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Sri Lankan paint company JAT Holdings created Petal Paint: a paint made out of discarded flowers. Launched in July 2018, the paint aims to reduce waste from flower offerings that are left at Buddhist temples. The pigments of the paint are created using the flowers’ dried petals, and it takes about 200 kilos of dried flowers to make 50 liters of paint.

Have you ever thought about the waste created by floral offerings at temples? Probably not – and honestly neither did we. But more and more innovators are exposing – and solving! – problems that weren’t previously considered as problems. Take for example condoms. Most people don’t feel guilty about using condoms, right? But after learning of fair-trade, vegan-certified condoms, you might have a different perspective.

Are we trying to imply you should feel deeply guilty for practising safe sex or leaving flowers at temples? Of course not! But it’s examples like these that show why innovations are such powerful signals of future trends: the second an innovation highlights a point of tension (vs. what currently exists), it’s impossible to forget it!

Two further takeaways to dissect with your team:

  • Petal Paint is ‘just’ a clever marketing stunt. Yes. But don’t instantly rule out a creative solution just because it’s not practical at scale. Why not start small and challenge your team and/or suppliers to scale it up?
  • What actions do your customers currently take that are considered ‘good’, but in fact have certain negative impacts. Can you flip them to create a positive impact?

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