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.
Stay cool this summer with the “Airbnb of pools”
Swimming pools offer endless hours of entertainment for young kids, but once they grow up or get busy with after school activities, most private pools end up sitting unused for the majority of the year. To help keep those pools in use and generate some extra funds for those that maintain them, Read More...
"Catch-up" centers overcome cultural barriers to educate women
Janet Ekura is an education facilitator at a “catch-up” center in the village of Atan in Isiolo County, Kenya. The catch-up centers are part of an Education for Life initiative designed to empower underprivileged children, and especially girls, in the region. Underaged girls are often Read More...
A new digitization project preserves LGBTQ history across the USA
Eric Gonzaba, a trained historian and professor of American Studies at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), is on a mission to uncover and digitally preserve the hidden stories of queer history throughout the nation. The project, which is co-led by Amanda Regan, a lecturer in the Read More...
Book Dash strives to make books more accessible to South African kids
In a world full of screens, parents may wonder how they can cultivate a healthy love of reading in their children. The answer is to make sure that there are plenty of books at home for your kids to flip through. According to a 20-year study from the University of Nevada, Reno, the level of Read More...
UC Santa Barbara professors win MacArthur endowment for racial justice project
Following a mass shooting at UC Santa Barbara in 2014, the campus began looking for new ways to rebuild community and trust. Professor Jeffrey Stewart decided to use his experience with the history of jazz to create a safe space for community growth. Partnering with Professor Victor Rios, the pair Read More...
THE OPTIMIST VIEW: Invoking the Pause 一 Funding environmental changemakers
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead We’re all familiar with major names in philanthropic giving like MacArthur, Rockefeller or Ford, but there are hundreds of lesser known Read More...
California’s Bay Area is cracking down on refinery pollution
San Francisco is known as the city by the bay, but just across that bay sit two petrochemical refineries that spew harmful particulate matter and contribute to severe lung and heart disease in nearby communities. Fortunately, after years of advocacy by environmental justice groups, the Bay Area Air Read More...
This campaign wants to remove single-use plastics from the big screen
Have you ever noticed that characters in your favorite movies and TV shows tend to use a lot of single-use plastics? Whether it’s a busy professional grabbing a cup of coffee on the go or an athlete drinking out of a plastic water bottle, modern media definitely normalizes the consumption of Read More...
US Paralympians will finally receive equal compensation in Tokyo
In previous Olympics, US Olympians won $37,500 for gold medals, while US Paralympic athletes won just $7,500 for each gold medal. This year, the playing field is finally being evened with the announcement that Paralympic athletes will be paid as much per medal as their Olympic counterparts. The Read More...
Collaboration and Creativity: Housing for the unsheltered in Dallas
North Texas is making a big commitment to ending inner-city homelessness. Last month, the city of Dallas announced a multimillion-dollar partnership projected to provide housing to over half of its four thousand unsheltered inhabitants. The collaboration will be the largest one in North Texas Read More...