Have you heard of a product called “Shrilk”? This material is a biodegradable plastic alternative that is stronger than aluminum and is made from layering a polymer of shrimp shells and silkworm silk. This product will have applications as both surgical sutures and trash bags. What about changing the world by logging into your computer and playing a game? The famous Jane McGonigal-designed game, World Without Oil, attempted to do just that. As the game progressed over 32 days, 1,800 participants responded to the imaginary oil shock by making changes in the real world — growing apple trees, converting their cars so they could be fueled by cooking oil and collectively writing a manual about ways to respond to the crisis. Over 45,000 people followed the imaginary crisis.

These are two bold, innovative ideas that eschew the idea that we must skimp, sacrifice and go without in order to be green. These types of ideas are the shift in thinking and innovation that we desperately need in order to truly achieve a sustainable business environment and make changes to the world. The January/February issue of Harvard Business Review provided the list of 2012’s most Audacious Ideas. Citing the precarious position of the global economy and $2 trillion in cash reserves, HBR asserts that business are paralyzed, “risk-averse, strategically incremental and notably lacking in fresh ideas.” Further, HBR says, “We think this stinks. The world needs invention and daring now more than ever. Now is the time for audacity, not austerity.” Frankly, I couldn’t agree more.

Thinking about AV professionals, I see a group of innovators at heart. We are daydreamers, tinkerers and pioneers in engineering who have manifested communications systems that made interplanetary travel possible! Oh — and let’s not forget it’s our industry’s science that generated wonderments such as the wireless TV remote (which I can remember was oh-so-space-agey as a kid!). So maybe it’s time to tap into the soul of our engineers and makers – to turn them loose on concepts such as biomimicry. (Biomimicry studies nature’s models and then emulates these forms, process, systems, and strategies to solve human problems – sustainably. One of the most well-known examples is the Mirasol Displays by Qualcomm, which mimic the way light reflects from the scales on a butterfly’s wings.) Is there more we could learn from the hydroacoustics or innovations in Cleantech?

What we need now is to look beyond our industry for inspiration and big ideas. It’s time to let our inner geeks be bold and audacious. We must make connections between the technology we know with futuristic concepts such as artificial intelligence and Brain-Computer Interface. Finally, we must ensure the basic tenets of sustainability are inherent in these engineering and design feats. Then we will achieve a truly audacious vision for our industry and beyond.

Midori Connolly is CEO and Chief AVGirl of Pulse Staging & Events, Inc. in Escondido, California. She wrote the first-ever set of Sustainable Staging guidelines after discovering none existed. She is the vice-chair of the AV committee for the U.S. EPA’s Green Meetings Standards and regularly speaks and writes about corporate social responsibility and green practices in live events and meeting planning. Reach her at midori@pulsestaging.com