Enactus: enterprising students with a big heart

Rens Roodzant, third-year International Business student, currently chairs the Maastricht branch. ‘Enactus helps teams of students to develop their own project, which can ultimately become an independent company.’ A successful example is Arbor, which produces notebooks made from recycled paper. A lot of waste paper is partly blank, so instead of throwing it away, Arbor screens it for confidential information, cuts it to size, and binds it into notebooks with a nice cover made of paper from the Jan van Eyck Academy. ‘Arbor is still growing, and we sometimes receive more orders than we can handle, for example from Heineken or UM.’

Sustainability and society first, profit second

Another Enactus project is Cook & Connect, a catering company which draws on the culinary talents of migrants. It’s a highly successful concept for which Enactus functions as an ‘incubator’. Enactus projects always centre on social aims and sustainability, and profit takes second place. ‘Corporate social responsibility is a trending topic, but mainly in a theoretical context,’ says Rens. ‘At Enactus, students can apply it in real life. Finance is all about investment, and rarely about sustainable projects. But what you invest in is also important. And I think you should stand up for what you believe in.’

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