1 Refine your construct of Return on Investment – if Lehigh invests $100K in your project, how will you articulate the ROI that they will receive?

In year one, we have a lot of cost items including the supervision fees.

In year two, the program is continued and the business model or cost is similar to the first year.

In year three, no more supervision would be expected since the project has developed and achieved. To maintain the project, more people would get involved and new methods would be developed. There might be more costs during that year but I present only the basic and necessary cost. Also, more cost would be used to employ during the summertime to make sure the program keeps running.

Afterward, now projects ideas could be implemented and cost might reduce if alternatives could be found.

The cost is important because ss the business model is shown, if we receive 100K investment, we could try to maintain our project for more than 25 years because the cost of our project is not high.

Then there are 2 things Lehigh will receive:

1 overall decrease in carbon emission(public benefit): We are trying to develop a calculator for the food carbon emission and make this a national, open-source model for other colleges/universities to use. Also, we try to report the high carbon emission of some types of food and we want to reduce the consumption of high-carbon-emission food by letting students aware of the problem. By bringing awareness to food with high carbon footprints, students will be more likely to choose low carbon footprint foods. By applying our project and plan, the production of foods that contain high carbon emissions will possibly decrease. By reducing the high-carbon-value food supply, we could reduce the overall carbon emission.

2 overall decrease in the ingredient cost in the dining hall(revenue): One of the advantages of our program is that the cost is relatively low because we don’t have many things to buy. So the Investment capital for each year is not high. This makes the program a long-term process even with little funds. Also, the long-term return would be significant. The goal of our project is to reduce the assumption of high-carbon emission food. And these high carbon foods usually cost much more than their alternatives. So one benefit for the dining hall faculty will be that we can help them possibly save cost and increase revenue. With lower cost, the revenues would be more. As the program could continue to run for a long time, the impact and effect could even be larger.

 

 

 

2 Identify five SPECIFIC partnerships that you need to forge to advance your project forward with the ultimate goal of positively impacting the entire campus. Describe exactly how that partnership might help you achieve scale and why that entity might be willing to work with you.

1The Lehigh dining hall stuff: By applying our project and pan, the production of foods that contain high carbon emissions will possibly decrease. And these high carbon foods usually cost much more than their alternatives. So one benefit for the dining hall faculty will be that we can help them possibly save cost and increase revenue. One of the members, Lauren, has already offered us help. She provided more information on the Lehigh dining hall and food system that we need. This helps us to have a clear vision and plan for our future work. Also, one of our plans is to make stickers and icons and connect them with each food. They can also assist us with that by providing access to that. I believe Lehigh dining hall is also part of the Lehigh Sustainability Strategic Plan. So our mission could help them reduce excessive carbon emissions, thereby reducing environmental pollution. Also, the goal of Lehigh dining hall is to reduce expenses without affecting student satisfaction. And our project could lead to that goal by bringing awareness to food with high carbon emissions. We will reach out to them constantly. We are currently meeting them through zoom and sending emails to them, while we would meet and talk with them in person as we are going to make a soft launch of our project.

2 Student committee: Our prior “target audience” are students, and it is necessary to get their attention and awareness. At the same time, they could provide some important feedback that could help us better improve our plans. By bringing awareness to food with high carbon footprints, students will be more likely to choose low carbon footprint foods. And the purpose of that is to improve the Lehigh environmental condition and reducing unhealthy food, which would benefit the entire Lehigh campus. So there are strong reasons they would be willing to help.

3 Other research groups focusing on the food system: We could share the information and necessary work to advance both ventures. At the beginning of this semester, a junior student in a product innovation course investigating sustainable food sources contacted our team. I think working with other teams could also provide a new perspective and new ideas could be presented to help both of us achieve the final goals.

4 Supervisors: They could provide us necessary support, help, and information. To advance the project forward with the ultimate goal of positively impacting the entire campus, we need to take many aspects into consideration. And the two supervised professors can help us identify the potential challenges and resources.

5 Lehigh university sustainable institution and related volunteer organizations like the office of first-year students and gryphon team: They could provide us with potential instructions, guidance, and resources. The office of first-year students helps to promote and convey our ideas to the freshman, which is the most efficient way to have students involved.  We could learn some experience from their previous successful cases and leverage some great strategies. Our project can benefit the entire Lehigh campus by improving the environmental condition and even make an impact on the whole world environment, which could correspond to their goals.