Climate progress is still happening: Meet the 2025 Grist 50
Grist | 16 September 2025
Our climate is changing. The impacts of that change are growing deadlier every year. And efforts to reduce emissions, increase resilience, and keep people safe in the U.S. have faced increasing headwinds from a federal government committed to dismantling climate action and funding.
But make no mistake: Climate solutions are still moving forward. In every corner of the country, people are working as tirelessly as ever to address this crisis in creative, holistic, and equitable ways. And as national and international policies largely fail to meet the moment — or, in some cases, actively fly in the face of progress — the work of those standing up for communities and within industries to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate is more important than ever.
The 2025 Grist 50 list highlights the work of 50 such people who are making a real difference and moving the needle. The impact they’re having in their communities and sectors shows that progress is still possible.
Since 2016, the Grist 50 has put a spotlight on bold, surprising climate solutions and the personal journeys behind them. And this year marks the 10th Grist 50 list. That’s 500 stories of innovation, initiative, and action.
This year’s list features artists who are inspiring climate action through music and watercolors; entrepreneurs who are breaking down barriers for EV adoption and green jobs; and land stewards who are fostering resilience on farms, in forests, and even in cemeteries. The people on this year’s list hail from small towns and big cities, from the Caribbean to the Midwest. They’re working in academia, in local governments, in startups, in nonprofits. Together, these 50 stories are a snapshot of the progress that is still unfolding all over the country — and a testament to the strength, diversity, and creativity of the many people pushing it forward.
Meet the full list of Grist 50 fixers.
Caroline Cotto - Director, NECTAR
She wants to make sure plant-based meat will tickle your tastebuds
Caroline Cotto always knew she wanted to work in food — the question was how. She did a stint at a food-focused startup incubator, and even launched her own upcycled food business in 2018. Both experiences taught her how to develop a product and bring it to market.
Now, she helps other brands navigate these challenges — with a twist. She works with plant-based meat companies to taste test their products, with the goal of making them more appealing to meat lovers. Cotto is the first and only full-time employee of Nectar, an initiative born out of the philanthropic organization Food System Innovations focused squarely on gathering data to help make plant-based meats taste better.
Research shows eating less meat is a critical step in meeting climate targets. Today, there are more plant-based brands competing for consumer attention than ever, and yet demand for faux meat has fallen — with lackluster flavor being a common gripe.
At Nectar, Cotto designs blind consumer taste tests where participants rank plant-based proteins — veggie burgers, meatless meatballs, faux chicken — alongside their animal counterparts. “We sit outside of the industry, so we can be a truly objective third party,” said Cotto. “We’re not sugarcoating where the industry is.”
Nectar offers data for free to brands in exchange for donations of their products for testing. Its other advantage is scale: Each taste test has at least 100 participants. The initiative is still new, but the aim is to offer robust enough data to help companies tweak their product formulas — which some have already done — and ultimately boost sales.
Cotto’s research has shown some vegan options, like certain chicken nuggets, already taste as good as the real thing to some study participants. “Our goal is to bring some hope back to this conversation in a data-backed way,” said Cotto.
