Naolo Charles is the founder of the Black Environmental Initiative (BE Initiative). A social entrepreneur, Naolo also co-founded the Canadian Coalition for Environmental and Climate Justice (CCCEJ), a coalition launched to support racialized communities affected by environmental injustices. That coalition was instrumental in the civil society campaign that led to the successful passing of the first ever environmental justice law in Canada. Naolo developed an interest in the environment after the Probo Koala nuclear waste incident impacted the lives of hundreds of people in his country of origin, Cote d’Ivoire, in 2006.