Freshwater nutrient pollution alone costs the U.S. more than $2 billion each year. And that stat is an underestimate because it doesn’t account for brackish estuaries or the 95,000 miles of salty coasts. In an effort to help address this problem, EPA is part of the Challenging Nutrients Coalition, a group of federal agencies, universities,Read… Read more »
Companies small and large talk often about the need to be more innovative, but progress without reflection misses a crucial component of cultural innovation. That is, how often do these companies reward top people and their projects? The EPA Innovation Team has several goals: support innovative bench science in the laboratories, demonstrate the power ofRead… Read more »
I solved the energy puzzle for the U.S. with the help of two EPA Innovation Team members. We knocked it out in about 15 minutes. We were playing Generate! The board game was developed by several EPA researchers as a way for students to learn about the intricacies of this country’s energy complex, from energyRead… Read more »
Imagine if a scientist spent a year – every hour of every day – on a single task. The person would account for 8,760 hours of work and need one serious nap. Now imagine if the scientist put out a compelling request for help, and volunteers interested in the problem answered the call. I grew up in aRead… Read more »
The mere mention of a meeting can send people scrambling for the solace of a long email chain. But meetings don’t have to be catalysts for eye rolls or iPhone games. Creativity is key. Within the EPA Innovation Team, we occasionally have walking meetings. I’m a big fan. Coffee meetings? Not as much. Despite meetingsRead… Read more »
Prize competitions have led to incredible breakthroughs: naval navigation, architectural masterpieces like the Sydney Opera House, Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight, and the commercialization of space travel. One of the first examples began in 1418 in Florence, Italy, when town officials issued a contest to build a dome for Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral – commonlyRead… Read more »
I don’t drink coffee, but I take my coffee breaks seriously. Coffee fueled an important span of breakthroughs in human thought, according to Steven Johnson in a popular TED talk. Johnson posits that English coffeehouses provided the necessary space and stimulant to drive a sustained era of innovations that began in the mid 17th centuryRead… Read more »
Complex problems require new thinking, and sometimes that means stripping the question down to simple components. The New York Times detailed how Apple uses a series of Picasso’s lithographs to teach this concept. The artist moved from a full sketch to a minimal outline through the course of 11 prints. A spare collection of linesRead… Read more »
Innovation in government only sounds like an oxymoron to people who haven’t kept up with the work of government employees at all levels. The distinct challenge of nurturing innovative ideas in the public sector made my job description so interesting when I applied. Last month, I celebrated two years as a government contractor and communication lead —Read… Read more »
You’ll find more than seating at a certain park bench outside a Durham, N.C., library. The solar-powered piece of outdoor furniture, part of the Village Green Project, also measures temperature, wind speed, and air quality. Traditional air monitors used for federal regulatory purposes cost tens of thousands of dollars, require experts to run them, andRead… Read more »