Sustainability in the United States has a reputation for being an uphill battle. Between political resistance, extractive economic systems, and short-term thinking, it can seem like meaningful environmental and social progress only happens in the margins or not at all.
But look closer. Beneath headlines of climate gridlock and corporate greenwashing, change is unfolding in unexpected corners of the system. It’s not always loud, and it doesn’t always come dressed in idealistic rhetoric. Often, it’s subversive… operating quietly, strategically, and from within.
This is the story of how sustainability is making inroads in the very structures that once seemed immovable, and why leaders of all kinds – from entrepreneurs to CEOs – should take note.
When Change Hides in Plain Sight
Real transformation doesn’t always arrive with fanfare. Often, it arrives quietly via pilot programs, modest experiments, or strategies grounded in efficiency, risk management, or market logic. It borrows the system’s own tools (capital, legal norms, employee advocacy) and uses them to shift direction.
Here are five areas where that quiet revolution is underway:
- Corporate Supply Chains
· Big brands may greenwash, but behind the scenes, employee activism, investor expectations, and potential lawsuits are pushing improvements in emissions and human rights. - Oil & Gas Innovation
· Divisions within multinationals like Shell or BP quietly invest in renewables, carbon capture, or hydrogen, even as public scrutiny limits visibility. - Regenerative Agriculture at Scale
· Farmers test cover crops, no-till farming, and biodiversity due to buyer pressure or risk management, not ideology. - Tactical Urbanism
· Pop-up bike lanes, community gardens, and parklets often begin as “temporary” but become permanent after gaining popularity. - Finance & Banking
· Institutions under pressure from climate litigation or investor scrutiny reframe sustainability as fiscal soundness, changing how capital flows.
By reframing sustainability as fiscal prudence, not just morality, advocates are hitting where it matters most: the flow of capital. This slow shift in financial norms can have ripple effects across entire industries.
Why This Matters for Leaders
If you’re an entrepreneur, executive, or community organizer, these examples carry a powerful lesson: progress often begins quietly, within the very systems that seem most resistant to it. The regenerative leader understands that change is not always about disruption from the outside; it’s about leveraging existing currents, relationships, and incentives to steer the ship toward resilience.
Subversive sustainability shares several traits:
- It doesn’t wait for perfect conditions. Action begins with what’s possible today, not after every barrier is removed.
- It uses the system’s own tools. Market incentives, legal frameworks, and risk management are as powerful as moral appeals.
- It builds proof, not just arguments. Real-world demonstrations shift mindsets more effectively than abstract promises.
Leading in the Quiet Revolution
Whether you run a business, lead a nonprofit, or guide a community initiative, the call is clear: subversive progress needs intentional leaders. You don’t have to overhaul the system in one move. You can make change from within, using the levers you already have access to.
A regenerative approach means considering the whole system (economy, environment, and community) as interconnected. It means understanding that resilience is built over time through steady, values-driven action, even when the headlines are discouraging.
Four Takeaways to Encourage Your Next Step
- Start Where You Are. Don’t wait for ideal conditions. Pilot projects and small wins build credibility and momentum.
- Leverage the Logic of the System. Frame sustainability in terms of risk reduction, cost savings, or efficiency when necessary.
- Invest in Relationships. Change often happens through trust and collaboration, even with unlikely partners.
- Keep the Long View. Systems can shift faster than expected once the groundwork is laid; your efforts may be part of a tipping point you can’t yet see.
Here are several US-based companies and farms authentically applying these principles… quietly, deeply, and measurably:
Indigo Agriculture
Takeaway: Leverage system logic & think long-term.
Using data-driven agronomy and regenerative agritech, Indigo enables farmers across the US to adopt practices like cover crops, no-till farming, and diverse crop rotations. Through its three-tier Indigo Acres program, it offers varying levels of support—from no-cost enrollment to full agronomic services—enabling farmers to improve soil health while earning carbon credits (about $15 per ton). In a collaboration with Google, Indigo supports Oklahoma farmers to adopt water-saving regenerative practices, aiming to replenish nearly 1.5 billion gallons of water by 2032.
Tablas Creek Vineyard
Takeaway: Start where you are; prove, don’t preach.
This Paso Robles winery is the first Regenerative Organic Certified® vineyard in the US, upholding high standards of soil health, biodiversity, animal welfare, and farmworker treatment. Jason Haas’s leadership demonstrates how authenticity and rigorous standards can coexist with premium quality production.
Soul Fire Farm
Takeaway: Start where you are & invest in relationships.
A 72-acre BIPOC-centered community farm in New York that employs ancestral and organic techniques—like silvopasture, perennials, and soil-building designs—that sequester carbon and enrich biodiversity. It also fosters community resilience through education, mutual aid, and reparative justice programming.
Clover Sonoma
Takeaway: Leverage system logic & think long-term.
A California dairy cooperative innovating in sustainability by recycling 100% of manure, using rotational grazing to protect soil and biodiversity, and adopting the first fully renewable plant-based milk cartons in the US—eliminating over 227,000 pounds of plastic from landfills in a single year.
Mountain Rose Herbs
Takeaway: Quiet, holistic regenerative leadership.
Oregon-based, this organic herb company leads with compostable packaging, bioswales, solar energy, zero-waste Platinum certification, bicycle-friendly policies, and incentives for low-carbon commuting—embodying regenerative principles comprehensively and consistently.
Hope in the Hidden Currents
This isn’t blind optimism; it’s grounded possibility. Systems can shift rapidly once a tipping point is reached. Solar energy’s rise over two decades, for example, began quietly, far before most observed the wave building.
Add to that: younger generations are embedded in systems as engineers, lawyers, planners; climate litigation is rising; insurers and investors are aligning around carbon risk; and culture itself (through media, language, and art) is shifting to normalize alternative narratives like rewilding and degrowth.
Even the most entrenched systems are not solid walls; they are lattices. And in every lattice, cracks form. Through those cracks, possibility seeps in.
Subversive sustainability is proof that progress doesn’t always roar; sometimes it hums inside the gears of the machine itself, reshaping it from within. The work may be quiet, but it’s anything but small. Each pilot project, each unexpected alliance, each quietly shifted policy is part of a deeper current, one that can swell into a tipping point faster than anyone predicts.
For regenerative leaders, this is the call: trust the roots you’re planting. Lean into the long game. Because while the change may begin under the radar, when it breaks the surface, it can transform the whole landscape.