Solve Environmental Issues, Generate Business Value
Across industries, forward-looking companies are tackling environmental problems to benefit their businesses and protect the planet. To accelerate the pace of environmental innovation, EDF is partnering with InnoCentive to present the Eco-Challenge Series.
The series will tap the power of InnoCentive’s proven Challenge Driven Innovation methodology and a global network of more than 250,000 scientists, entrepreneurs, inventors and other creative “problem solvers” in 200 countries. To join us in this effort, become a “Solver” today and help us find the solutions we need for a healthier planet. Together with leading companies, EDF and InnoCentive aim to solve real-world environmental issues today, faster and more efficiently, while generating business value.
The Eco-Challenge Series will also co-host select Challenges presented by other nonprofit and public sector organizations that have the potential to generate environmental benefits.
| Challenges | Posted Date | Deadline | Reward | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Featured challenge |
Featured challenge EDF & ISA - Cost Effective Analysis of Crop Fields for GrowersStatus: AWARDED | Active solvers: 304 A rapid analysis of crop fields is required to aid farmers to evaluate crop development and the effectiveness of their management practices. Making such methods of evaluation easier and more effective for growers will lead to more efficient use of fertilizers and other crop inputs. This collaboration with Environmental Defense Fund and the Iowa Soybean Association seeks a win-win solution for farmers, the environment and farm profitability. Farmers could reduce their operating costs by using fertilizer more efficiently and increase yields while mitigating the serious problems associated with nitrogen pollution: coastal dead zones, impaired drinking water supplies, degraded fisheries and recreational areas, and risks to human health. This Challenge requires only a written proposal. |
May 26, 2011 | August 13, 2011 | $15,000 USD |
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Featured challenge |
Featured challenge EDF - Nitrate Capture SystemStatus: AWARDED | Active solvers: 245 Environmental Defense Fund is seeking a solution to the problem of agricultural nitrate pollution. Concepts for systems to capture or concentrate nitrates from agricultural field drainage are required. Currently between 50% and 80% of fertilizer applied to commercial crops in the U.S. is not absorbed by the plants and is instead lost to water and air, causing dangerous environmental and health impacts in a growing number of watersheds around the country. This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award for at least one submitted solution. |
May 26, 2011 | July 13, 2011 | $7,500 USD |
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Featured challenge |
Featured challenge Communication Platform to Connect Vulnerable Communities with Climate Change SolutionsStatus: AWARDED | Active solvers: 453
Local communities across the globe will need to adapt to changing climate conditions over the next years and decades. In doing so, they may be facing rising sea levels, public health concerns, water scarcity, floods, heat waves and more extreme weather, among other impacts. |
April 12, 2011 | July 12, 2011 | $10,000 USD |
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Featured challenge |
Featured challenge Efficient Technologies/Methodologies for Measuring the Reduction of Pollution from Nonpoint SourcesStatus: UNDER EVALUATION | Active solvers: 214 This Challenge calls for developing or identifying technologies and/or methodologies to measure the performance of individual pollution reduction management systems or practices that reduce nitrogen, phosphorous, and/or sediment pollution loads at one or more points along the pollution pathway. In particular, we are trying to measure, accurately and efficiently, pollution (or reduction of pollution) from a nonpoint source into a waterway. |
August 12, 2011 | October 17, 2011 | $20,000 USD |
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Featured challenge |
Featured challenge The Cathode Ray Tube Challenge: New Uses for Recycled GlassStatus: AWARDED | Active solvers: 357 The Consumer Electronics Association® seeks to identify financially viable, environmentally-beneficial business models based on the repurposing of recycled CRT glass from used televisions and computer monitors. This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award for at least one submitted solution.
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November 11, 2011 | December 11, 2011 | $9,000 USD |
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Featured challenge |
Featured challenge A Scalable System to Track Electronic WasteStatus: AWARDED | Active solvers: 788 How can waste from electronics (e-waste) be tracked most efficiently from collection to final destination? Describe a scalable process or distributed device that would allow producers to follow the flow of e-waste from a customer site through the waste stream to final disposal. This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award for at least one submitted solution. |
April 3, 2012 | June 3, 2012 | $10,000 USD |
