Archive for Enviornmental – Page 4

Greta Thunberg: Friday Fame

Posted by Paige Snyder 
· Monday, September 30th, 2019 
· 2 Comments

Greta Thunberg is a 16-year-old from Sweden who, unlike the vast majority of millennial entrepreneurs, is an innovator within the social and political environments. She is a climate activist: informing people about the harmful effects of climate change, pushing governments and corporations to change their emissions policies, and changing the way the entire world views the climate crisis.

Every Friday since 2018, Thunberg has led “Fridays for Future”, a movement that encourages students to skip school and demand governmental action for climate change. On September 20th, 2019, she led the largest singular climate strike in history, with an estimated 4 million people from over 161 countries joining her in protest. Thunberg is driven by her passion for the environment, and vision to change governmental climate regulations. She has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the mass movement that she created, and ultimately, her contribution to global unity.

Thunberg has appeared on TED Talks, opened for the UN Climate Action Summit, and spoken to many influential political figures, such as Pope Francis, the UK Parliament, and former President Barack Obama. In addition to the impact that she is making on the political spectrum, Thunberg is also open about her battle with Asperger’s Syndrome. She is inspiring teenagers around the world to not only persevere through adversity, but to passionately thrive.

At the age of 16, how has Greta Thunberg gotten more attention and made more of an impact than any other climate activist? What makes her stand out from more experienced politicians? Her innovation and connectivity through activism are what has made Greta such a social phenomenon. Instead of focusing on structured political regimes, she resonates with the younger generation through movements and protests. Greta Thunberg has somehow found a way to unite young climate activists and political figures, in order to move forward toward social change. While Greta might not fit the stereotype of an entrepreneur, she is innovating and changing the way the world sees climate activism, one Friday at a time.

2 Comments
Categories : Enviornmental, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Recycling, Social Entrepreneur, Social Impact, Sustainable, Uncategorized

Mikaila Ulmer: Saving the bees one bottle at a time

Posted by Emma Lizewski 
· Sunday, September 29th, 2019 
· 1 Comment

Mikaila Ulmer brainstormed an idea for the Acton Children’s Business Fair and Austin’s Lemonade Day at the age of four. Her family encouraged her to enter the competition, but it wasn’t until a couple strange events occurred before an idea sprung into her mind. While brainstorming an idea, Mikaila was stung by a bee twice, and then her grandma sent a 1940’s cookbook with a special flax-seed lemonade recipe hidden amongst the abundant amount of recipes. It was at this moment that Mikaila decided to sell her grandmother’s lemonade recipe and donate a portion of the proceeds towards saving the honeybees. Mikaila sweetens her lemonade with local honey, which helps promote her efforts to protect honeybees. Mikaila has worked hard to understand the importance of honeybees, and now she works hard to make others aware of how the environment depends on the honeybees’ pollination process. When Mikaila isn’t selling her lemonade, she is leading workshops on how to save the honeybees. She is only fourteen, but she is determined to protect something she loves.

I am impressed by how Mikaila created something important to her at such a young age. Mikaila stumbled across the idea, but research and further thought helped shape the two occurrences that presented themselves into a successful innovative product. On her website, it shares the Mikaila is still developing and adapting her product, which is an example of the material learned in class. Even though one has a good idea, it may need adjusted in order to maintain success. Also, Mikaila used the support around her throughout this process. We learned that bouncing ideas off of other people can generate great success, and that is exactly what Mikaila did with her family. It was the help of those around her that helped create a successful business idea. Mikaila is a great example of a young entrepreneur, and it was cool to see how she created a product from two random events. All it takes is some creative thinking to combine everyday occurrences.

1 Comment
Categories : Enviornmental, Food, Youngest Entrepreneurs

Zandra Beauty

Posted by Emma O'Toole 
· Saturday, September 28th, 2019 
· 2 Comments

Zandra Cunningham is an 18 year old young entrepreneur who is obsessed with lip balm. At 9 years old, her dad decided to stop funding her guilty pleasure. Since then, she has developed her liking for lip balm into a $500,000 chemical-free skin care company approximately nine years later. Her 50 plant-based products consist of a nourishing hand and body lotion, exfoliating sugar scrub, and an acclaimed lip and body balm.

It all started with help from her mom with a mail-order kit and researching for perfect skin care recipes using ingredients that had at their home. They made plant-based lip balms and lotions for themselves, and then decided to sell them at their church. After experiencing much success through purchases her church, she went to farmers markets and craft shows, and that led to a big operation that outgrew their kitchen. Her family moved her business into incubator space built specifically for budding entrepreneurs in Buffalo, New York.

Zandra Beauty’s first big break came after selling products at Etsy’s Open Call Contest. She was put in front of  major company buyers from Whole Foods, Macy’s, and HGTV. She ended up winning a contract with a craft and stationary chain, Paper Source, and put out 8,000 units in 110 stores during the holiday season of 2016. Her products caught the eye of Good Morning America, and after appearing on their show segment “Deals and Steals”, her online sales took off and big companies like Costco, Wegmans, Whole Foods, Zulily, Rite Aid, and Walgreens placed their orders. In 2017, Zandra won $15,000 for her business plan from The Pitch, a spinoff from New York State’s 43 North startup business competition.

She was approached by Target to put together a limited time release gift box for Black History Month. Target requested the inventory stock to reach to 707 stores across the country, and it was way more than double what Zandra Beauty has ever produced.

Zandra wants to branch out her cosmetics business into the cosmetics and hair care industry, which will be made with all natural ingredients sourced in the United States. She is the youngest person ever to graduate from the University at Buffalo’s School of Management’s Allstate Minority and Women Emerging Entrepreneurs program at age 13. She is now working toward a business degree.

Zandra faced a problem with her dad not supplying her money to buy lip balm, and for her to be able to wear lip balm, she had to make her own. From this situation, she was able to create a thriving business that specializes in chemical-free products to help people with their skin.

Zandra Beauty’s products can be found today at Target and Costco. 10% of her sales are donated to support girls’ education.

 

 

Check out her products: https://zandrabeauty.com/

 

2 Comments
Categories : Beauty, Creating, Enviornmental, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Redemptive Entrepreneurship, Women Entrepreneurs

4Ocean – Andrew Cooper & Alex Schulze

Posted by Laura Mosley 
· Sunday, September 15th, 2019 
· 1 Comment

(L to R) Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper owners of 4Ocean, a company that actively removes trash from the ocean.  Photo by Tim Stepien.

I’m sure we’ve all seen ads from time to time about 4Ocean – the company that sells bracelets and puts money towards cleaning up our oceans.  In the last few months, I’ve seen an increase in these ads before Youtube videos and I’ve wondered who it is that’s behind this endeavor.

As it turns out, there are two people: Andrew Cooper and Alex Schulze.  Recently, these two made it to the 2019 edition of the Forbes 30 Under 30 for their efforts.  So how did it all start?

In 2015, Cooper and Schulze went on a surfing trip to Bali and were appalled by the amount of plastic they found in the ocean.  As we are learning in class, they found trouble and sought to fix it.  By 2017, they were selling the bracelets we all know of today as a way to fund the cleanup effort.  According to the organization, the bracelets are made of recycled materials and each represents a pound of trash that will be removed.  4Ocean has since created more products to help fund the effort, but the bracelets remain the most widely known.  According to an article in PR Newswire, “By creating jobs, utilizing the latest technology and raising awareness about the impact of trash in the ocean, the company is building the first economy for ocean plastic and creating a cleaner, more sustainable future for the ocean.”

Cooper and Schulze are excellent examples of entrepreneurs who used their passion to change how the world sees a problem.  They are both surfers, fishermen, and divers.  They spend much of their time around the water and were perfectly suited to see and frame the problem of plastic in the ocean in a way that many people around the world have not known.  They did not just say that there was a problem, but they showed pictures and gave people a simple way that they could help – all with the easy purchase of a recycled bracelet.  Every time a customer would look at the bracelet, they would be reminded of the ongoing problem and the fight to clean the world’s oceans.  By presenting the problem in a way that gave people something easy to do and inspiring them with the need, they made the daunting task of cleaning up the oceans seem very possible and even exciting.

Sources:

https://4ocean.com/about/

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/4ocean-co-founders-andrew-cooper-and-alex-schulze-named-forbes-30-under-30-social-entrepreneurs-300750165.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/4oceans-cleaned-up-1-million-pounds-of-ocean-garbage.html

1 Comment
Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Business, Clean water, Enviornmental, Great Ideas, Millennial Entrepreneurs, Ocean, Outdoors, Recycling

Alex Schulze, Andrew Cooper, and Their Journey For Cleaner Waters

Posted by Colson parker 
· Sunday, September 15th, 2019 
· 2 Comments

 

Perhaps one of the newest modern trends in businesses of our day and age is the reduction of plastic in an effort to keep our oceans clean and the creatures that inhabit it thriving. Many companies have been changing there products to more biodegradable, eco-friendly materials and resources to keep the environment clean and help the epidemic of ocean trash that our seas are currently facing. While these businesses are helping keep our oceans clean in the long run, it doesn’t help the trash that is already there. According to National Geographic there is 5.25 trillion pieces of trash floating around the oceans which they estimated comes in at about 14 billion pounds. In addition, those stats don’t include the beaches and shores around the world that are covered in garbage and waste.

Que the entrance of Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper. These two men were on a surfing trip in Bali, Indonesia when they decided they have had enough of the trash. Both men were born in Florida and were licensed captains as teenagers. They had spent there whole lives on the water and it was always something they deeply cared about. These two men founded the company 4Ocean with a mission of cleaning the waste that is polluting and corrupting the seas across the world. They knew it would be a massive undertaking but that didn’t slow them down in the slightest. The two men from Florida started there first operations center in Boca Raton, Florida and started simply with volunteers who shared their same love for the ocean. Today they have grown too six bases of operations that span the globe: three reside in their home of Florida, one in Texas, one in Indonesia, and one in Haiti. They have also amassed a fleet of ships that are geared up to remove the mass amounts of trash. 4Ocean is still largely volunteer based but they have spread their mission far and wide and have many hands and minds working to fix the problem.

How is this all funded? A great question that Alex and Andrew have already thought of. All of the trash that 4Ocean extracts from the sea is turned into 4Ocean Bracelets. The bracelets are then sold by 4Ocean on their website for $20. The promise of the business is that for every dollar you spend at 4Ocean is a pound of trash that is being removed. So while $20 for a bracelet seems expensive, your paying for a snazzy wrist decoration as well as a cleaner ocean. The boys turned their passion into a both a business and a movement and because of it our oceans are becoming bluer and bluer by the day.

2 Comments
Categories : Enviornmental
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