"The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must." Georgia Elliott-Smith carries this line from Thucydides' Melian Dialogue as both warning and weapon. Growing up with a northern accent in a posh boarding school filled with princesses and tycoons' children, she learned early what it meant to be on the weaker side of power. But it was watching communities poisoned by waste incinerators in London's poorest neighborhoods and seeing toxic tire dumps explode in India while UK regulators looked away, that taught her the full weight of that ancient equation. The weak will suffer what they must unless someone with privilege refuses to accept it and fights to change the rules.  

Wes Carter spent his childhood in the waters of Wrightsville Beach, surfing the breaks and fishing the marshes that felt like a second home. The countless hours in the wilderness sculpted a reverence for the outdoors that would later shape his life’s work as president of Atlantic Packaging Corporation.

How do we tackle the challenges of food insecurity without having to rely on temporary fixes? A solution to a problem as vast as food insecurity rarely arrives in a single, brilliant flash. For Dr. Alice Ammerman (UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health), it seems to have been unearthed slowly, cultivated over years spent in the trenches of public health research. The data pointed toward a simple, profound truth: a community's health could begin with something as humble and fundamental as a single good bowl.

From Alabama roots to the rolling hills of Liberty, North Carolina, Clarenda Stanley—better known as Farmer Cee—is cultivating more than crops. Through Green Heffa Farms, she’s redefining farming by centering Black women in entrepreneurship and regenerative agriculture.

From food scraps to producing food, Kris Steele and the Crown Town Team are building a circular food economy across Charlotte. Leading the next generation of a localized food supply chain through the use of regenerative agriculture practices on local farms, composting food waste and collecting that compost to support soil health in the community. This creates a system that can sustain itself. Today, Crown Town Farm, part of a long-term initiative to build a circular economy with its sister companies Crown Town Compost and Crown Town Landscapes, is rethinking circular models in Charlotte.

In the mid-1970s, 12-year-old Bonnie Monteleone watched from the kitchen as her mother unwrapped a package of ground beef, peeling back the cellophane and removing the Styrofoam tray beneath it.

“Where does this stuff go?” Her mother wondered aloud. “I heard it sticks around for a thousand years.”

That simple question planted a seed of curiosity in Bonnie, which grew over the next five decades, guiding her through her childhood, college years, and her time as the co-founder and executive director of the Plastic Ocean Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Wilmington, North Carolina.

“When I was young – before I really cared about what other people thought of me -- I would wear absolutely anything and everything,” says Aliyah Carrion, a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and founder of the Sustainable Strut.

Founded in 2017 by Ajulo E. Othow, an attorney and entrepreneur with deep roots in the South, EnerWealth is committed to providing an innovative solution to bridge the equity gap in clean energy. After witnessing the chaos Hurricane Katrina left behind, one thing stuck with Ajulo: when power disappears, so does the ability to live, work, and recover. For rural communities, that loss cuts deeper and lasts longer.

Bama Bay Oyster Farm, located on the coast of Alabama, is Alabama’s first and only woman-owned and led sustainable marine farm producing oysters. Jackie Wilson’s career in oyster farming began when she was younger, and it started as a sustenance operation. However, she realized “I could make some money from this”. She developed an understanding of the profit margin that can be made with oysters, and how profitable oysters can become when produced on a large scale.

Having grown up in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Chris Buchanan is familiar with the fishing industry. He remembers the little harbor down his street filled with boats and activity, a holdout for commercial fishing. Chris says now there are maybe 4 boats left, all manned by older generations not able to carry on the livelihood of the town forever. He mourns the vibrant culture of his childhood that is now diminishing. But just as he is familiar with the plight of his town’s fishermen, he is also aware of the interwovenness of fishing and marine life. After hearing a story about right whales entangled in vertical fishing lines, Chris had a thought. Numerous industries operate at the expense of the environment, yet they all have sustainable alternatives that allow consumers a choice–free-range eggs, for example. Why can’t there be a choice for commercial fishing as well? And thus, Lineless Lobster was born.

Tiago Gomes plays the role of a psychologist, a diplomat, a scientist  and an investor, but most of all he is a climate activist. He believes in collective action for the good of our planet, especially as he can see the effects of deforestation and climate change so clearly in his native Brazil. However, not everyone thinks the way he does. Most companies need motivation, namely money, to consider the environment in their business model. So, when Gomes talked with Fabio Alperowitch, the founder of asset firm Fama Re.Capital, who was designing the concept of a fund that invested in the largest emitters to nudge them along the path to decarbonization, Gomes was all in. Gomes joined the firm and helped launch the Latam Climate Turnaround Fund.

Every entrepreneur’s journey starts somewhere; Alex Piaski’s began at the dining room table with his family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States.  For the Piaski household, food wasn’t just about feeding everyone; food was about making sure his family members were more than just roommates. Every day, no matter the circumstances, Alex Piaski’s parents made family dinner a priority. If someone had practice after school, or a club meeting that ran too late, it didn’t matter; dinner would be rescheduled for later so that everyone could make it.