SEED Ventures (SEED) is growing local entrepreneurs for financial, social, and environmental success.  SEED, a new Oberlin Project initiative, is a pop-up marketplace and incubator aimed at developing sustainable business models, increasing foot-traffic and business activity in Lorain County, and promoting economic growth through innovation.  SEED works with local entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of development, targeting those entrepreneurs with a prototype with sales up to $10,000 in annual revenue.

In Oberlin, sustainability is more than a buzzword, it is a tool that drives innovation???that transforms community by changing behavior and promoting sustainable economic development. Sustainable economic development generates economic wealth that is based on the triple bottom line, balancing impact and opportunity to people, profit and planet.  Market solutions are generated that produce improved economic opportunity (reduces the growing income disparity between the rich and the poor), accounts for impact to the environment and value of ecosystem services in financial accounting, and finally and most familiar, creates flows of dollars at the local, regional and global scales.  As you know, Oberlin isn???t afraid of doing something a little different.

The Oberlin Project is challenging individuals in and outside of Oberlin to use the triple bottom line to generate solutions that change the way we create, deploy and do business.  Oberlin is home to a wealth of human resources representative of many demographics including age, experience, socioeconomic status, race and educational attainment.  This diversity is key to the wealth of ideas generated in our community.  Of course, not all of these ideas are market ready, or even market worthy, but they do represent the seeds of economic development to be further evaluated and supported by technical service agents in Oberlin and northeast Ohio.  

While this February???s fire that destroyed the City of Oberlin???s refuse fleet was not an ideal scenario, it did provide a catalyst for the City to rethink its public recycling and refuse program.  The new process, which launches this week, is one step toward realizing the City???s new Zero Waste policy, passed by City Council in May 2014.  Oberlin???s Resource Conservation and Recovery Commission worked closely with the City to develop the new zero waste policy.

Each residence will receive two 64-gallon carts; one for recycling and one for refuse.  The City???s revised recycling process does not require sorting on behalf of the residents.  Multiple sources have noted that mixed, single stream has proven to improve recycling rates in municipalities by 30%-%50%, nationally.  All recyclables will be taken to Republic???s recycling facility just east of town.  Republic???s facility was built in 2013 and uses an advanced sorting system with the latest technology in mechanical and optical sorting.  The facility is touted as one of the most advanced in the state.