MicrobeHub
"As both of us founders were Faculty of Arts students, the SVZ provided that necessary business backbone learning opportunity to our idea. The mentorship we received allowed us to develop in a way that we could sustain our operations. The SVZ also hosted valuable events such as the Social Xchange and fireside chats which exposed us to other entrepreneurs in the space making a difference."
Co-founders: Sarah Brigel, Jennifer Fischer
After learning through a waste audit that 60% of the landfill waste coming out of Jorgenson Hall at Toronto Metropolitan was actually divertible organics, Microbe Hub was devloped to reroute organic materials to a vermicompost farm housed in Toronto Metropolitan’s chemistry and biology department. A valuable by-product of this process would be worm castings, which can be sold as a commercial soil enhancement. Microbe Hub’s goal has a triple bottom line approach: (1) Social: change behaviours and increase awareness of the benefits of composting; (2) Environmental: mitigate climate change; and (3) Economic: produce a product that will generate profit for other sustainability initiatives at Toronto Metropolitan.
3000+ KGS of waste diverted
100+ youth engaged