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Product cover image for Code Effort: Giving Meaningful Life to Cigarette Butts

Code Effort: Giving Meaningful Life to Cigarette Butts

Sourabh Bhattacharya, Romina Mathew, Kiran Pedada

Product #:W43109
Supplier:Ivey
Discipline:Operations Management, Sustainability
Setting:India, 2024
Details:Case (PDF) • 11 pages • 2026-01-06

Subjects:

Social enterpriseEnvironmental sustainabilityBusiness managementOperations and supply chain management

Industries:

Public administration and nonprofits

Geography:

IndiaAsia
Your Price:$9.71

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In September 2018, Naman Gupta founded Code Effort Private Limited in India. The company recycled cigarette butts into products like soft toys, home furnishings, textiles, and paper. Gupta built a nationwide supplier network using a subscription-based model, which ensured a year-long steady supply of the widely littered cigarette butts. While he made successful strides in addressing environmental and social issues around cigarette butts, he now faced economic challenges. Limited processing capacity and product lines led to inefficiencies in managing raw material inventories. To achieve sustainability, Gupta needed to expand his product portfolio and integrate a supply chain aligned with demand. Having solved supply-side challenges, could he now tackle demand-side issues to create a sustainable business?

Learning Objectives

This case can be used in an introductory Operations Management course in the first year of a master of business administration (MBA) program while discussing process analysis, process flow charts, and bottlenecks and how they affect system efficiency. This case can also be used effectively in a second-year MBA Sustainability course to demonstrate the interaction between the three pillars of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental. In the same course, this case can also be used to elaborate the concept of Material Circularity Indicator and Circular Business Model within the Circular Economy Framework proposed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Lastly, this case can be used to introduce social entrepreneurship and what distinguishes a social enterprise from a commercial enterprise. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:
  • Understand the significant environmental and societal impact of mismanaging harmful waste, such as cigarette waste, on the health and well-being of all living beings.
  • Analyze the operational challenges of scaling up a social enterprise whose core mission is environmental and social sustainability.
  • Appreciate the role of economies of scale and scope in achieving supply chain efficiency and responsiveness.
  • Use a push-pull system framework to design a supply chain for a firm offering products with varied demand characteristics.
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Case Study: Code Effort: Giving Meaningful Life to Cigarette Butts (English version) | Ivey Publishing