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Imagine eating at a cafe serving food from a greenhouse right on site, or heading to a retail store that uses old scrap metal to make art. And while people are visiting, they could also get rid of some old plastic food containers, turning them into personal protection equipment. The idea behind the Innovation Barn is to create jobs while growing businesses that reuse waste materials.
Envision Charlotte
The Innovation Barn has a glass crusher that takes recycled glass and turns it into sand for repurposing. They also take certain types of plastics and turn those into products like bricks and benches, according to Aussieker. The city began its circular economy efforts in 2018, after China stopped importing certain recyclables, including plastic and mixed paper. Cities like Charlotte had to pay higher rates for recycling or stop altogether. Charlotte decided to follow the example of the circular economy action plan that the European Union adopted in 2015.
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In the event that all spaces are called for, street parking is available along Otts St. We are also conveniently located close to a CATS bus stop. — A former horse barn in Charlotte is being transformed into a zero-waste facility boasting cafes, retail stores, and more. Located on Seigle Avenue, the building is the first of its kind in the United States and seeks to create a circular economy. Soldier flies will break down waste behind a glass case and food will be harvested from a garden for a restaurant and a beer garden. The city has spent nearly $5 million to renovate the old building on Seigle Avenue in the Belmont neighborhood. It's a joint effort withEnvision Charlotte, which will manage the building as a showcase for what it calls the "circular economy."
Tours of the Innovation Barn
Now, after years of planning and a $5 million renovation, it's a one-of-a-kind concept dedicated toward a sustainable future. Meanwhile, because Charlotte residents love their beverages, the Innovation Barn also has a coffee shop called Crane Coffee and a craft beer and wine bar called RePour that's open Fridays to Sundays. Explore the inner workings of the circular and sustainable initiatives.
Envision Charlotte offers guided tours of the Innovation Barn to the public twice a week. Public tours are Tuesdays and Fridays and are limited to 20 people. “Here we will be using spent brewery hops and coffee grinds to grow mushrooms outside,” Aussieker says. The barn is located just outside uptown Charlotte on the corner of Seigle Avenue and Otts Street. That’s where Amy Hart has been making art out of scrap metal. By 2050, Charlotte plans to take the 400,000 tons of trash that is thrown away every year and turn it into reusable products, such as uniforms and linens.
Amy Aussieker, the executive director of Envision Charlotte, says it’s like a forest. The vision imagines labs that will create leather from fruit peels and 3D printers that will turn plastics into phone cases and building bricks. The building used to be known as the city's old horse barn but soon it will be called the city's Innovation Barn. — The Innovation Barn is a building on Seigle Avenue that was once a city of Charlotte horse barn over 100 years ago.
Envision Charlotte Innovation Barn
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For example, The Bulb gathers excess produce from stores and distributes them free of charge, to communities with food insecurity. Then The Bulb gives their leftovers to Crown Town Compost, who composts the scraps to create compost for gardens. "There are opportunities with trash. We can create jobs, we can create products and Charlotte can be known for that," Aussieker said.
Charlotte's Innovation Barn promotes a better future through a 'circular economy'
— Charlotte is a city built on banks but city leaders believe it can become the first place in the country to build its economy around trash. The Innovation Barn is encouraging all businesses and Charlotte residents to become involved, saying it's all about a "positive society-wide" benefit. Public tours of the facility are offered twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Innovation Barn: Free Public Tour
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The City of Charlotte owns the building and Envision Charlotte manages, designs, and implements the programming within. A circular economy has zero waste — its waste products are re-used or up-cycled, instead of going to landfills. Some of the projects at Innovation Barn are aquaponics, a mushroom garden, a plastics lab, a teaching kitchen, a cafe, and more. Innovation Barn, at 932 Seigle Avenue, Charlotte, North Carolina, is a joint project by Envision Charlotte and the City of Charlotte, with the goal of transitioning Charlotte to a circular economy. It’s a combination of entrepreneurial businesses, zero-waste initiatives, and a space to bring groups together in order to learn more about and implement circular projects. The City of Charlotte rents the building to Envision Charlotte for $1 a year.
The City of Charlotte owns the building, while Envision Charlotte is responsible for managing, designing, and executing its multifaceted programs. "When we were designing the barn, the idea of the circular economy was important," Hamilton said. Traditional businesses take raw materials and turn them into products that eventually wind up in landfills.
Innovation Barn is a city project, but the nonprofit Envision Charlotte is helping manage and operate the facility. The executive director, Amy Aussieker, is helping bring it all to life. She says one of the locations at the barn will be called Hop Central.
Carolina Urban Lumber has a showroom for its one-of-a-kind tables and mantle pieces created from trees cut from local construction sites. Two years ago, local environmentalists and some city staff members expressed reservations about the project's cost and intent. The Innovation Barn wound up costing double the initial budget approved by Charlotte City Council and opened two years later than projected.
When the vegetables absorb the nutrients they provide the fish with fresh, purified water. This system requires very little water, since it’s repeatedly recycled. Innovation Barn is the city’s first circular living lab, which aims to eliminate waste and continual use of resources. It’s part of a big initiative by the City of Charlotte to go zero waste. “It is really to show the public what a circular economy is and how you can start diverting waste from the landfill,” Aussieker says.
Eric Kirsch, owner of Chi Catering, grows them to practice “on-demand catering”; he harvests only the exact amount of produce he needs each day. So raising money for staff, resources, and programming is Aussieker’s priority for Innovation Barn’s second year. She wants to build an education center “where we take everything inside but make it more like Discovery Place,” she says, with interactive exhibits for kids and adults. Even the renovation itself played the recycling game, said Elizabeth Hamilton of Progressive AE architecture, who helped design the building. "And we tried to utilize it for furniture, or we have lumber products that we sell out of our store in Pineville."
You must register online prior to visiting for a public tour. As a keystone of the five business plans outlined in the Circular Charlotte report, Envision Charlotte is creating the Materials Innovation Lab – named the Innovation Barn.
