“THE WORLD’S FIRST PROGRAM TO OFFSET ROAD-KILL”/ {Web/App}

Each year, countless vitally important (sentient) insects and innumerable birds and mammals are lost to car strikes. Such “collateral damage” is enough for the empathic driver to swear off driving entirely. Roughly following the logic of carbon offsets, Roadkill Offsets is an app that allows individual motorists and travel-intensive brands (such as delivery companies) to enter in the miles they travel each year and, in return, be shown the average number of animals (insects included) projected to be impacted. The algorithm then presents them with an option to send in a charitable donation to a number of species-conservation organizations to help compensate. One could donate to Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, the Aldo Leopold Foundation, WWF and so on.

Note: We at IFA feel “Roadkill Offsets” is an idea perfectly suited for a company such as FedEx. As of 2021, FedEx was deemed by Forbes as the largest transportation and logistics company in the world. As such, the number of insects and other animals that meet unfortunate ends in impacts with their planes, trains and trucks of all sizes is staggering. We’re all part of this, but a move such as bringing the Roadkill Offsets app to the world could garner FedEx a lot of earned media attention and actually work to fund various entities tirelessly attempting to conserve biodiversity.

back to open source ideas return home