Sixth Form students from team ‘BOSH Bottle’ have been committed to refining their business model and product, ahead of the first round of the Young Enterprise competition where they will compete against other schools from the local area, to move into the next stage of the competition. The Young Enterprise Scheme aims to empower young people to discover, develop and celebrate their skills and potential by experiencing a real-life business scenario.
The team of 11 students have been working hard over the past few months to create a fully sustainable, “full cycle of recyclability” bottle. Kai Swanborough, one of the managing directors of the company explained how the team came up with the product idea: “Our company name stands for ‘Bottles of Sustainability and Health’. Having narrowed our ideas down to get our top three, we carried out some primary research at a trade fair, reviewed the responses, and then decided we wanted to take a different direction to match more of our combined interests. In the end, we decided on one of our original ideas, which we initially overlooked - a fully reusable and sustainable bottle that was able to re-define the reusable bottle market.”
Made from completely recycled materials and mostly being stainless steel, the bottles will keep hot drinks at high temperatures for 12 hours and cold drinks at low temperatures for 24 hours. Priced at £17.99 each and available to purchase from the company website boshbottle.com, the product is nearly half the cost of a sustainable drinks bottle from other major market competitors. The website also offers further information on how the company are ‘giving back’ for every bottle sold and offsetting the carbon footprint from delivery, by planting a tree where it's needed most across the world with green partners Tree-Nation.
The team are proud of their product, which they believe ensures that from design and production to manufacture and delivery, the consumer is able to retain an environmentally friendly and sustainable product. Kai commented: “BOSH Bottle is working with one of the only UK based manufacturers who are able to source pre-used, UK based stainless steel, then recycle and repurpose the raw material and shape it into our new, re-usable and fully recyclable thermal bottle."
It is clear that team BOSH Bottle are committed not only to progressing in the Young Enterprise programme with a product they believe in, but also are very aware of environmental issues linked to product design, manufacture, distribution and recycling.
Kai reflected on his experience of the Young Enterprise so far saying: “It's been great to understand the world of sustainability and develop a product from the ground up. Working with a team has had its challenges, but the opportunity has not only allowed the company to further develop our product, but it has allowed myself and other team members to expand our skills, such as communication and leadership, that can be taken further into our Sixth Form life and future careers."
He continued: “The opportunity has allowed all of us to get a better insight into environmental issues and how we can craft a product that not only re-develops the process of manufacturing but develop a product that's able to give back to the environment and become net zero.”
To find out more about the company and how to purchase a BOSH Bottle, head to the website now! https://boshbottle.com/