Projects

Our projects

The cooperative takes on shared work one project at a time. Each one has a purpose, a lead, a budget limit, a way to measure whether it worked, and a date to decide what happens next.

Proposed

ROAST

Resource Optimization And Sustainability Tracking

Proposed tools for small businesses to measure their waste, trade what they have spare and pool what they learn, to be piloted with twelve Arizona businesses if funded.

We have applied to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's Recycling Research and Development grant program to fund this pilot. The application is under review, and the pilot starts only if it is funded.

About ROAST

How a project starts

A project begins only when there is a clear need, someone to lead it, and enough capacity among the Members to review what it does. The Founding Circle then charters a project circle to run it, with:

a purpose and a defined scope;
a lead, and the roles the work needs;
a budget limit, which is nothing until the Founding Circle approves a budget;
success measures, kept light enough for shop staff;
a review date, when the circle decides whether to continue, revise, scale, pause or stop.

More on how circles and charters work is on circles and roles.

Ideas for later

The governance draft names work the cooperative may take on once its first project shows what it can do. None of these has started.

Shared purchasing: Buying sustainable packaging together.
Customer education: Signs and stories that tell customers truthfully what the shops are doing.
A shared dashboard: One place to see the waste the shops have kept out of the landfill.
Funding and sponsorship: Grants and sponsors, coordinated by one circle.
Beyond coffee: Opening to restaurants once the coffee shop model repeats.