Our Project

As Procurement Interns – Disruptive Innovations, CSR & Circular Economy – we created 11 feasibility studies to reduce the environmental impact of specific fleet carpets, curtains and seat covers. it was incredible to see our project wrap up with a rewarding culmination.

My role

As part of our collaboration, I coordinated our approach, aligned internally, delegated tasks, and supported my peers. By focusing on separate areas within procurement sustainability, we were able to tackle the wide scope of the project.

Working Together

A key element which was conducive to the success of our project was the warmth and supportive environment created by the Air France team

We all learned from and collaborated with the Air France-KLM team, the rest of the student group and all of the EUTOPIA staff.

Our weekly student meetings were a wonderful way to interact with peers from across the world and I still remain in touch with some of my EUTOPIA friends.

An incredible invitation...

Fast forward to a few weeks later when I was invited to present at the Air France Procurement Forum in Paris. I was excited and knew this would be a brilliant opportunity to enhance the impact of our collective efforts across the project, explain in detail the rationale behind our sustainability-driven practical solutions and engage with procurement sustainability experts across companies, universities and nonprofits. I began developing and refining our proposals further. Over several weeks, I knocked on many doors across the university and the prospect of me attending the Forum became increasingly bleak. One fine morning, I received a successful reply from the leaders of the TeamWork program, Nicola & Esther!

Landing in Paris for the first time on the 6th of December, I had embarked on quite the adventure: my flight – British Airways – was postponed by a few hours and transport halted at Charles de Gaulle Airport. I reached in time for the start of the conference and also got to know the airport like the back of my hand. Scanning my visitor card at the Air France HQ and entering the tarmac-facing conference hall, I felt the infectious buzz in the room – excited to learn from 26+ innovative organisations in the hall & share our proposals with the 100+ attendees.

Like a kid in a candy shop, I was awestruck!

There were a plethora of amazing technologies showcased: from a headhunting app that excluded background information to remove biases, to exoskeleton technology that assists the carrying of heavy loads, a precision-guided industrial robot arm and a reusable cup closed-loop system, to name a few. Though most of the placards were in French, everyone was kind and accommodating in answering my inquisitive questions.

I was filled with a sense of optimism hearing about the projects and journeys of many incredible entrepreneurs – and continue to stay connected via LinkedIn.It was wonderful to meet Alexis (Air France Cabin Project Buyer) to pitch our further-developed proposals, hear about progress from his end, and have an in-depth discussion on the implementation of our studies for over an hour. It was reassuring to hear that Air France-KLM is already taking proactive steps to trial ideas very similar to some of our proposals and that their team is keen to action most of the points we discussed.