ENGAGE: We are the real world

At ASU, we believe we are the real world, and much of our time is spent spanning the boundaries between coursework and life work.

For entrepreneurially minded students, coursework is only part of the college experience. Just as important are the opportunities to get out and get to know other students working in similar spaces, and to learn about how things work in the “real world” — the one that exists after graduation. At ASU, we believe we are the real world, and much of our time is spent spanning the boundaries between coursework and life work.

Edson E+I encompasses a variety of programs aimed at encouraging students to get involved, such as Ashoka Changemaker and the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), both of which offer networking and mentorship opportunities for learners seeking to make a difference.

We also have a thriving portfolio of youth entrepreneurship programs aimed at teaching young people entrepreneurial concepts early in life. Among these are the Verizon Innovation Learning Schools Labs and Curriculum and the now concluded Verizon Innovative Learning Design Thinking Program. These dynamic programs have brought digital tools and hands-on entrepreneurial learning opportunities to youth in underserved schools throughout our surrounding communities and nationally.

Key partnership: RISN Incubator

The team at ASU knows everyone in the who’s who of the circular economy space. We have been astounded by the relationships that we’ve been able to build because of RISN and the lessons we’ve learned. It’s truly been a life-changing experience for us and has had an enormous positive effect as we continue to push our business forward.

— Ryan Smith, founder and CEO of Recyclops, a RISN Incubator company

Trash has long been a source of frustration for major cities like Phoenix. Landfills take up critical space across the country, often filling beyond capacity, leaking toxins into the ground and creating financial liabilities that extend far beyond their physical boundaries. Many cities now export trash across state or even international boundaries, draining resources from our economy. The Resource Innovation and Solutions Network (RISN) Incubator was designed to turn this literal waste into bounty for our city and our region.

The RISN Incubator was a collaboration between Edson E+I, the city of Phoenix and ASU’s Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service. It built on the city’s Reimagine Phoenix initiative — a program that aimed to divert 40% of the city’s waste from the landfill by 2020. In 2016, Edson E+I received a $500,000 award from the U.S. Economic Development Administration i6 Regional Innovation Strategies program to support the RISN Incubator.

The RISN Incubator demonstrates the power of university, government and non-governmental partnerships to transform the relationship between resources, the environment and the economy.

Together, they created a resource-focused, ethical circular economy platform capable of making urban areas healthier, more resilient and more efficient. Edson E+I is proud to have played an important role in this transformative initiative as host and programmer of the RISN Incubator.

The RISN Incubator offered emerging ventures an opportunity to rapidly scale and transform their startups into vehicles for waste diversion by helping test concepts, build company infrastructure and scale ideas to market. Through the program, aspiring entrepreneurs had access to expert mentors, strategic advisers and networked relationships that might otherwise be unavailable to them. Importantly, they also had access to city of Phoenix waste for use in the development, testing and activation of their proposed products and services.

RISN Incubator participants were selected through a competitive process that included a design challenge or, in the case of more developed companies, through direct invitation. Even those who were not ultimately selected to participate were provided with helpful feedback on how to advance their ideas.

In 2017, the RISN Incubator held its first hackathon aimed at finding new and innovative ways to reduce, repurpose, recycle and design out solid waste in the city.

By June 2020, the RISN Incubator had incubated 19 companies, creating 68 jobs, raising $3.72 million in capital, earning $4.14 million in revenues and launching 25 new products and services.