UK Students Challenged To 'Improve Life at Home' With Ideas To Make Appliances More Sustainable for People and for the Planet

Whirlpool Corp.’s vision is “to improve life at home,” which includes care for the planet that everyone lives on. With this in mind, the company has recently launched a new campaign called “Purposeful Innovation,” which aims to inspire the next generation to develop sustainable kitchens of the future.

The World of Whirlpool showroom in Peterborough, UK hosted the official launch of the campaign in April, which tasked secondary school students from aged 11-14 to re-design a popular appliance to be more environmentally friendly.

Almost sixty students from across Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, and Lincolnshire attended the launch. On the day, Whirlpool Corp. engineers, product designers, and trainers deconstructed appliances to demonstrate the technologies behind them and their environmental impacts. Students also had the opportunity to learn about consumer motivations and purchasing factors when it comes to kitchen appliances and sustainability.

The students will now work together in teams of five to redesign either a tumble dryer, washing machine, or fridge freezer over the course of eight weeks. The redesigned product must reduce energy, water, or food waste and be manufactured in a more eco-friendly way.

The live final will take place at the WoW (World of Whirlpool) at the end of June, where the winning team will receive a new kitchen appliance for their school, and each member of the winning team will also win a new appliance for their home too. The winners and runners-up will also get to go on an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour at Whirlpool Corp.’s Yate factory in Bristol, which manufactures half a million dryers for UK homes every year. Additional prizes will be awarded for a range of other skills demonstrated during the competition, such as teamwork, creativity, sustainable innovation, and ingenuity.

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