal change in collaboration with other stakeholders.

What happens if an established multinational like DSM meets a young start-up with the ambition to ignite a circular revolution? Obviously, they start a joint venture. Looking at the success of this JV between DSM and Niaga® it all seems a very natural journey, but when they met, their collaboration was far from obvious. This Afternoon Tea and Talent session is dedicated to the collaboration between innovative start-ups and established companies aiming to contribute to a more sustainable, just, and inclusive economy and society. How does collaboration come about? What does it require? What motivates parties to engage in a cooperative venture? And finally, what does the partnership result in?

The case of Niaga® and DSM (currently part of Covestro) is presented and discussed as an illustration of the collaboration for the common good. The example occurs in the recently published book Bloed, zweet, maar samen by Harry Hummels, Wouter Scheepens and Erlijn Sie. It shows that technological breakthroughs are often the result of a partnership between highly entrepreneurial innovators and well-established but still dynamic corporations. The first have the ideas, the latter have the capital, knowledge, networks, and access to markets through which new products and services can be created and successfully introduced.

After attending this session, you will know what partnerships require and what start-ups, scale-ups, and large companies can do to contribute to a more sustainable, just, and inclusive society – in the interest of the partners, the partnership, and society at large.

Harry Hummels is Full Professor of Ethics, Organisations, and Society at Maastricht University since 2006 and a fellow of the University’s European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE). Also, Harry is Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Utrecht University. He is a board member at Society Impact. In addition to holding academic chairs since 1999, he was co-founding director of ING Bank Sustainable Investing, member of the management board of ACTIAM, European Liaison of the Global Impact Investing Network and Special Advisor to the Under-Secretary of the UN and Executive Director of UNOPS on Impact Investing.

Sascha Bloemhoff joined Niaga in January 2020 as Marketing Director with the assignment to build the Niaga® brand. Niaga is an innovation venture acquired by Covestro in 2021 as part of DSM RFM. Prior to Niaga Sascha started her career as strategy consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in the financial and energy sector where she was already very much involved with ESG investing and renewable energy projects. After this she worked as Commercial Director and Managing Director in the start-up phase of innovation ventures in wind energy, carbon emissions trading and data science. From there she moved to building new ecosystems through public private partnerships for hydrogen, mobility, and a circular economy. Typical for Sascha’s work is that she creates the systemic fundaments in areas where this has never been done before.