What we're learning, building, and seeing.

UpCycle Fiber turns North Carolina’s discarded textiles into code-ready building insulation, diverting landfill waste while growing a local circular economy.

WNC Food Coalition is building a 19-county network to shift colleges, hospitals, and other institutions toward buying local food.

In Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood, NEST and CrownTown Compost turned a pilot into 10 tons of diverted food waste—and a model for the city.

In late October 2025, two full-day workshops were held in Charlotte and Asheville as part of an ongoing effort to explore transition pathways for the Mountain and Piedmont regions of North Carolina. This article summarizes those workshops

Prior to October of 2025, our partners at Metabolic conducted an in-depth regional analysis of North Carolina's Mountains and Piedmont regions— the bioregion at the heart of the Resilient Futures Co-Lab. This is a summary of their findings across seven interconnected systems within the region: Biodiversity and Land Use, Water, Energy, Materials, Health and Wellbeing, Society, and Value.

Our first Signal points to BioHubs: A Pathway to Regional Resilience, a new paper co-written by our partner Metabolic. It offers a grounded model for anyone planning a real estate development that could anchor regional transformation, not just its own footprint.

Resilient Futures Co-Lab announces 22 grant recipients across North Carolina, marking the first phase of capital deployment in a broader effort to build a regenerative, resilient regional economy.