I'm here at GreenBiz...it's a conference of the sustainability professionals to talk shop and get inspired. This morning's session had a 10 minute talk by a real firecracker....Stephen Ritz from Green Bronx Machine. He's taken a seed of an idea, in what IMO is the hardest/driest urban ground for agriculture...the South Bronx, and grew it into beautiful forest....a completely integrative program for students K-12 to grow their own organic food. I encourage you to watch the video to get a sense of the epic & inspiration.
Green Bronx Machine is an inspiration for me for two reasons:
1) It's the whole shebang. They've hit the motherload of doing good by finding a solution that attacks multiple issues at the same time (aka is whole community and integrative). Healthy food that's locally grown and made available to kids is such a powerful, all-around fantastic idea. Students are healthier and more active/successful in school, an urban food desert is transformed, the community has green spaces in what was urban/hardtop, jobs are created for growing food....it's so powerful and the impacts socially and environmentally are so interconnected. So often I spend my day trying to tackle one issue in a very narrow fashion (mostly to make sure it gets done/achieved)....I admire this program for going with gusto at solving many problems at once.
2) Innovative design can come from harsh limits. I remember learning about how to design eyeware for the developing world or for kitchen tools for the elderly, and my takeaway was how sometimes designing for these harsh limits on price or use actually lead to great universal design. Bronx Green Machine is similar....they've had to innovate on a shoestring in maybe the worst urban food desert....but what's beautiful that is out of these conditions come "the" answer. A solution that can be carried to anywhere.
Photo courtesy of stephenritz.com
Green Bronx Machine is an inspiration for me for two reasons:
1) It's the whole shebang. They've hit the motherload of doing good by finding a solution that attacks multiple issues at the same time (aka is whole community and integrative). Healthy food that's locally grown and made available to kids is such a powerful, all-around fantastic idea. Students are healthier and more active/successful in school, an urban food desert is transformed, the community has green spaces in what was urban/hardtop, jobs are created for growing food....it's so powerful and the impacts socially and environmentally are so interconnected. So often I spend my day trying to tackle one issue in a very narrow fashion (mostly to make sure it gets done/achieved)....I admire this program for going with gusto at solving many problems at once.
2) Innovative design can come from harsh limits. I remember learning about how to design eyeware for the developing world or for kitchen tools for the elderly, and my takeaway was how sometimes designing for these harsh limits on price or use actually lead to great universal design. Bronx Green Machine is similar....they've had to innovate on a shoestring in maybe the worst urban food desert....but what's beautiful that is out of these conditions come "the" answer. A solution that can be carried to anywhere.
Photo courtesy of stephenritz.com
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