This post is part of the Innovation Management Practitioners Blog series.

The "green" message is clear: use less energy and leverage renewable energy sources. From the use less perspective, the concept seems simple, however population growth and income increase due to globalization are causing a swell in energy consumption, mainly in the form of coal, gas, and oil. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published their Annual Energy Outlook 2011 looking at the state of energy by 2035 and projected a growing reliance on liquid fuels of 44% by 2030 – a trend that is not sustainable. The way we consume energy needs to change as the world is facing a major crossroad in consumption and supply. But the biggest opportunity for innovation may not just be in new sources and delivery optimization but in the way companies seek to source and collaborate on building those breakthrough innovations. This in fact, maybe the biggest opportunity that will shift the way we consume and source energy in the future.

The Context

With respect to renewable resources, alternative energy sources, such as wind, biomass and solar power continue to increase in funding and capacity, but in 2011 only made up 16% of the global energy consumption. The energy industry is indeed different from other industries in that constant innovation is highly necessary to keep up with overall growth and build a sustainable future. But how exactly are big energy companies innovating? Looking further, a few unique challenges are faced by big energy, and unique ways in which companies are refactoring their approach to innovation to meet growing demands.

Cost drives the energy market, as corporations and governments are constantly on the search for the cheapest form of energy, which may not necessarily be the most sustainable. Although there may be an ample supply of coal in the United States, the environmental cost of burning such fuels is quite high as toxins and greenhouse gases are emitted, while extraction is becoming increasingly expensive and difficult. Oil carries many of the same problems as coal with the added risk of environmental disasters, such as the infamous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

With regards to the US, the country's high demand for energy has brought about numerous challenges, such as dependence on foreign fuel in nations. When looking energy challenges in America, CAN, a non-profit research organization, stated, "without stable and predictable energy prices, business leaders, farmers, and especially large industries cannot effectively plan, hire, and remain competitive in a global market." Dependence on energy affects all parts of the country, from government policy to small businesses.

The recent high-profile bankruptcy of Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the US Department of Energy, highlights some of the challenges with energy innovation. Innovating in the energy market is risky and may require millions of dollars towards a project or company that could easily fail.

New Approaches To Innovation

China Light and Power (CLP), a leading power company in the Asia-Pacific region, focuses their innovation initiatives on the foundation of the company, employees and corporate culture. Engages employees spread across continents, an innovation program called innov8, powered by Brightidea seeks to tap the intelligence of employees to find efficiencies and sustainability in day to day operations, but on a large strategic scale as well. Targeted campaigns encourage employee involvement with support from top management and creative branding and marketing for each campaign. "innov8 gives us the platform to connect, collaborate and innovate across geographic boundaries," Joe Locandro, CIO of CLP has stated. One campaign, Earth Heroes, looked to its employees for ideas on eliminating waste that could be contributed to Hong Kong's Energy Efficiency & Conservation program. It utilized Brightidea's iPhone app and spurred interest through a variety of marketing mediums including posters featuring the company's top management as action heroes. CLP donated HK$5 to green initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region for every idea submitted. Another campaign, Sustainability Jukebox, expands the range of people involved by bringing employees from Hong Kong, Australia, and India to collaborate within a dual-language interface on various sustainability strategies for the organization. CLP has been recognized as a leader for its various efforts, and to learn more about their innovation program, a full case study is available here.

GE la unched the largest open innovation challenges in history, Ecomagination, also powered by Brightidea, which sought ideas on new clean and energy efficient technologies with $200 million set aside for funding. The challenge was a huge success for both GE and the winning technologies, matches small startups with resources and expertise, innovative ideas got a platform to be heard and developed further. Over 50M in funds have already gone into effect to develop breakthrough energy solutions.

Some GE Ideas that have been funded are in further development:

• Xergy's new green compressors can be used in household cooling devices like refrigerators and air conditioning systems to reduce energy consumption by 65%.
• Suntulit's air conditioning control system uses data such as room temperature and occupants of a room at any given time to learn user needs and offer ways to reduce utility bills by as much as 30%.

The United States Government has also increased their commitment to cleaner energy by presenting challenges in search of new technologies and alternative forms of energy. The Energy and Agriculture Departments recently announced $12.2 million in awards for research projects that work towards making biofuel more cost-effective, as biofuel could reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil and create new jobs. Another challenge, The L Prize, looked for an energy-saving lighting alternative to the common light bulb with Phillips winning the first $10 million prize with its energy efficient light bulb that could help save the US almost $4 billion a year on energy bills. The US Energy Department has also launched the Energy Innovation Portal, an online portal showcasing renewable energy technologies from the Department of Energy Labs, which are available for licensing and development at a fraction of the normal cost through their energy innovator challenge.

Conclusion

It is essential that we not only continue to invest in these technologies to reduce energy consumption and leverage renewable resources, but also that we do it in an efficient and cost effective manner. Creating pathways for smaller innovative start-ups to connect and secure funding, a la GE's Ecomagination, as well as home-grown initiatives to spur innovation at all levels of the organization like China Light & Power, have the power to transform the way we innovate our energy solutions. With the right strategic visibility, executive support, and proper tools to facilitate targeted goals, organizations can and must continue to lower the risk associated with embracing an open approach to sourcing and developing sustainable energy solutions.

 Protecting, sourcing, and executing on innovation is essential to every business. Despite numerous technological advancements that have fundamentally changed the way patents are granted and companies secure capital, past legislation regarding these two key areas have failed to address new realities. Recently, two new bills have passed that aim to alter that perception and address a broader challenge, job creation and innovation in the US. The first-to-file law and a recently passed bill that changes regulations on funding may  have significant impacts on innovation.

FIRST TO FILE LAW

 In an effort to minimize the complexities and costs associated with protecting intellectual property, on September 16, 2011 President Obama signed into law the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, overhauling the patent system that had not been changed for the past 60 years. According to the Committee on the Judiciary, "Our outdated patent system has been a barrier to innovation, unnecessarily delaying American inventors from marketing new products and creating jobs for American workers." President Obama saw this as an opportunity a speed up the patent process to new inventions can develop into businesses, provide employment, and therefore stimulate the economy.

Notable is how this law modifies the 'first-to-invent' system, which protects individual inventors who were the first to invent, but not necessarily the first to file a patent. Now, filing is the critical determining factor on who ultimately gets rights to a patent. For large and small organizations, the task of managing the pipeline of potential patenable ideas becomes much more important. Identifying and evaluating those innovations with a potential patentable value quickly, and filing as soon as possible, can make the difference between being granted the patent or not. In addition, rather than having to pay upwards to $400,000 in legal fees and lengthy proceedings proving who is first to invent, unrealistic to most independent inventors, the new provisional application costs a reasonable $110 and provides rights to an invention based on the filing date for up to year to protect against disputes.

CROWDFUNDING BILL

Crowdfunding, taking small amounts of money from many using the internet, is definitely on the rise. The concept is especially critical for small and start-up businesses who may find traditional bank-issued capital difficult to secure. The first crowdfunding legislation recently passed in the House, the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, which allows entrepreneurs to crowdsource investment capital of up to $2 million per year without having to file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This act shows legislation's recognition of the changing investment environment, as funding websites, such as Kickstarter, gain popularity and demonstrate success.

Despite their significance, these two pieces of legislation mean different things to different people. One is already law and affecting the way companies manage patents and giving inventors more opportunity to compete with large organizations. The other is pending further review and if passed, could launch a new framework for how investment is sourced and delivered to US businesses.

What do you think the risks, opportunities, and benefits are? Will these measures prove to help the job-creation and spur innovation in the US? Please feel free to share your opinions in the comments below.

Video on Crowdfunding Law

This post is part of our One-on-One at BOF video series featuring interviews from innovation leaders at Kraft's Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders (BOF) event.

Peter Neumann, Innovation Manager at Bosch, a leading power tool and accessories corporation based in Germany, talks with Brightidea about the open innovation. When asked how he defines success, Peter stated, "Well one way is we have an open innovation from one of our Dremel Link group members and we're going to release this product in about another month." 

Bosch is clearly demonstrating the power of open innovation through implemented product ideas and increased customer collaboration where unmet needs and wants intuitively inform the product roadmap.

Find below Peter's full interview.

Join our BOF Community of Innovation Leaders today and get insights, access, and instant connections to practitioners around the world.

This is part of our One-on-One at BOF video series, featuring interviews from innovation leaders who presented at Kraft's Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders (BOF) event.

EllisDon, one of the largest building contractors in Canada, was present with their Web Application Manager, Christine Zakrajsek, to discuss the company's innovation strategies. After her presentation we had a chance to catch up with Christine for a quick interview and when asked about how the company defines success, she responded, "We define success at EllisDon about engagement because we believe that engaged employees are happy employees and happy employees are successful business." Christine continued by saying, "once you get the sharing and the engagement, the innovation almost happens naturally, and once you have that natural organic innovation the ROI bubbles up."

Take a look at her exclusive interview below.

Join our BOF Community of Innovation Leaders today and get insights, access, and instant connections to practitioners around the world.

This is part of our One-on-One at BOF video series, featuring interviews from innovation leaders who presented at Kraft's Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders (BOF) event.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), a leading multinational information technology company, brought their IP and Innovation Strategist, Silvi Steigerwald, to BOF where she talked to Brightidea about the company's innovation portal The Garage. We had a chance chat with Silvi directly about how the company utilizes Brightidea and she said, "We also use it to recognize our inventors and idea submitters too. We try to highlight news, hot ideas, so more than just gathering ideas and collaboration we use it as a communication vehicle."

Watch Silvi's full interview below.

Join our BOF Community of Innovation Leaders today and get insights, access, and instant connections to practitioners around the world.

It's December, the holiday season is upon us and gift giving is in full swing. But, did you know giving a child the chance at a better life is possible this year by doing something other than opening up your wallet? World Vision, a global humanitarian organization, presents an alternative type of gift – one composed of your time, thoughtfulness, expertise and ideas. The organization has recently launched Sponsor a Solution, a Brightidea-powered challenge looking to the public to donate their software development skills to help solve vital technology challenges encountered while providing aid. Technology is critical to World Vision and its field workers around the world as they continually use it to properly communicate and better help disadvantaged children, families and communities around the world.

World Vision handles numerous challenges when facilitating aid and have chosen to focus on the two most crucial areas identified by field workers scattered across the globe: field data and collection and fixed asset and inventory tracking. Since launching, the platform has already received a series of ideas, such as a proposed offline capability to collect children's data and the creation of a mobile app. Sponsor a Solution is currently open for submissions.

Join World Vision and Brightidea in spreading the word and embracing the holiday spirit of generosity by donating invaluable time and ideas to those in need. Post a solution today!

Apart from the main presentations Kraft's Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders (BOF) event in Chicago was buzzing with people, discussions and ideas. To give you look at the exciting and an innovative environment surrounding the event, we will be blogging our latest video series, One-on-One at BOF, featuring interviews from attendees.

Heidi Hattendorf, Director of Innovation Development at Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) came BOF event to discuss the company's recent use of Brightidea software and when asked in her interview about the challenges, she responded, "One of the things that we're looking at is, how do we provide the business context around some of the challenges, because you can ask people to innovate and create ideas, but we want them to have relevance, something that's going to be brought to market, something that's important to the company that we're going to invest in."

View the entire exclusive interview below.

Join our BOF Community of Innovation Leaders today and get insights, access, and instant connections to practitioners around the world.

As Europe's largest economy and leader in patent registrations, Germany has been a hub of cutting-edge research and technologies. German businesses traditionally team up with academic institutions to drive technological progress. In recent years, more enterprises have opened their innovation processes to harness the collective wisdom of their workforces, customers, and partners.

Handelsblatt Open Innovation conference is Europe's flagship event on Open Innovation. This year's event in Berlin attracted participants from companies like Bayer, Cisco, Ford, Google, Nestlé and Procter&Gamble who discussed practical knowledge and best practices.

Among the keynote speakers was Matt Asman, Head of Innovation at Cisco Europe. Matt gave a fascinating insight into Cisco's innovation program that has driven impressive results.

As a core discipline, innovation at Cisco is embedded on all levels, from corporate vision to execution. In his presentation, Matt described how people, processes, and technology were taken into account when developing the comprehensive program. Talking about securing internal support and participation, he said: "For innovation managers it is dangerous to lean back. They need to be pro-active and constantly reach out to the company's stakeholders to stimulate collaboration."

Brightidea's software to power the I-Zone, an internal hub for employees to share and discuss ideas. "The I-Zone has been fundamental to the program's success," explained Matt. "It enables us to tap into our employees' knowledge and surface ideas that would otherwise remain unknown."

The results are impressive. The current innovation portfolio that has emerged from the hundreds of ideas submitted to the I-Zone is expected to generate over 360 million U.S. dollars in revenue over the next three years.

Other presentations at the conference included Procter & Gamble's Connect + Develop initiative and Nestle's Sharing is Winning Open Innovation program.

Frank Mattes, CEO of innovation-3, German Open Innovation thought-leader, and Premier Brightidea Partner, also spoke at the conference. In his presentation, he outlined the five key Open Innovation trends in Germany.

The Handelsblatt Open Innovation conference provided participants with hands-on insights from peers and confirmed the value of collaboration in driving – and managing – innovation processes.

According to the National Cancer Institute an estimated "230,480 women will be diagnosed with and 39,520 women will die of cancer of the breast in 2011." With statistics like that, it's not surprising that there exists a strong culture that surrounds breast cancer with an awareness month, a pink ribbon symbol, and numerous organizations to support all those affected by the disease. Real challenges like fighting cancer need a streamlined approach to tapping as many minds as possible with the expertise to collectively collaborate on solutions. Open Innovation challenges, powered by Brightidea software, are effective at sourcing quality, breakthrough ideas and providing pathways to real solutions that can help solve some of the most critical societal and medical issues of our time.

With the stakes high, General Electric (NYSE: GE) joined the movement with the launch of their latest open innovation challenge, Healthymagination: Assembling the Tools to Fight Cancer, looking to the public's innovators for ideas on the early detection and treatment of breast cancer with $100 million pledged by the company to fund top ideas.

Phase one of the challenge just concluded on November 20^th with 518 ideas and 183 comments submitted by over 5,000 users through the Brightidea-powered challenge portal. Through an interactive, social collaborative environment users could submit, comment, share, collaborate, and vote on ideas. In addition, social functionality allowed for hash tag-specific tweets to link to an idea submitted as comments.

The volume and quality of ideas submitted thus far has surpassed GE's expectations and the company plans on launching various challenges looking to, according to the company "empower doctors and patients and enable more personalized treatment for women worldwide." This is just the first part of the Healthymagination Challenge, as winners of the first phase and the announcement of the second phase will come in early 2012. Stay tuned….

Guest Post by Vicki Catalina:

Open Innovation & Idea Manager,
Owens-Illinois(O-I)

Owens-Illinois (NYSE: OI), was in the midst of our internal innovation program, "FURNACE", rollout when I attend the latest Birds of a Feather (BOF) meeting in Chicago hosted by Kraft. At BOF, my picture of what and how we could use the site to ignite and expand collaborative innovation was quickly enhanced.

Take-aways from the BOF event:

1. Making friends with your 'likes'. Innovators and believers in innovation tend to see things differently. The diversity of companies (HP, Cisco, Avnet, Farm Credit, Emerson, Ellis Don, Kraft, GE); smaller, new, larger…from hospital systems, insurance, electronic, foods…a true testament that the majority of business types know that to be successful over the long term a strong innovative culture is a top priority. Great diverse group of people with common visions for innovation; as Paul said, "You are what you share."

2. Success and Failure is part of the game. Inspiring people to CONTRIBUTE, especially in grey areas or farther-out-there ideas, has to be continually encouraged and awarded. Interestingly, I just read "Better Ideas Through Failure" in WSJ, where the Grey Group in New York developed the "Heroic Failure" award to encourage risk-taking, to award ideas that are "edgier or riskier, or new and totally unproven." Recognition and promotion are crucial for insistent and compelling involvement, though most importantly "know your company's style".

   Tools of the trade. Tweet ups, site teasers, events, blasts, video, quotes, Iphones for immediate interaction, all become forms of communication to keep collaboration continuing. Companies shared unique applications they used to keep things new and exciting, like photo challenges, design competitions, brainstorming sessions, consumer studies like 'A Day in the Life of" or "Show me how you…"

3. Inspiration – Sarah Muller Caldicott, granddaughter of Edison, President of PowerPatterns, and author, Innovate Like Edison. Her stories and passion for innovation was moving and inspiring. One of Edison's mantras: Focus on business results.

I left the session excited and proud of the Innovation Program at O-I. By attending BOF I realized FURNACE can be developed to the likes of an Ecomagination, highly productive and participative. Brightidea provided a comfortable, open environment that top line companies openly shared their failures, successes, innovative challenges and organizations. Kraft, as to be expected, did a fantastic job at hosting the event.

About the Author: Vicki Catalina is an Open Innovation & Idea Manager at Owens-Illinois and is based in Toledo, OH and likes a challenge (anything from a business solution to running a marathon) and family-time.