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The Sustainable Innovations at the Base of the Pyramid conference has recently concluded at the Helsinki School of Economics where there were a number of speakers from both business and design as well as developmental organizations such as the UNDP and UNEP. The primary focus of the conference was on sustainable solutions - whether addressing the issues of climate change, the environment, waste, recycling or resources or whether business models meant to serve the poor profitably could be designed to be self supporting over time.

From the design point of view, Dr Prabhu Kandachar of TU Delft's Industrial Design dept spoke on the need for a systems approach that put the users at the center of the design and development process, rather than the profits. His comprehensive overview of the global scenario is available here "Base of the pyramid strategy - eradicating poverty with innovations? "

Nokia's BoP strategy, Philips Design's user centered approach to co-creation and more after the jump.

Johanna Liukkonnen presented on Nokia's design for the remaining 3 billion without a mobile phone, including features developed for those who were functionally illiterate or not literate in any of the languages (over 80 at last count) that Nokia already used in their UI. Her slides Innovating for the local needs of low-income consumers at the BoP

Dr Simona Rocchi, Senior Director, Design for Sustainability at Philips Design spoke about her experiences in the field when observing users for the design of the smokeless stove, the Chulha, that recently won an IDEA bronze. She noted the challenges that large corporations face when attempting to serve the poor profitably. Her presentation complete with user insights is called Designing together with users at the BOP: An innovation experience based on value co-creation and user insights

Personally, the presentation that stood out the most was by Burcu Tuncer of the UNEP/Wuppertal Institute titled Which BOP approach can help leapfrogging poverty barriers and conserve resources? - The Perspective of Human Development through the Market. Tuncer and her team had analysed the challenge of creating 4 billion new consumers conflicting with the increasingly scarce natural resources and humanity's footprint on the environment. Their suggestions include reframing the problems in an innovative manner so that solutions focus on the real problems to be solved and/or unmet needs rather than assuming that the very same solution would be required to provide the same benefit to those at the BoP, as well as finding solutions that leapfrog current technology with all its drawbacks. Worth a look if you are keen on where sustainability meets poverty meets geography, inescapable if we're to find sustainable solutions going forward as well improve the wellbeing of the other 90%.

Other speaker presentations are available here and include Vestergaard-Frandsen's CSR project in Kenya. Some soundbites on BoP users collated on nextbillion.net and some liveblogging here and here.