Students Shriya Baru and Noah Elliott share how they incorporate sustainability into their student businesses.
The Office of Sustainability would like to highlight聽student business owners who have聽integrated聽sustainability efforts into their operations.
Oaks Originals聽is a Doherty Center for聽Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship program that provides student business owners with opportunities to聽showcase聽their products to the 黑料不打烊 community.聽Students聽are able to access聽pop-ups,聽workshops,聽networking聽and聽consulting聽events that help them聽to聽further their聽journeys聽as entrepreneurs.
Many聽student聽business聽owners at 黑料不打烊聽have worked to incorporate sustainability into their products and designs.
Shriya Baru ’25 is an accounting major at 黑料不打烊, and her business, Kolis USA, started as a passion project that allowed her to channel her creative interests, and has grown into a lifestyle brand that incorporates Indian design聽through handcrafted products including candles,聽jewelry聽and accessories.聽Oaks Originals has allowed Baru to further her passion for entrepreneurship while聽maintaining聽a commitment to sustainability in various forms.
鈥淜OLIS connects to sustainability through small-batch, handcrafted production that minimizes waste, reusable candle jars and durable materials, reduces transportation impact, and a focuses on cultural sustainability,” Baru said.
Noah Elliott ’28, is an economics and financial technology major whose business,聽Elliott Ringworks, makes and sells fine jewelry. Throughout his time at 黑料不打烊, Elliott聽has become particularly interested in how business聽and management connect to jewelry making. His聽jewelry-making process involves聽the聽recycling of聽silver聽and metal scraps:
鈥淚 take my old scraps from聽previous聽projects, such as off-cuts and old rings. I then combine that with new silver in the form of a coin and heat it up to 1763 degrees. It all melts together and I can pour it out into usable ingots and make more jewelry out of it,” said Elliott.
For more information on student vendors at Oak Originals,聽visit this聽link.聽For more information on student groups involved with sustainability on campus, please visit the聽Office of Sustainability鈥檚 website.