Lauren Kurtz Erika Woolley Kevin Faranetta Emma Glasgow Erika Woolley Professor Turner BMGT110 FP06 December 5 2009 Going green has become a popular social trend and created many viable business opportunities Our business Terp Green will provide products and services to support the eco friendly efforts of the University of Maryland Terp Green has both short term objectives and is adaptable to grow into broader long term initiatives In the near term we will focus on simple user friendly ways for students and staff to go Terp Green by improving upon already established habits Our main entry product is distribution of free reusable water bottles Every new student freshman or transfer will be given one free green water bottle with the Terp Green symbol and a UMD emblem These reusable bottles will be issued in a standard size complete with measurement marks inside for easy use in diners and food vendors including franchises in Stamp Students will be charged for soft drinks dependent upon how much the bottles are filled Disposable water bottles will be initially discouraged and potentially prohibited from being sold in campus stores in order to encourage the wide spread use of the bottles Food services can provide disposable cups but at a higher cost in order to discourage use Disposable cups will also be made of recyclable material see section explaining recyclable container requirements Our future objective for this plan would be to install more water fountains across the campus A secondary service would be re thinking recycling bins Similarly these bins would be bright green and have the Terp Green and UMD emblems In order to provide convenience across campus we will implement one recycling bin for every two garbage bins The innovation will be in providing bins that consist of four separate drop boxes for aluminum plastic glass and paper Our future objective for this plan would be to have the university s garbage pick up service expand their tasks to include picking up the recyclables as well The final product in our initial offerings will be recyclable containers for all campus stores All take out purchases will be required to use only recyclable containers and bags for any purchase Due to the fact that many of the franchises on campus provide containers and bags with their company logo advertising and name we cannot standardize unified containers however we can require them to replace all existing containers with recyclable containers in order to sell their food and services on our campus As a starting point we will have these three product service focuses If successful our business would like to expand into other universities across the nation On a smaller scale within the school our future objectives include creating more services under our company These services would include but are not limited to planting trees across the campus implementing sorting belts in dining areas along with hiring staff to sort the trash as is already done in the dining halls and moving towards hybrid public transportation systems By implementing and suggesting several easy ways to go green around campus we can reduce our university s waste and enhance eco friendly awareness Rather than printing assignments professors should take full advantage of using e mail and elms to contact students Students should be encourage to print double sided documents Ultimately our objectives are to increase awareness and create a sustainable environment on the campus of the University of Maryland By building upon the successes at the University of Maryland we will be able to penetrate other university campuses to move toward becoming Terp Green As far as marketing for our business is concerned the target audience will be students faculty and staff at the University of Maryland In particular we want to garner attention and build awareness in students who are not already environmentally friendly In this way we can maximize efforts by having as many people as possible on campus working to reduce their waste and shrink the carbon footprint of the campus We will implement a variety of strategies to market our products in order to penetrate multiple communication mediums Print medium will be covered by advertisements and articles in campus newspapers on signs in the dining halls and on recycling bins We will also create a website a Facebook page and a Twitter account to take advantage of the widespread influence of the Internet and social networking medium To ensure the commuters are also notified of our efforts we will ask the president to send an e mail out to all students A key aspect of the business plan is to make the use of plastic bottles and paper cups in dining halls and other food venues obsolete The approach is two fold first to provide free and easy tools to participants and secondly to make it more difficult to maintain current practices than to adopt new ones To do this we will distribute free high quality durable and reusable water bottles to each dorm They will be placed in each room by the resident advisor upon new students arrival for orientation For off campus students bottles will be available in Stamp for pick up which a quick scan of their photo id can verify Paper cups will be eased out of use in all the dining halls by instituting an eco charge for anyone requiring a disposable cup Terp Green also intends to go nationwide The first three schools targeted for marketing when expansion beings are Towson University Johns Hopkins University and Loyola University This is based on proximity to our initial market and similarity in target audience Similar advertisement strategies would be used at each school with adjustments made as appropriate An umbrella company name would replace Terp Green so as not to conflict with school identity as we grow into new territory An umbrella company symbol would also be used and placed on bottles and recycling bins Our business would fund these projects by contacting big corporations who are known for their emphasis on sustainability and sense of corporate social responsibility These companies would be more sympathetic and supportive of our efforts and would benefit by enhancing their green reputation We would also apply for a grant from school related programs such as the Society for Green Business within the Robert H Smith School of Business as well as the Smith School of Business itself Our final plan for marketing will be to adhere to SWOT analysis of our business Our
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