About Cornelius Communications

Our Green Initiative is about helping people grow food, share practical knowledge, and build healthier communities.

We're starting with what we can build, test, and share ourselves. Our ambition reaches further: communities around the world with more ability to feed themselves and care for the environments that sustain them.

There are hydroponics tables in my driveway in San Jose.

What began as an experiment in growing more of our own food has become an ongoing project in small-space growing, water management, automation, and learning what works. I've also helped others establish growing systems in their own backyards, elsewhere in California and beyond.

The questions are practical. How much can we grow in the space available? How much water, energy, and attention does it take? Can we make the system easier to maintain? Can someone else use what we've learned?

Each experiment gives us something to improve and something to share.

I attend conferences around the world. Again and again, people who arrived from different countries, speaking different languages, get to know one another over food and drinks.

Sharing food is one of the most human ways we connect.

Growing it creates more opportunities for that connection. We can share a harvest, help someone get started, compare what worked, and learn from the experience of people growing in different conditions.

Our aim is to make fresh food more accessible and help more people participate in producing it. Healthier, better-fed communities are a purpose in their own right.

Growing in limited space brings together many of the things we enjoy working on: systems, data, experimentation, and useful technology.

Our projects explore hydroponic and aquaponic growing, small-space designs, and ways to manage water, lighting, temperature, and nutrients. Automation can help make growing manageable alongside work, family, and the rest of daily life.

We document the experiments, including the parts that need another attempt. A useful idea becomes more valuable when someone else can understand it, adapt it to their circumstances, and improve it.

Local conditions matter. A system that works in my driveway may need a different design, crop selection, or energy source somewhere else. Sharing the reasoning behind a design helps others make those choices.

Our environmental commitments belong in our everyday decisions.

We want to grow nutritious food closer to where it is eaten, use resources thoughtfully, and help others develop the knowledge to do the same. We're interested in approaches that can support healthier lives while reducing the environmental burden of feeding ourselves.

An EcoVadis assessment or a procurement questionnaire can help us account for our commitments. The reason for doing this work is the people, communities, and planet it is intended to benefit.

The systems we have built and the people we have helped are a beginning. Our ambition is to make that knowledge useful much further afield.

Backyard Globalization is where we share the practical side: growing experiments, system designs, observations, and lessons from putting ideas to work.

Explore the articles. Try something that fits your space. Share what you learn.

If you're growing food in your community, experimenting with a system, or interested in exchanging ideas, we'd love to hear from you.