{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2Fd026d99a-6d76-46d0-85e1-a569529f837d","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"#08. Doing Good + Doing Well: Lauren Clarke and Turn Compost","description":"Lauren Clarke is the founder of Turn Compost, a wildly successful social enterprise focused on reducing food waste and improving how we utilize our urban environment. She shares alarming and exciting statistics about food waste and the blooming food waste industry. She also gives essential advice to anyone with the vision of starting a social enterprise.\r\n \r\nMy passion for gardening may strike some as selfish, or merely an act of resignation in the face of overwhelming problems that beset the world. It is neither. I have found that each garden is just what Voltaire proposed in Candide: a microcosm of a just and beautiful society. \u201d\r\nAndrew Weil\r\n \r\nOn Earth Day 2018 Lauren Clarke launched Turn Compost, Dallas\u2019 first subscription composting service. Turn has experienced phenomenal growth, proving that it\u2019s possible to run a profitable company that truly and clearly does good. \r\nIn 18 months, Turn\u2019s subscription service has grown to 17 zip codes in Dallas and 8 drop-off locations in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Revenues are up 648% comparing Q3 2018 to Q32019. Any start-up would love these numbers! \r\nA Social Enterprise Model\r\n[10:43] Turn Compost is a Social Enterprise, or Social Impact business. In short, it\u2019s a business that does good by addressing a social or environmental problem AND it does well by being financially self-sustaining. Social Enterprises and Social Impact businesses may be non- or for-profit. Turn is a for profit business. \r\nThe Business of Food Waste\r\nFood Waste is a big problem in the U.S. It makes up about 40% of our landfills and if it were a country, would be the third-largest emitter of methane gas behind the U.S. and China. [02:38] \r\nTackling food wastage can be a 2.5 trillion market opportunity for business according to an article by CNBC .\r\n[05:35] Turn is a private, organic waste pickup subscription service with both doorstep and drop off services. It\u2019s a very innovate model! \r\nOrganic waste is processed three different ways: it\u2019s donated to local farms and gardens, turned into small amounts of compost and delivered back to members, and finally they partner with commercial composting facilities for other post-consumer waste. [07:51]\r\nBonton Farms and Farmers Assisting Returning Military (F.A.R.M.) are examples of two local farms that receive Turn donations.\r\nThe City of Dallas does not currently compost (yet!); you can learn more about Dallas\u2019 Comprehensive Environmental Climate Action Plan and give input at their website. [11.56]\r\nThe Vision: Getting Reconnected With Food\r\nThere\u2019s a cost for us with all the innovations in food delivery: it\u2019s getting us further disconnected from the source. We aren\u2019t experiencing the growth cycles, the work that goes into food production and the satisfaction of providing for ourselves. [15:05]\r\nHorticultural Therapy is a term being used for the therapeutic effects of gardening. [18:25] Bonton Farms, mentioned above, sees farming as a way to \u201credefine a community\u201d. \r\nLauren gives some advice on starting a social impact business: [20:33]\r\nmake sure it\u2019s financially sustainable now and has future growth potential\r\nassemble an advisory council of experts from various industries who will \u201cget in your face\u201d and tell you the truth\r\nbe open to listening to the advice\r\nA Deeper Purpose\r\nLauren\u2019s big WHY \u2013 the ultimate reason she started Turn:\r\n [25:08] You know I care about my children, but I care about other children and children in all sorts of communities, wealthy and poor, and their connection with food and their understanding of it\u2026it\u2019s very concerning that there are children and families who are struggling to put food on their tables.\r\nTranscript:\r\nhttps://bit.ly/3sLn4Fo\r\nCNBC's article on Food Waste:\r\nhttps://cnb.cx/35XDalx\r\nDallas Climate in Action:\r\nhttp://www.dallasclimateaction.com/\r\nLauren Clarke:\r\nhttps://bit.ly/3bZvsLk\r\nTurn Compost:\r\nhttps://bit.ly/2MdzIMo\r\nFor more about Rise Leaders:\r\nhttps://rise-leaders.com/","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/db53bbb8-09d7-4fe2-bf9f-a23af9ca9e3d/_mwN_7ouxgNtpeT4e6BO-1UA.jpg"}