Building a Better Workplace

Vertical Harvest is a farm that employs people with disabilities and uses customized employment plans for each person to tailor their work to their strengths and aspirations. The farm was created to address the difficulty people with disabilities can have finding meaningful employment.

The Chicago Therapy Collective’s HireTransNow initiative provides businesses with guidelines for the hiring process to help them recruit more transgender employees. It also offers training sessions and access to a job board for transgender applicants on a sliding-scale payment basis.

Cafe Euphoria in Troy, N.Y. operates on a cooperative model in which all employees are paid the same wage and are offered an ownership stake in the business. The company is founded on a social mission to create a safe space for trans and gender nonconforming people and promotes equity through a 3:1 sliding scale for its menu and thrift shop, with 94% of customers opting to pay the top-end price of the scale.

Labor union UNITE HERE represents 300,000 working people in the U.S. and Canada across multiple industries including hotels, food service, manufacturing, and more. The union's Sleep with the Right People campaign aims to support LGBTQ+ hotel workers, who are historically discriminated against in the workplace.

A coordinated ward-level fertilizer distribution system in Madhesh Province reduced queues, favoritism, and black-market access for many farmers during the 2026 rice planting season. The system involved municipal committees, cooperatives, and stricter monitoring.

Using a strategy called equitable food-oriented development, Project New Village operates a solar-powered mobile farmers market, community garden, and backyard growers' network in Southeast San Diego, which has been serving residents with affordable fresh produce since 2022.

Ivan Lozano Ortega went from running a wildlife rescue center to breeding and selling critically endangered poison dart frogs, legally. He’s trying to stop poachers from taking the few frogs remaining in the wild in Colombia by making the species readily available to collectors.

LGBTQIA+ inclusive sports leagues in Phoenix, Arizona, provide a safe space for members of the community to participate in a variety of organized sports without fear of discrimination.

Lesbian bars across the United States, like Femme Bar in Massachusetts and Lipstick Lounge in Tennessee, offer a safe space for LGBTQ+ people to connect, be themselves, and build a supportive community.

Companies are beginning to grow offshore seaweed for human consumption as a protein option that’s better for the environment. Growing seaweed on ropes in the ocean is less land-intensive, sequesters carbon, and doesn’t require fertilizer or pesticides.