New SCALE UP Cohort Aims For Greater Sustainability and Community Impact
Congratulations to the 10 businesses and organizations that have just graduated as the first 2021 cohort of Scale Up! This is the third cohort to have completed the award-winning sustainability project planning series where participants develop their own plans to reduce energy, water, waste, and/or transportation in their business operations with a commitment to social equity and environmental justice. Here is an overview of their projects and what they plan to do next!
Fox Tucson Theatre
About
The Fox Tucson Theatre enriches Tucson and Southern Arizona by providing a venue for extraordinary events and programs that excite, entertain, and engage the whole community; A core component of the Fox Foundation mission is its own preservation as a cultural asset. To achieve this in today’s world, sustainability must be at the forefront.
Scale Up Project
The Fox Tucson Theatre is planning to establish an internal green team as they work to establish partnerships with other local businesses to shorten their supply chain. Sourcing from local purveyors will keep money circulating in the local Tucson economy while reducing miles and pollution potential in their supply chain and community. Because utilities are their highest expense, the Fox Tucson Theatre will be engaging in detailed building audits; a modest 20% reduction could result in $25,000 in efficiency savings.
Learn more about Fox Tucson Theatre on their website, on Facebook, and on Instagram.
The Coldwater Co-op
About
The Coldwater Co-op is a coffeehouse, bakery, and urban farm in Avondale that serves as a community gathering space where residents can access healthy and affordable locally-sourced food. They are addressing long-standing divisions in society by offering local residents the opportunity to participate in classes related to sustainability, cooperativism, and exercising agency over their community’s social and economic development by participating in the local economy.
Scale Up Project
Coldwater Coffeehouse and Bakery is focused on water reductions of 20% or more for their farm operations, including a water audit and schedule and flow meters to put on every single bed for the sprinkler system. They also want to focus on rainwater harvesting and diversion opportunities. Coldwater will be sharing experience from this with their local community to empower them with the knowledge and skills to grow their own food using water-sensitive practices.
Learn more about The Coldwater Co-op on their website, on Facebook, and on Instagram.
Hotel Congress
About
Built in 1918, the Hotel Congress has endured 2 pandemics, one fire leading to the capture of John Dillinger, and a few bad punk rock bands. Purchased by Richard and Shana Oseran in 1985, the Hotel Congress has an award-winning restaurant, internationally acclaimed live music venue, 39 historically authentic hotel rooms and a private event facility.
Scale Up Project
Hotel Congress is engaging with private, nonprofit, and government partners on the installation of 2 fast-charging electric vehicle (EV) stations and 4 traditional electric vehicle stations. They will be engaging in a qualitative and quantitative study to determine the impact on emissions and the importance of electric vehicle charging stations in Tucson moving forward with this public demonstration project in partnership with Chapman Automotive - Tucson, Mrs. Green’s World, TEP, CLEAResult, and Local First Arizona.
Learn more about Hotel Congress on their website, on Facebook, and on Instagram.
JoyRidesAZ Scottsdale Tours
About
JoyRidesAZ Scottsdale Tours is a company in Scottsdale that provides unique tour experiences In Old Town Scottsdale from a local’s perspective. Their offerings range from cultural and historical tours to wine & beer tastings, and sightseeing. They have worked to create healthy community relationships and partnerships with locals, tourists, business owners, and the City of Scottsdale through their business.
Scale Up Project
JoyRidesAZ Scottsdale Tours is planning to reduce their energy consumption by 20% or more by phasing out their fossil fuel-powered fleet in favor of low-speed electric vehicles (LSEVs) and eventually equipping them with solar charging roofs. They will begin by benchmarking use of all resources in their business operations to determine their projected efficiency savings, carbon footprint, and conservation potential.
Learn more about JoyRidesAZ on their website, on Facebook, and on Instagram.
Food Conspiracy Co-op
About
The Food Conspiracy Co-op was born in 1971, when a group of Tucson residents formed a buying club. These original members used their collective purchasing power to get natural food products, which were largely unavailable in stores at that time. The original co-op store occupied one storefront on 4th Avenue, and over the years expanded into three more adjacent storefronts. As the natural foods industry has blossomed in recent years, health food has become available at many other retailers in Tucson. Food Conspiracy, however, remains the city’s only full-service consumer cooperative. Because they are owned by its members, and beholden to them rather than to corporate interests, the quality and range of products offered is unique in Tucson. The store is open to non-members and members alike. They pride themselves on product quality, excellent customer service, and a strong history as a cooperative business.
Scale Up Project
In addition to their visionary new East Entrance Project, the Food Conspiracy Co-op is addressing waste by focusing on reducing plastic materials in the store and switching to compostable materials for their Hot Bar, as well as forming a Green Team for their business operations.
Learn more about Food Conspiracy Co-op on their website and on Instagram.
Thrive Consultancy, Inc.
About
As an Arizona Benefit Corporation, Thrive Consultancy, Inc. is committed to helping startups and existing businesses adopt sustainable business models and practices and to building a sustainable economy in Arizona. Thrive Consultancy, Inc provides development services for businesses that want to put their workers, their community, and the environment at the forefront of what they do, while still providing great products and services and being economically successful. They know the need for doing business differently and for a new economy has never been greater or more urgent.
Scale Up Project
Thrive Consultancy, Inc. is working with Local First Arizona to develop a financing tool that helps local businesses seeking funding for sustainable development projects get connected to individuals who can provide funding and provide them with financing strategies. Because Thrive works with startups and social enterprises, accessible financing at the early stage enables businesses to manage their environmental and social impact from the beginning.
Learn more about Thrive Consultancy, Inc. on their website.
Local First Arizona – Marketing & Communications
About
Local First Arizona’s mission is to build equitable systems for Arizona’s local businesses and communities that create a vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable Arizona economy.
Scale Up Project
Understanding that the organization does a substantial amount of printing to provide valuable resources across the state, the Marketing & Communications (MARCOM) team at Local First Arizona is exploring options that alleviate printing demands on the team, reduces costs, and eliminates waste. Initial project plans include on-demand printing and implementation of a sustainable procurement process across the organization that engages all employees in the process to reduce waste by 20% or more.
Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse - Trail Dust Town
About
Trail Dust Town is the home of Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse, which has been operating in Tucson since 1962. Visitors can expect a taste of the Wild West, including mesquite-grilled steaks and traditional cowboy grub in this turn-of-the-century Western town that also features a miniature train, carousel, Ferris wheel, stunt show, local shops, local services, the Savoy Opera House event facility, and open spaces to spend time and take photos in. Their mission is to provide good food and fun to the people of Tucson and their visitors and to preserve Tucson’s Old West history. Pinnacle Peak and Trail Dust Town are locally owned, and we are on their third generation of family management.
Scale Up Project
Trail Dust Town is engaging in a multi-pronged approach to reduction through benchmarking and efficiency upgrades for Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse. They will be taking this opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of Pinnacle Peak’s building while planning to replace inefficient HVAC units with more efficient models at the end of their life to cut energy use, reduce costs, and create a more comfortable working environment for employees. Trail Dust Town also plans to alleviate low water pressure in order to use low-flow fixtures like pre-rinse spray valves to reduce water usage. In the future, they plan to work to develop partnerships to convert their miniature train to electric and implement solar power to run their amusement rides, becoming a public demonstration area for electrification.
Learn more about Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse and Trail Dust Town on their website, on Facebook, and on Instagram.
Copper Star Coffee
About
Copper Star Coffee is a coffee shop and bakery located in the heart of the Melrose district of Phoenix. They actively participate in the local food economy by sourcing roasted coffee, ingredients, and supplies as locally as possible while making all of their own bagels, chai, pastries, and other baked goods from scratch.
Scale Up Project
Copper Star Coffee will be engaging in an extensive energy and water audit benchmarking study on their building to plan and perform building envelope improvements while improving sustainability in their business operations by expanding on opportunities for employee development and green team building.
Learn more about Copper Star Coffee on their website, on Facebook, and on Instagram.
Earth Coin
About
Earth Coin is an app concept for accelerating positive change by establishing higher value for transactions that benefit others, cause less harm to common resources and brighten our future.
Scale Up Project
Inspired by the Scale Up program, the ultimate goal of Earth Coin is to create an app that prioritizes sustainable purchases. The app draws validated best practice sustainability metrics from each major sector of the economy and allows sellers and buyers to conduct transactions through the app, but only if those transactions meet the minimum sustainability threshold set in the locality that the transaction is taking place Those transactions and associated data would be encoded in an advanced blockchain type ledger. That ledger would serve as a resource to inform how to improve the best practice sustainability metrics and where to set access thresholds. That information would, in turn, update the rating systems and advance the quality of the app. All of this would lead to pushing towards a smarter, more sustainable economy. The project will include focus groups with SCALE UP participants to support App prototyping and testing and governance model development leading to the official App rollout which is happening soon!
Do you work for, own, or know a business or nonprofit in the Phoenix or Tucson metro area that is thinking about sustainability? Interested in joining us for our next cohort of SCALE UP? Check out www.localfirstaz.com/scale-up to learn more.
