Covenant House Vancouver recently received a wonderful donation of $1,000 courtesy of Dublo Solutions: a student-run, eco-friendly company that produces sustainable and plantable products!
As two high school students, Alisa Zhu and Kevin Zhang never could have imagined themselves starting a company. However, their shared passion for sustainability and concern for mounting paper waste in landfills inspired them to take action one day.
“We are hurt to see our home and communities pile up with paper trash,” says Alisa, when speaking to the company’s origins, “which furthers deforestation…even when most paper could be recycled”.
The two ambitious students were determined to break out of this wasteful and vicious cycle, seeking instead ways to create a circular economy in which used and unwanted materials could be repurposed and given a new life. Dublo solutions does just that by manufacturing Sprout: a plantable coffee sleeve made of biodegradable material, ingrained with seeds that grow into plants after use — all created using diverted paper waste from landfills!
And that’s just the beginning — spurred on by the desire to do good for the environment as well as the community, Alisa and Kevin reached out to Covenant House Vancouver, hoping to collaborate on their first product, with all profits going toward supporting our young people!
We were able to put them in touch with two youth artists who formerly called CHV home, and together, they created two beautiful coffee sleeve designs that were eventually picked up by two local coffee shops: Beyond Bread and Storm City Coffee. One youth even left a touching artist statement with their piece, read it here.
A big congratulations and thank you again to Alisa and Kevin, for successfully launching their business and coming together to support the work we do at CHV!