Team:RHS-Calgary/Sustainable
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Sustainability
overview
An important aspect of designing a good product is ensuring that it is sustainable.There are three key factors that are required to create a sustainable project: economics, environmental considerations, and social sustainability.
economic sustainability
Firstly, we are confident that our product is economically sustainable. We want to use a substrate specific enzyme and colour changing reagents to create a safe and efficient solution for detecting concerning glucose levels in felines when it is excreted in the urine. This isn’t currently available in the market and cats have to undergo many unnecessary tests which can cause them lots of stress. Catching diabetes in its earlier stages could eliminate or minimize complications and stress on the owners and the family. Our product has been designed in such a way that it reduces the costs of typical treatments and management for feline diabetes, making it more affordable for cat owners. With this, we are working to ensure that our product is of higher quality than the products that are currently available on the market. Presently, there are two similar products on the market. However, they both test for other issues whereas GlucoLitter is targeted towards elevated urine glucose concentrations. Firstly, Pretty Litter, is a special type of litter that can be used for identifying many feline health issues. For instance, it can test for alkalynity. Though it has been tested, there can still be concern that the cat may be near harmful chemicals or may ingest the litter when they are young. Our product combats this as it is not litter, nor a litter additive. So, your cat will never come in contact with harmful chemicals. Secondly, there is Ultra Monthly Monitor which is in the form of a litter additive but does not target glucose concentrations in the urine. From our analysis, there are no truly similar products like this on the marked. Overall, our product is economically sustainable as it reduces the large amounts of money that some cat owners have to pay. Through our interview with Mr. John Whitbread, we learned that treating a cat with feline diabetes is both time-consuming and costly. GlucoLitter aims to prevent that by allowing families to detect their cat's diabetes before its too late.
environmental sustainability
Secondly, our product is environmentally sustainable and does not harm the environment that we live in. We have highly researched the chemical components that we use in our project and they pose no biohazards. The strain of E. coli that we are planning to use in our project, Escherichia coli BL21, is known to not cause harm to other microorganisms or plants and cannot colonize the digestive system of healthy adults. The risk to the community and environment is very low. Our project uses a spray bottle, which is also environmentally friendly and reusable.
social sustainability
Finally, our product is socially sustainable because we are fabricating detailed plans to make it easy for others to provide feedback, offer their suggestions and insights, which in turn allows for the future improvement of our product. In order to design a better and more effective product, we have talked to vet clinics and many cat owners to gain a more fundamental understanding on the disease of feline diabetes, the ways in which it is treated and managed, and how we can make it successful in potential markets. GlucoLitter has also been created by a group of individuals who are diverse in their experiences corresponding to biology, computer science, mathematics, and chemistry.
