Deplastify the Planet: How to Master the Sustainable Transition | A Berkeley Changemaker® Course

The world is drowning in plastic that we’ve created, most of which takes hundreds of years to decompose. It is a disaster choking our oceans, poisoning our food chains and clogging our landfills. To solve this problem, we must find ways to replace or at least reduce plastic in manufacturing, to reuse, recycle or re-purpose plastic currently in use, to rescue discarded plastic from oceans or landfills, and to dispose of plastic responsibly.

For this course, we find companies that want to achieve the same and will partner with SCET and Schoolab around this problem. Each company prepares a “deplastify challenge” based on their own business, and will be given student teams that work together to develop an entrepreneurial solution. Supported by representatives from their partner companies, students will work to understand the industry and challenge, then design prototypes and pitch their final solutions. Each student will be working with an industry partner, mostly large corporations as well as startups. Past company sponsors include Whole Foods, Faurecia Automotive, Microsoft, Allbirds, Nestle, Recology SF, Method, Bank of the West, Surfrider Foundation, Samsung and more!

We explore the fundamentals of the plastic problem and broaden the discussion on sustainability and what it takes to improve practices across industries. The course will cover ethnographic interviewing, design thinking, ideation tools, designing and prototyping products, validation with customer feedback, and business modeling. This will offer a real life experience as well as placing the student in a consulting mode, helping them to develop skills and learn how to work efficiently in a pluri disciplinary team.

• Fall 2020 projects
• Spring 2020 projects
• Fall 2021 projects