IdeaFest
 

Title

Hult Prize 2019, Together We Stand Sustainable Innovation (Formally: United We Stand)

Document Type

Oral/Panel

Publication Date

5-2020

Abstract

Sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship are vital for creating a more sustainable future. The Hult Prize is a national and international competition where teams from universities around the world create sustainable business proposals to better the social, environmental, and economic standing of our world. The Hult Prize, in 2019, also tasked teams to create over 10,000 jobs for youth by 2029. The University of South Dakota team Together We Stand was a proposal to create prosthetic legs, made from recycled plastics, in an affordable, innovative, and accessible way. With nearly two million amputees in the United States alone, Together We Stand created a business model mirroring that of the famous TOMS company. With each recycled plastic prosthetic bought, crafted from local recycled plastic waste, another prosthetic leg would be created and given to a child in need through a sister clinic in an underdeveloped country. With many underdeveloped countries in unstable climates, war, famine, and hygiene downfalls leave many families with little means to afford prosthetics that cost upwards of thousands of dollars. These outsourced sister clinics would have the resources to modify, deliver, and create service lists for children in need in that community. These sister clinics would also create jobs for youth within the community to become exposed to medical occupations they may have not have been before. The Together We Stand proposal competed in Boston, Massachusetts in 2019, and is one of many world-wide proposals aimed at creating a more sustainable future.

First Advisor

Meghann Jarchow

Research Area

Sustainability

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