Climate Change

Climate Change winner: Eco-logicgals

Eco-logicgals tackled climate change, specifically focusing on sustainability within the building process. Their idea was a 'Green Infrastructure Investment Scheme' creating a bridge between a consultancy and certification company, which would work locally to ensure a building was as energy efficient and low carbon as possible throughout its entire lifecycle.

Circonomy looked at tackling Climate Change through creating a caring and creative community within businesses. They highlighted a key issue that sustainable targets within an organisation need to be dissipated through all levels of the business. For example, A business may be environmentally friendly, yet still have many employees who, personally, do not fully engage with their company’s ethos. Circonomy came up with a platform, which awards points and rewards for engagement with eco-friendly activities.

Workplace Diversity

Overall Winner: Tech Tacos

Tech Tacos focused on Social Mobility and Inclusivity. They came up with a way to help new staff integrate better and help existing staff feel connected. Their web application ‘Water Cooler’ included a virtual workspace in which staff could interact. ‘Water Cooler’ allows employees to create and customise an avatar, along with their desk space and interact with other staff on the platform. Tech Tacos presented a wonderful prototype demonstrating how users would interact with the program.

Workplace Diversity Winner: United but Diverse

United but Diverse worked on promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace. They created AccessND to help more neurodiverse people access employment and to create more opportunities in better environments. Their idea looked at reshaping recruitment processes, such as making job specifications more accessible and looking at the ways in which policies are designed and implemented. Their idea would reduce the risk of potential unconscious bias of employers. Employers would also have the option to take part in specialist careers fairs, opening up a conversation with neurodiverse talent, and the option to gain a neurodiverse employers award.

Open Innovation

Open Innovation winner: Caveat Emptor

Caveat Emptor were working on fashion industry standards and accreditation for sustainability. Caveat Emptor’s aim was to allow textile producers from developing countries to achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships with their buyers. Their idea tackled this problem by creating a set of standards for sustainable fashion business practices that members would need to meet, to qualify as a member of the organisation.

DreamTeam tackled the topic of sustainable fashion with their idea to connect customers directly to the manufacturers of the textile industry. This would mitigate the need for intermediate retailers and reduce waste by offering bespoke products on-demand. They suggested creating an online portal for consumers to shop through. The portal would list the sustainability of the manufacturers and a break down of the manufacturing processes involved in creating the garments.

Ecoshion proposed a website that would help consumers extend the life cycle of their clothes. The website would include tutorials so consumers could learn sewing techniques to make their clothes trendier. The tutorials would cover a broad range of abilities and be hosted by popular influencers. The website would also have a shopping portal where you could donate and buy upcycled clothes.

Madayib worked on a solution to tackle obesity and advocating for good mental health amongst the population. Madayib suggested a number of solutions including government initiatives to make fitness more accessible, incentivising fast food chains to adopt healthier menus and tighten regulation on product marketing. Their idea to invest more in park gyms were people can find easily accessible fitness opportunities was particularly popular amongst the student participants and sponsors.