92 Agricola Lelita S.A in Ecuador

Team 104 Poster

Team Reflection

Our business focuses on finding innovative ways to reinforce and grow our efforts in maintaining sustainability. The business is currently concentrating on two main strategies for becoming more sustainable as an agricultural business. One of the innovative ways the company will reduce its electricity consumption and use of diesel energy is by avoiding the concern of running out of diesel fuel. In Ecuador, where frequent blackouts are forcing people to use generators that run on diesel, there are fears that this may lead to a diesel shortage. To avoid future problems and to enhance sustainability, our business is looking into transitioning to solar power as our energy source. We believe this is a great idea for the future, and making this transition now will not only benefit the company but also the environment, especially given the increasing consumption of diesel fuel.

Another way our company is focusing on sustainability is by creating our own plant nurseries. Instead of buying bananas from other nurseries, we have decided to learn how to cultivate our own. This has become highly beneficial, as we can now control the amount of sunlight our plants receive and avoid the use of harmful chemicals. We find it amazing that the business has taken control of the products it sources and chosen to innovate by developing its own nurseries.

We are all very inspired and impressed by the work our company has done in pursuing innovative methods to stay sustainable. It has been fascinating to learn about the impact of agriculture and how climate and weather play significant roles. We were surprised by the many challenges associated with running an agriculture-based company. We were also surprised to hear about the frequent blackouts in Ecuador and how they have become so common. However, it was encouraging to see how our business plans to overcome these challenges while focusing on sustainability. When we learned that the business wanted to transition to using solar power, this was not something we were surprised about, as many businesses are adopting this trend to remain sustainable. We all agreed that the company was focusing on the triple bottom line by creating its own plant nursery. By starting our own nurseries, we focus on the planet, profit, and people. The company can control the chemicals used on the plants, benefiting the well-being of the consumers. The roofs of the nursery are designed to allow only 50% of the light that the plants need, which benefits the planet, and lastly, this will bring the company more profit by eliminating the need to source from other nurseries.

We believe that the business is on the right track to maintain and become more sustainable. This business has done so much to overcome the challenges it has faced and has learned and grown throughout all the ups and downs. We think it is very positive that the business has created an amazing group of experienced individuals to help run the company smoothly. We also think that it is great that the business is committed to making sure that the products that their customers consume don’t have harmful chemicals in them.

We all agreed that this project will definitely impact the way we think and act about the future. It is very important to focus on the well-being of our people and the planet and how it will look in the future. We all consume products that are mass-produced by agricultural companies, and it is important to understand how they are sourced and what products are being used to bring us these products. We are all aware that the resources we have on this planet will eventually start to run out, and it is important to be mindful of ways we can make a change to maintain sustainability on this planet. Even small changes in our daily routines can still make a significant impact on the sustainability of our planet. We all agreed that this experience will influence how we approach our future jobs and the work environments we will enter. It is important to act more consciously about how we are contributing to the sustainability of this planet.

We can all see ourselves in the business field, and we believe this has become a valuable learning experience that will be useful for us in the future when we plan to enter the business world. Knowledge like this will help us become more experienced as we contribute to businesses or start our own. Overall, we were very pleased to gain so much new knowledge about how a business can become more sustainable and how we can connect that to our own lives and experiences.

Individual Reflections

Angelina Kasiyan: 

I think that overall this was a very good and new experience to have and to learn from. There were a lot of parts to this project, not only to follow the instructions and complete the necessary requirements but also to communicate and work as a team with people that we don’t see and share different time zones with. I think our team did a great job with staying on task with our weekly meetings and finding ways we can all contribute to the project. We had great communication, when it came down to finding a time to work for all us and our schedules. We also all contributed in doing our role and making sure all the work gets done by the due date. I think this was a very interesting experience and allowed us all a chance to learn something new about a business and how they practiced sustainability. I am very pleased with how our group  communicated and went about completing all the tasks that  were asked of us.

Michel Doumet:

I am truly happy with how this project process went. I didn’t think I’d have the chance during my university years to work with people from other universities and even other continents in this way. It has been an incredible experience. Honestly, I thought that the time difference would make things a bit harder, but the organization has been perfect. My teammates and I have really embraced a collaborative mindset; we’ve worked well together, and we’ve been able to split up the tasks smoothly. Something I especially enjoyed was the chance to learn about how a company operates up close, and in my case, it happened to be my father’s company. I couldn’t ask for more. Also, being a native Spanish speaker, I got to practice English a lot by working with teammates for whom English is their first language. I really hope I have more opportunities like this during the rest of my university years.

Steven Kearney:

I am very pleased at how the overall process of this group project went. I found it to be a very interesting and fun experience being able to work with students from different universities in Spain and USA. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with my teammates and learning about the different university lifestyles they have. Even though the time difference from here to Spain is six hours, the time difference wasn’t much of an obstacle as we figured out certain times every week that would work for everyone so we could meet as a group on zoom and figure out our plan for the week on this project. I feel as if our group collaborated very well together, as we organized and split up the assignments so each group member had an important role. We also communicated a lot through a What’sApp group chat throughout the duration of the project, where we collaborated about the project and any problems we had. Overall, this was a fun and unique experience and I hope to be able to do a project like this again.

Matthew Hoefer: 

Overall I found the AIm2Florurish project to be a unique experience that allowed me to grow and develop my social and teamwork skills. Every Week, we would all work around each other’s schedules and time zones to meet up and discuss our project. Initially, it was tricky to communicate with team members in different time zones and adapt to their different schedules, but we all worked around it as a team. The work I participated in included weekly meetings, meeting reflections, questions for interview, and discussing the interview with my groupmates. I found that everyone fully participated, fulfilling their responsibilities and meeting deadlines, which enabled a successful collaborative environment to work in. I am happy with this experience and I recommend others to experience this course.

Michael Londono:

At first I was scared of how it was all going to work out, especially if two of my team members are from Spain and there’s a time difference of 6 hours. I was also scared of not getting teammates who weren’t going to participate and not do work or no communication. Once we made the group chat on whatsapp, everything fell into place and ran very smoothly from there. Everyone is so nice and helpful. I’m glad how we all were able to keep it a great work environment and there were no problems at all. We all communicated well and made sure to work around everyone’s busy schedules to make time for the weekly meetings. Everyone kept their professionalism. I found the whole experience to be very good. It’s something different and it allows you to see all the different types of perspectives from people around the world. The whole group participated and we all divided up the work evenly. I liked the aim2flourish project it was a great experience i’m just glad i got a great group like mine because i can see how challenging it can be if there’s no communication.