Case Study: Commission for Environmental Cooperation engages North American youth and identifies three scalable green innovations with IdeaScale

How the Youth of North America Helped Meet Sustainability Objectives

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) works across Canada, Mexico and the United States to foster conservation and environmental collaboration. To better engage youth, the CEC launched the Youth Innovation Challenge inviting 18–26 year-olds to submit science-, tech- and business-based ideas addressing shared North American priorities (air emissions, food waste, invasive species, marine litter and ocean acidification). The campaign used press outreach, a ministerial promotional video, social ads, targeted emails and partnerships with universities and Mexican federal channels to recruit participants.

Using the IdeaScale crowdsourcing platform, the Challenge ran an Idea Phase (1,147 participants, 166 ideas) and a Proposal Phase that produced three country winners: converting plastic to sustainable concrete (Mexico), generating energy from grocery store waste (Canada), and turning food waste into high‑protein baked goods and powders (U.S.). Winners presented at the CEC’s 2017 Council Session (streamed in English, Spanish and French), and the initiative met its goals of building a youth innovation community and supporting three feasible, scalable green-growth projects — prompting the CEC to consider future crowdsourcing efforts.

Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Megan Ainscow

Acting Manager, Communications