Beer, coffee, tea, spices, cheese, honeybees, a mushroom lab, hydroponics, aquaponics, ice, ice cream, chocolate. What do all of these things have in common?

For starters, they can all be found at The Plant, a 93,500 sq. ft. facility that houses small businesses in a collaborative environment on the South Side of Chicago.

As of January 2019, another item that can be added to that list is “Posh Nosh,” a healthy dessert nut mix created by No Denial Foods. The company, founded by Debbie Wood, makes treat mixes that are free of grains, gluten, and dairy. After using shared commercial kitchens for the last few years, Wood was able to take advantage of an opening at The Plant and moved in.

“I feel like I’m in this environment of doing better and doing good for the world,” she says. “I just feel like I hit the jackpot… I walk in the door, and I feel good about being in the building, and it’s just a really neat space.”

The Plant is, indeed, a unique space. The building,  a former meatpacking plant, was acquired by Bubbly Dynamics in 2010. While the new tenants have transformed the interior, the concrete and brick finishings, as well as the old smoker doors on the bathrooms, help retain the history of The Plant as the companies look toward the future.

“The idea is that all of these businesses can collaborate with each other in different ways,” says Kassie Hinrichsen, Education Manager for Plant Chicago. “Reusing each other’s food waste is just one of these ways.”

The concept Hinrichsen is referring to is that of a “circular economy,” or a closed loop where outputs of one business feed into the inputs of another. For example, Whiner Beer Co. produces spent grain that can be used by chickens, bakeries, and the mushroom lab.

Plant Chicago is a tenant of The Plant that helps cultivate these circular, rather than linear, economies through farmer’s markets, K-12 programs, and other research.

“Our culture is so intertwined in this linear process because everything we think about has a beginning and an end,” Hinrichsen says. She stresses, however, that “that’s not truly the end of life, and that wasn’t truly the beginning of the process.”

Although Wood is still working on fully utilizing everything the circular economy can do for No Denial Foods, she’s already learned many new sustainable techniques.

“They’re teaching me how to really incorporate better waste management practices and stuff that has been on my radar for a long time,” Wood says. “Now that I’m there, I’m actually implementing, so composting, investigating better packaging to use for my products, and reusing.”

A diagram of The Plant shows the connections between all the businesses, including heat, power, digestate, recaptured byproducts, and food waste.

While part of any business is, of course, money, it’s not necessarily the biggest factor for some of the tenants.

“A company is so much more than the money,” Wood says. “It’s about doing good for people. And my business is about helping people to eat better and still not deny themselves. It’s so much more about connecting with others and bringing joy into their lives.”

Beyond connecting with other businesses and consumers, Wood has also found joy in The Plant’s location at the Back of the Yards neighborhood in south Chicago.

“It’s opened up my eyes substantially to the neighborhoods south of downtown, and they’re just wonderful neighborhoods,” she says. “Part of what I love about The Plant is they’re now becoming more of a destination where people are finding out about it, and they’re going there, and they’re learning, which is awesome. I think that’s just a great thing.”