Brockville, Ont. students launch Eco-Gro garden box business

A group of six Brockville high school students have taken an idea and turned it into a functioning business, offering homemade garden boxes for sale made right in the classroom.

On April 1, they cut the ribbon at Académie Catholique Ange-Gabriel in the north end of Brockville, Ont., officially launching the venture.

"Eco-Gro is a garden box company that just makes gardening a lot more accessible for people in our community," Eco-Gro president and Grade 12 student Evan Munro said. 

"Our teacher proposed the idea at the beginning of the school year, to kind of start our own business instead of just learning the functionality, so we said why not learn and apply the method at the same time," Munro added. 

After developing a small prototype, the finished garden box stands 6 feet long, 2 feet wide and 3 feet tall

Students say coming up with the initial idea was the hardest part.

"When we got the idea in our head, we could really get things going," said Vice-President Jaydon Patry. "Just to find a group of people that you can really gel with and come up with great ideas, that's really all you need to start."

The team even has a functioning website and has already taken in a couple of orders. The boxes sell for $250.

"The first time it took us a week but now that we know all the specs and the different measurements, it takes us two to three periods to complete one," said Munro, adding the garden box was not the first idea proposed.

"We kind of thought about clothing, different items, and then we kind of wanted to be able to say that we made our own products," he said.  "Here in the shop class we have been making our products from day one and we'd like to keep it that way."

Business and shop teacher Etienne Langlois says he is proud of the hurdles the students had to overcome throughout the process.

"When somebody gives you the idea to do something and they say, 'OK, I'll give it a try', you see the project go on and the student faces the problem and figure it out right away to solve the problem," Langlois said. 

"It's a fun group," he added. "I won't lie, I don't have a lot of students so I can work, not better, but we can maybe go further because we have more time to share and cooperate together so it's a lot about cooperation in the class."

"It's a good opportunity for all of us to really learn about how to run a business and how it works," added Patry. 

School principal Chantal Blanchet says with the success of the program, there are talks to offer it again next year.

"Will it be the same? Probably not. That's the idea behind entrepreneurship," Blanchet said. "It's to be able to take your own idea and build from that, so I am very anxious to see what the next couple of generations are going to come up with as well."

"I think it's exactly what we need in any school actually at any time," she added. "This is really exciting because it's got the kids really engaged and motivated towards a project. A business class can be pretty dry, but then in this class, they are creating stuff, they are really working the true entrepreneur spirit, I think that's really motivating for them which is fantastic."

Blanchet said the school worked with Junior Achievers Canada for the project, an organization that helps to promote entrepreneurship for youth. 

"(Langlois) got in touch with them and they communicated and came up with a lesson plan for how to build a business and how to promote a business and the whole marketing aspect," Blanchet said. 

Munro said he enjoyed the entire experience throughout the process, hoping to continue Eco-Gro when he graduates. 

"I think my experience has been quite different from my friends at other schools taking business classes," he smiled. "My business class is a real business and if we would like to at the end we would be able to continue our business after we graduate, so I think that would be a pretty cool option."

For more information, visit the Eco-Gro website.