Spring 2025 Smeal Undergraduate Sustainability Case Competition

The Spring 2025 Competition challenges students to come up with new ways to face sustainability related problems. This page outlines the case, timeline, and prizes.

Spring 2025 Smeal Undergraduate Sustainability Case Competition

The Center for the Business of Sustainability is organizing the Undergraduate Sustainability Case Competition. The competition allows students to work on a cross-disciplinary team to use business and markets to solve real-world social justice and environmental conservation challenges. Student teams who make it to the finals will have the opportunity to present in front of some of today’s leading sustainability and social impact executives. 

The competition is organized by the Smeal Center for the Business of Sustainability, Smeal Diversity Enhancement Programs, and Morgan State University.  

This year’s case will focus on the growing presence of AI. Given the fast-paced nature of this growing technology, it brings questions about how AI can be used to promote sustainability. The need for realistic and impactful analysis of this technology is evident and we believe that students have a valuable perspective. Student teams will be tasked with understanding this topic and formulating a relevant solution that could be implemented in a local community. 

Registration is now closed.

Prizes :

1st place: $3,000  
2nd place: $2,000  
3rd place: $1,000   

Timeline: 

Team Registration - Opens January 6
Registration Closes - February 3rd at 5:00 PM
Case Release - February 5th at 8:00 AM
Power Hour - February 18th, 12-1 pm ET
Submissions Due - March 7th at 5:00 PM
Finalist Announced - March 20th at 10:00 AM
Final Submissions - April 7th at 5:00 PM
Finals - April 10th

Deliverables:

Round 1 Deliverables :
YouTube Video presentations are no more than 15 minutes long. Everyone must be a part of the presentation. Late submissions will not be reviewed. 
PowerPoint for a 15-Minute Presentation. Your team also must submit a PPT and a PDF version of the PowerPoint used in your presentation.
The review process is anonymous; DO NOT include team member names or photos in the video or in the PowerPoint 
Intro Slide: Make Up a Team Name and Put It on Your Title Slide (not team member names, just the overall team name) 
There is no required minimum or maximum number of slides; it is up to your team to determine the appropriate number of slides for a 15-minute presentation 
You may include an appendix for additional data, graphs, analysis, sources, etc.

Finals Deliverables (if your team is chosen as a finalist):

15 Minute Live Presentation (Expectation is Every Group Member Must Present)
10 Minutes of Q&A with Judges