Students Win Innovation Competition
This Friday afternoon, a group of students were crowned winners of the Växjö-based company ABENA's innovation competition. Twenty-four hours earlier, they had been given the task of coming up with a new idea related to the waste materials generated in ABENA’s production.
The idea for this competition was conceived by ABENA’s marketing manager, Sanna Spijk, a few months ago. When she presented the proposal to Fredric Moe, CEO of ABENA, he didn’t hesitate to say yes.
Honestly, I didn’t fully understand what we were getting ourselves into, but I have to say I’m really impressed with what the students have come up with in such a short time!
It wasn’t an easy task, and the winning entry has successfully combined commercial aspects with sustainability in a really good way Fredric explaines.
Sanna also points out that the collaboration with Linnaeus University has been smooth and straightforward. She says that not only is this a real-life case for the students’ education, but it is also a very appreciated element in the staff’s daily work routine.
Everyone has been very engaged – both the students and our employees. The wonderful energy that’s been in the building has really been contagious!
The competitors are in their first year of the master’s programme in innovation through business, technology and design. The students are not only from Sweden; many have moved here from other countries to study their master’s in innovation. In the winning group, the four students were Lawrence Ayi, Neeta Vernekar, Xin Chai, and Nadia Zalika. They are from Ghana, India, China and Indonesia.
Neeta explains that they complemented each other incredibly well in their group. In addition to their diverse backgrounds, they are also studying different specialisations. Two of them are designers, one is an engineer, and one is in business.
We were incredibly in sync and could really utilise our different skills and experiences to come up with the best possible product. I’ve learned a lot and think we’ve opened a door for ABENA. They would probably have come up with the same idea themselves, but I think we gave them a little push.
She also mentions that this type of element in education is the best, as they get to step outside their comfort zones while working on a real-life case. By being in ABENA’s facilities and being able to collaborate with the staff, their understanding of product development and the manufacturing industry has become completely different compared to learning the same knowledge from books.
"Our idea is about utilising the waste material by reusing it to package fruit and vegetables. Today, a lot of plastic is used, and by replacing it with paper, the environmental impact would be significantly lower. Additionally, the paper would keep the produce fresher by absorbing the moisture that often occurs during transport," Lawrence explains.
ABENA’s CEO doesn’t want to reveal whether they will bring the idea to life but is very pleased with all five competition entries. In the nomination for the winning entry, it says:
