Student proect Greenbites wins GO Game Changers Award

The GO Game Changers Awards were organised for the sixth time by GO HvA (Green Office) on 8 June. The festive ceremony was held in the Creative Business Lab on the Business Campus. Students from different faculties submitted their sustainable projects for a chance to win either the jury prize or the audience award, and all participating projects were on display during a poster presentation in the Kohnstamm building and in the Corry Tendeloo building before the ceremony began.

Judged on presentation, motivation and feasibility

After an exciting round of pitches by the five teams nominated for the jury prize, the jury chose Greenbites as the winner. The jury consisted of Ineke Bussemaker (Faculty of Business & Economics dean and sustainability portfolio holder), Lucas Andreacchio Corrado and Nicole Cini Stepancic (founders of Bluehouse World, a sustainable marketplace) and David Even (founder of PRIMAL Soles, sustainable insoles made of cork). The jury judged the projects on the presentation, motivation and feasibility of the project.

Jury member David Even on the winning project: "Greenbites is not only about the product it delivers, it's also about the awareness it creates. It makes people think about what level of CO2 emissions buying a product generates, so it helps people make more conscious consumption decisions."

"A real team effort"

The winning project team consists of Bernice Chukwumba, Shuai Liu, Maryam Sedgimoradi and Yasunari Soroaka, all Digital Society School (FDMCI) students. Bernice Chukwumba: "I’m very happy with this award and the appreciation for our idea! It was quite a challenge to develop our project in cooperation with Facility Services and to involve all parties in the chain, such as local entrepreneurs. It really was a team effort. Our plan is to continue our project in such a way that we can scale up and it can be used not only by the AUAS, but also by other companies and enterprises."

Besides being awarded the GO Game Changers trophy, (made from recycled material by Circlefied, a company that started as a project by two former AUAS students) the winners also received Interrail train passes so they can travel around Europe.

Audience award for MatSwap

The public prize was won by MatSwap which received 163 votes. The team behind this winning idea consists of students from the Faculty of Business and Economics Riccardo Bonazza, Daphne Gnago, J. Manuel Minano and Bart Verhoef. Their project is about recycling and upcycling mattresses in a sustainable and affordable way. The public award winners’ names were also engraved on the challenge trophy and they also received Interrail train passes.

The GO Game Changers Awards

GO HvA (Dutch info), the AUAS's Green Office, organises the GO Game Changers Awards twice a year to highlight AUAS student projects in social, ecological and/or economic sustainability. These projects vary from final projects, individual projects or internships.

Read more about the winner of the jury prize here: GGCA #6 - GREENBITES

Read more about the audience award winner here: GGCA #6 - MatSwap

For more information, visit gohva.nl (Dutch info) or write an email to greenoffice@hva.n