18 billion pounds of plastic enter our oceans each year, a harrowing fact that only accounts for a portion of our planet’s pollution crisis. Northeastern innovators are tackling this problem to create sustainable solutions for cleaner oceans. Bureo Inc, an emerging B-Corp, has created a program to recycle fishing nets into a NetPlus™ material, used in products by Patagonia and other partner companies.  Review the conversation to fight plastic pollution with Ben Kneppers, E’07, co-founder and COO of Bureo Inc., and Maarten Eenkema van Dijk, E’14, MS’15, operations manager for Van Dyk Recycling Solutions.

The ongoing pandemic is testing the quality of governance in countries around the globe and raising questions about the role of elected officials in serving community goals. Crises can serve as opportunities for positive social change, but also entail risks around security and social turmoil, geopolitics, human rights, rule of law, inequalities and food security, among others. They also set apart great leaders, from average ones.

This is one of the special series on the impact of COVID-19 around the world. We leveraged our global network to explore risks, challenges and good practices for preparedness, responsiveness, effectiveness and responsibility in dealing with the public health and economic crisis, and what the future holds in a post-pandemic world.