Being a student is so much more than just sitting in lectures and libraries. It is a time to grow, to challenge yourself, to make friends for life and to have lots of fun. The Sustainable Business Battle (SBB) is a multi-week challenge in which interdisciplinary teams of students compete to find innovative and practical solutions to the sustainability challenges of Dutch organizations. […]
“THINK GLOBALLY,
ACT LOCALLY.”
PREVIOUS EDITIONS
THE BATTLE
TESTIMONIALS
Hear it from our student ambassador!
“Hi, I am a Master’s student in Industrial Ecology and I was a part of the winning team of SBB in 2021.
Our group came up with a way to address the largest sources of waste for a cafeteria in a busy office building – plate waste and unsold food. We created an alternative revenue stream for the cafeteria, where plate waste, converted into compost by industrial composters, could be used in the office building or sold to customers. We also diverted waste towards a social cause: unsold food would be donated to people in need and photos of our beneficiaries would be featured on an “impact wall”.
I loved my time in SBB, despite the arrangements during the restrictions. The case study allowed my groupmates and I to brainstorm over sustainable solutions to address real-world problems faced by companies. Moreover, there were many coaches to support us in developing successful business ideas and elevator pitches – it was useful to have the opportunity to bounce our ideas and presentations off of the coaches, whom candidly shared tips and advice on how to distil our ideas and sharpen the delivery of our pitches.
The capstone of my SBB experience was the in-person pitching session to a panel of judges. The experience gave me a tremendous boost in confidence of my persuasion skills, as it taught me that I could convincingly sell my idea, despite its short gestation period. The pitch also gave me the chance to hone my public speaking skills, which was a rare opportunity in a period of online classes and meetings.
I strongly encourage everyone to take part in SBB if you are interested in building experience in sustainable entrepreneurship. With the network of students and coaches that you will meet, who knows if you will meet the team for your start-up or a business mentor?”
- Tan Chia Wu, student ambassador (SBB 2022) & former participant (SBB 2021)
