Cara's Thoughts

Elevator Pitch!

I am Cara Leydig I am studying business and sustainability. I care about the environment and believe that we should all be taking actions to be environmentally friendly and we should all care about it. I see this business playing a role in my daily life because this was a problem I had for many years.  I am offering a system where you can go to Starbucks, Dunkin etc. and when you came and ordered, you had the option to use one of the reusable cups, or a plastic cup (to go), and after your study session or coffee date, you could return the cup and be guilt free.  I am offering this system to people who buy coffee or products from coffee places and stay for a while, more specifically students who study at the library or businesses who have meetings at coffee shops.  The customers care because they care about 1. Their coffee and 2. The environment and don’t mind having a nicer, reusable cup instead of a plastic one.  What sets me apart from everyone else is t...

Interview One: I interviewed one of my roommates Adazae. Adazae shares a lot in common with the others in my opportunity because she is an avid coffee drinker and drinks it at least once a day. She falls outside the boundary because although she is a coffee drinker, she usually makes her coffee at home and doesn't really feel the need to buy coffee from a coffee shop ever. I think the desire here is having a cup to take the coffee with her when she's running late.  Interview Two: I interviewed one of my friends Gia. Gia does enjoy coffee and drinks coffee at least once a day. She falls outside the boundary because although she is a coffee drinker, she drinks it as a "treat" drink at the end of the day. She usually makes her coffee at home and doesn't really feel the need to buy coffee from a coffee shop because she makes herself decaf and really only drinks it for the taste. I think the desire here is to have some type of incentive to want to buy the co...

My opportunity is that there is a way students can purchase coffee and/or water, without having to bring their own cup, and still be eco friendly. The typical concert either brings their own card for a while and then buy a plastic coffee cup only goes in buys a plastic coffee cups. It is very uncommon for students to carry around 2 cups one for water or one for coffee and it is also uncommon for students to only drink coffee without water. The product/service is having a choice of getting you preferred drink in a reusable cup that you can return once you are done using the cup. There is an incentive of giving the cup back, like getting a dollar off coupon. The problem with this is that it would have to be sold to a monopolistic coffee company.

Monopolistic coffee companies are unable to conveniently and sustainably provide products to consumers with alternatives because it requires a lot of changes  Interview 1: I interviewed my friend Shelby. Shelby is an avid coffee drinker.  When she gets coffee, she told me she might bring a cup if she remembers and if it’s planned ahead, however even when she does bring a cup she puts coffee in one and then gets a water cup. She always wants both. She very much is trying to do her best to avoid plastic waste, however it’s too much and too inconvenient to carry around two cups, one for water and one for coffee. When told about the solution, Shelby explained to me that she would be very satisfied and be more contempt with her decisions.  Interview 2: The second person I interviewed was my other coffee-obsessed friend Karissa. Karissa always does carry her own water bottle around campus and she told me that she has a huge awareness of her environmental impact and tries t...

1. Turning ocean water into fresh water easily and in large amounts. I found this opportunity also from my environmental science textbook. We have two major problems we are facing right now. One being running out of fresh drinking water, and the second being rising sea levels. I think that something that could combat both would be absolutely perfect. I think that the consumer here should be the people living in poorer countries who don't have access to clean water. I think that this opportunity will be easy to exploit because water is a necessity and people who don't have access to clean drinking water are in dire need of a way to get it and this can solve two problems at once. I see this opportunity because I am learning about these problems however they are way more important and urgent than anyone seems to be taking them.  2. Plant based medicine. I found this opportunity from my plants, health, and spirituality class. In that class we read about the powerful benefi...

1.  The first article  " Lightning strikes mobile home" was by the Sun Sentinel which gives Broward County news. In the article it describes how during a bad thunderstorm, a mobile home on Oakland Park Boulevard was struck by lightning and then caught on fire. The homeowner explains that this has been a worry for them but never actually thought it would happen. The problem in this article is that mobile homes are easily flammable which is extremely dangerous and absolutely frightening. The "who" for the problem is easily the mobile home owner because in a matter of seconds their entire house and everything they own could catch on fire. However the problem spreads bigger than that, to the neighbors and even the entire neighborhood.  https://www.sun-sentinel.com/323c1ae2-41f2-4013-b645-21d358a13223-132.html This second article " What's going on at Broward County 7-Elevens?"  is quite disturbing for me, being a 7-Eleven customer. Health inspectors ...

I believe that there is an opportunity for students to be able to buy coffee at the library or coffee shop and still be eco friendly and hydrated.   My belief is that there is a way students can purchase coffee and/or water, without having to bring their own cup, and still be eco friendly. The unmet need is the need for water and coffee while not discarding plastic waste to landfill and not having to carry around a cup all day. This need only exists if the consumer cares about their environmental impact.  Ideally, The typical concert either brings their own card for a while and then buy a plastic coffee cup only goes in buys a plastic coffee cups. It is very uncommon for students to carry around 2 cups one for water or one for Coffey and it is also uncommon for students to only drink coffee without water Shelby does not carry her own water bottle around campus, and she told me that she does consider her environmental impact an important aspect in her. When she gets...

In high school I was a very involved student, particularly in SGA. In SGA, we had committees that had to complete unique and fun fundraisers to fund their designated area. Although I had to do a lot  of fundraisers, the one that popped into my head when reading this assignment was a fundraiser for "Pi Day". If you're not aware, Pi Day is March 14th, because the date is 3/14 (3.14). My committee came up with selling Pies on Pi Day, which was a brand new concept and we thought it would be fun. So we started the planning and had to create a budget and planned to buy mini pies from Walmart. We made posters and started promoting for the event 2 weeks prior to Pi Day. About 3 days before the fundraiser, we bought about 400 mini pies for about $.50 each, and had to go to about four Walmarts. We  sod them for $2 each and although it was a very stressful fundraiser, it overall was a success. I think that this fundraiser especially has many of the same qualities that starting your...