New Businesses Sprout in Green Spaces

It may be mid-winter, but one spot in the heart of New York City is hot, green and growing. That spot is Green Spaces, an eco-sensitive, non-profit-centered incubator, doing what incubators are meant to do: helping to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services.

Green Spaces was launched nearly three years ago by Minneapolis native Jennie Nevin when she left a Wall Street job for, ahem, greener pastures.

 "The idea was conceived in the winter of 2007, "said Nevin. "I had left Wall Street and was doing some independent consulting work for small, green businesses.  I was working from home in a small, New York City apartment that was lonely and cramped and I was always looking to network with other green businesses. 

"One night my roommate at the time, Amanda Miller, and I were discussing this conundrum and she thought I should start a space for green start-ups to work and hang out from. Marissa Feinberg, a partner in Green Spaces, thought of the name and we launched it."

Nevin explained that her interest in the green industry started right after college when she took a year off to take graduate environmental courses at Harvard.

"I realized that sustainability in business made a lot of sense due to limited natural resources, the principles of reduce and reuse which also make economic sense, " said Nevin. "At the time, these principles were not commonly accepted in business, so I went back for my MBA and started my career on Wall Street. In the evening, I researched green investments and in 2005 realized that this was beginning to take off. I then started a networking group called ‘Green Leaders', that's now run by Marissa [Feinberg] and includes more than 400 change agents for sustainability in NYC."

 Nevin explains the goal of Green Spaces is really to bring together leading green entrepreneurs from all industries and help them all grow stronger together. Her theory is that by coming together, sharing ideas and resources and showing the broader community their products and services, that those businesses will help accelerate an emerging green economy.

"We would like to create a hub for green entrepreneurs to work from and to connect with the broader economy in several regions across the country," said Nevin "We're currently in New York and Colorado, and our next stop will most likely be L.A.   We'd like to eventually own the buildings we occupy and use them to showcase how a building can inexpensively be retrofitted green." 

Green Spaces companies have access to interns for project work and all member companies are able to hire in-house interns at reasonable rates on a project-by-project basis depending on the needs and skills required for the project.  Green Spaces then helps showcase its companies to the public through its newsletter, its website, local and national press as well as and the networking events they host every week at each Green Spaces Hub. 

"We plan on creating a starter package for our start-up companies which will provide them with access to a broad range of services to launch their company at a low, fixed price, "said Nevin.   "We'd like the package to include how to incorporate your business, plus basic legal and accounting services, logo and marketing materials and website design.  We also plan on setting up a network of investors for introductions to member companies looking to raise capital." 

Green Spaces is also in the process of launching a Green Route in Denver that maps out the green businesses and organizations throughout the metro area, as well as resources such as CSA drop-offs, and public transportation routes. This will be available complimentary online and in print in participating organizations around the city.

Some of Green Spaces most active and thriving members are Crop-to-Cup Coffee, Sea-to-Table and Farms Reach. All have received considerable press mentions, but more importantly have made valuable connections in the community by having an official work space where they can work on growing their business.

And what about the Green Spaces space itself, is it green. "Oh yes," says Nevin. "Along with our focus on growing emerging green businesses and organizations, we do try to keep our own operations green.  We recycle, compost, have a native plant garden, use CFL light bulbs, and use all reclaimed furniture throughout our space."

Just what we'd expect.

READ FULL ARTICLE

-Green Guide Network, January 16 2010



Incubator for Social Entrepreneurs and Green Businesses Opens in NYC - Checking out Green Spaces NY in Tribeca.

Green Spaces New York, a hub for social entrepreneurs and green business ventures, officially opened their new location in downtown Manhattan last week. Over 300 industry leaders, social entrepreneurs, and select media filled the Tribeca loft for the celebration, which featured opening remarks by TreeHugger's Graham Hill and Green Map System's Wendy Brawer.

Green Spaces' move to Manhattan marks updated membership opportunities for the green community, with promotional rates through January 1, 2010. The company is now offering a groundbreaking national Clubhouse Membership for EcoPreneurs. This includes access to events such as film screenings, gallery openings, supper clubs, networking cocktails, pop-up retail shops, post-work happy hours, educational workshops, utilization of a Startup Package, and most importantly entry to the national Green Spaces community, which includes their location in Denver, Colorado. To welcome their new community into their Manhattan space, Green Spaces is offering a FREE One Day pass for individuals interested in a green working space.

Located at 394 Broadway, New York, New York, the 5,300-square-foot loft is refurbished with entirely reused furniture. The office uses 100% wind power energy. Green Spaces has low-power utilization through remote data storage, uses a passive heating and cooling system, and is implementing a composting system and partnership with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

Green Spaces has hosted more than 40 green start-up companies and continues to aid the launch of small businesses in a communal work space. Entrepreneurs have their own desk space, access to a conference room, lounge, kitchen, networking, internship program, and in-house IT solutions through Green T Digital. Green Spaces connects the green economy and fosters emerging green businesses, through events, workshops and outreach to over 5,000 leaders in the New York metro area--and thousands more nationwide.

To schedule a tour, utilize your FREE One Day Pass, or for more information on membership levels, contact Emma Grady at emma@greenspacesny.com.

Emma Grady works for Green Spaces NY and writes for Treehugger.

NYC incubator helps green companies grow

Green Spaces is bringing eco-friendly entrepreneurs together to pool resources and ideas.

November 20, 2009 1:51 PM
By Joyce Hanson

Gordon Sims of Denim Therapy spends his work days buried under stacks of old, faded and torn blue jeans that customers have mailed in to be stitched up.

“We're at capacity,” the operations manager said from under the latest pile of jeans, noting that Denim Therapy has hired a seamstress in Queens and recently opened a small shop in Manhattan's garment district to keep up with the demand for repairs.

Mr. Sims shares his space at 394 Broadway with a seemingly odd assortment of other businesses. They include the Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization (IREO), which brokers renewable energy deals between countries in the developing world and the private sector; and Gotham Greens, which farms a 10,000-square-foot sustainable rooftop greenhouse in Queens, thanks to $1 million from private investors and a $400,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

What these startups all share in this 5,300-square-foot TriBeCa loft called Green Spaces is an interest in doing environmentally sound business and ensuring their companies' success. It's a place where like-minded entrepreneurs can pool resources and ideas. And it's an incubator model that looks a lot like the one that has worked for dot-com startups since the 1990s.

“It's trendy. There are a bunch of new green incubators trying to get started all over New York City,” said Stefan Doering, a green business coach and instructor teaching environmental entrepreneurialism at Columbia's Center for Environmental Research and Conservation. Mr. Doering served as an unpaid consultant to Green Spaces a couple of years ago. “Someone who knows he has a cool idea, but not a business mind … will be much more successful inside an incubator than if he does it on his own.”

A rental ranges in price from $550 a month for a full-time private space to $35 per day for drop-ins sharing an open work area. Services include a conference room, an intern program, newsletter advertising and recommendations for companies that provide bookkeeping, accounting, marketing, graphic design, and technology and sustainability consulting assistance.

Green Spaces founder Jennie Nevin originated the incubator a few years ago in Brooklyn, on Flatbush Avenue, but it moved to Manhattan on Sept. 1 when the incubator couldn't come to terms with the landlord on a new lease, according to co-founder Marissa Feinberg. When the move was announced, she said, a majority of the incubator's 35 businesses decided to strike out independently, and the rest headed with Green Spaces to TriBeCa. The incubator now rents to 15 startups and hopes to sign on 25 more.

“Everything's tight, so you have to maximize the dollars,” said Green Spaces' partner Roberto Rhett, a reformed finance guy and do-it-yourselfer who one recent morning could be found mopping the floor, pitching potential tenants, and building a new cabinet with reclaimed wood.

A former A.G. Edwards consultant and Ernst & Young internal auditor, Mr. Rhett said Green Spaces is self-funded but hopes to bring in money from outside investors and the city and state. Between now and March, he predicted, Green Spaces should see its greatest growth period. He expects it to be fully occupied by June 2010.

The new space reflects the incubator's ideals, with 100% wind power-generated electricity, reused office furniture and MSi computers that run on 80% less energy than conventional PCs. In the coming months, Green Spaces hopes to implement a composting system and a community supported agriculture partnership.

But while a tremendous amount of positive energy is being brought to Green Spaces, business history suggests that many of these startups may fail.

Incubators in general have received “mixed reviews,” said Jeffrey Carr, a professor at the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at NYU's Stern School of Business.

“Incubators were really popular during the Internet boom,” Mr. Carr noted. “It was a big business model then, but now most of those are not around anymore, because most of those companies failed. The argument is that for companies that need subsidizing—whether that's low rent or other lower costs in the beginning—incubators are probably not the thing that will put them over the hump.”

Still, when it comes to creative energy and new ideas, the visionary entrepreneurs of incubators like Green Spaces certainly have the will to succeed.

A few desks down from Gotham Greens and IREO sits Xiomara Smith, who runs nonprofit Greenworks Community Development Corporation, a firm that promotes sustainability in low-income areas of Central Brooklyn.

“If it wasn't for Green Spaces, I wouldn't be able to do what I do,” Ms. Smith said, noting that the incubator has given her access to a business network she wouldn't have connected with otherwise.

Gimme Some Space - Green Spaces NYC

Posted by: bdisylvester on 11/19/2009

So, my boyfriend just decided to branch out on his own and work from home. Instead of seeing him for a mere 3 hours a day (he works in finance), I can see him all I want now. No more waiting until 10:30 pm to eat dinner, no more walking the dog solo, no more taking care of all the chores alone. Yah! 

But, um, I miss my alone time and space all to myself. Luckily, Green Spaces New York just opened a new downtown location at 394 Broadway. Ecopreneurs (as they call them) can buy desk space to work on their green companies and small businesses. Membership is $50 a month which gives you one work day per month and $25 for any additional days. Need a full-time desk? It’ll cost you $495 a month or $275 for part-time. You’ll get your own desk with access to a conference room, lounge, and kitchen as well as networking and intern programs. The building is a refurbished 5,300-square-foot loft with used furniture (don’t worry, it’s nice), is 100% offset by wind power credits, cleaned with nontoxic supplies, and they’ll be integrating a composting system in partnership with a CSA in the coming months. Jump on board now before space fills up.

-City Editor Brianne…off to find some alone time

Green Spaces NY Launch: A Place for Ecopreneurs

Why Our Hangers (wire hangers and string) by Susan Benarcik.

by Alicia Lubowski-Jahn · 11/18/09 via ECO-CHICK

Green Spaces New York has just launched its Manhattan clubhouse to grow a community of green entrepreneurs. The NYC initiative joins Denver’s Green Spaces Colorado in designing a green workspace and in founding a dynamic forum for eco businesses. The bright NYC 5,300-square-foot loft provides a green standard for office and conference spaces as well as gallery, lounge, kitchen, and party venues.

The sustainable-style recreational, culinary, and office spaces within an expansive Tribeca loft can be rented for a broad range of eco company events. The loft space is also home to Green Spaces NY’s own internship program as well as to its ongoing green programs and events available through ‘EcoPreneurs’ membership (contact roberto@greenspacesny.com for clubhouse membership details).

At its exuberant launch party, Green Spaces NY gave us a peek at its enticing ‘EcoPreneur’ clubhouse membership offerings—including eco art gallery openings, networking cocktail receptions, and organic food tastings as well as environmental film screenings, lectures, and educational workshops.

Over 300 eco leaders turned out to celebrate the opening, including Graham Hill of TreeHugger, Wendy Brawer of Green Map System, and artist Susan Benarcik, the curator of the night’s inaugural eco art show.

True to its name, Green Spaces NY promises to hold space and unfold spaces for an expanding community of established and emerging green visionaries.

Inhabitat Tours Manhattan’s New Green Spaces Office Lofts

Yuka Yoneda and Emma Grady of Treehuggerby Yuka Yoneda, 11/16/09

Green-powered productivity, eco-minded collaboration, and a beautiful, open space to do it all in? That’s exactly what Green Spaces, the company that pioneered sustainable office space in New York, has to offer in their newly opened 5,300 sq. foot loft in downtown Manhattan. Partners Jennie Nevin, Marissa Feinberg, and Roberto Rhett hosted a bash last Thursday night to celebrate the opening, and they invited green industry leaders, social entrepreneurs, and select media to check out their expansive new office filled with an eclectic mix of refurbished furniture, emerging eco-art, and a sense of community for all ‘EcoPreneurs’ looking to set up their headquarters in New York City.

Conveniently located at 394 Broadway in Tribeca and close to the popular neighborhoods of SoHo and Chinatown, Green Spaces’ Manhattan hub boasts the amazing exposed brick walls and huge arched windows that artists in the area found so appealing when they moved in decades ago. We were delighted to see a bevy of retro steel desks and iconic metal filing cabinets that (ironically) give the office an updated look, what with the Mad Men-esque aesthetic being all the rage these days. My friend Amy, who recently had some of her office furniture sold, pointed excitedly to a particularly cool old-school desk. “Is that?…That looks just like mine!” Guess we’ll never know – but the fact that all of the four legged-occupants of the space (besides mascot Hobbes and his gargantuan furry friend who were like mini celebrities at the party) all have a history is pretty darn cool.

But it isn’t just the furniture that makes the space green. The office uses 100% wind power energy and through a partnership with GreenT Digital, maintains low-power utilization through remote data storage. The space is outfitted with a passive heating and cooling system and even the cleaning supplies used are chemical-free. In terms of waste-management, Green Spaces is working on a composting system and partnership with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) that they are hoping to roll out in the next few months.

The Green Spaces partners also made an important announcement at the event introducing their revolutionary ‘clubhouse membership’ called ‘EcoPreneurs,’ which, on top of being able to operate and collaborate in a gorgeous green office, is a huge benefit of working out of Green Spaces. The special membership includes access to events like film screenings, gallery openings, supper clubs, networking cocktails, pop-up retail shops, post-work happy hours, educational workshops, and includes access to a very useful referral network of green businesspeople who share the same passions and concerns.

And don’t forget to take Green Spaces up on their free one-day pass! It’s the perfect opportunity to experience what working in a sustainable space with like-minded individuals can be like.

Green Spaces Launch Ecopreneur Clubhouse in Manhattan

by Bonnie Hulkower, New York, New York  on 11.16.09 

Green Spaces co-founder Jennie Nevin addressing the party crowd. Photo via Remy Chevalier

Green Spaces NY announced the official launch of their national clubhouse for green entrepreneurs with a festive party this past Thursday evening. The party was attended by over 300 environmental movers and shakers, select media, and fashionistas. New York Partners Jennie Nevin, Marissa Feinberg, and Roberto Rhett introduced attendees to their new 'clubhouse membership' called 'EcoPreneurs'. The membership includes: film screenings, gallery openings, supper clubs, pop-up retail shops, networking happy hours, workshops, and access to a referral network.

Green Spaces is not a new player on the eco-NY scene. In their former Brooklyn location, Green Spaces nurtured over 40 green start-up companies. At the newish Manhattan space, 'Ecopreneuers' have access to a conference room, lounge, kitchen, networking, and a very popular internship program, where interns are readily available to assist with project work.

But the party wasn't about work. People came to congratulate Green Spaces as well as sip cocktails and snack on morsels by Rabbit Mafia and Sea to Table. Entrance to the party was very Manhattan: attendees entered through an unmarked freight elevator below a red bulb on Cortland Alley. But the new location won't be kept secret for long.

Opening remarks were made by the ubiquitous Wendy Brawer of Greenmap, TreeHugger.com's own Graham Hill, Xiomara Smith of GreenWorks Community and Green Spaces founders Jennie Nevin and Marissa Feinberg.

Green Spaces NY is located in a 5,300 sq. foot loft in Tribeca, not far from City Hall. The office uses 100% wind power energy. Through its partnership with GreenT Digital, Green Spaces has low-power utilization through remote data storage. Operationally, the company uses chemical-free cleaning supplies and a passive heating and cooling system.

For more information on GreenSpaces NY or on Ecopreneur Clubhouse Membership, contact Roberto Rhett- roberto@greenspacesny.com

Announcing the GreenTernship Program in partnership with Billie Jean King's GreenSlam Initiative and MSI Computers

Billie Jean King’s GreenSlam Initiative is partnering with MSI Computers and Green Spaces to launch a GreenTernship Program to educate students with “green collar” job training

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New York, NY (August 29, 2009) -- Billie Jean King’s GreenSlam Initiative has launched a green collar internship program and has selected two New York-area students for the pilot GreenSlam/GreenTernship program.

Gary Brown, a senior at Harlem Renaissance High School, and Contessa Gayles, a senior at Columbia University have been selected as the program’s inaugural GreenTerns. Both Brown and Gayles will receive an educational stipend and will be working with leading greening professionals in a program designed in conjunction with Green Spaces, a New York-Colorado based organization that provides green entrepreneurs with workspace, business services and networking channels, to manage and oversee project curriculum and the GreenTerns.

 “Our mission is to involve youth, especially those in underserved communities, with green job training and the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the eco-sports movement,” Billie Jean King said. “Environmental justice is a natural extension of my work as a campaigner for equality.”

Gayles will be studying with Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D., (cofounder of Terrefuge and Terreform 1, and a member of the Columbia University faculty) on a bid for the Olympics in the United States with a focus on sustainability. Brown will be assigned a GreenTernship with the Women’s Education Project’s Team WEP, an international athletic club whose mission is to raise awareness and funds for women’s higher education and personal development, through creation of group runs and tours of urban farm communities in New York City. Gayles will also work directly with Brown as a student mentor.

According to Green Spaces’ founder, Jennie Nevin, “We are pleased to help formulate Billie Jean King’s vision and guide student GreenTerns throughout the academic year. As an organization, we are dedicated to educating and exposing youth to a variety of diverse environmentally and socially responsible practices, so this is a perfect fit.”

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The GreenSlam/GreenTernship program is made possible thanks to the generous support of Green Spaces, MSI Computer Corporation, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) the, Billie Jean King World Team Tennis Charities and the Tennis Industry Association (TIA). Said Vice President of Sales MSI, U.S. Andy Tung, “MSI is pleased to be a part of the green movement program and among the growing list of companies that are choosing to operate as green corporate citizens.”

In 2007, on the first anniversary of the renaming of the national tennis center as the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, King, Ilana Kloss, Pam Derderian and Nancy Becker formed GreenSlam to help green the sports industry, educate fans and to support wider opportunity in the emerging green economy.

Green Edge NYC's The Leaflet - Featured For Profit Business

The Leaflet

By Blakely Blackford

On a desolate block of Flatbush Avenue in downtown Brooklyn, you’d never guess there’s a farm nearby, much less 60 feet away. 60 feet up, that is – atop the building that Green Spaces, an organization providing workspace for green entrepreneurs, calls home.

Green Spaces’ fifth-floor home is designed to encourage the development of green businesses and progressive ideas. Roberto Rhett, the 20-something director, greeted me at the top of the stairs welcoming me to the gigantic floor-through officespace which is remarkably homelike. Even as the sun was fading, a wall of tall windows filled the front area with natural light. We wove through tables and desks, each with character and file cabinets, as Rhett switched off stray desk lamps. He paused to show me a retro ‘40s seat that transforms into a table with a flip of a hinge.

"The building's owner collects different pieces of furniture," says Rhett. "Well, furniture and people." For $475 a month, an entrepreneur or budding organization can secure 24/7 private desk space, along with a mailing address, a pool of interns, a network of likeminded innovators, and even free coffee from Green Spaces renter Crop to Cup. There's also a public workspace option for $250.

Beyond the conference room, a chef's kitchen with a marble slab island awaits gourmet-minded greenies. Here 12-ounce bags of Early Bird granola are prepared for shipping and the aroma of Ugandan coffee, which is bagged nearby, surely perfumes the jeans of the neighboring Denim Therapy, a company that uses its Green Spaces hub to repair and renew clients' ripped favorites.

Rhett, a former financial consultant with a degree in economics, works with the tenants of Green Spaces to kindle entrepreneurial drive. “We hold monthly workshops to educate and assist our clients with common pitfalls in starting their own business.” From giving advice to providing the elbowroom to tinker, Green Spaces is truly a supportive environment, no matter the size of the operation. Rhett explains that “the open floor plan design allows for socializing, communal problem-solving and brainstorming.” Indeed, almost 30 green or otherwise socially responsible businesses have taken root at Green Spaces. And there’s plenty of room for more, both in Brooklyn and on a larger scale. “We would like to see a national expansion of Green Spaces to create a broad network of entrepreneurs who can leverage each other, their contacts and experience to become more successful.”

While growing the organization, Rhett also grows tomatoes, basil, squash and wildflowers, to name a few current residents of a truly green space, the rooftop farm. Compost barrels stand at the ready to fertilize the soil. Collaborating with Green Spaces-based Alive Structures, Rhett plans to raise chickens as well.

But our discussion turns from birds to bees. "In a beehive, when there is a swarm, the bees have been active and creative enough to support another queen." Green Spaces, a swarm of creative minds, is a hive for progressive initiatives. With enough activity, individual ventures might set out on their own. But here, the collective buzz is hard to ignore.

Gotham Greens and The GBC in the L Magazine "Green Awards"

Best Use of God's Old House Award

BEST USE OF GOD'S OLD HOUSE ('Cause He's Long Gone...)
Gotham Greens
While the P.S. 6 kiddies learn about ecology, Gotham Greens, who last brought you greenhouses on a boat, are kicking it up a notch: they just won New York's Green Business Competition with their plans for a garden in Jamaica, Queens, on the roof of a church. "Won't that just use a lot of power?" No! It'll have solar panels! "Well, it couldn't produce that much food." Wrong! They plan to produce 30 tons of produce. "That's a lot of food; won't that require a lot of our water?" No! It's using captured-rainwater irrigation. "Great, more gas-guzzling trucks driving food around." It'll be delivered by vans running on biodiesel! "Wow, it's really hard to be cynical about this project." Yes, it is. (Until you hear evil corporation Whole Foods plans to be a major buyer.)