LUBS Sustainability Challenge 2024 - the winners!
Each year at LUBS, Professional Development Tutor Andrea Denny teams up with one of our Student Sustainability Architects to manage and host the LUBS Student Sustainability Challenge.
This event sees the School collaborate with a well-known business partner, to present real-world problems which require a sustainable solution to our students. Teams must work to undertake independent research and develop their own innovative solutions to the company's brief.
This year we were incredibly excited to partner with Oxfam, one of the world's largest and most successful charitable businesses!
The LUBS Student Business Challenge excites me as it aligns with my passion for environmental sustainability and project management, and offers a chance for students to collaborate with business professionals to make a tangible impact in the field of sustainability.
The 2024 competition
This year, Oxfam set a brief which focused developing a strategic plan to enhance stock sourcing and build new business relationships within a 100-mile radius of their Northern Logistics Hub in Batley ensuring sustainability, ethical practice and financial viability.
Oxfam’s Northern Logistics Centre is a beacon of sustainable business practice and plays a crucial role in the charity’s efforts to champion domestic and global humanitarian causes. The centre sorts and redistributes thousands of donated items, giving them a second life through various sales channels. By transforming potential waste into valuable resources, Oxfam ensures that every item contributes to their mission of alleviating poverty and reducing environmental impact.
Oxfam's Sustainability Challenge highlighted the critical need to innovate and integrate sustainable practices into every aspect of our operations. It's about transforming potential waste into valuable resources, aligning with market trends, and driving a collective effort towards a more sustainable future.
Once applications opened there was a fantastic student response, with 20 teams comprised of four students all vying to enter. After a lot of careful selection work by Andrea and Aditya, four teams were selected as the finalists to present their research and findings to the judges' panel on Tuesday 14 May at the Clothworkers North Building on campus.
All the student members of the finalist teams, enjoying a rainy photoshoot whilst the judges deliberated!
The finalists
Each team approached the brief with a unique perspective, combining their academic knowledge with practical insights to propose truly innovative solutions. Teams were given 10 minutes to present their research and recommendations, followed by a Q&A session with the judges. The standard of work from all participants was incredibly high!
Here is a rundown of each team and the content of their presentation:
Team 1: Eco tracers
Team members: Ayush Kumar, Priyanka Ukande, Milan Garg, Anisha Vemula
Team 1 focused on leveraging technology to create a live database that could manage stock more effectively, integrating predictive analysis to optimise collection routes and reduce carbon footprints. Their unique upcycling ideas, such as creating wigs from donated hair and adopting honeycomb packaging, exemplified how businesses could turn potential waste into valuable resources.
Team 1: Eco Tracers
Team 2: Green Warriors
Team members: Chen Zhanfeng, Jie Jian, Linghui Liu, Ziyi Xu
With a detailed analysis of the fashion industry and consumer behavior, Team 2 identified new possible corporate partners for Oxfam within the specified range and with values aligned to their own. Their proposal included a comprehensive matrix to evaluate potential partners based on sustainability criteria, ensuring that future partnerships would be both ethical and effective.
Team 2: Green warriors
Team 3: Mission Green
Team members: Prakaram chauhan, Jia Wei, Liang Yin Shen
Team 3 proposed using relatively low-cost AI technologies to enhance Oxfam’s stock sorting processes. They introduced a sourcing matrix and waste management strategy that aimed to increase the lifespan of donated products. Their ideas for collaborating with fashion schools to repurpose donations highlighted a creative approach to engaging the next generation in sustainability.
Team 3: Mission Green
Team 4: Renew Rationales
Team members: Shresth Sharma, Shubhi Bhardwaj, Vaishnavi Ganyarapwar, Yash Panchal
Team 4 presented a strategy that included enhancing Oxfam’s visibility through strategic partnerships and public engagement. They made persuasive suggestions for how to diversify Oxfam’s product offerings, and recommended introducing pop-up bookcases in cafes and universities, aimed to boost community involvement and brand awareness.
Team 4: Renew Rationales
The Judges' decide!
The judging panel comprised Oxfam's Volunteer Recruitment Coordinator Neve Carnes, LUBS Sustainability Champion Anna Wellard, as well as the event organisers Andrea and Aditya.
The finalist teams were all competing for the prize of a bespoke hamper of Oxfam items alongside an exciting opportunity to take part in an Insight Day at Oxfam, led by senior managers and the Oxfam Head of Sustainability, as well as the chance to get "hands on" in their textiles recycling facility.
Oxfam's Neve Carnes, conducting a Q&A with a team during their presentation
A coveted Oxfam gift hamper
The panel had an incredibly hard time deciding between the teams, such was the quality of innovative and practical suggestions made by all - so much so that Neve Carnes was so sure that Oxfam would look into actioning proposals from every team, that she decided to extend the invitation to attend the insight day not only to the overall winners but to all teams!
The experience of working for Oxfam has been a great journey. I learned all the ways in which research can be done for sustainable initiatives and the companies that are involved. Contributing to Oxfam's mission while enhancing my analytical and strategic skills was incredibly rewarding.
That still left the fabulous looking Oxfam hampers and the warm glow of victory to be awarded to only one team, however. After much deliberation the teams were reassembled before the judges for the winning team to be declared.
And the winners of the 2024 LUBS Sustainability Challenge were...
It is worth repeating how thoroughly impressed by the quality and creativity of the presentations our panel was, but Renew Rationales stood out for their holistic approach which not only addressed the immediate challenges with innovative and eminently practical ideas, but also laid out a long-term vision for Oxfam’s sustainability efforts.
Congratulations to Team 4 and all participants!
Renew Rationale being presented with their victory hampers! L to R: Neve Carnes (Oxfam)
Vaishnavi Ganyarapwar, Shubhi Bhardwaj, Shresth Sharma, Yash Panchal.
After the event, the teams and judging panel retired to the Maurice Keyworth foyer to enjoy a vegan buffet and a friendly networking session.
Laughter, good food and great company at the after-competition gathering
That's it for 2024...
But the competition will return for 2025, and we excited to reveal that we will once again be partnering with Oxfam with a new brief and new opportunities for LUBS students to gain valuable practical experience working with a large global business on real-world issues affecting their company.
Boost your employability and sustainability credentials - look out for the launch of the next competition in the new year and submit your entry!
Participating in the sustainability challenge was a transformative experience. This journey has inspired me to pursue sustainability passionately and to bring innovative, impactful solutions to any challenge I face in the future.
And finally
To finish off, here are a few pictures taken on the Insight Day, held for finalist teams at the Oxfam Batley Logistics Hub.
