Leeds students create winning water bottle designs

Leeds students showed their bottle last week as they took part in an enterprise competition to create a brand new design for reusable water bottles – with the winning team’s design going on sale later this summer.

On Friday (14 June 2019), four schools from the local area took part in the final of the Made in South Leeds initiative, which aimed to introduce students to the skills and processes of advertising, marketing and business.

Crawshaw Academy were crowned the winners by a panel of expert judges following a competitive pitch presentation at Cineworld, Leeds. The winning students will now get the opportunity to sell their reusable aluminium water bottles at White Rose Shopping Centre later in the summer.

Over 50 local students from Cockburn School and Academies at Crawshaw, Woodkirk and Morley took part in the enterprise activity, which asked students to create a brand new logo and accompanying social media marketing campaign.

The initiative, organised by White Rose owners Landsec, and in association with Ahead Partnership, aims to increase diversity in the retail and property industries, connect employers with education and teach local young people about different career opportunities.

Steven Foster, General Manager at White Rose Shopping Centre, said:

“Advertising is all around us, so getting local students to create their very own designs and marketing campaign for such an important product as reusable water bottles has resulted in fantastic, creative and unique results – and we’d like to congratulate everyone who took part.

“At White Rose, we’re constantly considering how to better our environmental impact, so it’s been brilliant to see the students take such an interest in promoting the benefits and importance of reducing our consumption of single use plastic.”

This campaign comes alongside Landsec’s Refill Me initiative, which has seen countless stores throughout White Rose display a sticker in their window, letting visitors know they can fill up their reusable water bottles for free, with no obligation to purchase.

Stephanie Burras CBE, Chief Executive of Ahead Partnership, said:

“We have seen an increasing number of businesses taking action to address the single use plastic problem in recent months, and it’s fantastic that White Rose is committed to engaging the younger generation to educate them on global sustainability issues, whilst providing them with extremely valuable exposure to the workplace.

“The challenge was designed to improve key employability skills such as teamwork, presentation, communication and time management, whilst raising awareness of what a career in advertising, marketing or retail would entail. We look forward to seeing the students’ water bottles on the shelves later this year.”

The winning designs by Crawshaw Academy will go on sale in mid-July at White Rose Shopping Centre.

 

This post is based on a press release issued on behalf of White Rose Shopping Centre