Good Earth Enterprise

Good Earth is a student-led eco-enterprise of Choithram School. It was established in the year 2014 under the aegis of ‘School Enterprise Challenge’ an initiative of UK-based charity ‘Teach a Man to Fish’. In the first year, the enterprise sold only compost, followed by handicrafts in the next year, and diversified to compost, saplings, handicrafts and customised t-shirts, tea cups in the subsequent years. Students from grade 1 to grade 10 are involved in multifarious activities in creating handicraft products from recycled material, preparing compost from leaves scattered in the school campus and growing plant saplings from stem and flower cuttings again available in the school campus. All business activities encompass the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle enabling students to safeguard the environment and make the enterprise ‘green’. The business team comprising of grade 11 and 12 students run the business enterprise independently taking care of all the aspects viz., production, financial, marketing and sales, human resources, and IT. The students sell these items to the parents, teachers and students during the Parent-Teacher Meetings as well as to the outside community during various events. This has proven to be a great way of exposing students to real-world situations which allow them to develop essential skills which they would not have the chance to develop inside the traditional classroom setting. Over the years multiple cohorts of students have taken the school business ‘Good Earth’ from just a small project of a few students to what is now a fully-functioning business of over 59 members that competes with other student-led businesses around the world on the Gold Level of the School Enterprise Challenge. As well as being a fantastic entrepreneurial experience, the enterprise also provides plenty of opportunities for students to come closer to the community helping them grow into active citizens.