edun LIVE Partners with Farmer School of Business at Miami University for Social...

School Develops Pilot Program for National Rollout to Colleges to Help Drive Trade with Africa

OXFORD, Ohio -- The Farmer School of Business at Miami University announced today that its Center for Social Entrepreneurship has officially launched edun LIVE on Campus, a new student-run business

Developed this past fall and run by Miami students as a pilot program, the initiative was created as a way for students to learn about sustainable development in a real world context by supplying and promoting edun LIVE on Campus t-shirts. Additionally, the partnership between edun Live and Miami University will serve as a prototype business model for other universities wishing to launch similar edun LIVE on Campus initiatives.

Edun LIVE is a sub-brand of Edun Apparel Ltd, the socially conscious clothing label founded in 2005 by U2 singer Bono and his wife Ali Hewson. Edun's mission is to increase trade and create sustainable employment for developing areas of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. Edun LIVE manufactures 100% African t-shirts, from "grower-to-sewer" in the sub-Saharan nations of Lesotho, Uganda and Kenya, to name a few, and sells them as blanks for merchandising purposes. The goal of edun LIVE is to increase employment opportunities in these regions through high volume sales of its t-shirts.

"edun LIVE had been looking for a solution to sell high volumes of t-shirts in the college market," commented Edun CEO, Christian Kemp-Griffin. "When the Farmer School's Center for Social Entrepreneurship approached me, one thing led to the next and an innovative idea emerged." Edun founder Ali Hewson added that she was excited to work with Miami as a launching pad for future college partnerships, and pleased to see "college students taking such an active role in the development of socially conscious business models."

According to Brett Smith, an assistant professor with the Farmer School's Center for Social Entrepreneurship who initiated the edun LIVE on Campus program, social entrepreneurship and social consciousness are dramatically increasing. "Response to the edun LIVE on Campus project has been dramatic," commented Professor Smith. "To date, we've sold more than 1,500 customized t-shirts to student organizations and businesses. Several hundred of them were imprinted with the slogan 'I know who made my t-shirt. Do you?' to promote the initiative on campus. We expect those numbers to grow significantly as word gets out to students, businesses and other campuses about what we're doing and why."

"The edun LIVE on Campus initiative is a great example of the real, hands-on experiential learning opportunities we offer," said Dean Roger L. Jenkins. "The Farmer School is committed to providing an MBA-like education to our undergraduates."