I-Corps: Customer discovery to explore Wildflower Turf's rapid meadow technology for the US market

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使野花草皮形式的可持续草坪替代品能够更有效地商业化。草坪在美国大陆无处不在，覆盖了大约4000万英亩的土地，是其他作物的三倍多，包括玉米，大豆和小麦。虽然美国土地所有者喜欢草坪，但它们价格昂贵，需要比任何其他作物更多的水，农药和肥料投入。这些输入物使水道退化，造成生物沙漠。作为回应，人们越来越多地呼吁可持续的草坪替代品，重点是原生野花草地。尽管对草地景观的需求，草只有草坪继续主导美国景观，部分原因是美国（US）没有可靠，有效的工具来建立草地。将野花草皮/草坪产品引入美国市场将有助于实现预期的社会成果;例如满足州和联邦水质政策和倡议规定的目标，增加生物多样性，并有助于确保授粉昆虫群落的健康，通过野生和栽培作物的授粉提供粮食安全。这个I-Corps项目将提高团队对广泛采用野花草地的潜在障碍的认识。虽然野花草地的生态效益是相当好的理解，很少有研究从土地管理者，景观专业人士和社区的角度来调查草地的实施。了解用可持续的开花草地取代高投入草坪的市场障碍是找到可行解决方案的第一步。正在研究的技术是一种由本地草和野花组成的生物多样性草地草皮。从概念上讲，它类似于传统的草皮，因为草皮是可移动的，易于安装。美国团队与一家英国公司合作，该公司开发了新技术所基于的生产系统，自2003年以来一直是英国野花草坪的领先供应商。新的知识产权将包括调整英国种植系统，以1）与美国植物物种和气候合作，2）开发在生产系统中生长良好的本地种子混合物，并为城市环境提供所需的美学。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to enable more effective commercialization of a sustainable lawn alternative in the form of wildflower sod. Grass lawns are ubiquitous in the continental US covering an estimated 40 million acres of land, an area more than three times that of any other crop, including corn, soy and wheat. While grass lawns are beloved by American landowners, they are expensive, requiring more water, pesticide and fertilizer inputs than any other crop. These inputs degrade waterways and create biological deserts. In response, there is a growing call for sustainable lawn alternatives with an emphasis on native wildflower meadows. Despite the demand for meadowscapes, grass only turf continues to dominate the US landscape, in part, because the United States (US) does not have dependable, effective tools for meadow establishment. Introduction of wildflower sod/turf products to the US market will contribute to desired societal outcomes; such as meeting objectives mandated by state and federal water quality policies and initiatives, increasing biodiversity and helping ensure the health of pollinating insect communities, which provide food security through the pollination of wild and cultivated crops. This I-Corps project will advance the teams knowledge of potential barriers to widespread adoption of wildflower meadows. While the ecological benefits of wildflower meadows are fairly well understood, few studies have investigated meadow implementation from the perspective of land managers, landscape professionals and communities. Understanding the market obstacles of replacing high input lawns with sustainable flowering meadows is the first step in finding viable solutions. The technology being pursued is a biodiverse meadow sod comprised of native grasses and wildflowers. Conceptually, it is similar to traditional sod in that the turf is moveable and easy to install. The US team has partnered with a UK company which developed the production system on which the new technology is based, and has been the leading supplier of wildflower turf in Great Britain since 2003. The new IP will include adapting the UK growing system to 1) work with US plant species and climates, and 2) development of native seed mixes that grow well in the production system and that will provide the desired aesthetics for an urban settingThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.