Detroit Community Compost Pilot Data Collection

Project Dates: January 2025-April 2026 (anticipated)

Client: Sanctuary Farms and Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network (DBCFSN)

SEAS Advisor: Shakara Tyler, Lecturer in Environmental Justice and Food Systems

SEAS Students: TBD

About the Client

The DBCFSN works to build self-reliance, food security and justice in Detroit’s Black community by influencing public policy, engaging in urban agriculture, promoting healthy eating, encouraging cooperative buying and directing youth towards careers in food-related fields. DBCFSN also advocates for justice in the food system, striving to improve access to healthy foods and ensure dignity for all of Detroit’s residents. Sanctuary Farms is part of a robust black urban agriculture movement, promoting a circular economy and engaging food entrepreneurs to scale sustainable agriculture in Detroit. 

Project Objectives

• Ensure the continued production and quality of compost generated by small farms in Detroit’s underserved neighborhoods. Sanctuary Farms and accompanying Community Compost Collective organizations are diverting a high volume of metro Detroit’s food waste from landfills, and this project seeks to explore scientific and grassroots-appropriate tools for accessible community composting data collection, visualization and life-cycle analysis
• Evaluate the potential the Sanctuary Farms’ compost production to quantify greenhouse gas mitigation through EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM) 
• Develop an affordable, community-driven protocol for routinely testing compost at neighborhood sites in the Collective, in compliance with city regulations
• Investigate the intersectional dimensions of community composting and justice; create educational materials to illuminate the importance of community composting 

Additional information about this project, its team members and anticipated deliverables will be available on this webpage in spring 2025.