Objective

At the end of my first year of graduate school my cohort completed a "thesis sprint". During this time we experienced an expedited version of our full thesis project to practice our skills from identifying a problem statement - through ideation - prototyping and presenting a solution.

My thesis sprint was focused on getting my husband to bring lunch to work, a surprisingly tricky challenge.

Outcome

My full-length thesis will be done alongside two other environmental sustainability fanatics, Mary Beth & Corinne. we have identified the following problem statement:

Sustainable purchasing is not affordable for all socio-economic groups.

We will continue researching this space throughout the summer and all of next year in preparation to deliver our findings at the final thesis show in May 2019.

I will be recording my thesis journey along the way, highlighting major takeaways from week to week. THESIS BLOG

We want to learn the barriers that exist between carrying about sustainability issues and actually participating in behaviors that support positive change. The entry point for behavior change is different for everyone and it’s crucial to identify what they are so impact can be large scale.

Cost and inconvenience are current barriers to sustainable purchasing. While we want to explore how to overcome those elements we also want to understand if there are cultural or community dynamics that can support positive change as well.