A little while ago Wanaka Primary School Room 14 invited Sustainable Wanaka to a presentation of their Enterprise Project. An enterprise project is a project that looks at a business idea and the students take it from start to finish.
The Room 14 class room had identified a problem that people often forget to take their bags to the supermarket and end up having to take a plastic bag. This is compounded by the “just grabbing a few things” shop where shoppers can end up with too many things to carry out and end up taking a plastic bag. They did some research and talked to people at the supermarket and brainstormed loads of ideas.
To solve this problem the students designed a great little bag called the “Popn Bag”. It is super light and strong and folds into a little pocket to about 10cm x 5cm. It has a key chain attachment which you can attach to your keys or your bag or your pocket so you always have a bag with you. I have been using a prototype of the bag and love it. Click here to see some photos of the bag.
They already have loads of interest in the bags with parents and teachers putting in their orders already and want to get the bags made before Christmas as they would make great presents. The bags will be made locally in Wanaka at a heavily discounted price.
The students have asked Sustainable Wanaka to help them to raise funds to get the first lot of Popn bags made. We thought that, rather than just give them the money they need to make the bags, it would be better to give them a loan for the money that they will pay back within a certain period of time, like in the real world but with no interest.
This got us thinking and the team at Sustainable Wanaka decided that rather than just raising money for one project that we would establish a “Sustainability Enterprise Fund” that would be available to all school enterprise projects that have a sustainability focus.
To kick start the fund and to get the Popn bags made we need to raise $1,500 by the 10th of December.
If you, like me, think this is a great idea you can donate online here. Please include a note that the donation is for the Enterprise Fund so I can allocate the money to the fund.
