Liverpool College win the Unilever Bright Future Competition 2019
Since our visit to the Unilever Factory in Port Sunlight in November, two selected teams of the Year 9 Wilton Scholars have been working on a project set by the multi-national corporation Unilever as part of their ‘Bright Futures’ programme. We could choose to do one (or more of three tasks) to help Unilever design a new product. The tasks were: Design a product that lowers water usage and the energy used to heat water; to make a plastic free product or to make a sustainable product to support the local community. To get some inspiration, we visited the Unilever factory in November. In the factory, we looked at packaging, processing, consumer technical insight, digital R&D and formulation. This led us to creating our product.
On Thursday 21 March, we were invited back to present our projects to judges from the Unilever Factory, alongside around 30 other teams, all with their own original and innovative ideas. The main objective of this experience was to inspire the younger generation to get involved in the STEM subjects. There were two groups; Hygienegg (Emily T., Lucy C. and Ethan F.) and Glow Up (Amelia Y., Amelia R., Emily C., Seif Y. and Agsith R.). Hygienegg attempted to make a plastic free product that minimised water usage and Glow Up attempted to make a plastic free, sustainable product.
Glow Up planned and thought about a skin/hair product that was one hundred percent plastic free and we decided on cork. Cork is naturally hydrophobic, mould resistant and lightweight, making it perfect for a bathroom product. We also decided on an all-natural body scrub for our starting product, naming it, 'Glow up,' as after you have scrubbed yourself with it, it will leave you with a radiant glow. Lucy C, Emily T and Ethan F created our product called Hygienegg. It consisted of a box of six ‘eggs’ which theoretically contained your whole body and hair wash for when you shower. In the products the shampoo, conditioner and body wash was all in one little capsule. The inner ‘yolk’ contained the conditioning shampoo and the outer white was the body wash. We think our product was creative and exciting and would capture people attention.
Each group presented to six separate pairs of adjudicators- each specialising in their own areas of expertise. We focused on the issues of: plastic in the modern world, our packaging, formulation, finance and future developments. It brought our entrepreneurial sides out!
After lunch, we had the awards ceremony. They started with the five category awards for: innovation, communication, technical, sustainability and finally the consumer award. They then moved on to the ranked awards, with Archbishop Blanche in 3rd place, Woodchurch team 1 in 2nd place and Glow Up (Liverpool College team 2) in 1st place. It was such an amazing feeling to know that our product was recognised and now we are looking forward to the amount of opportunities we will have with Unilever developing our product and further STEM national competitions.
We would like to thank The Wilton Trust for funding us to go on these brilliant trips and providing us with these great opportunities, particularly to Mr Cartwright for mentoring us between November and March and to Mrs Doran for organising our visit to Unilever and entries to the competition. We cannot wait for what will come next! We all really enjoyed the day, and look forward to more events with Glow Up and Hygienegg!
The Year 9 Wilton Scholars Team