A well-known environmental think tank, the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C., earlier this month named the Bren School’s “Green Pieces” Group Project the winner of their annual Socially Responsible Business Plans Competition. The Bren group of graduate students beat out 60 other teams’ business plans.

Matthew Kotchen, Bren assistant professor of environmental economics, is faculty adviser to the group, which is composed of students Jamie Britto, Nicole Dejonghe, Max DuBuisson, and Kelly Schmandt. They also earned a second-place finish in a separate Sustainability Prize competition.

“The students did a really nice job of setting the course for future group projects in Eco-Entrepreneurship,” said Kotchen. “They set the bar high while providing a great example of how to combine the Bren master’s EE program with ideas of eco-entrepreneurship.” The team will receive $5,000 in prize money.

The students created a business plan to build affordable, sustainable, modular homes. Their goal was to construct modular housing that reduced costs by 15 percent and construction waste by 40 percent while allowing a home to be built in half the normal time.