Ellen Macarthur Foundation. Rethink the future

Project ReDesign finishes in Oxford

• by ReDesign Team
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• 25 Mar 2011
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In Oxford today Brockenhurst College became the last of five groups to win a prestigious week-long internship with one of our Founding Partners. They joined the list of winning teams from previous workshops in Glasgow, Leeds, Cardiff and Belfast when they beat 27 other schools from around the South of England, in a full day of hands-on activities and challenges around the circular economy.

In the impressive surroundings of the Examination School halls, in the centre of Oxford, 170 students rose to a challenge set by Dame Ellen MacArthur, who hosted the day; In a world of finite resources and rising energy costs how would they re-design the way we do things, at a systems level, to address our current waste problems, whilst at the same time create a materials opportunity?

Students took advantage of the expertise on hand by questioning volunteers from our Founding Partners, who were on hand to facilitate creative thinking and add an industry, real-life angle to the students’ thinking.

It was really fabulous to see the teams so energized by the challenge of life after landfill. They really quickly understood the breadth of the challenge from the technical to the behavioral and came up with some exciting, forward thinking and innovative solutions

Rachel Bradley, B&Q

A great range of ideas produced by the teams, some of which were completely unexpected

Simon Durk, National Grid

It was fascinating watching students take on one of the largest environmental problems that we face. I am now looking forward to the ideas they’ll carry back and think about

Nelson Santhosh, BT

Details of the internships, which will take place during the first two weeks of July 2011, will be available in mid April.

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