With greenhouse gas emission pattern on the rise and climate change on the top of most minds of scientists, BovEco seeks to reduce methane emissions of Canada’s most important industry, agriculture. To do this, an iterative design mindset was integrated into our team workflow. Farmers and feed suppliers are the backbone of the agricultural industry. With this in mind, our team was dedicated to utilizing stakeholder’s drive and expertise to direct the development of BovEco. From a human practices perspective, this inspired the connection of team members to industry stakeholders, including farmers, nutritionists, emissions experts, and feed experts to understand the current outlook of the industry on methane emissions, current solution realms, and the implementation of BovEco. These conversations inspired new research avenues, and changes to project direction.
Furthermore, feedback from stakeholders throughout the design process provided the team with new consideration and implementation ideas to ensure BovEco is well suited for the problem at hand. Feedback and further consideration were also gathered at conferences and initiatives the team attended, including agricultural conferences, collaborations and meet-ups with other iGEM teams, and a tour of a local dairy farm.
To learn more about our integrated human practices approach, explore the sections below!