X-Lint wins 2011 Net Impact Wal Mart pitch contest by unanimous vote

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The 90 second pitch that follows was delivered, followed by 3 minutes of Q&A from the panel:

  • Robert Kaplan: Manager, Corporate Responsibility for Brown-Forman Corporation
  • Rahul Raj: Director, Sustainability for Walmart.com
  • Emily Reyna: Project Manager, Environmental Defense Fund
  • James Stanway: Senior Director, Global Supply Chain, Walmart

Pitch:

X-Lint 60 second pitch

I’m Justin Lowell-Bellew from Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder, here to introduce the patent-pending “X-Lint”

(prototype passed to judges)


As you can see, the X-Lint attaches to a dryer filter. Airflow spins the propeller which, in turn, brushes against the filter, throughout the dryer cycle and removes lint from its path. In later prototype versions, there is a ring around the propeller to collect this lint.


Clogged dryer filters reduce airflow and increase drying times. By preventing lint buildup, X-Lint provides a path of least resistance for the air and reduces drying times.


There are ~90M HH dryers in the US, each of which represents ~5.8% of home energy use. Reducing this by 30% means an annual savings of ~$35-$70 per household, depending on energy rates.


Major utilities like SCE and Xcel offer rebates for customers who buy CFLs and other energy efficient devices like the X-Lint.

Many also work directly with retail partners to subsidize the cost to the consumer. For them, the X-Lint represents 2.9 billion kWh at 10% market penetration: more than 2 million tons of CO2 emissions avoided, annually.


For Walmart, it means an opportunity to help your customer save money and live better.


Thank you