Project Description:

Shrubscriber brings together people who believe in partnering with nature and aspiring urban farmers to create a network of urban tree farms so that we can grow a biodiverse, food-secure, and climate-resilient future.

Shrubscriber is a tree subscription service and tree-growing community in Edmonton. We run an online community at Shrubscriber.com and host in-person and online events and workshops.

We have been operating for three years, but much has changed since our inception, and there is a need to revisit and update Shrubscriber's business model.

Current Business Model

Tree Subscription Service

Paying members support tree production with an annual subscription and can choose to receive their trees or have us donate their trees on their behalf. Tree donations support community groups in parts of the city more prone to climate change impacts: community leagues, gardens, schools, and not-for-profits.

Presently, members fund three, six, or twelve trees per year at $30/tree.

Tree Propagation Course

I have created an online tree propagation course for members interested in growing trees from seeds and cuttings. When members fund more than three trees per year, they receive seeds and step-by-step propagation instructions.

My goal is to create more tree growers for the network and to increase Shrubscriber's capacity for plant production and, thus, tree subscriptions. Eventually, I would like to compensate members for growing trees, though I still need to determine the economics of this.

This project will be flexible, but I suspect it makes sense for a new business plan to start by focusing on the Tree Subscription Model.

Some additional consider and a few things to consider:

Tree Propagation Goals

• Grow a distributed tree nursery network by offering online propagation courses with seeds, step-by-step instructions, and resources. In Progress.
• Standardize and coordinate the production of woody plants for small urban spaces: backyards, balconies, vacant lots, etc. In Progress.
• Develop backend tools to coordinate and, when possible, automate community plant inventory management and distribution. In Progress.
• Create a real-time inventory of plants available for purchase and integrate a payment gateway.
• Determine a strategy for compensating propagators when their plants are sold via the network.
• Explore ways to expand the nursery network beyond the Greater Edmonton Area.

Tree Subscription Goals:

• Define the ideal client/member and explore avenues for reaching them. In Progress
• Offer a woody plant (trees and shrubs) subscription services for businesses, landscapers, homeowners, and climate-conscious citizens. In Progress.
• Create mechanisms for subscribers to gift their plants to schools, community groups, and others who need trees. Create a strategy to celebrate tree donations. In Progress.
• Streamline the ordering and distribution of plants.
• Create a map of Shrubscriber planted trees and find mechanisms to quantify their social and environmental benefits.

Climate & Community Goals:

• Foster a community around the propagation, distribution and planting of trees. In Progress.
• Identify and propagate rare and historical local trees. In Progress.
• Leverage donations from the subscription model to provide free trees for community projects. In Progress.
• Increasing the forest canopy of the local community and creating climate resilience.
• Provide an optimistic view of the future and a tangible way to combat climate grief.

Project Scope and Expectations:

Students will prepare and present a solid business plan for Shrubscriber. Areas covered will include identifying and assessing opportunities, developing a winning strategy, identifying resource requirements and selling the plan to financing sources.

Project Details:

Provide more detailed information about the project, breaking down tasks and milestones. This includes:

• Become familiar with Shrubscriber's existing practices and goals
• Identify and assess opportunities
• Developing a winning strategy
• Identify resource requirements and sell the plan to financing sources.

Final Deliverables:

• A comprehensive 10-15 page business plan as per the team of consultants' course curriculum.

Access to Community, Data, and Resources

Candidates will receive access to the online Shrubscriber Community Platform, Community Analytics, and Sales (Stripe) Data.

Weekly Check-In Meetings

At the start of the project, we will determine a weekly standing meeting time that works for everyone involved. The weekly meeting will be an opportunity to check in, establish weekly goals, and collectively troubleshoot any emerging challenges. Weekly meetings will be scheduled for an hour but can be more or less depending on the group's needs.

Ongoing Communication

Between meetings, we will use the Shrubscriber Community chat feature and the internal communication tools with Airtbale to stay in regular contact and ask questions as needed.