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That's known as "linear economy." In the "circular economy," the goal is zero waste, with everything being reused, either by the business itself or by others. I visited the site in June to see what Aussieker and her two staff members had accomplished in Innovation Barn’s first 10 months. The team has welcomed eight tenants, created nine jobs, hosted 1,000 tours and 7,000 visitors, and arranged 2,000 volunteer hours. They’ve hosted events like “Trash Talk,” a monthly series about recycling, and “Circle Up,” networking sessions for people interested in sustainable business. But projects like Innovation Barn, which opened in September 2021, are committed to trying.
Aquaponics
Test sites for circular economy projects are not uncommon in Europe, but Innovation Barn is the only one of its kind in the nation, says Amy Aussieker, Envision Charlotte’s executive director. Aussieker says she gets calls “all the time” from national and international sustainability leaders who’ve heard about the project and want to create something similar. The barn will also feature an aquaponics garden, composting station, educational classes, and spaces for new businesses. The circular economy concept was even used in the renovation process for the building. Doors there are made from construction waste taken from other sites. Everything in the building is about recycling or repurposing.
Building Charlotte’s Circular Economy: Shaping Tomorrow, Today
Aldersgate residents Ted and Gaye Smith spend over 40 hours a month collecting, cleaning and driving their retirement community's plastic to the Innovation Barn. About half the 36,000-square-foot building has been renovated so far. The Innovation Barn is still looking for corporate sponsors and other potential circular economy tenants.
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Inside Charlotte’s First ‘Circular Economy’ Project at Innovation Barn
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.
Among other things, the barn boasts a reusable plastics lab, soldier fly composting, a teaching kitchen, a sustainable furniture shop, and even an aquaponic garden. As I approach the corner of Seigle Avenue and Otts Street in Charlotte’s Belmont neighborhood, I see a long, white, low-slung industrial building. Inside, a man in goggles plays with brick-sized plastic blocks that look like giant Legos. Down a hall, a school of tilapia swim in a gold-colored tank that, with its porthole, looks like a cylindrical bathysphere. And there are benefits for other Innovation Barn tenants.
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It trains homeless people as baristas, and then uses the proceeds of the shop to help them get housing, transportation, therapy and higher-paying jobs. Glass bottles are collected from venues like Spectrum Center. Then the glass goes through a crushing machine and a screening machine. This produces sand of different coarseness, which can be used in gardening, art and other projects.
Public Tours
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.
Charlotte's Innovation Barn Finally Opens, Promoting A Circular Economy
The Innovation Barn is located at 932 Seigle Avenue in Charlotte. Click here for more information, including how you can reserve a tour of the Innovation Barn. Join over 47,000 local readers and get our FREE newsletter every day. The greens are sold to local restaurants, and the tilapia are harvested for Refugee Services.
The Innovation Barn will be a model for Charlotte's grand plans to become the first city in the U.S. to become trash-free. "There's opportunities and resources for jobs and economic mobility all within our trash, which is kind of crazy," Aussieker said. She leads the nonprofit heading up the development that will turn Charlotte's trash into treasure. A new development is opening on Seigle Avenue later this year that could turn your trash into everything from bricks to leather to phone cases. As of June, Innovation Barn was more like a business incubator for sustainability enthusiasts. The first thing I see when I enter is a row of 20 aeroponic towers of lettuces and herbs.
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.
The Innovation Barn, located at 932 Seigle Ave. is ground zero for Circular Charlotte, a joint project with the City of Charlotte to transition Charlotte to a circular economy. The Innovation Barn is a combination of entrepreneurial businesses, zero-waste initiatives, and a space to convene groups in order to learn more about and implement circular projects. The City of Charlotte owns the building and Envision Charlotte (non-profit organization) manages, designs, and implements the programming within. The Innovation Barn, designed by Progressive Companies, features a restaurant, coffee shop, retail spaces, education and community event space, and flexible incubator spaces that will change over time. Transparent walls throughout the building “exhibit” activities so visitors and colleagues may witness innovative circular businesses at work. The Innovation Barn, located at 932 Seigle Ave. is ground zero for Circular Charlotte, a joint project with the City of Charlotte to transition Charlotte to a circular economy.
You can shop for some of the products of Innovation Barn at the cafe. The shopping bags on the top shelf are made from brewery’s grain bags. The Innovation Barn has interactive exhibits for youth, and a beer/wine/coffee bar for adults to enjoy. Hart says she has no shame in dumpster diving for her masterpieces. It’s just one example of how she upcycled items that usually went to landfills. City leaders believe the Innovation Barn is the first bold step forward, so it's already invested $2 million in the project.
Through a door to the left is the lab of Casey Annis—the Barn’s “mad scientist,” as Aussieker jokingly calls him. The Duke Energy software engineer experiments with reuse of plastic takeout containers and beer can carriers, which he pulverizes and molds into “Lego bricks,” each about 10 by 6 inches. Annis excitedly explains how he thinks builders could use them in construction. 100 Gardens maintains an indoor vertical farm and a tilapia tank that have a symbiotic environment. The waste from the fish is used as a fertilizer for the plants.
Sawdust from its workshop can be used by MUSH, a mushroom farmer, and by Crown Town Composting, which mixes it with food waste. Black soldier fly larvae in the compost then become food for fish growing in a massive tank at 100 Gardens, an education-focused aquaponics garden. As fish grow, their nutrient-filled wastewater is used to grow lettuce. The Innovation Barn stands at the forefront of Circular Charlotte, a pioneering collaboration between Envision Charlotte and the City of Charlotte. This innovative venture aims to steer Charlotte toward a circular economy, and the barn serves as the epicenter for many entrepreneurial enterprises and zero-waste initiatives. This one-of-a-kind innovation center opened in 2021 and is the first in the United States wholly dedicated to advancing the circular economy transition.
