Environmental Enterprise Competition: ISEP Seeks Student Entries

ISEP has launched a competition which challenges students to design a new generation of ISEP membership identification.

ISEP is working with the national union of students (NUS) to challenge those studying at universities to design a new generation of ISEP membership identification. Through NUS’s Ethical and Environmental Department ISEP is aiming to find an innovative alternative to the traditional membership card used by the Institute until 2010. The results of a survey that year revealed that most ISEP members had concerns over the use and appearance of the existing cards and due to the associated costs and environmental impact of 15000 cards being issued a year the decision was made to cease production of physical cards until a more suitable useful and sustainable method of ID could be introduced (an electronic version is already available upon request). With a variety of options available each with its own environmental benefits and costs the search for the ideal format has proved to be challenging.

Through the student environmental enterprise competition 2013 ISEP is now looking to those studying environment design or business to identify what members really need from their membership ID and what form it should take. By combining environmental knowledge with design creativity and teamwork the Institute is asking students to transform the way ISEP members think about proof of membership. The competition judges – James Thorne head of membership service delivery at ISEP Jo Kemp Green Impact programme manager (NUS) and Toby Hodgkinson partner at Opus Print –

will be looking for a business case that demonstrates excellence and creativity in the following areas:

  • Usability and appeal – how will it work in practice?
  • Feasibility on a large scale – at least 15000 units.
  • Sustainability – evidence that potential impacts have been considered and minimised at each stage of the production use and reuse/disposal phases.
  • Cost–benefit– does the new ID present any revenue or reuse opportunities at the end of its life instead of disposal?

The individual or team with the most outstanding entry will win £1000 plus one year’s ISEP Student membership

presented at the NUS awards ceremony in June. The winner(s) will then be invited to one of ISEP’s “Leading the way” events to present their solution to the UK’s environment leaders. Following the competition ISEP will assess launching the winning idea as the new format for membership ID. Members will be updated on the submissions and the winning entry through future issues ofthe environmentalist and via iema.net.

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