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Community partnerships and participation from everyone in the GM Renaissance Center have allowed us to bring the composting process full circle and greatly improve the facility’s environmental impact. The landfill-free GMRENCEN composts food scraps to support Detroit urban gardens, including one on the complex’s rooftop.
General Motors is taking our composting program — one of our most successful examples of circular economy — to a new level at our global headquarters in the GM Renaissance Center in Detroit.
What started as a compost collection program with select restaurants within GMRENCEN now includes participation from all floors and occupants at the complex. Through this expansion, we’re hoping to further reduce environmental impact and better contribute to Detroit’s revitalization.
We began the program in 2014 to support our headquarters’ landfill-free status, diverting food preparation waste from several restaurants to benefit local urban farming initiatives. Since then, we’ve worked with local composting startup Detroit Dirt to collect food scraps and fruit and vegetable pieces from the GMRENCEN. The material is mixed with herbivore manure to create nutrient-rich compost used to cultivate urban gardens throughout the city, including our Beaubien Garage rooftop garden (pictured above).
This compost comes full circle as produce harvested from the Beaubien garden is donated to the Italian restaurant Andiamo Riverfront. The restaurant in turn makes donations equal to the food’s value to a warming center that serves Detroit’s homeless. In 2018 alone, the composting program collected more than 138,000 pounds of scraps, supporting multiple garden initiatives.
“At General Motors, we are committed to utilizing all our resources and see waste as simply a resource out of place,” said Lauren Smith, strategic manager, GM Sustainable Materials Management. “Our strategy to keep waste resources in use encourages innovation, creates jobs and serves our communities and the environment.”
The GMRENCEN complex covers more than 5.5 million square feet and houses a hotel, 25 restaurants, 28 retailers and 40 other businesses. It accommodates more than 14,000 office workers and visitors daily.
Residents of the complex are encouraged to place grains, eggshells, fruit and vegetable scraps, among other food waste, into plastic bins located on each floor.
“We are very excited about this latest development of our composting program,” said Collette Kent, sustainability coordinator at the GMRENCEN. “Participation from all floors means that we will have a greater impact in how we put food scraps to use within our local communities. It also gives our employees a way to help us achieve our zero-waste goal.”
