Introducing a Sustainability Evaluation Framework based on the Sustainable Development Goals applied to Four Cases of South African Frugal Innovation

Evaluating sustainability based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a complex but purposeful approach with a broad field of application. In order to handle the complexity of the SDGs and achieve flexibility at the same time, this paper introduces a three‐step evaluation system based on the SDGs for the assessment of the sustainability of innovations. It was used to assess four cases of South African frugal innovation with the conclusion that all four examined cases were sustainable, indicating an interrelation between the frugality and the sustainability of an innovation. The framework was reviewed and revised several times and tested successfully and so far has proven to be applicable to a wide spectrum of innovations.