INNOVATION

For TogetherGreen’s purposes, we are defining innovation as a new or better idea, practice, product, process, or strategy that adds value to conservation and more effectively achieves the conservation goals of this program. Innovation can include creative methods for planning and implementing programs; the application of new technologies or ideas for improving current technologies; creative ways of engaging new audiences; and new ways to evaluate success

What does innovation look like?

Audubon's Gulf Coast Initiative developed a new method for restoring Louisiana's coastal marsh – disappearing at the rate of 10,000 acres a year. They helped design a small, portable dredge that can economically pump sediment from small waterways and bay bottoms into deteriorating marsh. This technology will empower even small landowners to counter wetland loss on their properties.

Los Angeles Audubon Society received an Innovation Grant to expand their Restoration and Greenhouse Internship programs. These programs provide students at an underserved school with paid employment that trains them in skills in science, education, and habitat restoration. Students build their resumes, earn income, and help restore vital habitat. It’s an innovative approach to addressing environmental, social, and economic issues.

Molly Tsongas decided someone ought to give Millennials a chance to help endangered species. She created Tatzoo, a movement to protect endangered species, with a simple concept: engage 100 people in 100 days in endangered species protection. Finalists used social media – an interactive website, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter – and got people excited and having fun. Winners received real tattoos of endangered species, designed exclusively for Tatzoo, as a symbol of their leadership.

In partnership with the Western Sustainability Exchange, Montana Audubon is working to make sure that beef is raised in a way that promotes biodiversity instead of reducing it. They have developed a set of techniques that ranchers can use to manage their land for wildlife as well as cattle and are helping ranchers using those techniques receive a higher price for their beef. Their use of market-based incentives is an innovative way to bridge the divide that so often exists between environmentalists and ranchers.

Mary Walker established the only community recycling center in Fairbanks, Alaska. What’s so innovative about a recycling center? Mary partnered with the Fairbanks Rescue Mission to employ homeless people at the center. Now it provides a desirable conservation service while offering Fairbanks’s homeless population employment and a place to make a difference.