BUSINESS NEWS
Urban Mushroom Company BTTR Ventures ushers in new strategy
Founders turn one of the largest waste streams in America into sustainable local food
Garden of Healing®
Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez got the idea for their for-profit social venture BTTR Ventures while taking a business ethics course at the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
A guest lecturer mentioned that people in East Africa used coffee grounds to grow mushrooms to fight malnutrition. "We both fell in love with the idea of using coffee waste and started doing research and brainstorming," says Arora.
Velez and Aorara founded BTTR Ventures to turn one of the largest waste streams in America into sustainable local food. They do this by using coffee grounds as the substrate.
BTTR Ventures stands for “back to the roots”, a fitting name for a company which donates 10% of profits back to the community. In addition, this venture is creating new jobs in local urban areas.
With a $5,000 social innovation grant from the university, the pair reached out to potential partners, researched mushroom-growing techniques, and tried to identify whether there was enough supply and demand to justify starting the company. They founded it in 2009. Its first partners include Peet's Coffee (PEET), which is providing used coffee grounds, and Whole Foods (WFMI), which agreed to purchase the outfit's mushrooms for 26 of its Bay Area stores.
The company's social mission is to create a healthy food source and needed jobs in urban areas, to save thousands of tons of valuable substrate from ending up in landfills, and to donate 10% of profits back to the communities from which the coffee-ground waste originated.
To show your support of BTTR Ventures, vote for them in the BBC World Challenge 09.
BTTR Ventures is the only US finalist in the global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level.
Please vote by November 12th.
Learn more about voting:
BTTR Ventures: http://www.bttrventures.com/
© 1996 - 2009 The Garden of Healing® Company. All Rights Reserved.
Urban Mushroom Company BTTR Ventures ushers in new strategy
Founders turn one of the largest waste streams in America into sustainable local food
Garden of Healing®
Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez got the idea for their for-profit social venture BTTR Ventures while taking a business ethics course at the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
A guest lecturer mentioned that people in East Africa used coffee grounds to grow mushrooms to fight malnutrition. "We both fell in love with the idea of using coffee waste and started doing research and brainstorming," says Arora.
Velez and Aorara founded BTTR Ventures to turn one of the largest waste streams in America into sustainable local food. They do this by using coffee grounds as the substrate.
BTTR Ventures stands for “back to the roots”, a fitting name for a company which donates 10% of profits back to the community. In addition, this venture is creating new jobs in local urban areas.
With a $5,000 social innovation grant from the university, the pair reached out to potential partners, researched mushroom-growing techniques, and tried to identify whether there was enough supply and demand to justify starting the company. They founded it in 2009. Its first partners include Peet's Coffee (PEET), which is providing used coffee grounds, and Whole Foods (WFMI), which agreed to purchase the outfit's mushrooms for 26 of its Bay Area stores.
The company's social mission is to create a healthy food source and needed jobs in urban areas, to save thousands of tons of valuable substrate from ending up in landfills, and to donate 10% of profits back to the communities from which the coffee-ground waste originated.
To show your support of BTTR Ventures, vote for them in the BBC World Challenge 09.
BTTR Ventures is the only US finalist in the global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level.
Please vote by November 12th.
Learn more about voting:
BTTR Ventures: http://www.bttrventures.com/
© 1996 - 2009 The Garden of Healing® Company. All Rights Reserved.
