{"id":2938,"date":"2016-10-10T14:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T18:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/?p=2938"},"modified":"2024-02-13T11:51:28","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T16:51:28","slug":"citigrow-focusing-on-food-sustainability-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/blog\/citigrow-focusing-on-food-sustainability-in-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"CitiGrow: Focusing on Food Sustainability in the City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finding unused urban spaces and using those spaces for micro-farms is what entrepreneur, David Gingera has set out to do in Winnipeg, Manitoba with his business, CitiGrow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CitiGrow uses urban agriculture to grow fresh, local produce in environmentally sustainable ways. Their model involves finding unused urban spaces, working out deals with property owners, and developing those spaces into micro-farms. This year, CitiGrow is operating 22 micro-farms in and around Winnipeg and their produce is sold to top restaurants, retailers and to their subscribers (of their weekly produce box) in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

David was inspired to start CitiGrow because he felt that entrepreneurship was the purest expression of creativity. \u201cIn the same way an artist visualizes an image in their head and paints it on a canvas, an entrepreneur can visualize a concept and bring it into reality,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe, in a sense, have the opportunity to shape the world we live in. If that isn\u2019t inspiring, I don\u2019t know what is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspiring other small businesses and entrepreneurs to think big when it comes to being more eco-friendly, David explained that because small businesses don\u2019t have the luxury of scale, small ideas can be insignificant in terms of environmental and marketability value. As an example, he pointed out that a three-person office going paperless is great, but chances are nothing meaningful will come of it. \u201cInstead, find some core environmental issue that aligns with your business, and figure out how you can incorporate real impact into your business process,\u201d he suggested. \u201cI believe these opportunities exist for all businesses, from agriculture to financial services, to software and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

CitiGrow has gained a lot of hype recently being named the Canadian Social Responsibility Business of the Year, Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25, and also a number of press features in publications. But the most rewarding moments to David so far have been the connections he\u2019s made with his customers and clients who are passionate about food sustainability. \u201cThe mutual understanding of producers and buyers working together to create more sustainable food systems is extremely rewarding to see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s entrepreneurs like David who are changing our country for the better, and he wanted to leave other aspiring entrepreneurs with this advice:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not conclude that you are doing a good job simply because other people are patting you on the back. We are in a time today where being an entrepreneur is a “cool” thing to do. I think too many people today,\u00a0particularly\u00a0younger entrepreneurs, get distracted by “start-up culture” and fail to devote their attention to actually building a sustainable company. Know your business, understand the results you need to achieve, set high expectations for yourself, and be brutally honest in terms of whether or not those expectations are getting met.\u201d<\/p>\n

Written By:<\/em><\/strong> Lauren Marinigh, Social Media & Content Creation Coordinator, Futurpreneur Canada <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finding unused urban spaces and using those spaces for micro-farms is what entrepreneur, David Gingera has set out to do in Winnipeg, Manitoba with his business, CitiGrow. CitiGrow uses urban agriculture to grow fresh, local produce in environmentally sustainable ways. Their model involves finding unused urban spaces, working out deals with property owners, and developing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-futurpreneurs-and-partners"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futurpreneur.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}