This Earth Week, the RISE Makerspace is challenging students to harness their creativity and devise ideas to make BC a more sustainable college. The members of the winning team will receive $100 gift cards from the BC Bookstore–and there will be lots of other prizes as well.
The Sustainability Design & Idea Challenge is a Shark Tank-style pitch contest with a social mission—to make BC a more sustainable place. And the RISE Makerspace and the Student Environmental Sustainability Fund (SESF) want to turn your ideas into realities. The SESF encourages students to dream big: proposals as large as $100,000 will be considered for actual funding.
Challenge Accepted?
Get Ready
There are two great events during Earth Week to help you get ready for the Challenge. These events are optional, but we strongly encourage all Challenge participants to attend.
Design Thinking & Rapid Idea Generation
Tues. April 17, 12:30 to 1:20pm in C130
Design thinking is a powerful set of processes for creative problem solving. Come learn more from Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence James Riggall
Coaching Sessions to Help with Pitches & Proposals
Thurs. April 19, 1:30 to 3:30 in B237
Sign up to meet with a coach to focus your idea and strengthen your pitch
The Main Event
Sustainability Idea & Design Challenge
Mon. April 23, 2:30 to 4:00 in B237
Each team will have 5 minutes to present and 5 minutes to answer questions from the judges.
Terms of the Challenge: Gory Details & Fine Print
The Sustainability Design & Idea Challenge is a Shark Tank-style pitch contest. You may present ideas related to any aspect of sustainability: environmental, social, or economic. You may propose an entirely new program, facility, technology, practice, or system—or you can propose improvements to existing programs, facilities, or systems. Any and all designs and ideas that make BC more sustainable are welcome. The Student Environmental Sustainability Fund will consider actually funding and implementing proposals with price tags as large as $100,000, so we encourage you to dream big!
Looking for inspiration? The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education has a Campus Sustainability Hub with hundreds of awesome projects and case studies from schools all across North America. In addition, you can find a list of previously funded sustainability projects at BC on the SESF website.
We recommend that teams be no larger than 5 students. The members of the winning team will receive $100 gift cards for the BC Bookstore. (If the winning team has more than 5 people, they will split $500 in gift cards.) The members of the second-place team will receive $20 bookstore gift cards. We will be awarding other prizes as well—and showcasing awesome presentations on the RISE website. Teams that are not able to attend the event in person may present via videoconferencing.
If you intend to participate in the Challenge, please register online as soon as you can. If we have more interest than anticipated, we will attempt to add a second session. However, we may have to close registration once the event is full.
The judging rubric for the Challenge is available here. Teams are encouraged—but not required—to submit a one-page summary of their proposal and a written budget using the forms that the SESF actually uses for sustainability proposals.
Last Updated January 5, 2021
