Long-time staple in its labyrinthine Northcote store, in May 2021 Terra Madre upsized to Merri-bek with a new sibling store at 775 Sydney Rd, Brunswick.
Owners Ryan O’Connor and Sam McGinley’s long-standing commitment to sustainability and “making organics affordable and accessible” in Northcote has been reimagined in this generous new store.
The opening of Brunswick was another opportunity for the team to walk the talk. “
We have a lot of fridges and freezers at Brunswick and we wanted to reduce our emissions so we chose closed door fridges and freezers, over open deck, to reduce power consumption,” says Ryan.
The duo also installed a 139kW solar system on the shop and adjacent warehouse with the help of Merri-bek Council through an Environmental Upgrade Agreement. The agreement is a fixed rate, long-term loan administered by Council and paid back through rate instalments. No upfront capital or security is required.
Reducing waste
Other environmental initiatives include using reusable buckets to transfer house-brand goods for zero waste, bins for bulk good buying and liquid bulk options.
Food waste gets collected by Waste Ninja and turned into renewable energy and organic fertiliser.
Soft plastic, cardboard and wax cardboard gets recycled, while the polystyrene on the broccoli gets collected and returned direct to local organic growers.
Employing 30 people, the new store has settled into its new home – despite opening on the first day of lockdown 4.0!
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