It is increasingly apparent that millennials, as group, definitely want to make the world a better place. Social entrepreneurship can be carried out in many different ways and in many different areas of life. For the young founders of “Commonstudio”, Daniel Philips and Kim Karlsrud, it is a calling to “reconcile nature and city”. As “environmental designers” they founded “Commonstudio”, a co-op dedicated to “collaborating creative practices exploring the complex ecologies of the urban landscape through the lens of design”. One of their projects “Greenaid” was inspired by the seedbomb product that has been around for decades. A seedbomb is a little ball of clay, compost, and seeds and can be tossed and planted virtually anywhere. Greenaid is Commonstudio’s initiative to make seedbombs more easily accessible to the general public. After a lot of research of trying to understand the barriers between the general public and guerrilla gardening, they realized that seedbombing had to be a casual and convenient experience. They came up with an idea to implement coin operated gumball machines as dispensers for seedbombs. Not only did this make seedbombs easier to access and more fun, it also created potential for the seedbombs to be an economically viable product.
In Las Angeles the “Throw and Grow” machines turned out to be a big success. The Greenaid page says, “In 2010, Commonstudio began the initiative by placing a series of prototype seedbomb vending machines in the Los Angeles area. For just fifty cents, the Greenaid machine offered instant access to the tools of the guerilla gardener in a variety of native wildflower mixes. The idea was infectious, and soon Greenaid blossomed into a fully operational social enterprise. ”
It is because Greenaid was so successful that they are now able to touch people’s lives in more ways than one. On their page they add, “In working in a partnership with Chrysalis, a local non-profit, Greenaid offered long term employment opportunities to formerly homeless and low income men and women from the Los Angeles area. In addition to paying a living wage for hand making and packaging the seedbombs, Greenaid employees were encouraged to operate their own vending machines to earn extra income every month. Commonstudio managed this non-profit partnership, and the expansion of Greenaid into a national brand through a range of new packaging, seedmixes, social media campaigns, and retail partnerships”.
Many social minded entrepreneurs can only dream of making such an impact on others like Daniel and Kim have. They have created jobs, helped the homeless, and impacted the environment. I would say that is pretty inspirational.