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Mary Ruppert-Stroescu
Mary Ruppert-Stroescu
Mary Ruppert-Stroescu
Washington University, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
Mary Ruppert-Stroescu's parents lived through the Great Depression. Her mother was a quilter and a waste-not, want-not kind of person
Working with students in her Washington University classroom, Ruppert-Stroescu developed a system that retains the integrity of textiles used to make clothing. In typical manufacturing, a skirt is cut from a piece of fabric and the unused portions are either tossed or downcycled. Ruppert-Stroescu’s solution is more efficient, wastes fewer materials, and prevents manufacturers from having to melt down clothing “scraps” to the fiber stage.
“I really believe it will change a sector in the industry,” Ruppert-Stroescu says. “And if I don’t prove the concept, then nobody else is going to do it.”
Why not? It’s complicated, and costly.
Still, if anyone can do it, it’s Ruppert-Stroescu. She’s hopeful to reduce waste but also wants to look more at the manufacturing side. She wants manufacturers to realize that there’s another way to make clothing than the old-fashioned, status quo. And she’s in the right place to make it happen.
“I really am excited to be in St. Louis for this project at this moment in time,” Ruppert-Stroescu says. “There’s a $13.2 million textile industry in Missouri and there’s an incredibly rich ecosystem here to support these businesses.”
Katie Carpenter
Katie Carpenter’s first experience at Perennial, a nonprofit that strives to help people see the potential in waste, was as a volunteer in 2013. Now, she leads the organization, serving as executive director since 2019.
In the decade since she first joined Perennial, Carpenter’s views on sustainability have changed. “I grew up trying to be a good steward to the Earth through recycling, not littering, and turning off the water while I brushed my teeth,” she says. “Now, I see sustainability as less of a transaction and more of a way of life.”
Perennial’s mission is to build a creative culture of sustainability by providing people with the necessary skills to transform waste into something useful or beautiful. The organization hosts more than 300 classes each year, as well as numerous outreach events, such as its popular clothing swaps.
Despite the challenges of running a small nonprofit, Carpenter finds fulfillment in seeing the tangible results of her team’s efforts, including how Perennial diverts thousands of pounds of waste from landfills. She also believes that it's better to build lifelong healthy habits, rather than overinvesting in zero-waste products that won't fit your lifestyle.
“Start with using what you have,” she says. “Over the years, I've experienced how satisfying it is to live simply while being plugged into a community of creative, committed people who are working towards a healthier planet.”
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Souzan Gerami
Souzan Gerami
Souzan Gerami
America does not often feel like a tea country. Souzan Gerami discovered this when she moved to St. Louis from Iran in 2000. After years of trying to find the right cup that reminded her of home—and tossing away countless wasteful single-use teabags that just didn’t cut it—Gerami decided to take matters into her own hands by launching TeaVoila.
“Tea was the center of the culture I grew up in,” Gerami says. “It reminds me of my younger self, when my mother would take time to make a home brewed cup of tea in the traditional way for me and my family.”
Gerami’s company pairs compostable cups with high-quality tea leaves to offer an on-the-go caffeine option that can be reused two or three times. TeaVoila food grade paper cups include a patented plant fiber filter that is sits atop tea leaves and is sealed without adhesives. Tea drinkers need only to pour hot water and the 12-ounce cup brews itself.
TeaVoila uses teas sourced from China, including jasmine green tea, tieh kwan yin oolong, and keemun black tea. Each is a reminder of Gerami’s roots, and an open invitation for typical coffee drinkers to put down the java and pick up TeaVoila.
“Tea is not just a drink for me, it is my passion and obsession.”
Nick Reinke
Founded in 2019, HabiTerre is an advanced science and technology company making waves in the agriculture industry. The company developed a model data feedback loop that uses modeling paired with observable growth processes and real-life data to help farmers be more efficient in their efforts. CEO Nick Reinke is helping lead the way by making the system market-wide, scalable, and adoptable.
“In short, it’s dedicated to closing the gap between scientific rigor and scale,” he says.
Reinke has dedicated his life to advancing agriculture. Raised in North Dakota, Reinke still returns to the family farm every year to help with the annual harvest.
At HabiTerre, he works with a world-class team of scientists and engineers to build the infrastructure necessary to scale environmental markets. This includes geospatial and modeling technologies that quantify environmental outcomes from agriculture and provide actionable insights to sustainability-focused corporations and farmers alike.
“We’re not necessarily going to be a commodity or food traceability company,” Reinke says. “What you can think of is we could be at the top end of that traceability pipeline—a really high-quality data source to create value products that could make it all the way back to the consumer.”
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Malachi Rein
Malachi Rein
Malachi Rein
Building Energy Exchange St. Louis
Residential, commercial, and industrial buildings account for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in St. Louis. Malachi Rein wants to change that.
Rein is the director of Building Energy Exchange St. Louis (BE-Ex STL), an organization founded to curb this phenomenon by serving as a regional resource for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
“Our goal is to make our built environment serve the needs of our community better through increased energy performance and value, reduced environmental impacts, and healthier, safer, more comfortable, and more equitable spaces for the people who use them,” Rein says.
The city of St. Louis is already at the forefront of this fight thanks to its Building Energy Performance Standards policy passed in 2020. BE-Ex STL helps building owners comply with BEPS by providing resources, education, and connectivity so people can get efficiency projects off the ground. Think things like streamlining operations and reducing material impacts through adaptive reuse.
Regardless, buildings aren’t particularly efficient. That can be especially true with old ones. But the way Rein sees it, St. Louis has a city full of buildings, so it’s best to invest in what’s already here.
“We have wonderful and vibrant people and places in St. Louis,” he says. “Our communities can only grow and blossom if the places where they live, work, learn, and play support their needs.”
Dr. Marcus Foston
Washington University, McKelvey School of Engineering
Dr. Marcus Foston is trying to change the world.
Foston is the director of the Synthetic biology Manufacturing of Advanced Materials Research Center (SMARC). Launched in 2024 at Washington University in St. Louis, the institution is tasked with researching and manufacturing natural, biodegradable alternatives to plastics known as synthetic biomaterials—and educating the public about these advances.
“Recognizing the ubiquity of plastic in our daily lives and its detrimental effects, from filling our oceans to entering the human bloodstream, I saw an urgent need for solutions that address this pervasive issue at its core,” Foston says.
SMARC’s cross-discipline research team uses computer science, materials science, engineering, socioeconomics, and synthetic biology to create alternatives to traditional synthetic fibers or plastics. A few commercial examples include silk made with silkworms and materials made from petroleum, both of which carry high carbon footprints. The result, Foston says, is a technology that could “redefine our relationship with the environment.”
“By harnessing the potential of synthetic biology to produce materials that not only degrade naturally but also match or surpass the functional properties of their petroleum-based counterparts, we pave the way for a sustainable future,” Foston says. “This shift has the potential to dramatically reduce pollution, mitigate the impact on wildlife, and decrease our reliance on non-renewable resources.”
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Nadia Shakoor
Nadia Shakoor
Nadia Shakoor
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Dr. Nadia Shakoor is a scientist known for her innovative approach to solving complex agricultural problems. Driven by a passion for leveraging plant science for the betterment of society, Nadia and her lab strive to accelerate crop improvement, positioning her as a key player in the fight against climate change.
She developed cutting-edge sensor technology tools such as the PheNode and the FieldDock that are aimed at enhancing crop monitoring and breeding processes. She also specializes in sorghum genetics, once directing the TERRA-REF project and the Sorghum Genomics Toolbox. She now works closely with the Salk Institute’s Harnessing Plants Initiative, leading their sorghum-focused program out of the Danforth Center. Her work has led to the development of valuable resources for enhancing traits like stress tolerance and carbon sequestration in sorghum, contributing to global food security and climate resilience. Sorghum roots are not just lifelines for plants under stress; they're also vital in the soil carbon cycle, trapping carbon deep underground.
“Embracing sensor technology in agricultural research is a cornerstone in our efforts to combat climate change,” she said. “By using sensors to closely monitor how different crops, including sorghum, respond to environmental shifts above and below ground, we're unlocking new strategies for enhancing plant resilience and carbon capture capabilities.”
Sorghum, with its extensive root system, serves as a prime example, but Shakoor says the principles apply broadly across the agricultural spectrum. Through her research, Shakoor envisions a future where optimized crops mitigate the impacts of climate change and foster environmental sustainability.
Erica R. Williams
Erica Williams is the founder of A Red Circle, a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing racial inequalities and providing equitable support to North St. Louis County. Her career began with a focus on community development and social justice, not sustainability.
“In my efforts to bring community betterment to North County, I learned about sustainability and environmental justice,” Williams said. “It all kind of ties together.”
Besides the range of life-enriching programs in employment, education, and the arts, A Red Circle has made a huge investment into community wellness initiatives. The Healthy Flavor Community Garden and the Healthy Community Market promote access to nutritious food options. The Food and Farm program works to rebuild the local food system by supporting small-scale vegetable growers and promoting climate-smart growing practices, like composting and rain gardens.
This year, the organization plans to open People’s Harvest Community Grocery in the North County Community Nexus. The anchor business will be the grocery store, but there will be a licensed commercial kitchen for entrepreneurs, a healthy food bistro with a nutritionist, and a banquet center where people can cook food for parties. The on-site Learning and Opportunity Center will teach guests about nutrition so that they can integrate wellness lessons into their own lives.
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Tyrean “Heru” Lewis
Tyrean “Heru” Lewis
Tyrean “Heru” Lewis
Tyrean “Heru” Lewis comes from a long line of vegetable growers. He can trace his farming ancestry back five generations, and his great uncle, Miner Washington, started an all-Black tomato co-op in Texas in the 1930s. But growing up in St. Louis, the only farming Lewis knew firsthand was his great grandmother’s backyard garden. That all changed in 2017 when Lewis, who worked as a teacher at the time, struggled to find fresh healthy produce in his North City neighborhood.
“I saw kids coming to school eating chips for breakfast,” Lewis says. “I decided I wanted to do something to change the narrative of St. Louis as a food desert.”
When he spotted a vacant lot near his house, he visualized turning it into a food growing space. He leased the land and received some initial funding and assistance from grants and an accelerator program, which allowed him to start Heru Urban Farming.
The farm’s mission is to create more sustainable food production and improve access to healthy foods in underserved communities. Important aspects of his work include growing food to address the lack of access to fresh produce, teaching nutrition, herbalism and food preparation skills to youth, and engaging the community through events on his farm.
“We have all this land in St. Louis, and most of our food comes from over 400 miles away,” he says. “Local food is the future.”
