Week 3: The Green Garage

In my few weeks working at the Detroit Food Academy I have had the opportunity to observe the interesting community that is the Green Garage. The Green Garage is a building that allows many organizations to operate out of it, all of them with a commitment to a triple bottom line business model (with a definite emphasis on environmental sustainability). Over 50 organizations operate out of the Green Garage. The most interesting thing that I have observed is the way that the Green Garage creates a space where collaborations across industries is encouraged. Often they host presentations and community lunches where the successes of these endeavors are showcased. I have heard about visual artists who begin to work in environmental sustainability and I have seen the employees of seemingly unrelated industries sit down and speak about their ideas and plans. The most surprising aspect of this is how easily these collaborations seem to form. Despite these areas of work being so diverse and varied, people find a way to create interdisciplinary products which often serve the community or environment. The work of the Green Garage is unique in the fact that the work space provided is completely open and undivided, with communal work areas where employees often congregate to work on their individual projects. In one space there are organizations which have the tools and commitment to enact positive change in their communities, and for them to be able to collaborate so openly and freely in this space is a really cool thing to see. My experiences in the Detroit Food Academy have only bolstered this experience. The Food Academy has given birth to other organizations that work in the Garage, and these programs only serve to strengthen each other. The relationship between Small Batch, Fresh Corner, and DFA has given many students opportunities to learn, grow, and be employed, all within a tight knit community of organizers and mentors.

Image: The Green Garage recycling setup. Perhaps the most complicated part of the entire operation, and certainly the hardest part to become accustomed to, this is a system by which they manage to keep their waste output at a mere fraction of other buildings of their size.