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TAKING ROOT

Valeriya Greene | Gregory Cox# Customers Interviewed in Last Day: 17# Customers Interviewed Total: 62• 9 Consumers | 39 Restaurants| 2 Waste Services | 3 Advertisers | 8 Local Farms / Compost Sites

Helping restaurants who want to be sustainable reach that goal by making composting simple and

cost-effective.

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Day 1: Business Model Canvas

Key a

Key a

Key a Key a

Key a Key a

Key a

Key a

Key a

Key Partners Key Activities Value Propositions Customer Relationships

Key Resources Channels

Cost Structure Revenue Streams

Customer Segments

Waste Management Companies

Green markets

MintScraps

Develop customer relationships

Organic waste consulting Website / App Development Marketing & Create

Awareness Build Brand

Restaurant Composting Consultant

Relationship with Waste Management Companies

Financing

Simplify and streamline the composting process for restaurants

Reduce cost of waste management

Acquire consumers who care about environment through branding and awareness

Consulting Measurement of % waste

reduction and $ cost reduction

Build brand

Website Direct Selling Green Markets

Restaurants in NYC

Website & App development Salaries of Consultants Marketing & PR Campaigns Economies of Scope for consulting

Subscription services for ongoing support and branding Upfront fee for initial end-to-end process – based on % of Cost Savings

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Day 1: Here’s What We Thought

1. Composting costs restaurants less than trash collection

2. Restaurants find composting to be complex, but we can make it simple

3. Consumers care about how restaurants dispose of their waste

Restaurant Composts

We Simplify Compost Process

Restaurant Reduces Costs

Attracts New Customers

VALUE PROPOSITION:

HYPOTHESES:

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“It’s nice to know that this restaurant composts, but that’s not why I come here”

– Consumer

“Composting actually increases my costs. Composts bags cost more than $1 each!”

– Manager, Ekxi Restaurant

“Our restaurant composts because our founders feel strongly about it. We consider the increased cost a cost of doing business”

– Restaurants that compost

“We don’t have the space to compost. It’s too hard. Our customers don’t care”

– Restaurants that do not compost

Day 2 – 4: Here’s What We Learned

LEARNING: IMPLICATION:

Branding restaurants that compost won’t bring in new customers

Composting won’t reduce customer costs

Cost of composting is not the key pain point for restaurants that compost

Hard to convince restaurants to begin composting unless part of values

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Day 2 – 4: Here’s What We Learned

“Any restaurant who's not composting is too lazy to find out how easy it is.”

– Restaurant that composts

“I probably should be composting. I already source locally. This would be a logical next step. Who can cart it away?.... It costs the same?”

– Farm to Table Restaurant

“I charge the restaurant the same $/ton to cart the compost away, but it costs me $85/ton to send compost to Delaware and only $59/ton to send it to the landfills”

– Action Environment Services

“How can we say that we are being sustainable if our compost is being sent to Delaware. There has to be a better way”

– Restaurant that composts

LEARNING: IMPLICATION:

•Lack of nearby composting infrastructure drives the high cost of composting

•Why isn’t there a closer facility?

Is there a way to process our compost locally?

•Target customer segment expands to include farm to table restaurants

•Education is key

Restaurants that compost today don’t need our help to simplify process

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What Type of Restaurant Waste?

Recyclables (Non-Compostable

Plastics / Paper / Gloves)

Organics

*Compostable Supplies (forks,

bowls)

Food Scraps **Meat, Bones,

Dairy

Fruits, Vegetables, Coffee

Rest (including glass)

Day 2 – 4: Learned the Food Waste Decision Journey

“Action” Picks up, Consolidates &

Trucks to Transfer Station

White Bag / Bin

Black Bag/Bin

Green Bag / Bin

“Action” Picks up, Sorts &

Sells

“Action” Picks up &

Consolidates

Action drops off at Delaware Composting

Facility

Cost: • Gas for Pickup• LaborRevenue:• $/ton of waste• Sell Recyclables to

China

Cost: • Gas for drive &

additional emissions• Labor• Tipping Fee < Tipping

Fee Landfill

Top Soil created and facility sells to Landscapers

Revenue:• Top Soil SalesCosts:• Fixed Costs of

Facility• Processing Costs

Cost: • Gas for Pickup• LaborRevenue:• $/ton of food waste

= $/ton of trash

Cost: • Gas for Pickup • Labor• Tipping Fee to

LandfillRevenue:• $/ton of waste

*Special Considerations:• Easier from process & contamination

standpoint• Need Industrial Composting Site to

decompose• Cost more than standard utensils, bowls

**Special Considerations:• High Quality fertilizer is made using

Fruits, Vegetables, Coffee beans, Breads – not Meat / Dairy

• However, additional sorting creates time and efficiency issues

Key Questions:(1) Why isn’t there a facility built closer that accepts

restaurant waste?(2) Will restaurants further sort their waste to gain the value

of a lower cost / $ ton and the positive social feeling that its being processed locally and sold to local farms?

(3) Where do local organic farms buy their fertilizer? Will locally made fertilizer cost less than what they currently buy?

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Day 5 Business Model Canvas

Key a

Key a

Key a Key a

Key a Key a

Key a

Key a

Key a

Key Partners Key Activities Value Propositions Customer Relationships

Key Resources Channels

Cost Structure Revenue Streams

Customer Segments

Waste Management Companies

Green markets

FoodTech Companies: MintScraps / LeanPath

NYC Department of Sanitation

Organic Farms

Website Development Marketing for both

restaurants Build Brand

Access to composting farms.

Reduce cost of waste management through ability to compost locally at small-scale farms and composters.

Connections to composters.

Website Direct Selling

Green Markets

NYC Restaurants who do compost and can do it better

NYC Restaurants that are sustainable but do not compost.

Decisionmakers are restaurant owners, with input from chef, manager, and other staff.

Website development Marketing & PR Campaigns Salaries

Per compost royalty fee

Receive Compost to support farm needs.

Connection to free compost and revenue

Organic farms and small-scale composters in NYC who need

fertilizer and believe in availability of composting.

WebsiteDirect Selling

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Total Market Size

• 31,427 restaurants in NYC on Yelp

• 5,519 tagged “organic”

• Est 500 currently composting

• Average garbage in a year: 75 tons

•Average compost for high-quality fertilizer: 22.5 tons

•Average cost per lb: .05

•Royalty for Taking Root: .005

Realistic Market: $112,500

Market Size

To

Total Market: $7 million

Total Potential Market:$1.2 million

Realistic Market:$112,500

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Total Market Size

• 247 farms and composting facilities within a 4 hour drive of New York city, average size 211 acres.

•1 restaurant serves one acre of farm

• 600 community gardens, most serviced by neighborhood composting

•From customer discovery with farms, few have the ability to compost on-site that exceeds farm’s own production of compostable waste.

Realistic Market: 24

Market Size

To

Total Market: 847 composting entities

Total Potential Market:247

Realistic Market:24

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Some Interesting Problems to Investigate

“Our biggest problem is that gloves aren’t compostable”

“Compost bags cost more than $1 each”

“We can’t track what we throw out well”

“Compost that is made from fruits and vegetables realizes a larger price”

“Local sourcing is not easy. We worry about the weather constantly”

“We want to compost in Linden, but there is no one reliable”

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Organic compost retail

Manufacturing

Platform

What do we do next

• Continue customer discovery on what customer problems are Must Haves

• Research and impact regulations and laws around composting. Preparation for a mandate by 2016 will mean a lot more restaurants who must compost. Decreasing the number of regulations around ability to compost will increase appetite for compost.

• Research areas of compost funding for NYC. Preparation for a mandate by 2016 will mean a lot more restaurants who must compost

• Consider non-profit options that bring in funding from stakeholders interested in reducing the 1.2 million tons of food waste going to New York and New Jeresey landfills.