Real World Learning: How CandleXchange Brings Sustainability, Maths and Social Enterprise to Life in Schools and Universities
By Karen Platt, Co-Founder, CandleXchange
Some of the most powerful learning happens when students engage directly with a real business tackling real problems. Not in a textbook — in their hands, in the decisions they make, and in the impact they can trace back to their own work.
At CandleXchange, we are a certified social enterprise founded in 2021 on two principles: designing waste out of candles through our Return & Swap circular model, and creating genuine social impact through our UpCandle program, which has donated more than 4,200 candles to people rebuilding their lives after domestic violence. That combination — real circularity, real social enterprise, real numbers — makes us a natural partner for educators wanting to bring the curriculum to life.
We work with primary schools, secondary schools, and universities across Australia, tailoring every collaboration to the curriculum and cohort involved. Here is what that looks like in practice.
Primary School Programs: Maths, Sustainability and Kindness in Action
Our candle-making workshop program for primary students was co-designed with SCECGS Redlands to weave together maths, sustainability, creativity, and community impact into a single, hands-on experience.
Maths You Can Touch
Working through each stage of the candle-making process, students apply real maths in real time. They measure diameter to determine the right wick size using geometry and proportions, calculate the capacity of containers to understand why candles should never be overfilled, work out exactly how much liquid wax each container requires, and use fractions, percentages and ratios to blend precise fragrance-to-wax formulas. Beyond the numbers, students pour wax, blend fragrance, and centre the wick themselves. It is the kind of learning that sticks, because it connects abstract concepts to something they can smell, touch, and take pride in.
The Circular Economy in Their Hands
A core part of the workshop is giving students their first hands-on experience of the circular economy in action. Traditional candle containers are made from tempered glass, which cannot be processed by standard recycling facilities — so most end up in landfill. During the program, students reclaim and upcycle used containers, discovering how reuse extends the useful life of materials while reducing environmental impact. For many, it is the moment sustainability stops being a concept and becomes a habit.
Paying It Forward
The candles students make are donated to ReLove, an organisation that provides home starter packages — including homewares and everyday essentials — for women and families rebuilding their lives after domestic violence. Students do not just practise maths and learn about sustainability. They experience empathy, generosity, and the quiet power of contributing to something bigger than themselves. Knowing their candles will bring warmth to someone starting over is a lesson no worksheet can replicate.
Secondary School Programs: Design Thinking, Circular Business and Social Innovation
For secondary students, we move from hands-on making to critical thinking — using CandleXchange as a live case study in circular design, social enterprise, and what it means to build a business that does more than generate profit.
SCECGS Redlands: Three Curriculum Units
SCECGS Redlands integrates CandleXchange across three curriculum units, each approaching our story from a different angle:
In the Year 8 Circular Economy Unit, students explore how reducing waste and resource use through reuse, recycling and regeneration works in practice — grounded in our candle container return and refill system. In the Year 9 Intrapreneurship Project, students examine how to innovate within existing businesses or create new ventures that balance profit with purpose, using CandleXchange as a living example of how circular economy and social impact can be embedded in a brand from the beginning. In the Year 9 Capitalism for Good Unit, students challenge conventional assumptions about business by looking at enterprises that prioritise environmental and social benefit alongside financial returns — a question our social enterprise model is built to answer.
Across all three units, students engage with a business that is still early enough in its journey to be honest about the trade-offs and tensions involved, which makes for richer and more honest classroom discussion than a polished corporate case study can offer.
Barker College: Year 10 Design Thinking
Barker College's Year 10 Character and Enterprise Program uses CandleXchange as a real-life Design Thinking case study. Students examine how we identified a genuine problem — millions of candle containers heading to landfill each year — and designed a business model around reuse rather than disposal. The case challenges them to consider what design-led thinking looks like when the goal is not just commercial success, but measurable social and environmental impact that can be tracked and reported.
University Programs: Social Entrepreneurship and Social Impact in Practice
At university level, CandleXchange serves as a live teaching case — a young certified social enterprise with documented impact metrics, a clearly articulated dual-impact model, and a business story that is still unfolding. That combination makes it a rich subject for postgraduate study in social innovation and entrepreneurship.
University of New South Wales: Social Entrepreneurship
UNSW's Centre for Social Impact uses CandleXchange as a live case study in their Social Entrepreneurship course. Students examine our founding story, our dual-impact model, our Social Traders certification, and how we measure and communicate social impact — including our Return and Swap program and UpCandle initiative. It is an opportunity to stress-test social enterprise theory against a business that is transparent about the real tensions involved in building something genuinely purpose-led from the ground up.
University of Technology Sydney: Managing for Social Impact
UTS students in the Managing for Social Impact capstone course work directly with CandleXchange on real business briefs, including applied customer research projects. Rather than simulated scenarios, students engage with genuine questions our business is grappling with, interact with real stakeholders, and develop findings that have practical value. It is the kind of applied learning that postgraduate study in social impact is designed to build — but rarely delivers at this level of real-world engagement.
What a Partnership with CandleXchange Looks Like
Every partnership is shaped around the curriculum and cohort, but what is consistent across all of them is access to a real business with a documented story. CandleXchange is certified by Social Traders as a genuine social enterprise. We have saved more than 5,500 containers from landfill through our Return and Swap program. We have donated more than 4,200 candles through UpCandle. Our circular model is a working example of circular economy design — not a theoretical framework.
For educators, that means your students are not studying a hypothetical. They are engaging with a live business making real decisions, facing real constraints, and producing real impact data — which is exactly the kind of experiential learning that builds lasting understanding of sustainability, social enterprise, and circular economy principles.
Partnerships range from a single hands-on workshop session to a full-semester capstone project. We work across primary schools, secondary schools, and postgraduate programs. If you are interested in exploring a collaboration, we would love to hear from you.
Explore our education partnerships →
Frequently Asked Questions
What year levels does CandleXchange work with?
We work across all levels — from primary school students in hands-on candle-making workshops through to secondary school case studies and postgraduate capstone projects. Current partnerships include SCECGS Redlands (Year 8 and Year 9), Barker College (Year 10), and postgraduate programs at UNSW and UTS.
Does CandleXchange charge for education partnerships?
It depends on the type of collaboration. Hands-on workshop programs involve materials and facilitation, so there is a cost involved. Case study and capstone partnerships are often structured differently. We encourage you to get in touch to discuss what your school or university is looking for and we will work out what makes sense.
Can CandleXchange come to our school, or do students visit you?
Both are possible. Some workshops are run on-site at your school or campus. Others involve students visiting our Brookvale studio. University capstone and case study programs are typically conducted as structured engagements with our team. Contact us to discuss your requirements and we will find an arrangement that works.