COMPASS
Green purchases earn cheers that users give to local sustainable start-up projects
Your guide for a sustainable lifestyle

- Team
- 5 master students
- Universities
- University of St. Gallen
- Disciplines
- Business Innovation
What happened, step by step.
Challenge
PostFinance asked how to create value for early adopters of sustainability, so that the offer could reach the mass market within five years.
What the team learned
Aware people stay stuck in habits; complexity and lack of transparency sap motivation. Early adopters doubt their efforts have impact, while sustainable entrepreneurs struggle to find funding.
What they built
COMPASS is an app that makes personal sustainability behaviour transparent and suggests alternatives. Users earn cheers at partner shops and give them to sustainable projects. Entrepreneurs submit ideas; investors, corporates or crowdfunders fund the most-cheered ones.
Impact
PostFinance would lead sustainable behaviour among young people in Switzerland, running a platform that coordinates entrepreneurs' ideas and gives them access to funding.
Full project text
The team’s original texts from the project page.
An application based on an ecosystem that connects individuals with a sustainable mindset with entrepreneurs who want to realise sustainable projects in Switzerland.
Challenge
People are gaining more awareness around the topic of sustainability; some are trying to adapt behaviours. However, we are often stuck in our habits and the complexity and lack of transparency lower our motivation to take action.
On the other hand, entrepreneurs willing to launch projects in the area of sustainability might have a hard time to receive funding and to know if there is demand for their product or service in Switzerland.
Solution
The Compass App will give individuals a personalised guide for a greener consumption and enable them to support
local sustainable projects.
Our user gets a holistic view about his behaviour he could not get before - additionally he can have an impact and support project ideas from entrepreneurs by giving the cheers he collected. The entrepreneur will get access to funding and once the project is realized all users can benefit since new alternatives are available and together they impact the whole community.
Impact
Our solution provides a compass to a more sustainable lifestyle for individual users while it provides a platform to get funding and support to realize sustainable projects to the entrepreneur group.
To our partner PostFinance, our vision is that they will take a leading role in driving sustainable behaviours for the young generation in Switzerland. They will give individuals an opportunity to understand their behaviour and provide a platform to coordinate sustainable business ideas and support entrepreneurs during their initial steps.
Watch the team’s pitch.
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From the field to the prototype.


Who built it.

Denise Gubser
Business Innovation

Léa Montavon
Business Innovation

Renato Lipovac
Business Innovation

Simeon Pilz
Business Innovation

Sina Oberholzer
Business Innovation