Business
Looking for positive and inspiring business stories? From green operations to employee rights, from innovative corporate structures to diversity and inclusion, the Business section at The Optimist Daily has got the latest innovative solutions from the corporate sector.
Apple invests big in solar
Apple has announced an $850 million deal with solar company First Solar to build a massive solar plant that will power all of their California operations—or enough energy to power about 60,000 US homes. The new partnership is the largest solar procurement agreement by a company that is not a Read More...
Airbnb drives down cost of hotels in NYC
Behind the sharing economy is the emergence of citizen power. And corporate world cannot escape listening. Research from Credit Suisse shows that Airbnb is driving down the cost of hotel rooms in New York. Revenue per available room—a metric known as revpar in the hotel industry— is down Read More...
Taxi drivers form co-op to take on Uber, Lyft
Ride sharing is a bit of a double-edged sword: It empowers people to use their own cars to make a couple extra bucks, but the low fares that draw many consumers are causing cabbies to see their ridership dwindle. Now taxi cab drivers in Denver have bound together to form a cooperative where each Read More...
CNBC launches crowdfunding index
From Kickstarter to Indiegogo, crowdfunding is growing in popularity and is a business realm changing rapidly. Now CNBC has partnered with Crowdnetic, a company that tracks and analyses crowdfunding projects, to launch a new crowdfunding index. The new index will give people an inside view at Read More...
First licensed bicoin exchange opens in the US
Over the past few years bitcoins have moved from a fringe currency to a legitimate means to transferring money, and big names are getting in on the action. Coinbase, a Californian online bitcoin website that lets users trade digital bitcoins for hard cash, has announced the opening of a new Read More...
Biogas backpacks spur small business in developing world
In many countries traditional forms of cooking pollute the environment and emit carcinogenic gases inhaled by the cooks. Now a biogas company, (B)energy, has created a (B)energy system, a simple greenhouse that makes biogas from kitchen waste, human feces, and agricultural residue. They have also Read More...
Solar investments are safer than stocks
For investors, particularly after the ’08 financial crisis, it’s difficult to decide on where to put your money. Savings accounts have tiny profit margins, and the volatility of the stock market has left many skeptical. A recent study has found that if you want to invest, solar is the best Read More...
Intel invests $300 million to increase internal diversity
Studies have shown that the work place is not equal. White males make more money than their female or minority coworkers do for the same jobs. Intel is trying to change that. In a recent announcement Intel says it will invest $300 million to diversify their workforce, creating pipelines Read More...
The opportunity of renewable energy takes Africa by storm
The opportunity of renewable energy takes Africa by storm In Lima, Peru, this weekend United Members for the first time reached a climate agreement that includes commitments from all countries. This consensus reflects the growing realization that global warming is a problem that reaches Read More...
Cost of solar energy dropping in the US
The newest Gold Rush will have us mining for sunshine. The Deutsche Bank, a global banking and financial services company, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the nation’s primary laboratory for research on renewable energy development, have both Read More...