Today’s Solutions: May 15, 2024

Corporate Social Responsibility

Keeping up with the latest news in all four corporate social responsibility categories: environment, human rights, philanthropy, and economic responsibility.

Longleaf pine forest

IKEA buys land ravaged by hurricane to transform into forests

The Optimist Daily has shared several stories about the popular Swedish furniture company IKEA and its environmentally friendly initiatives such as its buyback and resell program, its pledge to stop using plastic packaging, its zero-waste vegetable cookbook, and its effort to sell renewable energy Read More...

sun shines on office windows

Windows giant Anderson gives solar window integration a $30M boost

Here at The Optimist Daily, we love sharing stories about the exciting advancements that we are making in terms of discovering and fashioning creative ways that we can harvest clean, green, and renewable energy. One of the threads of renewable energy we’ve been following closely is solar Read More...

Everdrone autonomous drone

An EMADE autonomous drone helps save the life of cardiac arrest patient

Last month in Sweden, an elderly man experienced a cardiac arrest while shoveling snow. Today, this man is still alive thanks in large part to Everdrone’s Emergency Medical Aerial Delivery (EMADE) service, a dispatch service that uses drones to fly in defibrillators. An individual experiencing Read More...

father and son look at phone while grocery shopping

NHS app helps UK families curb the record rise in childhood obesity

Since the beginning of the pandemic, surveys show that parents in the UK have been allowing their children to snack on more unhealthy food, which likely contributes to the record rise in obesity among 10- to 11-year-olds across the nation. Other factors include lockdowns, school closures, and Read More...

Empowered activism is cultivat

Empowered activism is cultivating a marketable skill - A dispatch from Colombia

“Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind.”  – Madeleine L’Engle By Jackie Gilbert We all catch ourselves making remarks like “I’m starving” or “we’re dying of hunger”, but fortunately for most of us in my middle-class Read More...

A pair of Rens sneakers next to a cup of coffee

Coffee on the go: These sneakers are made out of recycled coffee

While coffee is a popular drink all across the world, it holds a particularly special place in the hearts of Finnish people. According to the International Coffee Organization, Finns consume more coffee than any other nation in the world. But like everywhere else, coffee consumption in Finland Read More...

a group of people checking their phones for texts and emails

Belgium's "right to disconnect" protects workers from burnout

In November of last year, we shared a story about how Portugal has made it illegal for employers to contact workers outside of working hours in an effort to encourage a healthier work-life balance. Now, Belgium’s Minister of Civil Service Petra De Sutter has introduced a similar law for the Read More...

young woman beautician hairstylist faces camera with arms crossed

Tennessee beauticians are trained to identify victims of domestic abuse

A law in Tennessee harnesses the unique position of beauty professionals to help identify victims of domestic abuse. The law, which was enforced on the first day of 2022, requires hairstylists and barbers to go through a free training program that will teach them how to look for signs that their Read More...

White person's hand showing four fingers with blue sky background

Bolt is the latest tech company to implement a 4-day workweek

In 2021, we’ve seen growing interest in the idea of a four-day workweek, with the governments of Spain, New Zealand, and Singapore openly considering adopting the idea and moving away from the traditional 40-hour working week. Companies across the world have also started showing more interest in Read More...

Woman recycling a plastic bottle

Maine is restructuring the modern recycling system

As much as we like to think that the material we recycle makes its way back into the market as revitalized packaging, the reality is that US recycling systems are frustratingly inefficient. According to the Columbia Climate School, only 66 percent of discarded paper and cardboard, 27 percent of Read More...