Green design innovation can sprout up in some unexpected places. Take Formula One racing and the Automotive X Prize - both are operating outside the auto industry to encourage carmakers to push beyond incremental improvement in automotive design.

Formula One - arguably a poster child of gas-guzzling - has providing a platform for the auto industry to incorporate of green technologies and showcase its environmental innovations. In setting the new rules, the sport is acknowledging that car companies need opportunities not just to dazzle us with nifty green gadgets but eventually to profit on them, too (and if Formula One can burnish its own image at the same time, well, everybody's happy).

The X Prize organization is launching the Automotive X Prize in a quest to address “the most severe global crisis of our time” oil dependence and climate change. In an effort to break this deadlock, X Prize is inviting design teams to create "viable, clean, and super-efficient cars that people will want to buy."

What these two organizations have in common is a very high profile in the media and among consumers. True innovation in green tech takes big-time capital investment. If the major automakers need this kind of publicity to make the extra effort, more (preferably electric) power to 'em.

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Will Sarni is CEO of sustainability consulting firm DOMANI. He is also SLM's expert-in-residence on climate strategy and the host of Climate Management Weekly.