Spore-producing fungi served in tony restaurants grow in a number of mediums鈥攊ncluding coffee grounds. That tidbit of knowledge started two guys on a business venture that diverts 10,000 pounds of coffee grounds a week from the landfill so that it can be turned into soil for the 鈥榮hrooms. And they鈥檙e just getting started.
"We both understood the potential scope for it," Nikhil Arora, one of the company鈥檚 co-founders, Grist. "This country is addicted to drinking coffee day in and day out. We knew if we could turn this waste into something of value, it could make a huge impact."
The company, (BTTR), started in 2009 when Alex Velez and Arora, then students at the University of California, Berkeley鈥檚 Haas School of Business, heard their professor describe a project in which women grew mushrooms in coffee grounds to stave off malnutrition. With the help of Alan Ross, a professor, mycologist Paul Stamets, and consultants, the idea grew into an enterprise. Now the men and their four employees sell gourmet mushrooms and mushroom-growing kits from the company鈥檚 San Francisco locale.
BTTR鈥檚 delicious and decidedly non-coffee flavored mushrooms are helping the company thrive. The outfit produces more than 600 pounds of oyster mushrooms a week, which are grown primarily from grounds procured from Peet鈥檚 Coffee & Tea stores. After the company turns the grounds into compost and grows the product, Whole Foods and the Berkeley Student Coop sell BTTR鈥檚 produce. Those who want to try their hand growing their own mushrooms can buy the kits .
Their explains what purpose they hope to serve with their fungi: 鈥淥ur vision is to serve as a standard bearer of innovation and responsibility in our community in order to inspire others to work towards a more sustainable future.鈥
Arora and Velez are not the first two business-minded entrepreneurs to work with mushrooms. Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre in college to create insulation. Now their company, , grows biodegradable packaging. Even though the two ideas are very different, they both show how fruitful鈥攁nd sustainable鈥攚ork with fungi can be.