EUTOPIA Student Hackathon connecting communities for sustainable procurement
How can the process of procurement become more sustainable? That was one of the questions raised in the EUTOPIA Placemaking Hackathon held last week as a part of the Open Innovation Challenge.
The three-day hybrid event led by the University of Gothenburg (GU) gave student teams from six EUTOPIA partner universities the opportunity to create inspiring scenarios for the future of sustainable procurement through coordination of goods distribution, in cooperation with procurement officers and external stakeholders.
Antara Islam, a master’s student of Marketing and Consumption at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg participated on behalf of GU.
- As a person, I am passionate about solving challenges and driving changes, she says on why she wanted to take part in the hackathon.
Each team worked with a procurer and a representative of private actors in supply chains: a startup that saves food waste, an e-commerce company, a science park, an innovation partner, and a wood company. A researcher from Chalmers University of Technology contributed with expertise in e-commerce, distribution, and sustainability. Together, they identified the relevant challenges to be addressed in some sub-areas of coordination of goods distribution: circular economy, e-commerce, sustainable logistics, public-private partnerships, and sustainable business models.
- Interviewing the procurer and the stakeholders made us understand the gravity of the situation. Collective demand from procurers could enable the suppliers and logistics providers to make the process more sustainable. Thus, gradual restructuring is required to streamline sustainable procurement starting from the demand end, says Antara.
With six different EUTOPIA universities and student teams present, the Hackathon produced a variety of ideas and solutions.
- It was interesting to observe how students from different universities across Europe were similar as well as distinctive regarding their innovative solutions. Similarity of ideas can help to collaborate in future execution, whereas distinct ideas make room for further exploration. To me, the outcome of the brainstorming exercise, while being remotely connected to other European universities, was the best part of the EUTOPIA Hackathon, says Antara.
On the last day, the students presented several ideas that they developed during the hackathon to the procurement officers, who were very impressed, and who will take them into consideration and see which of them could be implemented in the future.
Antara is happy with the outcome of the hackathon and finishes off by saying: My future interest would be to observe to what extent our ideas have been executed and were able to make an impact. Additionally, as a future marketer and as an actor on the demand end, I will be conscious of the aspects of sustainability when seeking any procurement service in future.