Eileen Banyra: Winning the Future for the Planet, and us all, through Composting
Eileen Banyra came to GCSEN in 2016 with a dream: to start a new career that helps the planet. Inspired by Prof. Cas and Prof. Len Green during GCSEN’s New Venture Launch Social Venture BootCamp, Eileen soon started to pursue her business idea. Fast-forward to 2022 and her company Community Compost, generated $600,000 in annual revenue, and has a team of eight full and part time Community Composters!
Recently Eileen, a graduate of Rutgers University, and Professor Caslin sat down for a Go Forward 2023 Coaching Session. Eileen says, “We’ve grown our team, grown our revenue and are poised for the historic new composting laws for New York and New Jersey... We’ve even been able to double our compost production. As I shared back in 2016, our response to climate change is simple-we are helping to restore the earth’s soils from the ground up- thru organic restaurant and home waste to resource: making compost! It is really all about the soil, and when we renew the earth’s soils on farms, on public highways, on county land and with farm to table partners we are making an entrepreneurial difference. GCSEN has helped us make meaning, make money, and move the world to a better place by turning organic waste into black gold!”
“Now, for 2023, it is all about us continuing being totally out of the box, while stabilizing our new product development. We are testing a low-carbon concept for our future compost hub and spoke micro-composting centers…Our Farm Partners include Farm Hub- a NYC FoodShed Innovator/Leader, partnering with Cornell University and Novo Foundation, and Row 7 (founded by chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barn Farm), and we are exploring Soil Enrichment Compost Fluid Extract, Specialty Worm Castings, mycorrhizal soil enrichment. For our retail we have Bread Alone- Hudson Valley and Whole Foods now using our bagged Hudson Soil Compost and our coffee-bag size ‘Plant Jolt,’ for house plants.”
“We are so thankful to work with GCSEN Foundation and Professor Cas. as we enter our seventh year together, and we use a Go Forward Plan grid to explore how we can be improve our with customers’ experience, products and services, team and cash flow/finance. All these elements matter in our efforts and in early 2023 we are working towards designing our best team work configurations while building a less seasonal business model and gross profit margins while strengthening our Return on Investment-for our investors and our team’s future.”
