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Ridding the World of Waste – One Water Bottle at a Time
A group of graduating WSU engineering and business students hope to make a big difference in the world – by ridding it of disposable plastic bottles. Through participation in the Harold Frank Entrepreneurship Institute, the students, including Andy Whitaker, (BS, EE; BA Chinese, ‘09); Brian Boler, (BS, EE, ’09), and Reid Schilperoort, a finance and entrepreneurship major, developed their idea for an eco-friendly refreshment kiosk called Ecowell. For their fledgling business, the students recently received the top award at the Washington State University Business Plan Competition, held in April. The two-day business plan competition, organized by the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in the College of Business, included more than 130 competitors in four divisions, including two WSU divisions, and high school and non-student divisions. Forty-eight teams, including teams from WSU’s international campuses in Switzerland and China, presented their plans to a panel of judges from the business community, with the winning teams sharing cash and prizes totaling $100,000. The students hope their business idea will someday mean the end of a large waste problem created by the disposal of plastic beverage bottles. According to the Container Recycling Institute, four and a half million tons of plastic bottles were sold in the United States in 2006. Only 24.7% were recycled. Carbon emissions during manufacturing, shipping, delivery and restocking of beverage containers are another aspect of the beverage industry’s detriment to the environment, says Whitaker For example, the Pacific Institute finds that the equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil was used to produce plastic for bottled water consumed by Americans in 2006. This is enough energy to fuel more than 1 million vehicles for a year. The Ecowell kiosks are meant to provide purified water and other beverages at half the price you might pay at a traditional vending machine, says Boler. Customers will fill their reusable beverage bottles at locations where customers return again and again, like the center of a college campus or in a gym. The students developed a plan for a network of beverage kiosks that will wirelessly identify subscribers for the customers’ maximum convenience. Each kiosk will be equipped with a display screen where environmentally friendly messages and advertisements will be displayed during refills, increasing public awareness on environmental issues. The impetus for the project came from Don Tilton, a mechanical engineering alumnus and entrepreneur, says Boler. Tilton was teaching an engineering class on technology ventures during the spring semester of 2008, which required students to work on an innovative, semester-long project. Tilton suggested the idea of an eco-friendly vending machine, and the students jumped at the idea. “We were interested in it because of the increasing problem of bottle pollution and we wanted to increase public awareness among our peers,’’ said Boler. “It also appealed to the entrepreneurial instinct in all of us.’’ They continued to pursue the idea through the summer as they began participation in the Harold Frank Engineering Entrepreneurship program and then through their senior design project. The project, the students said, has been “totally different’’ from a typical class project. “Starting a company takes a lot of time and dedication,’’ says Boler. “This is unstructured and can be all consuming. There was much more initiative required.’’ The students have built two prototypes of their kiosks. With their success in the WSU business plan competitions as well as in a competition at the University of Washington, they have obtained some startup capital. They hope to kick off operations on the project this summer and continue work on their business while they pursue graduate studies. At the competition, WSU teams gave a 15-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute question and answer session by the judges. A panel of 45 judges included members of the business community: entrepreneurs from successfully launched businesses; those who are currently participating in an innovative business; venture capitalists; angel investors; and bankers. The teams were judged on their team, business concept, written plan, and their presentation as well as on whether the panelists would invest in the idea.
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