It was more of a street filled with sustainable dreams, less a boulevard of broken dreams for Bury as West Suffolk College business students created a green day in the town centre this week.
The learners who are all on level three courses set up companies during the year and then sold their products in the town centre.
Every business had to minimise the impact it had on the environment as part of the colleges mission of becoming one of the greenest educational establishments in the country.
Items being sold ranged from scented candles to jewellery and the organiser of the event – Mike Opukah – was chuffed with the efforts of this group. The business, travel and tourism lecturer – and equality and diversity lead said: “I’m very proud of all the effort the students have put into this. They have researched their products and all really bought into the idea of recycling.
“Young people sometimes get criticised but I think if we give them a chance to shine and we give them a platform, they can produce some amazing things.”
Zoe Buch, 17, from Bury St Edmunds, set up a company with three others called No Chain No Gain. Zoe said: “We made key chains, upcycled from charity shops, used old toys and made as little impact on the environment as possible. It’s helped us see how we can set up a business. Looking after the environment is important as we only get one life and destroying it will impact future generations – we need to act now – if not it will be too late.”
Eloe Ekponza, 16, from Colchester was also part of No Chain No Gain group. He said: “We have made some sales. It has showed us that any idea can become a reality. Because of the sustainable element to the project, we hope that we have shown other young people that treating the environment badly is not right.”
Jemima Baalham, 17, from Bury St Edmunds was part of a business called Scentivia. She said: “We made scented candles from honeycomb. It’s given me an idea of all the steps you need to negotiate in order to succeed (in business). The environment is important to me as it’s our future and we need to respect it.”
Elle Monksfield, 17, from Bury St Edmunds was also part of the Scentivia team. She said: “In the future I want to create my own business – it’s not easy – so this is a learning curve and this experience has helped me.”
Cameron Goddard, 17, from Brandon helped set up Glass Cycle. Cameron said: “We re-purposed old glass bottles and made them into cups and vases. The environment is important to me.”
Charlie Bullock, 17, from Great Welnetham sold T shirts that they created. He said: “We did a pre-launch and sold products based on musical album covers that sold out. This time we made clothes using musical notes as a brand and they didn’t sell so well. So, I’ve learnt that you need to give the people what they want. We experimented with the market and it’s all part of the process.”
In terms of the sustainable element of the project Charlie added: “Everything is going quite badly with the environment at the moment so it’s important to help out where we can.”
