Overview: Students from Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business partnered with the Sustainability Innovation Incubator to design a marketing campaign that reimagines how behavior change can be tested on campus. By treating Northeastern as a living lab, the student teams applied branding, consumer behavior, and communications strategies to reduce single-use plastics and shift campus culture.
How it Works: Student teams:
- Conducted market research to understand drivers of single-use plastics on campus.
- Developed messaging and branding strategies to encourage reusable alternatives.
- Designed digital media campaigns, posters, and outreach events targeting the Northeastern community.
- Collaborated with sustainability staff to align messaging with university-wide initiatives.
Expected Outcomes:
- Reduce reliance on single-use plastics in dining and retail spaces.
- Raise awareness of the environmental impacts of plastics.
- Encourage a lasting culture of reuse, recycling, and responsible consumption.
Campus & Global Impact: On campus, the campaign directly supports Northeastern’s sustainability and zero-waste goals while giving student real-world experience in using marketing for environmental impact. Globally, it shows how communication and business skills can drive measurable change in sustainable consumption and corporate responsibility. The project demonstrates how student creativity, when tested in a campus setting, can produce scalable approaches to global challenges.
Contacts : Mary Steffel, Marketing Group of DMSB, (m.steffel@northeastern.edu)
Related Sustainable Development Goals:
CONTACT US
Do you have questions for Sustainability Incubator? Please reach out to us.