Borrower Profiles
The eight co-founders of Earthseed Land Cooperative (ELC) have a vision: to use land to support the collective health, wealth and environmental sustainability of diverse communities in Durham, North Carolina.
NCIFund Role: Working Capital Loan; Solar Energy Assistance
Stubble. Fade. Circle. Carved. Goatee. Van Dyke. Full. Mountain Man. These are just a few of the many styles of beards appearing on men all over the United States in the last few years, and the trend shows no sign of abating.
But as most women will tell you, with any hairstyle—including men’s facial hair—comes the need to take care of it, to keep it healthy and clean and smelling good. And this calls for “product”—in this case, beard balms, beard oils, beard washes, and special combs and brushes.
Jobs created or retained: 3
When Laila and Doug Mortimer moved to Robbinsville, North Carolina, Laila was moving home. She grew up in Graham County, and her family has been in the area for more than 200 years, so she knew all that it had to offer. But as they watched thousands of tourists come to Graham County—to enjoy hiking trails, multiple rivers for water sports, and the 11-mile “Tail of the Dragon” that draws motorists to drive along the scenic views offered by the Great Smoky Mountains and Cherokee National Forest—they realized Graham County was missing something.
Sustainable Solutions, LLC, uses an Ecosystem Services approach to provide a wide range of natural resource management services, including conservation contracting, prescribed fire solutions, ecological planning services and natural resource education and training.
As a family with a passion for mountain biking, when Guy and Jennifer Miller’s son introduced them to downhill (or “gravity”) mountain biking, it was an easy sport for them to get behind. After taking their son to downhill races around the country and getting to know the sport better, they realized that there was a real void for this sport in the Southeast. There was a demand, but nowhere for people to go.
Inter-State Hardwoods has been in the sawmill business for decades, tracing its origins back to the late 1930s. The family-owned sawmill primarily manufactures hardwood boards and moulding, and is committed to sourcing its timber locally and sustainably.
Fullsteam crafts Southern-inspired “plow-to-point” beer, using local, seasonal ingredients like paw paws, persimmons, pears and pecans. In a post-tobacco era, Fullsteam is enlisting neighboring farmers, foragers and agricultural entrepreneurs to help build a Southern Beer Economy, one pint at a time.
It’s a lot noisier than it used to be in Elk City, a 1900’s-era section of west Charleston, West Virginia.
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