New AI Tutor Helps Researchers Connect Lemonade Stands to Sustainable Development Goals

Playful meets practical in a new tool designed to jumpstart sustainability research

What does a lemonade stand have to do with solving the world’s biggest challenges? Quite a bit, according to a new Sustainability Lens AI-powered tool aimed at helping students and researchers explore sustainability through a hands-on, entrepreneurial lens.

My Sustainability Lens Research Tutor is an interactive ChatGPT experience that blends two seemingly unrelated concepts: the humble lemonade stand and the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The result? A surprisingly effective way to generate serious research ideas rooted in real-world impact.

The tutor uses the Sustainability Lens Game, a framework developed to help learners analyze projects from environmental, economic, social, and cultural perspectives. By applying those lenses to a small business like a lemonade stand, users can explore how everyday decisions—like where to source ingredients or how to price a product—tie into global goals like climate action, gender equity, or decent work.

“This isn’t just about lemonade,” says the project’s creator. “It’s about helping researchers see the systems behind everyday actions and using that insight to build more thoughtful, grounded academic work.”

The tool is designed with flexibility in mind. Whether you’re brainstorming a thesis, mentoring capstone projects, or looking for an engaging classroom activity, the AI tutor guides users through questions that help clarify a topic, frame a research design, and explore meaningful connections to sustainable development.

It’s also just… fun.

Where else can you consider how compostable cups relate to SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) or whether a neighborhood lemonade stand could support SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth)? The tutor offers a low-pressure way to start asking big questions—with the support of a smart, responsive AI.

Try It Out

👉 My Sustainability Lens Research Tutor

Because sometimes the best way to understand sustainable development is to start with something simple, sweet, and refreshingly hands-on.