Reducing Scope 3 Emissions with More Sustainable Glass Packaging

Nature is a blind spot for major companies. While businesses across all sectors and sizes rely on natural capital (e.g., ecosystem services, natural resources) to operate, if these benefits aren't accounted for, it could result in unmitigated risks to operations. Although adopting a laissez-faire approach towards nature has worked out to date, it's becoming increasingly clear that human activities such as land and sea use change, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution, and the introduction of invasive non-native species are causing significant changes to ecosystems. These changes indicate we can no longer assume these ecosystems will last in their current state in perpetuity, creating significant risks for businesses and the wider economy. If businesses fail to rein this in, they’ll have to brace themselves for massive disruptions to their operations, supply chains and the economy as a whole. 

The SI-MBA team will produce a 20–25-page white paper, including an appendix, that assists businesses of all sizes and sectors in making the business case for taking action on nature-related risks. The intention is to help guide organizations in both public and private sectors in evaluating opportunities to future-proof their businesses by prioritizing investment in nature today. Readers of the white paper will learn how to develop and communicate the business case to act on their nature-related impacts and dependencies, such as water scarcity, water quality, deforestation, biodiversity loss, pollination, etc.

Circular Economy Project: Aircraft Batteries

BETA Technologies is a South Burlington, VT-based aerospace company developing a fully electric conventional takeoff and landing aircraft, vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and a national charging network. BETA’s vision is for a low-impact aircraft and transportation system that enables customers to move people and cargo around the world safely, cost-effectively, and with minimal environmental impact. The company’s first aircraft, ALIA, is expected to be FAA certified in 2025.

BETA’s electric aircraft operates on purpose-built battery packs designed to optimize energy efficiency and aircraft performance. Meeting the range requirements promised to clients is crucial, which limits the usable life of the batteries in the aircraft. Depending on the use profile, packs are anticipated to remain effective in the aircraft for two to three years before replacement is necessary. When replaced, the batteries will retain about 80-90% of their capacity, maintaining significant value.

This project aims to identify and develop business use cases for the battery’s second life, with a goal of minimizing battery life cycle impact. The team will evaluate solutions for this environmental and business challenge using three key metrics - how feasible the solutions are; the positive and negative environmental impacts of the solutions; and the economic viability of the solutions. The team will start with baseline comparisons of potential opportunities in three categories - in-house, third-party, and recycling solutions. From there they will have the opportunity to dig deeper into solutions that are most promising and further develop the business case.

Jake Burton Carpenter founded Burton Snowboards in his Vermont barn in 1977 and dedicated his life to snowboarding. Burton is largely credited with mainstreaming the hobby of snowboarding into the sport it is today. The company offers a wide range of products including snowboards, boots, bindings, outerwear, apparel, and bags. As one of the world’s largest and most popular snowboard and winter apparel manufacturers, Burton is also recognized as an industry leader in sustainability. 

Burton is set to reveal their 2030 sustainability goals this year and is currently finalizing reporting on their ambitious 2025 goals. This practicum will focus on softgoods circularity (outerwear and apparel). The team will be responsible for both external and internal desk research on topics including waste and pollution in the textile industry, innovations within circularity, as well as Burton’s company growth objectives and strategy plans. Deliverables include mapping service providers and partners, performing a competitive landscape analysis, and providing the Burton softgoods team with specific recommendations regarding circularity, both in the short and long term.

Darn Tough Vermont is an American manufacturer of premium, all-weather outdoor and lifestyle socks and a member of the Cabot Hosiery Mills family of brands. Since the brand started in 2004, all socks have been backed by the industry’s original unconditional lifetime guarantee, allowing customers to return socks for another pair if they are not “the most comfortable, durable and best fitting socks.”

The practicum project is an opportunity to examine Darn Tough's domestic and international lifetime warranty programs. Presently, the domestic program requires socks to be returned to a participating retailer or ideally to Darn Tough’s headquarters. The socks that come back to Vermont allow an opportunity for data collection on wear patterns and damage before the socks are then downcycled at a textile recycling facility. Internationally, customers provide photo evidence of wear and then the recycling or trashing of the sock is up to the individual.

It is crucial that any proposed modifications to the warranty program balance the goals of a strong and well-aligned customer experience, overall financial objectives, and environmental sustainability while aiming to build a uniform solution for global implementation. The project will research the environmental and financial impacts of physically returning socks to Darn Tough’s Vermont headquarters, as well as alternative warranty solutions. Additionally, the project will evaluate Darn Tough’s existing and potential future relationships with recycling facilities and explore various recycling options, both domestically and internationally.

Optimizing Collegiate Sport Memberships - A Strategic Framework for Success 

The Green Sports Alliance is the largest and most influential driver of environmental and social responsibility across the sports industry. Since 2010, the Green Sports Alliance has accelerated positive change for leagues, organizations, teams, venues, and communities in the United States and across the globe. The Green Sports Alliance offers sport membership services to both professional and collegiate organizations as well as corporate membership to solutions providers in the industry. They also provide guidance and expertise to their member organizations in order to achieve a more sustainable and just sport and entertainment industry.

The Green Sports Alliance has primarily focused its membership efforts towards professional sports since its inception. Despite similarities between professional and collegiate sports, these two entities should be approached and served differently. This practicum project will gather measurable and actionable feedback from current and potential collegiate members to inform how the Green Sports Alliance can best position themselves to serve the collegiate market and scale their membership reach. 

Advancing Sustainable Solutions Inward & Outward

OnLogic is a Vermont-based manufacturer of industrial computer hardware and technology solutions for deployment in challenging environments. They have operations in Vermont, North Carolina, Asia, and Europe. Their European location will soon be subject to new EU sustainability reporting regulations (CSRD & ESRS), requiring OnLogic to create comprehensive reports on Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) aspects. OnLogic also seeks to provide customers with more information and transparency on the environmental impact of their products.

Our team will jumpstart OnLogic’s ESG framework to support accurate reporting within the ESRS regulations, complete the work necessary, and outline the remaining work required to ensure OnLogic complies with EU sustainability standards. Additionally, we aim to propose environmentally conscious practices that OnLogic can implement to further their commitment to being a climate-conscious company. These recommendations will include the creation of sustainability goals and measures for operational efficiency.

Based in Vermont, Plink! is a distinguished electrolyte beverage company with the belief that there is a need for an alternative to canned and bottled drinks. Plink! aims to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic waste in an effort to combat climate change. By effortlessly adding one tablet to 12 oz of water, Plink! leads individuals on a journey where they can savor a flavorful, effervescent beverage enriched with sodium and potassium electrolytes.

The overarching objective of the project is to propel the growth of Plink! The team is tasked with addressing pivotal questions, including how to scale the business effectively, broaden the demographic and customer base, and, crucially, navigate and accomplish these objectives within the constraints of a significantly limited budget. In addition, we will conduct a thorough analysis of the existing category landscape, identifying white spaces of positioning and underserved segments compared to existing players. This deep dive into the market will help us understand how differentiation plays a crucial role in Plink!'s success. Our recommendations will not only focus on scaling and demographic expansion but also on strategically positioning Plink! in the market to leverage identified white spaces, allowing the team to effectively direct their marketing and product development efforts.

In 2021, Trane Technologies launched Operation Possible, an employee-powered open innovation platform where Trane staff help define and address the most pressing and persistent environmental and social problems across the world. For their first challenge (addressing food waste and hunger), Trane Technology’s` employees designed a retrofittable, passively operated cooling canopy for the street vendors’ cart. These cooling canopies were designed and developed by Trane Technologies engineers, successfully pilot tested across various parts of India. Results have shown that it not only reduces food waste at the last mile of food chain, but also ensures doubling the income for street vendors. Trane hopes to build on the success of their pilot programs, which resulted in less produce weight loss and increased revenue for street vendors using the Trane cooling carts, to help mitigate food waste and hunger on a global scale. 

The practicum objective is to build a scalable business model for the cooling canopy cart in India as well as other potential markets in developing economies. This will be supported by market segmentation, stakeholder analysis, cost-benefit analysis and address potential partnerships and financing methods.  

In addition to working on the cooling cart, SI-MBA students will provide recommendations for ways future social innovation projects could be developed and implemented through Operation Possible.  

TS Designs is a B2B ethical apparel company based in North Carolina that has operated for over 45 years. They innovate in sourcing and manufacturing, using natural fibers and dyes while employing eco-friendly screen-printing technology. A triple-bottom-line approach persists throughout their design and processes. They source cotton locally and deliver value to farmers by negotiating a fair price instead of going through a commodity vendor. TS Designs emphasizes transparency in their supply chain and work to ensure quality and local impact economically, socially, and environmentally.

TS Designs hopes to help facilitate the creation of a business model that supports the collection and distribution of black walnut parts to all necessary players, enabling a thriving local market ecosystem. As part of this project, the team will aid in drafting the roadmap for an actionable system for collecting, processing, distributing, and utilizing black walnuts in North Carolina. The foreseeable intermediary activities involved in delivery will include mapping the value chain associated with black walnuts, meeting constituents throughout the chain to understand their potential stake, and defining what is required of the entity(ies) to facilitate value chain relationships in the service of stakeholders.

Building the economic case for Unilever’s investment in open-source market development for impact sustainability data

Currently, there is an increasing focus on the need for sustainability data tied to corporations’ upstream supply chain operations in response to an evolving regulatory landscape and increased consumer demand for sustainability in the consumer goods industry.

This practicum will work on building a basic economic framework that quantifies the economic value added by reducing the burden of impact sustainability data collection on upstream supply chain actors through strategic investment in open source market development. The aim is to evaluate Unilever’s ability to leverage the talent and expertise of the open-source developer community to minimize the onboarding costs and ongoing sustainability data collection costs for upstream value chain actors across the Unilever supply chain network. The team will strive to stand up an economic model to quantify the net value created, captured, and transferred to support a strategic investment in this space by examining a single commodity throughout the value chain using our proposed hypothesis.

The framework will be presented as a business case, for internal purposes, with the aim of supporting or discrediting a recommendation for Unilever’s investment in open-source solutioning for democratized access to impact data, ultimately to accelerate progress on Unilever meeting its Climate goals tied to the Unilever Compass Strategy.
 

Implementing Steward Ownership

Founded in 1986, the Vermont Community Foundation has been helping Vermonters help Vermonters for thirty-eight years. Their mission "Better Together", aims to bring together philanthropic individuals and resources to make a tangible difference. They envision a state where every Vermonter is at their best -- caring for each other, enjoying equal opportunities, understanding and respecting one another, living in harmony with the environment, engaging in civic life, and thriving in health and inspiration. A nimble and curious organization, they have deployed $60 million annually through grants and investments to bring this vision to life.

The primary contact for this practicum at the host organization is Lawrence Miller, Senior Advisor for Mission Investments at VCF. With a background as the founder of Otter Creek Brewing and experience as a consultant for organizational change, Lawrence has the expertise to support businesses in Vermont's small communities, aiding them in sustaining economic viability. Dan Smith, the President of VCF and a seventh-generation Vermonter, will also be involved in this project. 

VCF is committed to bridging the opportunity gap for Vermonters seeking to establish secure futures. They view the steward ownership model as a potent mechanism to maintain vital Vermont-based businesses within their communities. Our objective is to formulate a framework enabling VCF to receive active businesses as contributions and assume steward ownership. This model offers an alternative to traditional shareholder value dominance, facilitating a focus on long-term impact goals.

Our project deliverables include: (1) a board policy for VCF's engagement in steward ownership, (2) a procedure for high-level management with guidelines for the steward ownership program, and (3) a concise document and presentation designed for legal and accounting professionals, elucidating the steward ownership concept for their clientele.

Working on a project and creating a viable plan for a steward ownership program at Vermont Community Foundation (VCF) we anticipate having a set of inherent challenges. The overarching challenge our team has identified for working on this project is creating a set of standardized procedures that VCF will be able to use regardless of company type, size, and desired outcomes. This can then be broken up into a set of smaller issues within: (1) the variety of goals by those looking to transfer their company into steward ownership, and those VCF-associated individuals taking up that mantle (2) setting this up in a way that will ensure longevity of the stewardship program. In a larger scope, once a program is designed, finding a way to communicate the benefits and structure of steward ownership is set to pose a challenge as it contradicts the traditional profit driven outcomes. 

Vermont Creamery, founded in 1984 and operating as an independent subsidiary of Land ‘O Lakes since 2017, specializes in making artisanal cheeses and cultured dairy products. As a certified B-Corp, they are equally committed to creating great-tasting products and leaving a positive impact on the world. Throughout their history, they have been recognized across their suite of products as a leader in the global cheese community. Vermont Creamery focuses on sustainable and ethical practices, supporting local family farms and sustainable agriculture in New England. Their blend of traditional and innovative techniques results in high-quality, flavorful cheeses. This commitment to quality and community has established them as a respected name in the artisanal cheese industry.

Vermont Creamery is considering the production of a grass-fed butter made in the Green Mountains. To determine the viability of this venture, the SI-MBA practicum team will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of a possible product launch. This would include researching the potential of a Vermont-sourced grass-fed cream supply, developing a full financial analysis of the project, assessing supply chain logistics, and using P&L statements to investigate whether a domestic grass-fed butter from the Green Mountains could compete with imported competitors. With sustainability in mind, the SI-MBA team will also explore the environmental and ecological benefits of venturing into grass-fed territory.