The competition awarded a total of three prizes: two for the scientific poster category, and one for the practical workshop category. The group of students from the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, who won the award in the poster category, are studying on the University Master's Degree in Business Management and Production Systems. Two groups of students from the Faculty of Education Sciences also won prizes: one for their poster, and the other for their workshop.

The winning Business Administration and Management students are Lucrezi Ferretti, Julio Bausili and Mattia Montacchini, who presented proposals to limit the use of paper in companies with a poster titled “Papeles 0 – Árboles 1” (Trees 1 - Paper 0). They explain how “they looked for ways to reduce the amount of paper that gets wasted in office settings, and replace it with digital management options, through an SAP system that digitises document storage and helps facilitates management”.

The students state that in SMEs today, an employee uses around 10,000 sheets of paper each year, which is equivalent to one average-sized tree, i.e. about 2,721 kilograms of oxygen, enough to keep two people alive for a year. Therefore, in an average company with twenty employees, reducing paper usage by 66%, which is what this project proposes, results in a saving of 35,917 kilograms of oxygen per year, i.e. enough for about 26 people.

According to the group, “the economic impact on the company is also alarming, since by reducing the use of paper and all related expenses –electricity, storage and maintenance of records– by 66%, they could save up to €160,000 per year”.

This group’s proposal concluded with a promising system for the employees of each company: monthly monitoring and results, which would show their contribution to environmental sustainability and the number of trees saved. One project, three words: “Every leaf counts”.