Reshaping the Future: Disruptive Innovations Driving Sustainable Change
By Anayana White, Guest Contributor and Head of Communications, American Sustainable Business Network / June 2, 2025
Anayana White is the Head of Communications at ASBN, bringing over 15 years of experience as a collaborative strategist and content creator. She is dedicated to helping organizations effectively reach the right audiences for successful campaigns and movements advancing an equitable transition to the next economy. Anayana has worked with notable organizations, including the Cancer Free Economy Network, where she led their communications strategy for six years and continues to serve on their Executive Committee. She is also an alumnus of the Next Economy MBA program from LIFT Economy. When not shifting narratives for a just and regenerative economy, you can find Anayana traveling with her two kids and singing opera with her husband.
American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN)
American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN) amplifies the collective voice of sustainable business to lead the way to a regenerative economy that is stakeholder-driven, just, and prosperous. As a multi-issue, membership organization advocating on behalf of every business sector, size, and geography, ASBN works to advance its mission to inform, connect, and mobilize sustainable business leaders, transforming the public and private sectors toward a just and regenerative economy.
The global imperative to address climate change and resource depletion is driving innovation at an unprecedented pace. While incremental improvements are valuable, it is disruptive, sustainable innovations implemented at the appropriate scale, new technologies and approaches that hold some of the crucial keys to fundamentally transforming our relationship with the planet and building a truly sustainable future. These are not simply new gadgets—often reliant on extractive processes—but paradigm-shifting innovations that can redefine industries, economies, the way we live and that are guided by “greater good” ethics and principles.
By way of example, consider how the leaps in computing capability have resulted in unprecedented use of AI and its seemingly inevitable adoption. Organizations and enterprises of all shapes and sizes are now increasingly preparing for a world where tasks can be accomplished by computers thousands of times more powerful than previously imagined. This has implications for sustainable innovation in every sector of human enterprise. The entire world may not be ready to fully embrace AI, but with its ability to empower or upend whole industries, they should be a part of defining sustainable innovation and demanding AI be used as a force for good.
What are disruptive innovations?
Disruptive innovation, as a theory, explains how new strategies, new technologies, new products, or new services can start small but eventually surpass established offerings in the market.
New market disruption: when a product or service reaches overlooked markets or customers not considered before. This involves targeting currently profitable customers while expanding into other customer segments.
Low-end disruption: provides a more affordable or user-friendly alternative to existing products, appealing to mainstream customers or cost-conscious customers at the bottom of the market.
Sustainable disruption: innovations and changes that address existing environmental, planetary and social challenges while creating new, more sustainable systems and often involving reshaping business practices, embracing new technologies, and fostering a culture of diverse and equitable human empowerment, to increase resilience, preserve and sustain humanity, and face challenges from environmental impact while unlocking new opportunities. Unlike low-end or new market disruption, sustainable disruption is not about rapid market upheaval; it's often a long-term transformation that gradually takes hold as consumers and businesses recognize its enduring value and necessity over time.
Powering Change: Clean Energy as Economic Disruption
One of the most impactful areas of sustainable disruption is the evolution of clean energy and economic transformation. The transition away from an extractive economy toward one centered on climate resilience, clean energy, and even regeneration is seen as a unique opportunity. "As America builds its economy for the future," states Mike Green, Senior Advisor on Climate and Energy with the American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN), "we have a unique opportunity to put climate resiliency and clean energy at its center and create a more just and sustainable economy. Clean energy disruptions have reduced climate impacts by replacing fossil-generated electric power with wind power and efficient solar cells have made solar electric power generation sufficiently economical to replace fossil-generated electric power."
Businesses increasingly view a clean energy future as both desirable and inevitable. This disruption is not just environmental; it's economic. A 2022 study highlighted the stark contrast in potential future costs to the global economy: staying on the current course could cost as much as $178 trillion by 2050, whereas limiting warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius could result in a benefit of $43 trillion.
Storage batteries represent a new frontier in sustainable disruption and the transition to clean energy. Lithium-ion batteries, in particular, are enabling the replacement of internal combustion engines in various applications, including automobiles and lawn equipment. When paired with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, these batteries contribute significantly to a low-carbon energy ecosystem. Moreover, they are increasingly being used to replace single-use alkaline batteries with rechargeable alternatives. While not yet disruptive, sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a promising alternative to lithium-ion technology, offering a more environmentally sustainable option due to the abundance of sodium in seawater and the reduced environmental impact of its extraction.
Chemistry for Good: The Rise of Safer, Sustainable Solutions
Driving parallel sustainable disruption is the movement towards safer chemicals, aka “green chemistry.” This involves a fundamental shift away from toxic chemicals that have contributed to significant increases in cancers and other diseases through their infiltration into the water we drink, air we breathe, foods we consume, and the products we produce, buy and use, in favor of safer alternatives. “This transition is driving innovation and job creation while also making workplaces and communities safer," says Martin Wolf, Senior Advisor on Safer Chemicals and Circular Economy at ASBN. “Traditional chemistry presents significant societal benefits, but also significant business, human and planetary risks. Safer alternatives can offer similar benefits while alleviating the business, human, and planetary risks.”
“Programs like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Safer Choice program create a fertile ground for sustainable chemistry to flourish, fostering safer, bio-based alternatives to fossil fuel-derived chemicals that are independently tested and verified through the U.S. government,” says Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks, President & CEO of ECOS®. She further emphasized the importance of this shift for future generations, saying, "Children are our most precious gift, and at ECOS, we want to champion change in the cleaning products industry to protect them. We welcome other cleaning product manufacturers to join us in making safer chemicals the standard, to drive accessibility, and create safer cleaning products for homes, daycare facilities, and classrooms.” Moving to safer chemicals is seen not only as an environmental and health imperative but also as a driver of business growth, building consumer loyalty and job creation.
While the EPA’s Safer Choice Program has led to great growth and support for safer chemical products in the U.S., our European counterparts continue to make further disruptive strides. The European Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH), the Globally Harmonized System for Chemical Hazard Communication (GHS), and the European Chemical Strategy for Sustainability – have disrupted the way chemicals are evaluated and classified with respect to hazards, and how this information is communicated to users, especially consumers. Unfortunately, these paradigm shifts in chemicals management have not been incorporated in the U.S., leaving consumers less protected and informed, while U.S. businesses are given less incentives for using safer chemicals in their products.
An example of this is the phase out in the EU of a class of surfactants (cleaning agents) known as alkylphenoxy ethoxylates (APEs) under REACH. This led to their replacement with less hazardous and more biodegradable surfactants known as alcohol ethoxylates, many of which are biobased. In the US, the phaseout of APEs was initiated by the retailer Walmart years before the U.S. EPA took official action. In response to the Walmart restriction many U.S. companies voluntarily discontinued the use of APEs.
Soil, Systems, and Sustainability: The Growing Agricultural Revolution
Regenerative agriculture is a disruptive innovation challenging conventional practices by focusing on ecosystem health. This method enhances soil health, increases biodiversity, improves water management, and sequesters carbon. Regenerative agriculture is not only a key tool in combating climate change through carbon sequestration in the soil – Regenerative land use practices could provide 37% or more of the emissions reductions needed to meet the Paris Climate Agreement targets – but it also offers tangible benefits to farmers. It increases crop yields, improves profits per acre, enhances resilience to extreme weather, and provides multiple revenue streams.
Beyond the environmental benefits, regenerative agriculture offers businesses a distinct marketing advantage. Alternatives to chemical-intensive farming are proving to be more affordable and significantly better for the environment, businesses, and local communities. The U.S. market for regenerative products is poised for rapid growth over the next decade. Today, 60% of U.S. consumers want to be able to choose a product that is better for the environment.
“During the pandemic, meat labels with environmental and labor-related claims grew by 18% as other meat product sales lagged; food brands and products that explicitly express climate values were a top consumer trend in 2022,” shared Liza LaManna, Agriculture and Water Policy Manager at ASBN. “Similarly, consumer demand for ethical and sustainable fashion is expected to grow from $6.93 billion in 2021 to $7.57 billion, and we are seeing a rise in interest in regenerative agriculture, farming and ranching practices, including byproduct chains and the build out of circular fashion and more ethical systems.”
Regeneration in Urban Environments
The foundational principles of regenerative agriculture are increasingly finding application within urban environments too, extending beyond traditional rural landscapes to foster more localized food systems. Among these urban applications, the emergence of Rooftop Urban Agriculture is particularly noteworthy, signifying a substantial opportunity to integrate sustainable food production directly into the built environment. Beyond creating more resilient, local supply chains, rooftop agriculture:
helps to mitigate the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect by reflecting sunlight, releasing moisture through evapotranspiration, and providing natural insulation, which can lower air temperature by up to 30 degrees C, reducing building energy consumption by up to 15%.
Is highly effective at stormwater management, retaining water, slowing runoff, and filtering pollutants, thereby reducing urban flooding and preventing waterway contamination. Green roofs can intercept between 15% and 90% of rooftop runoff.
stimulate local economies by creating jobs, attracting investment, and generating broader economic activity.
Closing the Loop: Circular Solutions for a Regenerative Future
Underpinning many of these advancements is the accelerating transition towards a circular economy. This is a fundamentally disruptive model that moves us away from the linear "take-make-dispose" system to one that keeps resources in use through recycling, reuse, repair, and remanufacturing, thereby minimizing virgin material input and reducing waste, pollution, and carbon emissions. The current reliance on virgin materials and landfills poses threats to supply chains, exacerbates the climate crisis, decimates biodiversity, and contaminates vital resources.
Taking action to eliminate any unnecessary single-use packaging and promote safer chemicals and products is critical for the future well-being of businesses, workers, consumers, and the environment. Similarly, a regenerative economy goes beyond sustaining resources—it actively seeks to restore and revitalize them, creating lasting value for people and the planet.
Businesses play a pivotal role in advocating for policies that enable a circular and regenerative economy. A systems-level overhaul of chemical and product manufacturing, materials design and disposal, resource and energy use, is vital for protecting people and the planet.
Disruption with Responsibility: Innovation at a Crossroads
We are living in an era marked by sweeping disruption across industries, institutions, and social systems. Disruptive innovations—those that fundamentally reshape how we live, work, and interact—offer both transformative potential and some come with significant risk. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one such example. It holds promise as a tool to democratize access to knowledge, opportunity, and power, yet it could also entrench inequality and consolidate control among the few. As we navigate this wave of change, critical questions must guide innovation: How do we ensure that these technologies empower the many, not just the powerful? And how can disruption serve broader goals, such as accelerating the transition to a clean energy future?
"Whether for general enterprise, social purpose, agriculture or healthcare, innovative technology is addressing pain points from a lens of empowerment and repair,” says Steven Salsberg, Chairman, SmartCty. “With the unprecedented power of AI, addressing enterprise pain points, business strategy and mission execution will happen at lightning speeds, with enormous efficiencies. Empowerment is a cornerstone of sustainable technology. We must collaborate to create the guardrails necessary to build on that cornerstone with an AI for Good movement.”
One interesting example is inTruth, an AI company at the leading edge of emotional intelligence that envisions “a world where emotional intelligence is as fundamental as literacy, shaping a society built on empathy, understanding, and conscious connection.” Their mission: To pioneer the world’s first Emotion Language Model; building an intelligence system trained from the intelligence of biology, not just language. Could a better understanding of workers, teams and consumers emotions around decisions aid in creating a more sustainable and just economy? AI is advancing at lightning speeds, for this answer though, we will have to wait to see.
Scaling Disruption with Values
Disruptive innovations bring significant promise, but they also face substantial challenges, including issues of scalability, cost, and the need for enabling policy frameworks. To truly drive transformative change, businesses must be empowered through thoughtful policies and through media support that amplifies their stories and missions. This visibility is essential for addressing the root causes of environmental degradation and advancing a more sustainable and equitable future.
Yet, as with any powerful technology, we must ask: What principles and ethics will guide its development and deployment? Without a foundation rooted in shared values and guiding principles, we risk reinforcing outdated paradigms. What is truly needed is a shift in collective awareness—one that matches the scale and urgency of the disruptions themselves.
A Call to Action: Investing in a Regenerative Tomorrow
As momentum builds behind these potentially disruptive forces—from clean energy and regenerative agriculture to green chemistry and ethical AI for good—it becomes clear that they are not just technological innovations, but catalysts for a deeper transformation of our values, systems, and economies. The path forward demands more than investment; it requires a collective commitment to equity, accountability, and regeneration. That’s why the American Sustainable Business Network is going beyond sustainability reporting to build a community that’s creating a new legacy for the American business community. A legacy of progress, and a new way of doing business. By aligning innovation with ethical principles and inclusive policies, we can reshape our future into one that is not only sustainable but also just, resilient, and built to serve both people and planet.