Companies across Pennsylvania are working to implement environmentally responsible business practices, but students in the Harrisburg area are taking on that task while they’re still in high school.
For the second year in a row, the Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC is hosting a contest to see which local high school team presents the best green business plan. The Chamber Millennials’ Green Business Challenge will take place Nov. 18 as part of the chamber’s annual business expo at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center.
In preparation for the competition, teams of between three and five students from Harrisburg-area high schools have been developing environmentally friendly business plans for companies that already exist or for businesses invented for the challenge. They’ve been looking at examples of green businesses similar to Gold Bee, a honey and CBD company that built a sustainable business model around the need to protect our planet’s pollinators and other endangered species. Teams will be judged on how many jobs would be created from the business plans and which would produce the largest, fastest return on investment.
A team from Hershey High School won last year’s competition. Event Chairwoman Chris Eshelman says that during the winning team’s presentation last year, a student wore a skirt constructed with fabric made from plastic shopping bags, which was the subject of the team’s business plan. “We were just amazed at the creativity of these high school students,” she says.
Source: Chris Eshelman, Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen