You're the company product manager. You have to reduce your energy load by a final 2% to meet this year's emissions quota. But you've already made every stride imaginable - reducing packaging needs, making smart transportation choices, and integrating end-of-life disposal. Now it's time to move beyond the low-hanging fruit. If only the materials used in manufacturing itself required less cost and energy than traditional ones...

Thanks to the hard work of this year's Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge grand prize winners, this is now a reality. The team's winning business pitch was for Covaron, a new material that outperforms traditional engineering ceramics. With a higher temperature resistance than steel, Covaron serves the same function as a traditional material in manufacturing molds but for less cost - and energy.

Covaron is the brain child of Vince Alessi and Cameron Smith from the University of Michigan. The impressive pair beat out a number of top business school competitors for the $20,000 prize at the competition's grand finale, held at Walmart headquarters in Bentonville, AR. Alessi, an avid inventor who submitted his first patent application energy at age 14, developed the Covaron technology over the past few years.

When he met Smith at the University of Michigan, who had worked previously as a consultant and sustainability manager, the two combined their talents and developed a business plan to move Covaron forward. That's when they heard about the challenge.

Smith's and Alessi's pitch highlighted the critical difference between Covaron and traditional manufacturing ceramics: Covaron eliminates the need for a typically energy intensive process in the production of a traditional pattern or mold. Making their pitch even more attractive, Smith and Alessi argued that getting Covaron off the ground will require less capital than peer materials in development, which will lead to a faster to-market commercialization.

The Walmart Better Living Business Challenge was a great way to get exposure with top executives, to receive expert advice on our sustainability strategy, and to meet lots of great people from around the country, says Smith. Now, with the additional funding under its belt, the Covaron team is looking to continue its pitch, and believes the material holds great promise in a variety of industries, such as energy production, construction, and consumer products.

Congratulations to all of the Better Living Business Plan Challenge semi-finalists, as well as the First Place Winners from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who took home $10,000 for Takachar, a business that turns landfill waste into useful charcoal briquettes.