Over the past month, Studio Seventeen has been hosting our annual group of Grads4Nottm students as they worked to make our office and our business more sustainable.
With the brief of creating a proposal to help encourage more sustainable changes around our building, our brand, our team and our space, they’ve been researching and planning new and innovative ways to improve the way we work.
From finding ingenious ways to motivate our team to source eco-friendly office products, they put together a personalised strategy for us to follow to achieve our environmentally conscious goals this summer.
We’ll be sharing the results of some of their findings across our social media and our site in the coming months, but for now, it’s time to get to know the Grads!
Get To Know Our Team
Team Member Name: Luke Willis
Degree: Business Management and Entrepreneurship, 3rd year.
Role in the Process:
So far within the project, apart from my generic team shared responsibilities, my main role within the project/team was to look for ways to optimise Studio Seventeen’s website in pursuit of greater sustainability impacts, identify design factors/choices for consideration when creating and designing client websites, which will have an impact on carbon emission production. And finally review the ways in which efforts can be acknowledged and benchmarked regarding general business eco-friendliness of operations via accreditation, certification and supported partners.
Outside the Office:
Well I’m no robot that’s for sure, so during my downtime I am either planning and working towards my desired career in business strategy consulting through undergoing self development activities, dealing with graduate related tasks like job application or am simply enjoying my time in Nottingham with friends or on lazy weekends building my relationship with Netflix.
What have you learnt through working on this project?
Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my team and such a creative and open minded design studio like Studio Seventeen. Through this interaction I have learnt many positive things regarding the importance of shared understanding, what effective teamwork looks like and how to achieve it, what business consultants do on the task level and what they are responsible for. It has also been good for me from a development perspective to get external insight from an actual company on what my skills and weaknesses look like and where I can improve. I have also learnt about many interesting sustainability and environmental concepts and topics such as website sustainability. Until now, despite knowing about sustainability and its importance, I knew nothing of how websites produced carbon dioxide and how this increased an individual or organizations total carbon footprint. As such, every day has been different and informative for me and the team, with new daily agendas, tasks and challenges on offering effective recommendations for how Studio Seventeen can move forward regarding sustainability.
Team Member Name: Gideon Usenbor
Degree: Law LLB, 3rd Year
Role in the Process:
My role in the process was to produce a roadmap for Studio Seventeen highlighting the steps that they will take over the years to provide them with a framework and set them goals for the future. This was done by having short term and long term plans that they would take to become a more sustainable business.
Outside the Office:
I enjoy spending my free time being active by going to the gym as often as I can, and I enjoy playing sports, for example football and basketball. I’m also a huge fan of watching movies and tv series during my spare time, especially comedies and action movies. I also enjoy watching stand up comedies.
What have you learnt through working on this project?
During this project I have learnt a lot about how to make a business become more sustainable, this has been an experience that I will definitely take aboard for my path to becoming a solicitor. More so, I have also learnt to further my time management and teamwork skills, through the time spent on the project. This is especially because when tackling the project you take into account that you are not just working for yourself but you are working for the business and for your team, therefore everyday you come into the project I have learnt to be engaging and to also put out any idea that comes to mind, as no idea is a bad idea. Finally, I have also learnt what business consultancy is like, which has increased my interest in business management and in business consultancy further. I will definitely take aboard the time I have spent with Studio Seventeen and my team to further research and increase my knowledge over the past weeks. This experience has solidified my interest in the field of business and I am very grateful for it.
Team Member Name:
Shaharazad Rebelo Ebrahimi (Shaz)
Degree:
Biological Sciences (Biochemistry and Microbiology), 2nd year.
Role in the Process:
Creating the Sustainable Design Strategies Presentation, Role in establishing a sustainable mindset within Studio Seventeen, in regards to its employees, clients and workspace.
What have you learnt through working on this project?
I have learnt how important it is to work in a team and gather different perspectives, sustainability within web design and the importance of a collective mindset to drive a change.
Team Member Name:
Ayana Golding
Degree:
BA (Hons) International Business, 1st year.
Role in the Process:
My role within the process was to focus on creating information guides and posters for the office about how to be sustainable. I also worked on creating the product list for the office and completed some research on green web hosting.
Outside the Office:
In my spare time, I enjoy sewing and making my own clothes. I also like partaking in sports such as Netball as it is my favourite sport. Whenever I get the chance, I like to dance and would love to join some dance classes again. I take an interest in learning new skills or languages and I am practicing how to play the guitar and the piano as well as learning Spanish and Mandarin. I recently bought a pair of rollerskates and sometimes I skate in the local park.
What have you learnt through working on this project?
I have learnt a lot about how to be sustainable within a business especially within web design. Before I had never known that web pages generate carbon emissions. Through understanding this more, it has made me think about my own impact on the environment. Getting to work within a team has also made me improve on my collaboration and teamwork skills. I have enjoyed working with the team and Studio Seventeen to understand more about the businesses as well as the formation of ideas. As the experience has only been two weeks, I have had to set out my time to make sure that all my work has been completed before presenting. My presentation skills have also been improved as I have learnt about formatting and how to design posters and presentations to fit the brand image.
