It started with Conservation X Labs, whose mission is to:

…harness exponential technologies, open innovation, and entrepreneurship to dramatically improve the efficacy, cost, speed, scale and sustainability of conservation efforts to end human induced extinction.

What do they do?  CXL brings people together to test ideas and solve problems, but using concepts from the business world.  The cross-pollinization of ideas across market sectors or industries is not a new concept, but appears to be the first time that it has been used to solve environmental problems:

Here’s an example:

The 2016 Blue Economy Challenge, which looked at how to create more sustainable fisheries, is a good example. A joint project between CXL, the Australian Government, the World Wildlife Fund and Second Muse opened the challenge to innovations to make fishing more sustainable. They received entries from people in 220 countries, and they picked 10 winners that will receive support to develop their ideas and test them out in real life.

Blue Economy Challenge_10 winners from Lisa Mollard on Vimeo.

Also interesting:  So now CXL has launched a collaborative online platform, Digital Makerspace — like a Reddit for conservation nerds (or people who like to problem-solve real-life challenges). Anyone can join in the conversation, and people from various disciplines are encouraged to work together and learn from each other. Challenges will be posed from groups like the WWF and the U.S. Department of the Interior that need solutions to specific issues, such as how to develop sensor systems to detect wildlife or ways to fight animal trafficking.