IBM, Sony, Nokia and Pitney Bowes are working together to create the Eco-Patent Commons, which will be administered by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development – a Geneva-based organization promoting sustainability in business. The idea will kick off by putting 31 patents into the public domain that span from a manufacturing process that reduces volatile compounds to a natural way to purify waste water.

This is a great idea because protecting the environment should not be a secret. If Nokia submitted a patent that recycles cell phones into new clocks, calculators and remote controls, other companies should be able to harness that technology as well because we're all recipients of the greater good.