Students win with best idea for total sustainability

On April 4-6, 15 teams of students from Jönköping University (JU) participated in the JIBS Entrepreneurship Challenge 2022. An annual competition where students get the challenge of solving a real business case in 24 hours. This year, T-Emballage was the case company. The challenge was to present an idea of how to develop a tool for T-Emballage to create totally sustainable solutions, going beyond the product itself. The students competed for a prize pool of SEK 130,000 donated by the Aktiestinsen Foundation.

"T-Emballage's ambition is to create "fully sustainable packaging solutions, including several sustainability work aspects. To some extent, accepted factors such as materials, constructions and different material qualities. Still, it also needs to include production, transport, recycling and the possibility of circularity. We want to offer the market a tool or tool to be able to challenge the current situation and help both the customer and ourselves in different directions".

This was the challenge that the competing teams were presented with for the 11th edition of the JIBS Entrepreneurship Challenge. They then had 24 hours to come up with a creative and inspiring solution and prepare a selling pitch to present to the jury during the grand final. On Wednesday afternoon, the six teams with the best solutions presented their solutions in an exciting final that was open to the public and could also be seen via live stream. After consideration, the jurors finally presented a winning team and two prizes for the best Runners up.

The winning idea is both relevant and easily accessible

During the last couple of years, T-Emballage has been focusing on creating totally sustainable and customized packaging solutions and optimized logistics for the Nordic industry. Solutions that help customers save time, reduce costs, increase quality and at the same time help reduce energy and climate impact. The work with totally sustainable solutions permeates the entire process, from development and design, through purchasing, manufacturing, packing, warehousing and distribution to reuse/recycling.

"One of our most important future challenges, linked to our main basic materials – paper and plastics packaging - is sustainability. However, we don't just think about sustainability based on the material itself. It is, of course, an important component. Still, we think about the entire supply chain, from the social aspects to the chain between raw materials and the product's end of life," says Björn Holm, CEO of T-Emballage.

The first prize of SEK 60,000 went to students Domagoj Vugrinec, Tim Alexander Görsch, Muhammad Moosa, all JIBS students and Dimitris Zarogiannis a student at JTH. Their solution enables the customer to, via a dashboard, see what environmental footprint in the form of CO2 emissions different types of packaging solutions entail.

In their motivation, the jury says that the team has understood the challenges T-Emballage faces and developed a relevant and straightforward solution that clearly helps customers in their choices. At the same time, their suggestions show how to add value to the product itself by providing easily accessible information.

"We believed in our idea from the beginning, and it's great to see that it took us all the way. We wanted to achieve a simple and relatively easily managed tool that does not require large investments. Our idea is based on analyzing data already available in different places and put them together to give the customer a clearer idea of the impact of different choices as support in their decision-making process. The platform also offers good opportunities to include other stakeholders," says Alexander Görsch.

It's great to see the creativity of the students.

Björn Holm, CEO and Anders Selvander, Marketing Manager at T-Emballage, had the opportunity to follow the teams during the challenge. They were impressed by their work.

"The students managed to come up with relevant ideas for T-Emballage in just 24 hours, so I have great respect for the knowledge they have shown. I'm impressed that they actually accomplished the mission in such a short time. We have gained new thoughts and approaches to building on," says Anders Selvander.

Björn Holm is also delighted with the event. Not least with the opportunity to get an insight into the students' work and see how they take on tasks with creativity and innovation.

"The JIBS Entrepreneurship Challenge is an essential part of our strategic intent to create collaborations with both JU and, perhaps above all, with students who can enrich and challenge our external analysis. Although the solutions created during the challenge may not be entirely applicable to our business, it is extremely valuable to get this kind of input and energy, says Björn.

Of course, the winning team members were thrilled after the announcement.

"It's such a relief now that it's over. It has been so much fun and a great experience, better than imagined. But we are exhausted now," says Dimitris Zarogiannis.

"Everything was so well organized. Now it's time to celebrate! Part of the prize money will probably be spent already tonight," says Dimitris Zarogiannis with a big smile.

Malin Bergman and Anna Björndahl were the project managers for the JIBS Entrepreneurship Challenge and the final hosts.

See the live stream here