Member Spotlight: Compost Nashville

Compost Nashville team members

Tell us about the mission of your organization/facility. How does it serve the compost industry and the USCC mission/vision?

Compost Nashville was founded with the focus of helping people to grow food, not landfills. We do this by providing easy-to-use composting services to the residents and businesses of the greater Nashville area. Our customers earn finished compost throughout the year that they can either use to grow food at home or they can donate their earned compost to a local farm, school garden or community garden. This vital step helps to support our local food economy and creates a closed-loop ecosystem in which Nashville can thrive.

What are challenges to being successful in this industry, and are there special challenges in your market? Are there ways that being involved in USCC is helping you meet those challenges?

I think the biggest challenge in our industry is growing the business in a sustainable way. Most small composters are doing amazing sustainability work in their local communities. However, taking a passion project and turning it into a successful and sustainable business takes a lot of work. In my case, I had zero business experience when Compost Nashville started. Looking back, there were so many different ways the business could have easily failed. The USCC played a big role in our development through the 2018 conference in Atlanta. That was the first time I was able to connect with other people doing the same work as myself. Meeting like-minded folks really helped me keep sight of our mission and why we do what de each and every day.

What are some of the features that USCC offers that you find most useful?

The annual conference has been the most useful feature of the USCC for me and my business. I can’t wait to attend again and see all the progress happening in our industry.

If you could sit down with another member to discuss any issue, what would it be and why?

I would love to talk with someone who is further along in the growth process than myself. I feel like the next big step for us is reaching more people through marketing. We’ve done very little marketing in the business. I know it is an important step, but we aren’t sure where to focus our resources for effectiveness.

What do you think is a key challenge to the successful future of the compost industry in the U.S.?

I think time is both our biggest challenge and our biggest asset. We know the negative environmental impacts of landfilling our food waste are great. However, if everyone in the U.S. started composting tomorrow, we would be in a serious pickle! It is going to take time to build new processing facilities, to educate more people on the importance of composting and to grow local community composters. We must keep our focus on the task at hand while embodying patience for the journey that still lies ahead of us.

Introduce your fellow members to your team! What do you do to build company spirit?

This is an area where we have struggled as a company. We only recently moved into a warehouse where we could have the whole team operating out of a central location. This has greatly increased company morale now that we all see each other on a regular basis. We have also implemented opening and closing "M.O.M. shifts." M.O.M. is the name we are using for our managers, and the acronym stands for "Managers of Madness." Either me or my co-owner are present at the beginning and each working day to meet with the crew and to help them prepare or decompress from their day. We’ve really seen this to be a huge help for the team. I mean, everyone needs a M.O.M., right?