John Edel had a dream of turning old buildings into indoor grow-houses, and that’s exactly what he did in 2010, when he bought an old meatpacking plant in Chicago and turned it into a net-zero waste vertical farm, unironically called “The Plant.” His tenants include some bakers, mushroom growers, kombucha brewers and fish farmers who exist in a perfect ecosystem, with the waste from one process serving as a fuel source for another, hence the idea of net-zero waste–nothing goes in or out. Right now The Plant seems to have gotten positive reactions from people in the surrounding neighborhood, and Edel has big plans for more rapid expansion in the near future. Check out this video that explains how The Plant’s ecosystem works: