Open Innovation vs. Dead Zones

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Iowa Soybean Association have joined forces in combating the proliferation of agricultural nitrogen in the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay. The new joint venture, the Eco-Challenge Series, takes advantage of InnoCentive’s open innovation platform in searching for ways to reduce the amount of fertilizer that escapes into the environment.

According to the EDF over 50% of the fertilizer applied to crops in the United States ends up leaking into the air and water. The nitrogen in these fertilizers is the prime culprit in the environmental havoc they wreak. In addition to its tendency to change form into a greenhouse gas, nitrogen that leaks into the Gulf of Mexico or the Chesapeake Bay creates dead zones – areas where fish cannot survive.

The Eco-Challenge Series currently has two problems looking for open innovation solutions. The first challenge deals with the nitrogen that escapes into tile drains – pipes laid underneath farmland to ensure proper drainage.  The problem is that these same drainage pipes are a perfect avenue by which fertilizer can end up in rivers, lakes, and other large bodies of water. The second challenge seeks to improve how farmers measure the effectiveness of their fertilizer management processes. The better information farmers have, the more accurate they can be in their fertilizer usage.

The fact that crowdsourcing and open innovation are being used for such unexpected applications is a good indication of their flexible nature. If you are interested in esoteric uses of crowdsourcing join us in our discussion of unexpected, quirky, and surprising uses of crowdsourcing on our forums.