This case study will provide you with a general understanding of different approaches to sustainability and will highlight the importance of creating clusters of innovation-led businesses.

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Building a Hub to Foster Innovation in Sustainable Development

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This case study will provide you with a general understanding of different approaches to sustainability and will highlight the importance of creating clusters of innovation-led businesses that work together to solve the biggest challenges the industry is facing, for example by ideating on zero-emission mobility or automation.

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Watch the video and reflect on the creation of "impact projects" to promote conscious tourism and foster innovation and creativeness to implement sustainable solutions across the sector.

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Main Takeaways from this Case

• Sustainability is part of the process, every step of the way and it's not the ultimate goal you work on.
• Importance of partnering up and creating clusters with all the key players in the industry, identifying and establishing centres of excellence.  
• It is crucial to work with the human at the centre of your thinking and with human talent to support every operation.

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Summary

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the camp is a unique setting created to foster innovation and help support sustainable tourism acceleration.

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This extraordinary place situated in Provence,  France, was founded by Frédéric Chevalier to create a space for innovation focused on positive impact through technology. Not only working in tourism, thecamp runs different 'impact projects' in horizontal industries such as food, energy and waste, as well as community and sustainable tourism. Its location and the surrounding landscape help create an environment that fosters creativity and encourages collaboration. All this is supported by a best-in-class acceleration programme.

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To champion sustainability, every part of the experience as an accelerator must be sustainable. This is what they have tried to create at thecamp, from the arrival using sustainable and autonomous transportation, through the food served in the restaurant being sourced locally and sustainably, right through to the zero-impact accommodation.

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Secondly, the ecosystem itself must support these same values. Being able to experiment with different actors in the region is key to prototyping various solutions that benefit the tourism ecosystem; this is where partnerships are essential. Likewise, for the local region and environment, you need to be able to form partnerships to set up "learning expeditions" which help us prototype, test and learn from the environment around us.

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Acceleration is also key in supporting growth. Pashû Christensen talks about how they source, recruit and incubate startups. She talks about the importance of peer to peer learning between startups. The importance of challenging them on their vision to make sure it is ambitious and bold enough to break through the mould, with topics ranging from business and innovation right through to mindfulness, a deeply important consideration when we think about staying in good health amongst a high-pressure environment.

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Sharing is also important to startups' success - both sharing with each other but also sharing ideas with business angels, mentors and investors. Pashû talks about the opportunity to grow sustainable innovations together in the tourism sector, by bringing together startups, with locals, experts and other entrepreneurs in a single environment that supports that 'zoning out' where they can focus on their ideas in real life, quite radically.

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