Take a look at a sunflower. Bend closer. See the beady seeds, the fuzzy-prickly stalk and the vibrant heavy head saluting the sun.
What else do you see?
A revitalized community, a source of alternative energy, an introduction to the green economy, a teaching tool, a toxin remover, a vote of self-confidence. A zany crazy idea—plant vacant abandoned industrial and residential lots with biofuel-producing crops—that just might work.
Matthew Ciccone, Andrew Butcher and Chris Koch, founders of GTECH, or Growth Through Energy and Community Health, saw just that when they looked at a sunflower. They also saw the potential in canola and switchgrass, the other two biofuel seed stocks Pittsburgh-based GTECH Strategies has helped plant on vacant properties since 2007. In fact, before contemplating sunflowers (for which GTECH’s action-driven focus does not leave too much time), Ciccone, Butler and Koch first contemplated how to reuse vacant lots for a class project at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management. We had the opportunity to speak with Ciccone, a founding principal and current board chair of GTECH, or Growth Through Energy and Community Health.
He explained that when an industry moves elsewhere, distressed property gets left behind. This includes not only vacant homes from workers who move away, but also the large factory lots that become brownfield, a technical term for a piece of property once used for heavy industry.
The properties sit empty from lack of economic demand and are associated with higher crime and lower house resale values. Furthermore, the abandoned industrial property, or brownfield and residential lots of demolished or decaying houses, often have lead or other toxins that make the setting unsafe to raise a family or plant edible food.
Tasked with designing a solution to reuse vacant property in a cost-effective way for a Heinz class, the idea for GTECH took root among Ciccone, Butcher and Koch. “Any strategy to reuse property is an expense,” Ciccone reasoned, “so an income-generating strategy would help.” Growing commodity crops for alternative energy— sunflowers, canola and switchgrass—on these otherwise abandoned lots helps generate income to sustain GTECH. Outreach efforts and creation of green jobs also expose people to opportunities in the burgeoning green economy. Amazingly, the crops also help draw the toxins out of the land, helping transition the brownfield to usable land.
In communities with many vacant properties, the buzzword “green” may smack of luxury—you have to have the green to go green. Though skeptical at first, once Ciccone and the GTECH team built a test plot on an abandoned factory lot, community stakeholders and future funders began to grasp how the joint goals to remediate vacant lots, produce biofuel and create green jobs can support one other.
Ciccone defines social entrepreneurship as crafting solutions—creative, inspiring and often elegant—for social problems. Many times the most successful social ventures do in fact generate their own income, as the case with GTECH. Ciccone sees this as a by-product of social entrepreneurship and not the goal itself.
One of the sharpest critiques of biofuel is that the crops that grow on the land could be used to feed humans instead of the bellies of machines. Interestingly, brownfield is better for biofuel crops than for food because it often carries toxins that would be unsafe to put in your mouth. Currently, GTECH’s reclamation efforts are but a drop in the proverbial biofuel bucket. But could sunflowers on street corners, fields around factories be the future of biofuel?
Ciccone cautions that while most social entrepreneurs “really strive for scale”, it is important to “really understand all the gray areas in strategy.” GTECH has begun to expand geographically outside of Western Pennsylvania to New Orleans, a city in a difference climate and culture, but one especially post-Katrina faces problems with vacant lots. This expansion was possible through the collaboration with Green Coast Enterprises, whom they met through Echoing Green (and whom we featured in our previous column, “Phoenix Out of Ashes”).
While Ciccone speaks rather cautiously of growth, he also admits, “You need to scale to get people to appreciate what you’re doing.” GTECH has been fortunate in that regard. It is an organization that has a lot of positive press and interest from financial supporters, notably an Echoing Green fellowship and New Profit Project seed capital, organizations that support rising social entrepreneurs.
And yet, Ciccone said this attention and support complicates their venture. As a student at Duke, we think we know what Ciccone means.
“A lot of people are very intrigued and enthusiastic, but now we are trying to figure out our approach and the value we create,” he told us. “[Increasing scale] opens up new opportunities to understand who you are and what you are trying to achieve. If we can inspire people to take action about problems in creative ways, then we will have had a meaningful impact.”
As soon-to-be college graduates, we feel the same.
Lina Feng and Cami Ratliff are Trinity seniors. Their column runs as an online exclusive.
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