Routledge CrowdRising: Building a Sustainable World through Mass Collaboration

Open innovation enabled through crowdsourcing is one of the hottest topics in management strategy today. Particularly striking – and of vital importance to the world – are the pioneering efforts to apply crowdsourcing technology and open innovation to solve social, environmental, and economic sustainability challenges. CrowdRising sets out these challenges as context and then highlights the experiences of leaders and early adopters, identifies implementation guidelines, critical success factors and lessons learned, and finally projects where the field is going in the future. With a strong focus on the applications of crowdsourcing for innovation, engagement, and market intelligence, the book profiles the initiatives of companies, NGOs, and technology providers using crowdsourcing to develop these solutions to global problems. It addresses the key challenges impacting organizations: 1) identifying more sustainable ways to design, distribute, transport, recycle, and repurpose products; and 2) discovering and implementing the systems needed to transform global economic growth, drive human prosperity, and replenish the planet’s resources. Review "CrowdRising shows us what purposeful crowdsourcing on steroids looks like. Status quo leaders have a vested interest in protecting the current unsustainable system -- it enables their success. Radical system change happens from the bottom-up, collaboratively engaging the 99% who would benefit from a socially just and environmentally sustainable world. We are at a tipping point in human history. Whole system change is not optional – it is an existential imperative. CrowdRising distills lessons learned from dozens of real-world examples of open innovation. It provides the game plan to rapidly scale the transformation of our unsustainable business and societal models." Bob Willard, Chief Sustainability Champion and Founder, Sustainability Advantage "We’ve barely scratched the surface of what CrowdRising can do. There’s a vast and untapped wealth of knowledge and resources in every industry and community waiting to be put to use for the well- being and resilience of all of us. To realize that potential, we’ll need to need to propagate and scale these initiatives – and create many, many new ones. Simply put, CrowdRising needs to become the new normal." Joel Makower, Chairman and Executive Editor, GreenBiz Group Inc. About the Author Lorinda R. Rowledge is co-founder of the strategic sustainability consultancy EKOS International and advisor to CSRHub. She has over 20 years’ experience helping clients achieve breakthroughs by integrating sustainability into core business strategy, brand communications, product/service design, human resource management, operations, and supply chains. Lorinda is also adjunct faculty in the Presidio Graduate School MBA program. She served for five years as Bainbridge Graduate Institute's founding Provost and EVP of Academic Affairs and Core Faculty, co-leading the startup of this pioneering MBA program in sustainable business. Lorinda co-authored Mapping the Journey: Case Studies in Implementing Sustainable Development Strategies (1999). Lorinda’s passion is engaging employees, customers, suppliers, and stakeholders to accelerate sustainable business innovation as a vehicle for business advantage and positive impact in the world.