Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

Waste pickers are the victims of harsh economic and social factors that have hurt many<br/>developing countries and billions of people around the world. Due to the rise of industrialization<br/>since the 19th century, waste and disposable resources have been discarded around the world to<br/>provide more resources, products, and services to wealthy countries. This has put developing<br/>countries in a precarious position where people have had very few economic opportunities<br/>besides taking on the role of waste pickers, who not only face physical health consequences due<br/>to the work they do but also face exclusion from society due to the negative views of waste<br/>pickers. Many people view waste pickers as scavengers and people who survive off of doing<br/>dirty work, which creates tensions between waste pickers and others in society. This even leads<br/>to many countries outlawing waste picking and has led to the brutal treatment of waste pickers<br/>throughout the world and has even led to thousands of waste pickers being killed by anti-waste<br/>picker groups and law enforcement organizations in many countries.<br/>Waste pickers are often at the bottom of supply chains as they take resources that have<br/>been used and discarded, and provide them to recyclers, waste management organizations, and<br/>others who are able to turn these resources into usable materials again. Waste pickers do not have<br/>many opportunities to rise above the situation they are in as waste picking has become the only<br/>option for many people who need to provide for themselves and their families. They are not<br/>compensated very well for the work they do, which also contributes to the situation where waste<br/>pickers are forced into a position of severe health risks, backlash from society and governments,<br/>not being able to seek better opportunities due to a lack of earning potential, and not being<br/>connected with end-users. Now is the time to create new business models that solve these large<br/>problems in our global society and create a sustainable way to ensure that waste pickers are<br/>treated properly around the world.

Chameleons are notoriously a difficult species to provide proper husbandry for in captivity. They are an extremely intriguing species that has been gaining popularity among HERP enthusiasts, but the difficulty of care is deterring owners from these wonderful creatures. Building a proper enclosure takes a lot of time to plan and research. Then to gather all the different supplies and to build the enclosure takes even longer. New or inexperienced chameleon owners tend to build improper enclosures, and this can be detrimental to a chameleon's health. My small business provides an online service that allows a building experience custom to my clients’ new friend’s needs.

Our Founders Lab group created a pop-up thrift store on campus using donated clothing. We generated over $1000 in profits from our clothing sales to donate to a local charity, making our team the top-earning Founders Lab team. Our shop, Devils Rack, tabled twice on the Tempe ASU campus in order to generate our revenue.

Volunteers at Hand is an inclusive platform that focuses on creating an interconnected community of volunteers while providing an efficient and effective system that categorizes volunteer/service opportunities based on individual interests. The primary focus of our platform is to foster a compassionate community of individuals who will inspire each other as well as others, and provide hope through their contributions towards helping and healing people. The foundation of Volunteers at Hand will be established through development of an elaborate platform/website that would be equally and openly accessible to all individuals and organizations interested in contributing efforts towards volunteer/service experiences. The platform will implement a filtering system that would categorize service opportunities and events based on personal preferences and interests, thus enabling a more efficient and effective method of discovering various opportunities that an individual would be passionate in contributing their efforts towards. Our platform would also implement a community based aspect that fosters further communication and interactions amongst volunteers as well as organizations involved in volunteer/service experiences.

Volunteers at Hand is an inclusive platform that focuses on creating an interconnected community of volunteers while providing an efficient and effective system that categorizes volunteer/service opportunities based on individual interests. The primary focus of our platform is to foster a compassionate community of individuals who will inspire each other as well as others, and provide hope through their contributions towards helping and healing people. The foundation of Volunteers at Hand will be established through development of an elaborate platform/website that would be equally and openly accessible to all individuals and organizations interested in contributing efforts towards volunteer/service experiences. The platform will implement a filtering system that would categorize service opportunities and events based on personal preferences and interests, thus enabling a more efficient and effective method of discovering various opportunities that an individual would be passionate in contributing their efforts towards. Our platform would also implement a community based aspect that fosters further communication and interactions amongst volunteers as well as organizations involved in volunteer/service experiences.

Baked by Barrett facilitates the collection, review, and sale of home-baked goods through various means weekly. This will include, while not limited to, hosting tabling and social events throughout the academic year. This user-led platform will share the proceeds with bakers, and local charities of choice while maintaining a percentage internally to ensure efficient operations. Because businesses for profit are a conflict of interest for ASU, the organization will work to promote students and charity along with the learning for business and entrepreneurial ventures. Instead of generating profits, Baked by Barrett will focus on sustaining itself while the rest of the revenue will go to charity. This will help the organization avoid conflicts of interest with ASU allowing it to use campus space to sell. Marketing will, initially, be based on word-of-mouth, with supporting tools including a dynamic website, flyers, and partnerships around local newsletters. Rotations of charities and menu items will be used to incentivize students and passersby to buy from Baked by Barrett. In order to promote the organization, there will be a website, flyers, and even contact information through the Barrett digest to market the platform in the weekly newsletter.

For the honors thesis project, a group of five individuals collaborated to design and implement a sustainable business in the ASU community. Kandi Society is a rising jewelry brand whose top priorities include giving recycled plastic a new purpose, philanthropy, and making a welcoming, creative environment for our customers. We designed the Eco-Bead with 3D CAD modeling and produced it through a process called plastic injection molding which is explained in detail in the final paper. Kandi Society instilled a positive impact on ASU students by igniting a sustainability spark and increasing interest in repurposing materials in the future.