Sony Corp. and WWF have launched a scheme to generate ideas for green innovation to solve environmental issues.

 

Their new project, Open Planet Ideas, invites people to come up with ways of repurposing existing technologies to tackle problems such as climate change, biodiversity and water conservation, Sony said.

 

Visitors to the Open Planet Ideas website can propose ideas and concepts for how Sony products can be used to tackle a specific environmental problem. These can be used either individually or in radical new combinations.

 

Sony says the “mash-up” approach of re-using current technologies was used successfully in a project last year, where a group of young people from California used Sony security cameras, wireless networks and photo-stitching software to create an online community of citizen firewatchers.

 

Those who collaborate on the winning ideas will have the opportunity to work with Sony engineers and WWF specialists, Sony said. The challenge will remain open until January 2011.