Track: Social Innovation

BTTR Ventures (pronounced Better) stands for “back to the roots,” a phrase that encompasses the idea of creating a company that stands for sustainability, progress, and social responsibility. BTTR Ventures aims to turn one of the largest waste streams in the Bay Area, the tons of coffee ground waste generated daily, into a highly-demanded, nutritious, and valuable food product – specialty mushrooms. Along the way, not only do they play to create a healthy food source, but also to provide urban jobs, save thousands of tons of valuable substrate from being dumped into landfills, and donate substantial amounts of cash flow back into the communities from which the coffee ground waste originated. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Innovation category.)