Building the conditions to make life more sustainable, one region at a time.
Community Wealth Studio designs the governance, coalitions, and capital pathways a region needs for community and ecological resilience. Our flagship regional initiative is Resilient Futures Co-Lab in North Carolina.
What we mean by community wealth.
When we say community, we mean more than the people who live there. We mean the place itself: the land, the water, and the systems that hold it all together.
Looking at a region that way, in place and as a whole, is what lets you see the interrelationships that make a community wealthy or not.
A wealthy community accounts for its impact on its people and its environment, now and into the future. And it moves to keep more value, more ownership, and more decision-making in the hands of the people who live there.
OUR WHY
We know firsthand the devastating effects a natural disaster has on a community.
Our founder, Jennifer Germaine, has lived through three record-breaking, community-devastating natural disasters, with the most recent being Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. After Hurricane Helene, Jennifer founded Community Wealth Studio to create long-term solutions to this problem.
At Community Wealth Studio, we believe the solution to fewer natural disasters and more community resilience lies smack dab in the intersection between the two. Community Wealth Studio was born to develop systems-level solutions to sustainability at the community and regional level.
JENNIFER GERMAINE, FOUNDER
what we’re working from
Planetary boundaries are the thresholds - in climate, materials, water, land use, biodiversity, and more - within which human societies can reliably function. Scientists have defined nine - seven have been exceeded.
These are global measurements that we experience locally as extreme weather, disrupted supply chains, rising costs, and pressure on land and livelihoods.
We address these thresholds locally by making different decisions about how a region utilizes its water, land, industry & manufacturing, housing, and prosperity.
Seven of the nine planetary boundaries have already been crossed.
Does Community Wealth Studio do this research and analysis?
No.
But we have partners who do - Metabolic, Dark Matter Labs, and our other partners do that work.
We create the structures that turn this science into on-the-ground implementation.
our role
We create, facilitate, and maintain relationships with a wide array of organizations across a region who must be involved to make this type of transition happen.
01 MAP
Surfacing and mapping these organizational relationships.
02 CONVENE
Getting them into rooms together to provide input and voice to what this type of systems change looks like.
03 STRUCTURE
Designing the governance and ownership structures that let a region hold what it builds.
04 CAPITAL
Creating the conditions for capital to flow to the organizations leading the work to make the transition happen.
05 ADVOCATE
Building long-term awareness, education, and inspirational campaigns to spread this work.
OUTCOME
Allowing all of this to accumulate to the point where the regional community becomes knowledgeable and connected enough to steward this work for the long-term.
OUR FLAGSHIP REGION
Resilient Futures Co-Lab in North Carolina
The Co-Lab is where the model is being built and tested. It is a place-based initiative across 59 counties of the North Carolina Mountain and Piedmont region, working on four transition pathways: a locally rooted food system, climate-resilient living, community health and resilience, and circular materials and manufacturing.
We're a core partner alongside other partners who share the strategy. We're pooling relationships, regional knowledge, and access to capital to implement this transition.
how you can engage
Where do you fit?
Working in North Carolina
Connect with us inside the Resilient Futures Co-Lab. Explore the transition pathways, capital orchestration, and initiatives already underway.
Building this in your region
If you’re a region, institution, or funder trying to stand up work like this, that’s what the Studio does. Let’s talk about what it would take where you are.
Invite Jennifer to speak
Jennifer speaks on regional transition, community ownership, and the governance structures to make both possible.
Join the conversation
Jennifer writes about regional transition, community wealth, and the work of the Co-Lab.
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