10A

https://youtu.be/7OM7vFvwXtw

9A

Interview 1: Ali, Library Desk Assistant

She stated that the biggest limitation of the partnership with Repurpose Project is paper. Paper is the largest reorder since other products are usually purchased for long-term use and paper needs to be new for their purposes. Therefore, the partnership may not have as many benefits as it does at first glance.




Interview 2: Kandyce, Desk worker at the map collection in Smathers Library

She said that her biggest concern is the transportation and the facilitation of the products since the Repurpose Project does not have a website where you can order things like they can with current vendors




Interview 3: Natalie, Study Abroad Office of Heavener Hall

She doesn't know if it would work for their office since most of their items they give put to people and they need them to be cohesive and to look professional. She believe it could be an issue because you couldn't guarantee quality.




Interview 4: Ricardo, Business School Advising Student Assistant

His biggest concern is that with established partnerships they have access to technical support. He believes that it would be the best option to go with an established vendor for bigger ticket items. There is already an established partnership with these vendors as well and the university purchasing things is a long process.




Interview 5: Kevin, Luxury Apartment Leasing Office Assistant (I thought this would be a different perspective that would lead to discovering more holes in my proposed idea)

He believes that since their customer demographic is people who like "shiny" things given that they are a luxury apartment, that this may not be aligned with their goals. He also says that lots of their items are branded to the inability to do that would be a big con. He said that it also makes sense that for bigger ticket items that they go with something new because they believe the longevity is valuable. Another concern he has is the pricing and transportation of these products to their facility.

Who is in: Potentially individuals who are using the tools themselves and/or are in an environment where aesthetics are not as important	Who is not: Professional and Luxury businesses front offices
What the need is: More “green” practices for administrative work	What the Need is not: may see this as an issue since aesthetics is one of their most important features.
Why that need exists: It is not precisely a need but potentially a preference especially if it is just as effective and saves money	Alternative explanations: There is issues with transportation of the goods because they may not be able to buy in as much bulk as they can with current partnerships.

Overall, I think that this process could work but not with the two entities I initially talked to: the UF libraries and luxury apartment leasing offices. I believe that my best option is to talk with other local businesses or an apartment complex that has less of a focus on their brand image being fresh and new.

8A

I believe that a better way that I could help UF produce less waste is by helping cut costs in the administrative offices by creating a partnership with repurpose who sells their items to the university.

I first would need to talk to the different administrative groups in the school and see what their departments are spending lots of money on. Then I would need to see what could be used from repurpose to replace what is currently being used. Throughout collecting this information about the supply and demand, it would be important for me to form dialogue between the university offices and repurpose project leadership. I also think reaching out to my Florida Leadership Academy mentors would be helpful for expediting the communication between myself and those who control these type of operations in the business school to start. I also believe reaching out to other Gainesville Green initiatives and UF organizations would be able to push me towards helpful resources.

7A

Organizations at UF have very high costs they require member to pay for gear yet up-cycled shirts would help to reduce waste and costs

Other who? Yes, I think that this could be utilized by a lot of organizations and even companies who have focuses on sustainability.
Issues with the what? The question is if the effort is worth the cost savings and how big the cost savings really could be
Issues with the why? I think this may be a good idea since I am regarding college organizations as the initial target market. Since many students do not have much money and also are educated about the importance or being resourceful, I believe that they would find this very helpful while also feeling like they are doing a good thing.

Interview 1: Valentina Blanco
Overall, liked the concept of upcycling shirts since in her sorority they pass down shirts anyways. This is something that occurs in lots of greek organizations yet they often do produce a lot of shirts so maybe automating that process in someway would be better to reduce waste and focus on an order-by-order method.

Interview 2: Danielle Lara
Worried that old shirts being upcycled may be missing the point of a lot of organizations making shirts. They want to all have the same one. This could be an issue since repurposing usually consists of random pieces.

Interview 3: Makayla Ho
Likes the idea but responded to the suggestion from Danielle to see if there is any organization who is mass producing shirts and then having to donate them because they are not being used.

Interview 4; Jacob Bobet
Said he is mostly worried that people may not be comfortable with getting an old shirt, especially if their organization is still making them pay for it.

Interview 5: Julian Berrios
He suggested that I think of other things that people donate and how that could be used to reduce costs for organizations. He suggested visiting the Re purpose project in town to get inspired. He thinks that still printing on the old shirts would be a big hassle and almost equally as expensive.

I believe that the re purposing of products is a good idea but that I should search for other products going to waste that UF students use. I am going to visit re purpose project and look at the office products they have.

6A

1) More environmentally friendly single parent household furniture.
- This was discussed in my marketing class as less and less people are getting married.
- The text discussed how this impacts the amount of people who buy products and also their desired features.
- I think the environmentally friendly aspect could be a big hit given that people are becoming more aware of issues with fast fashion and I think this could be seen against IKEA and similar companies soon. I think single parents is a good marketing approach and interesting thing to target since this is a growing market.
- I am unsure how to target this market by making the products they need but I believe that it would be a big hit if done tastefully.
WHY? I definitely believe that being environmentally responsible is on people's minds. This has increased more as I have seen many of my peers go out of there way to do better for the planet as well as older people I am around.

2) More environmentally friendly clothing made though ethical practices.
- I have seen this as a growing concern with the recent fall of Forever 21.
- With the big fan base that Forever 21 has, I think that more people will become aware of how these companies are able to produce so much and be more conscious of their consumer decisions. Environmentally friendly seems to be a trend among the younger generations due to increased knowledge of the impact.
- I think the younger generations will be very in-tune with this since thrifting is already very popular.
WHY? I think the biggest issue with this idea is price. The huge differences between cheap and expensive clothing I think just shows how strange the industry is. Fashion is hard to stand out in for a variety of reasons and staying relevant too.

3) Helping the vast amount of young people come off of nicotine.
- Widespread across the news and been often talked about with peers
- We all have seen the widespread amount of advertisements that are trying to explain how juuls and other similar products are just as bad as cigarettes. Maybe some sort of therapy would help curve the addiction.
- I think targeting young people would be good since there has been such a dramatic increase in this population having this issue.
WHY? The biggest opposition I could see is wondering if there really is a product that could be thrown into the market quick while there is such a vast amount of addicted kids. Medicine takes an extensive amount of testing and legal work prior to actually making an impact.

4) Clean power being financially achievable for organizations and individual households
- Current regulation changes in the auto industry
- I think that most everyone wants to strive for more environmentally friendly products because ultimately it impacts everyone's health which will in the long term create irreversible problems
- I think that most organizations would prefer this because there tends to be higher upfront costs due to implementation yet long term savings.
WHY? Many organizations may not have this as a priority since we still do have access to old solutions.

4A

I believe that there may be an opportunity to create more functional backpacks for people in sunny, warm places.




There are two main problems that I believe specifically students at universities and high schools with outside campuses have. One is that there is no safe way to store your sunglasses in your bag unless you bring a case. Additionally, the friction between the bag tends to create sweat stains on the back of a shirt. Currently, I think students are just dealing with the sweat and carrying their sunglasses around in their hands. I am not very certain that this problem is of huge concern to lots of people.




The typical customer would probably be any student who lives in a sunny, hot state. I think that trying to create a trend - such as hydro flasks - would be ideal since backpack trends are commonly something that a lot of people pick up on.




Interview 1: I spoke with a friend named Makayla who is a fellow student at UF.




She said that any classes that are not a short walk away causes her to sweat on her back. She says that she faces it often since she has many classes across campus so it comes up a lot and it can be embarrassing and make her feel self conscious. She often tries to sit in the back but other than that she does not do much more to prevent it. Sometimes she will wear darker shirts. Overall, she often tries to avoid being outside because it is so hot. With glasses, it tends to be a struggle to access anything in her bag. Since she has sight glasses this is even more of a problem because while she is putting her sunglasses away she has to also retrieve her sight glasses and try not to drop them or anything else while swapping them out.




I think the interview definitely confirmed that I am not just the only who experiences this problem and that I am not being especially picky.




Interview 2: Danielle, fellow student




She also agreed that these were issues but she didn't particularly find sunglasses an issue because she does not wear them very often. She did emphasize that being sweaty at the library was very embarrassing even though everyone else is too.




I think this interview made me realize that I may be looking at the wrong issue and maybe focusing on sweat specifically is more of a focus that resonates with a greater group of people.




Interview 3: Valentina, fellow student




She said that she does not wear sunglasses and does not often sweat that much on her back because she carries her backpack with one strap.




This interview made me realize that I am probably focusing on the wrong market since people naturally find a way to mitigate these issues. However, I think for a hiking backpack or music festival bag of some sorts, I may be able to create something more efficient. However, I think I would need to try to understand more about the current market leaders in these spaces and the issues these people face, since I am not someone who hikes or goes to festivals frequently.







Summary: I am unsure if my problems are widespread and if my idea would actually create impact. I think this also may be an over saturated market so it may be very hard for me to really fix a need that has not already been tackled. Maybe I could come up with some other tool for organization in transporting things since it is always a struggle for me to keep all of my stuff sorted. I believe feedback from customers is vital since without them you have no business. This is especially true if the people you have talked with are your exact target market.

5A

“High-priority violations: Alachua County restaurant inspections (Sept. 2 -7)”


https://www.gainesville.com/photogallery/LK/20190910/NEWS/910009985/PH/1


This article details about a dozen restaurants that have made important healthcode violations recently. This article details the specifics of the violations they made whether it be temperature, organization, or just general cleanliness. As much as this has now become an issue for the restaurant owners, it is also more of an issue for anyone who has been to these restaurants. These violations may have been the cause of illnesses of past customers. It also is an issue for the restaurant owners in that they haven’t been able to hire reliable employees to obey these violations. It is also an issue for those employees because it could lead them to be out of a job.





“UF Cybersecurity Researchers Gaining New Ground in Protecting Businesses and Consumers from Fraud”


https://gainesvillebizreport.com/uf-cybersecurity-researchers-gaining-new-ground-in-protecting-businesses-and-consumers-from-fraud/


This article addresses how UF is doing research on one of the leading causes of credit card fraud. Credit card skimming uses small devices to get the necessary information to make fraudulent charges or counterfeit cards. This could be an issue for anyone who uses a credit card which is the majority of people today. The worst part is that you are likely unaware it is happening.





“StudyEdge fills a niche”


https://www.businessmagazinegainesville.com/studyedge-fills-a-niche/


This article discusses how Ethan Fieldman created StudyEdge, a study review tool used by many UF students, by identifying a need as a college sophomore. He identified the issue that if students are bored, they do not learn. They now serve 200 schools across the country. This could be an issue for universities because it could make the tests easier since they analyze past test content trends. Also, it could convince students to use this tool to cram before instead of practicing a balanced life like they will need when they take on a career.





“Hurricane Dorian: Evacuees find refuge in Gainesville hotels”


https://www.gainesville.com/news/20190902/hurricane-dorian-evacuees-find-refuge-in-gainesville-hotels


This article details how the storm altered the demand the hotels typically encounter and how this created struggles while Dorian approached Florida. This can be a problem for both the hotel and the people trying to stay in them. The hotel not being prepared can leave them short handed, their employees overworked, or over capacity. This can be beneficial as they may be able to charge premiums however may hurt overall morale. It can also be an issue for people looking for places to stay as these places may become overcrowded and force them to travel to other locations. It’s a weird time for businesses when they must contront potentially profitable yet unfortunate situations.





“The Sun”


https://www.businessmagazinegainesville.com/13592-2/





This article discusses the global transition to solar energy. They emphasize the importance of businesses to innovate and be aware of the current trend to be able to withstand this changing of the times. This could create problems for consumers as well as obtaining gas to power their petroleum powered cars may increase dramatically in price and be more obsolete. This is overall good for our environment but the transition will impact any and all businesses and people.