Contributed by Juliette Moody, Communications Director at NAEGELI Deposition and Trial
GoCirkular
The goal of these projects is to apply various scholarly articles read through the semester to strategize with the entrepreneurs to ensure our recommendations are sound and scholarly based.
The project my group and I are working on is called GoCirkular which is a cosmetic company made of recycled coffee grounds! GoCirkular “manufactures high-quality skincare products that are upcycled, gender-neutral, and 100% natural. We carefully craft our products in our lab at Malmö by using only ingredients such as organic cold-pressed oils, natural waxes, and essential oils. We avoid unnecessary ingredients such as perfumes, synthetic preservatives, or other chemicals that could negatively impact human health or ecosystems.
Go Cirkulär’s business model and organization’s structure is inspired by the circular economy and the three R’s approach: reuse, reduce, recycle. ” Right now, my specific role in a group is to see how our entrepreneur can expand into the United States in the most circular economic way possible. We are looking at local manufacturing, international distribution, and combinations of the two. Our group also considers what companies our entrepreneur can trust to represent her brand, and Amazon is of big debate in our group; as we debate if its practices support the mission of GoCirkular.
Overall, the project has been interesting because we are not only looking at an expansion into the United States but also carrying the culture of Sweden and our entrepreneur’s vision into the United States as well. Swedish citizens are very local conscious so we don’t want to ruin the local feel of the brand with a US expansion. This project has shown me how working internationally adds a unique element to business and requires additional considerations that would not necessarily be as prominent in a national setting.
Contributed by Leslie Valentine, Senior Product Director Nike
Simply No Waste
We have been given an exciting international opportunity to work with a Swedish company, Simply No Waste. They are a nutritional drink manufacturer that uses and upcycles avocado seeds to make healthy drinks. In this class we are assisting this organization to find ways to grow but only in the confines of not doing more harm to the environment. Their mission is to develop and produce the best products from current market byproducts as their contribution to the fight against food waste.
There are three groups each with a different focus: finding sustainable sources for additional byproducts to keep up with their growing demand, identifying sustainable logistics and transportation methods, and assessing opportunities to utilize their own avocado seed waste post extraction.
Students have been given the opportunity to work directly with the entrepreneurs throughout this process and at the end of the semester each group will present their findings which will be shared with the company as part of our final project.