Mila Innovations

About Mila Innovations

The name

isiXhosa, from ukumila: to grow.

What we believe

We grow on what was left behind.

Mila Innovations began in a yard at a family home. The red soil was cleared, old bricks became the first beds, and the first seedlings went in.

The idea has held as the work grows. Land, buildings and even carbon that others have written off can still grow something.

Where it grows

  1. 01Growing

    A yard

    Red soil cleared at a family home, and beds built from old bricks. The first plants are in.

  2. 02Planned

    Old buildings

    Buildings that outlived the work they were made for, turned into indoor gardens.

  3. 03Proposed

    Mine land

    Mining left ground in the North West polluted with metals. Hemp can grow where food should not, and draw some of those metals up out of the soil. A plan to plant it there, and make fuel and building materials from the harvest, is with a mining company.

  4. 04The aim

    Carbon

    Carbon dioxide from industry, fed into greenhouses to grow high-value crops.

The model

Compliance first, written into the software.

Mila Innovations is the hub of the network: its software and its services. The rules that keep the network careful live in that software, not in good intentions.

A legal review that no screen can skip. A named approver for every batch. One ledger for every gram.

Understanding the law

What joining the network does, and does not, cover.

  • 01

    Adults only, in private

    Membership is for adults, in a private club. It is never open to the public.

  • 02

    No buying or selling

    Every plant belongs to a member and is grown on their behalf. Members share among themselves and contribute to what growing it cost. Nothing is sold, to members or to anyone else.

  • 03

    Collected in person

    Members collect at their own club, in person. There is no delivery.

  • 04

    No promise of immunity

    Joining the network is not legal advice and shields no one from the law. Every club, grower and member answers for their own conduct.

Three principles

What every club in the network stands on.

  1. A closed door

    Only verified adult members come in, and every one of them is on the record.

  2. The plant is the member’s

    Every plant belongs to a member, and how many are grown follows what members need, never what a market would take.

  3. Free membership

    No joining fee and no subscription, in every club in the network.

One network

Four parts, one record.

  • Clubs

    Run the room

    Admit members, keep the stock and share it, on kushOS.

  • Growers

    Grow members’ plants

    Apply, pass review and grow on members’ behalf, to the standard, on Rootstock.

  • Members

    Belong to a club

    Apply, set aside their share and collect it in person.

  • Mila Innovations

    Keep it connected

    Builds and runs the software, reviews every grower, and holds the network to its standard.

Our own ground first

We can’t bring a kasi grower up to a standard we don’t meet ourselves.

So the standard starts with us. Every plant tagged, every input logged, every gram on the record. We write our own software to keep that record: Rootstock for growers, kushOS for clubs.