Sheryl threw a party.

Technically, it was an environmental festival called Earth Fest. Twenty local green businesses, a few hundred attendees, and the radical idea that your next purchase could send a small business owner’s kid to summer camp instead of sending Jeff Bezos back to space.

And somewhere between the bonsai trees and the handmade organic cotton dog toys, something unexpected happened.

Person after person stopped to ask the same question: “I had no idea these businesses existed, and I’d much rather shop small and local. How do I find them?”

The response surprised her. These businesses weren’t hiding. They were right there in Greenville: the consignment outdoor gear shop, the edible garden designer, the mushroom growers. Thriving, talented, community-rooted businesses that were completely invisible to the very customers who wanted to support them.

That realization sparked something bigger.

Earth Fest grew. By its third year, thousands of people attended in person, and more than 125,000 people were reached through social media. But the question never changed: “How do I find these businesses after today?”

Sheryl had built Make GVL Greener to create community through local connections and show how small actions can make a positive impact. What she discovered through Earth Fest, however, was a different problem entirely. It wasn’t that people didn’t care about shopping local or supporting sustainable businesses. It was that they had no map.

So she built one.

Sustain Cities Network is what Make GVL Greener grew into: a verified local business marketplace that connects independent small businesses with the customers, cities, and institutions actively looking for them.

The green business directory didn’t disappear. It evolved into infrastructure. A platform designed to make going local the easy choice instead of the heroic one.

During its beta phase in Greenville, SCN onboarded more than 60 businesses, was selected for the NASDAQ Milestone Makers cohort, and was named an InnoVision Awards finalist in 2025. The platform has completed development and is now seeking its first pilot city partnership ahead of its official launch.

As it turns out, the people asking those questions at Earth Fest weren’t the exception. They were everyone.

The antidote to Amazon already exists in every city.

SCN is the map.