Sony Europe launched the Open Planet Ideas website in conjunction with global conservation organization WWF. The new web destination is an online community that aims to harness the ingenuity and open innovation out there to help tackle environmental challenges. It encourages members of the public to imagine how today’s technologies could be re-purposed to address environmental issues like climate change, biodiversity and water conservation.

Projects may be collaborative, with online participants sharing inspiration and observations in photographs, videos and stories, building on each other’s ideas, then evaluating and voting on which concepts should be developed further. Those who collaborate on the winning ideas will have the opportunity to work with Sony engineers and WWF specialists.

People can draw their inspiration from the environmental information hosted on the platform itself, which will give a snapshot of current environmental challenges based on the latest facts and figures assembled by WWF. They are then invited to propose ideas and concepts for how current Sony technologies and products could be used to tackle an environmental problem. These can be used either individually or in radical new combinations.

«Sony is committed to help create a more sustainable environment for current and future generations. This project will harness the ingenuity and creativity that exists across the globe to show the positive role technology can play in bringing about positive environmental change,» said Emily Nicoll at Sony Europe.

Open Planet Ideas remains open until January 2011, when the most viable concepts—as selected by the community and a panel of top Sony and WWF experts—will be taken forward to examine their technical and environmental viability. The top collaborators and winning idea conceptors will then work together with a team of Sony designers and engineers to develop the idea further in the ‘realisation’ stage of the programme.

The Open Planet Ideas was put into action by Sony working together with IDEO, a global design consultancy.