Coca-Cola Enterprises Challenges MBA Students in the One Planet Sustainability Challenge

Last month we joined forces with the University of Exeter in sponsoring their ‘One Planet Sustainability Challenge’. It is the second year that Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) has sponsored the challenge, which tests MBA students from across the globe to find solutions to sustainability issues that we face in today’s society. The two-day challenge was hosted by the University of Exeter’s ‘One Planet MBA’ program, developed in partnership with WWF International and which goes beyond the usual modular learning, with additional extra-curricular workshops and events.

The first day of the challenge was filled with speakers from WWF, Interface and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, including our very own Associate Director for Recycling, Emmanuelle Badouix. On the second day, students presented their work on the challenges set by CCE and Interface, co-sponsors of this year’s edition.

The winner of the CCE challenge was a team from the University of Aston (Birmingham, England) formed of members Nikhil Ravi, Takaaki Kobayashi and Jing Zhang. They had to respond to the question: ‘What can businesses do to demonstrate the importance of recycling and ultimately drive up recycling rates?’ They proposed to increase recycling rates via a digital application with several functions, such as a game, education, information and an incentive to recycle. The panel of judges included Emmanuelle Badouix, Associate Director for Recycling at CCE, as well as Stephen Jollands, Professor in Accounting at the University of Exeter and Sally Jenarenaud, Senior Research Fellow in Sustainable Development at the University of Exeter.

The worthy winners will now be taken on a prize trip to France, where they will experience Infineo – our first ever education centre on the circular economy, in addition to a materials processing factory, in order to increase their knowledge about the recycling process from start to finish.