Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre, both 24, created an eco-friendly replacement for Styrofoam.

We all use Styrofoam and don’t realize it. Beyond packaging, it’s in the tables we use and the airplanes in which we fly. We’ve long heard, though, that it’s not the most environmentally friendly product, taking 10,000 years to break down. Enter two 24-year-old innovators with some mushroom roots and seed husks.

Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre are the co-founders of Ecovative Design, a company that builds a completely organic and natural Styrofoam replacement. In non-scientific terms, they grind up seed husks and glue the small pieces together with the mushroom root, yielding a product that’s natural and completely compostable. Unlike other sustainable inventions, like ethanol, their product doesn’t come from anything humans or animals can consume, so their materials are available in abundance.

The two now run a 10-employee operation that is fueled primarily by grants and scientific competitions that have brought the young men upwards of $1 million. “If you have a passion and a vision and something that you know is attainable, drop everything and go for it. Don't keep your side job because your concentration and focus will be deterred. Follow your passion,” Gavin says.

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Sam Massa, 18, started a business to convert diesel-powered vehicles to run on vegetable oil.

Don't look away. We are going to talk about oil prices. But it's positive, I promise. This "pain at the pump" story starts with a dyslexic student who had a hard time in high school.

Sam Massa had such a hard time with dyslexia, he eventually dropped out of high school to get his GED and pursue his independent spirit of entrepreneurship. He started small with mowing lawns then he started a DJ company, eventually making enough money to buy his dream car - a yellow Hummer.

Gasp! Here comes the gas prices part - Sam couldn't afford the gas to keep up the Hummer. So, he started a business, Massa Green Enterprises, to convert diesel engines to run on veggie oil. He tours with his Hummer across the country, filling up with leftovers from fast food restaurants. How will the story end? Sam, 18, hopes it will get more people talking about veggie oil prices.

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Half of the proceeds from the teens' 'Polar Bear Gear' help fund a program that sends kids to the Arctic North.

This week we heard big news from Washington: Polar bears are now listed as “threatened” and have additional protection under the Endangered Species Act. But before the Department of Interior’s national call to action, a set of triplets in Maryland were taking action in their own way.

Sixteen-year-old Connor, Hayley and Emma Gilbert started Polar Bear Nation. The teens partnered with Polar Bears International last year to help fund a program that sends kids to the Arctic North. PBI's Adventure Learning Camp creates Arctic Ambassadors, or students who educate other young people on climate change and its effect on polar bears.

The triplets are busy selling their "Polar Bear Gear," with half of the proceeds going to scientific research and outreach programs at PBI. Certainly they are happy about the news this week. But, the Gilbert teens are quick with a list of facts pointing to their conclusion that a lot more has to be done for the bears.

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Tyler Lyson's interest in fossil discovery led him to help create a research foundation.

Lots of kids are into dinosaurs. Tyler Lyson says he just never grew out of it. He grew up in rural North Dakota and says fossils were more ubiquitous there than in other places in the U.S.

But in 1999, he didn’t find just any fossil; he discovered something jaw-dropping: a 25-foot-long dinosaur, complete with skin and all. Lyson’s find was an Edmontosaurus he named Dakota. The 65 million-year-old mummified dinosaur was eventually unearthed with Lyson standing by in 2004.

Lyson is now the co-founder of the Marmarth Research Foundation in his hometown. The foundation is creating a museum and outreach programs to give volunteers hands-on field and lab work with fossils. While getting his doctorate at Yale, Lyson wants to make sure that other kids don’t grow out of their fascination with the extinct.

Update: Watch the CNN.com Live interview