Enactus Nottingham is a not-for-profit student-led organisation within our university which works to change peoples lives through the power of business by setting up social enterprises aiming to deliver both social and environmental good. Enactus Nottingham recently saw huge success by becoming Enactus National champions, allowing them to progress on to the Enactus world cup 2020. The Enactus competitions annually see students, businesses and academic leaders globally, meeting to showcase their entrepreneurial skills and shared innovation which aims to transforms lives in local communities.
Impact Features spoke to Enactus Nottingham’s marketing director, Calum Jackson, about the recent success of Enactus Nottingham and the organisation as a whole.
Isabelle Raikes: Congratulations on getting through to the Enactus World cup 2020 after becoming Enactus UK National Champions. How many teams competed in the national competition and what was the task set?
Calum Jackson: The Enactus Nottingham Presentation Team 2020 is made up of 6 students who were selected to present a 12-minute pitch. The first round of Enactus UK Nationals 2020 involved a regional level, where Enactus Nottingham’s presentation team competed against other East Midland Enactus Teams from Nottingham Trent, Loughborough, Leicester and De Montfort University. Out of the 60 competing Enactus teams competing regionally, 27 were progressed to Enactus UK Nationals.
Enactus Nottingham were crowned Enactus UK National Champions for the second year in a row
The Enactus UK National Expo 2020 took place over April 6-7th, where Enactus Nottingham competed virtually against 27 other Enactus teams nationwide. Teams were placed into Leagues and competed in a knock-out style competition to progress through to the final stage. Enactus Nottingham were crowned Enactus UK National Champions for the second year in a row.
IR: What was the project put forward by the team in the national competition?
CJ: Enactus Nottingham entered two headlining teams based on our theme of food innovation.
Foodprint has impacted 1353 lives over the past year, saved 26 tonnes of food waste and 106 tonnes of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere
The first project was Foodprint which is Nottingham’s first social supermarket which aims to tackle food poverty and waste in the local community through supplying food 60% cheaper than supermarkets and redistributing free food to local charities and school breakfast clubs. Innovations developed within Foodprint include Dried Apple Smiles, Foodprint on Wheels and The Bread Brew’d project.
Dried Apple Smiles is a dried fruit product that is delivered to schools to supplement their breakfast. Foodprint on Wheels takes food to isolated communities for those who are unable to reach the Sneinton store and The Bread Brew’d Project turns surplus bread into beer to further reduce food waste. Foodprint has impacted 1353 lives over the past year, saved 26 tonnes of food waste and 106 tonnes of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere.
The second project was Nutrigreen, an international project in Uganda combating malnutrition in school children through the design of vertical farming systems and by teaching local farmers how to grow microgreens. Nutrigreens has impacted 391 lives and educated 60 farmers from 6 different countries on how to sustainably farm.
IR: How was the national competition judged and who by?
CJ: The final judging panel consisted of over 60 senior business and social sector executives. Enactus Projects are judged on entrepreneurial leadership, innovation, use of business practices and the sustainable positive impact that each project delivers.
IR: What are your plans for the next round and how will that play out considering the restricted circumstances we are currently in?
CJ: Enactus Nottingham will represent Enactus UK against 37 countries at the Enactus World Cup 2020 in September. The event will now be hosted online and live-steamed, from the initial plan to take place in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Last year, Enactus Nottingham were crowned Enactus UK Nationals 2019 and competed at Enactus World Cup 2019 hosted in San Jose, California ranking in the top-16 as World Cup Semi-Finalists 2019.
IR: Is the Enactus programme available to all year groups and degrees in university? Do you need any specific qualifications to be a part of it?
CJ: Enactus Nottingham is open to all students at the University of Nottingham. We are proud to be a very diverse group of students from all year groups and types of disciplines including business management, economics, liberal arts, ancient history, philosophy and plant science. There are no qualifications or previous experience required to be a part of Enactus Nottingham; the only quality we ask for is passion for creating a difference through social or environmental change, both locally and internationally.
IR: Is there any advice you would give to students wanting to become a part of Enactus?
Enactus Nottingham’s next recruitment season will be in September this year
CJ: Enactus Nottingham runs on the commitment and passion of its members, so when looking for new people, we search for passionate, driven and motivated individuals to join the team. Enactus Nottingham’s next recruitment season will be in September this year with applications opening on the 1st September on the Enactus Nottingham website. Interested students can follow our social media and browse our website to find out more information about the projects we run to gain a greater understanding of what Enactus is all about. We encourage diversity and welcome everyone with a passion for creating change through social enterprise.
IR: What are the main positives people can receive from joining a group such as Enactus?
CJ: Firstly, members become part of a group of like-minded individuals, with a shared goal of improving lives and creating a meaningful difference in the community through social enterprise. The team tackles real-life challenges and create projects that unite communities and impact real lives. Members are also part of a network of over 70,000 students across the globe, representing the university at national and international levels in one of the largest youth social action networks worldwide.
Members are also able to build on their employability skills such as teamwork, project management, negotiation, communication, leadership, presentation, problem solving and decision making whilst receiving the opportunity to not only network with executives and corporate partners but receive mentorship from business advisers and training sessions.
To find out more about Enactus you can visit their website or visit their socials which are listed below!
- enactusnottingham.org
- https://www.instagram.com/enactusnotts/
- https://www.facebook.com/EnactusNottingham/
- https://twitter.com/enactusnotts?lang=en
Isabelle Raikes
Featured image courtesy of Calum Jackson. No changes were made to this image.
In article images courtesy of Calum Jackson. No changes were made to these images.
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