Help us find and buy land for Full Sun Compost!

The past two months have seen a flurry of activity at Little Green Bucket:

• We launched our Full Sun Acceleration Bonds program. So far we’ve generated over $220k of investments, which is getting very close to the minimum we need to open our own compost facility.
• We legally changed our name to Full Sun, LLC! We’ve got a new logo, and a full rebranding in the works. (Don’t worry! While the lids may look a bit different soon, your little green buckets will still say Little Green Bucket.)
• We sponsored Run for the Zoo and Food is Free Albuquerque’s 2025 Seed Share and tabled at the city’s Earth Day Festival and several days of the Downtown Growers Market.
• We started hauling for the city’s pilot of a new compost drop-off program at McKinley Community Center.

Against that busy backdrop, we’ve also been searching for land on which to launch Full Sun Compost, our community-centered compost facility and sustainability hub. We were expecting to start with a short term lease, until our bond program caught the eye of a forward-thinking group of local investors who made a game-changing proposal: separate from our bond program, they are preparing to purchase land and mortgage it to us on generous terms! This is a tremendous opportunity for us to dive straight into our big vision and have a huge impact on sustainability in Albuquerque right from the start.

Which brings us to what I consider the most daunting part of this journey: finding the right property, in the right place, at the right price, and giving these amazing investors a green light to make the purchase.

This is also where we could, once again, use your help. We’re only in business today because of the groundswell of support, ideas and inspiration we received last fall, and our new dream is only possible because of the grassroots success of our bond program, so we’re certain our community will rise to the occasion once again. Read on to learn how you can help.

Scenario 1: Get Creative & Buy the Dream Property

We’ve identified a property that we consider almost perfect. It’s a little over 7 acres, located in a phenomenal location in the near South Valley, beautifully positioned at the confluence of residential, agricultural, industrial, and recreational areas — the perfect place to build a sustainability hub that serves all of those communities.

The problem? The price is just a little steep. Our projections say we can probably afford it in the long run, but the mortgage payments would put us under a lot of financial pressure for the first few years.

Fortunately, the property is a bit larger than we need, especially in the beginning. So we’re looking for ideas and potential partners: how might we use the spare acreage to generate an extra $4000 per month in mortgage payments for the next few years?

Some ideas to get the brainstorming started:

• Rent extra acreage: The property is zoned for manufacturing, so usage is very flexible, although we’d obviously prefer to have neighbors who are well-aligned with our mission. It’s currently completely bare land, but we’ll be running utilities immediately so we can get to work composting. Do you know any businesses needing to rent 1 to 3 bare but mostly level acres?
• Build & Rent: For the right partner, we’d be willing to purchase a steel warehouse, sized to suit, and rent it out. Do you know anyone in need of a space like this?
• Side gigs: We’re exploring a variety of side gigs we could spin up ourselves, to generate revenue in the short term without overextending ourselves. These range from growing plant starts in a greenhouse, to opening an RV storage lot* or a coffee cart or a small zero waste recycling program. Some of these are more promising than others… but we’d love to hear your ideas, too!
• What else? What are we missing? If you had your heart set on a dream property, but the math wasn’t quite mathing, how would you make it happen?

* If you own an RV and already pay for storage in ABQ, but would be willing to move it to support our business, please let us know! This is one of the more plausible solutions.

Scenario 2: Continue the land search

It’ll be hard to let go of the dream property, but we’ve been hedging our bets and casting a wide net the past few months. We’ve got half a dozen properties we’re considering, but we’re still looking for more options. Here are our current criteria:

• 4 to 8 acres. We only need about 3 acres for our core activities, but depending on the location we can afford some elbow room and would love to both grow out some green space and do some placemaking.
• Industrial zoning preferred. Agricultural zoning might work, but we’ve been getting mixed signals about the zoning rules, and even if our core work is permitted we’d likely run into challenges with some of our broader plans.
• Centralish location. Within about 12 minutes of either the Big I or Balloon Fiesta Park. There is tons of acreage on the west side, and deep in the south valley, but those locations would be very challenging for our operational needs.

So if you know someone who’s sitting on unused acreage that meets the criteria above, or if you’ve spotted properties around town that could be a good fit, please let us know!