Laurier student entrepreneurs to represent Canada

Enactus program focuses on entrepreneurship and social innovation

WATERLOO — A team of student entrepreneurs from Wilfrid Laurier University took home top honours at the recent Enactus Canada National Exposition.

Laurier’s Enactus team, comprised of several enterprises, was named overall national champion in the competition, which attracted entries from 58 Canadian colleges and universities. A number of the Laurier ventures also picked up other awards.

The team is now preparing to represent Canada at September’s Enactus World Cup, which will take place virtually from the Netherlands.

“I’m so privileged to work with these exceptional individuals,” said Laura Allan, an assistant professor in the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics and faculty adviser for Laurier Enactus.

“It gives me a lot of faith in the future, to be perfectly honest.”

The Enactus program focuses on entrepreneurship and social innovation.

Laurier’s participants include EarthSuds, which produces plastic-free single-use shampoo, conditioner and body wash tablets; Last20, which upcycles plastic waste; PolliNation, which is working to combat pollinator habitat loss; and Mighty Hawks, which works to break down employment barriers for those with a developmental disability.

“These are real ventures,” Allan said.

“It’s real, there’s nothing theoretical about it.” As an example, EarthSuds launched an e-commerce site last fall, and its products are in more than 55 retail stores in Canada and the United States.

There are also a number of other businesses being incubated in the program at Laurier.

At the national exposition, EarthSuds and Last20 won the Scotiabank Climate Change Challenge, while EarthSuds also emerged as national champion in the TD Entrepreneurship Challenge. One of the incubator ventures, SmileTabs, which makes single-use toothpaste capsules, won the 3M Canada Best Project Accelerator Award. Mighty Hawks was national runner-up in the CWB Financial Literacy Challenge.

“I don’t think there’s a better experiential learning opportunity that you can conceive of,” Allan said of the Enactus program. “(The students are) so committed to social and environmental change. … They’re awe-inspiring. They inspire me every day.”