“We’d heard such great things about the ICUBE program and the opportunities it provided for students to flex their entrepreneurial muscles. After hearing that the case sponsor was Sobeys, and the subject was fleet electrification, we knew we had to join.”
Quote from the Top Prize Winners
ICUBE’s Sustainability Innovation Challenge, in partnership with Sobeys Inc. and Say hi to the Future, is a competition dedicated to advancing sustainability through student-industry collaboration. In this challenge, bright-minded individuals were encouraged to design innovative solutions to address pressing sustainability challenges faced by Sobeys.
More specifically, participants were asked how to best approach electrifying the Sobeys fleet for their distribution channels. They were given data related to some of Sobeys’ current routes in Quebec, to help understand how their distribution networks function. Then, they were asked to provide an analysis and recommendation on how to rollout the transition to electric vehicles.
The competition saw some amazing pitches. The winning team, made up of Jake Sajko, Marcus Uhthoff, Valeria Widjaja, Jordan Chang, and Ira Jain, focused on tying their solution to Sobeys’ impact goals as an organization. They proposed a phased rollout of investing in electric vehicles, with key considerations for enabling adoption within the Sobeys organization through change management, as well as a focus on marketing this transition.
According to the team, “We’d been working on projects around the grocery retailer industry all semester and had experience working with electric vehicles and fleet electrification, so it was great to apply those skills to a real-world problem.” ICUBE also provided participants with routing data, which the team said helped them ground their analysis and recommendations. More importantly, ICUBE gave participants the opportunity to submit questions to the Sobeys stakeholders during the competition, which the team said was vital to ensuring their approach was sound and avoided false assumptions.
Winning the Top Prize meant that their solution was seen as the most impactful overall. Their innovation could make a significant impact on Sobeys sustainability efforts. Their solution presented a practical, feasible way for Sobeys to decarbonize their operations. The team says that “… integration with existing business processes shows companies that they don’t have to choose between profitability and sustainability. This not only helps Sobeys take meaningful strides toward their net-zero goals but also serves as a blueprint for other businesses looking to transition to more sustainable operations.”
With challenges like this one, ICUBE aims to help innovators make changes just like this one. Be on the lookout for more!
