Lisa von Sturmer is the founder and CEO of Growing City, North America's first and only premium office composting service.  Her company makes it easy for any business to reduce their waste by up to 50%, overnight.  

During her 2 year stint working as an editor and producer for an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) show, she realized that while she enjoyed travelling around the world watching fights and casting ring girls, something was missing: she wanted to make a positive impact in her community.  After a bump with "the glass ceiling", Lisa realized that her dreams would only be fulfilled if she took a chance and started her own company.  She spent several more years in the film / television / gaming industry before the plan for Growing City fully came together - but when it finally did, she quit her career and has never looked back!

Now, Lisa is a champion for composting, waste reduction and urban agriculture - her efforts to make composting mainstream have helped Growing City to divert roughly 190 metric tonnes of waste, or 485 metric tonnes of CO2e from local offices in the past 2 years. 

Lisa is also passionate about volunteering - and has made it a part of her company's operations.  Each month Growing City donates time, service or compost to a different local organization or charity.  Under her direction, the company has grown over 100% in the past year and she is excited to continue bringing composting to offices across the country!  

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About Lisa!

In addition to running Growing City, Lisa is passionate about volunteering and fundraising.  In 2010 she co-founded Pinups for Pink, a breast cancer research charity that has raised $60,000 since October of that year. 

She has been nominated for:

a 2011 YWCA Women of Distinction Entrepreneurship award

a 2011 Profit Magazine FUEL Top 20 Under 30 Canadian Entrepreneurs award

a 2011 Notables.ca Notable Entrepreneur award

a 2011 RBC Women Entrepreneur Award

a 2011 CYBF Chairman's Award

and won the 2010 Small Business BC Business Concept Award. 

She is also an official Canadian delegate for the 2011 G20 Youth Entrepreneurship Summit in Nice, France where she will work with other leading young entrepreneurs from G20 nations to create a policy proposal for governments to help encourage youth entrepreneurship as a way for countries to stabilize and grow their economies.

Lisa is a member of the 2012 Forum for Women Entrepreneurs prestigious e-Series program, and was recently accepted into the exclusive Entrepreneur's Organization Accelerator program.