An environmentally minded business group formed by pupils at an east Auckland school has been awarded a $7000 scholarship.
The ‘Sustain-a-Bite’ business is comprised of Ormiston Senior College pupils Ibadat Sandhu, Jordyn Joy Pillay, Tanya Sukonthnon, Chanel Lam, and Jing Siv, all of whom are 17 years old.
Ibadat Sandhu is the group’s chief executive, Jordyn is marketing director, Tanya and Chanel are the production directors and Jing is finance director.
They’re taking part in the Young Enterprise Scheme, which is designed to give young Kiwis the experience of starting and running their own business.
“Sustain-a-Bite is an environmentally-focused business,” the group’s members say.
“We aim to create an authentic and long-lasting impact on our environment and society by leading the change we want to see in the world.”
Their idea is to create sustainable meat trays from natural ingredients and with production processes that foster sustainability.
They want to reduce consumption of plastic trays that are used in New Zealand supermarkets and are a source of plastic pollution.
“These plastic meat trays end up at landfills, harming our planet even more.
“The innovation of our product was constructed through the process where our group had a good think about what we would want the future to look like, and what we could do to contribute to that greener future.
“We came up with a business idea to tackle the problem of plastic pollution.
“We’re creating prototypes and focusing on making the final versions of sustainable meat trays made from natural waste materials like strawberry mulch, offering a practical alternative to harmful plastic trays that can be commonly found in supermarkets all over the world.”
The pupils say their vision for Sustain-a-Bite is to empower a greener future.
Their mission is to build partnerships with businesses and companies that share their environmentally conscious beliefs.
By doing that they aim to not only reduce plastic consumption and waste, but also help improve consumer health, protect the planet and educate society on a better sustainable living.
They’re “extremely grateful” to Perpetual Guardian for believing in their company and innovation by funding its sustainable project with a $7,000 Stabley Ratley Waste Minimisation Scholarship.
“We intend to carry out our company’s mission and vision through the use of this scholarship.
“This money not only funds our company, but it’s the first step taken to fund world change.
“We’ll use this scholarship to fund the very best research equipment to trial, test, and research our product to ensure we’re able to make all necessary modifications needed to bring our product into the market.
“This will help us create a product that’s not only sustainable but meets consumer needs and is efficient and effective in its purpose.”
