Mica Caine

Mica Caine is a Master of City Planning student at MIT whose work centers advancing circular economy, decentralized energy, and community-led climate resilience. A Central Ohio native, Mica’s practice is rooted in deep place-based relationships and creative strategies for systems change.

Mica is the co-founder of Helix, a hyperlocal, circular fashion marketplace currently incubating in MIT’s 2025 DesignX Accelerator. Helix allows individuals, secondhand stores, and designers to locally buy, sell, or rent garments while earning ongoing income through an infinite commission model. Helix challenges the fashion industry’s wasteful, extractive business model by centering care, memory, and community connection in how we circulate clothing. 

Mica Caine’s energy work focuses on building decentralized, community-owned energy systems that support climate resilience and energy sovereignty for urban Black and Indigenous communities. She is currently collaborating with tribal leadership, land trusts, and grassroots organizations in Massachusetts, Ohio, and New York to develop community solar projects, microgrids, and cooperative infrastructure rooted in relational governance and care. Drawing from Indigenous feminist planning and systems thinking, Mica centers local knowledge, land-based traditions, and self-determination. Her approach challenges extractive utility models by ensuring that energy transitions are just reducing energy consumption, but keeping decision-making power, ownership, and long-term benefits in the hands of frontline communities.