Today’s Solutions: May 17, 2024

Energy

Transitioning to a world powered by renewable energy is key to tackling climate change. Here you can find the latest good news related to our clean energy transition, covering wind, solar, green hydrogen, hydropower, and more.

Wind farms

White House and 11 East Coast states partner to bolster offshore wind power

On Thursday, the White House announced that it will partner with 11 East Coast states to bolster offshore wind energy.  This arrangement, called the Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership, will help to reach national climate goals of 30 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. Read More...

Lego logo on a store building.

Lego to set up a factory in Virginia... and it comes with its own solar park

Danish company the Lego Group has established itself as one of The Optimist Daily’s favorite toymakers for its many efforts and initiatives that make this world a more inclusive, accessible, greener, and all-around better place. Now, we’re happy to report that Lego is up to more Read More...

LA traffic

LA may ban the construction of new gas stations

In the face of the climate emergency, officials in Los Angeles are working on policies to stop the construction of new gas stations. Being the second-largest city in America, LA could become the largest city in the world to prohibit new fossil fuel infrastructure.  “We are ending oil drilling Read More...

Toy house in a palm of a man's hand against a blurred forest background.

5 lesser-known innovations for a more sustainable home

One of the big questions for environmentally-minded homeowners is how to make their homes more sustainable and energy-efficient. There are some more obvious switches one can invest in, like installing small wind energy systems or household hydropower systems, however, there are also many Read More...

Seattle

Seattle installs EV chargers on utility poles for residents

Electric vehicles are the transportation of the future. In the meantime, cities are struggling to install the infrastructure that we will all need to charge our cars. This is an important issue for EV owners away from a home or office charging port, or if they live in an apartment complex. If Read More...

Car bodies stacked at the junkyard.

Upcycling plastic from old vehicles into graphene for new ones

Did you know that the amount of plastic used in vehicles has increased by 75 percent in the past six years? This has led to the average SUV containing up to 350 kilograms (771 pounds) of plastic that could sit in a landfill for centuries. Thankfully, researchers from Rice University were inspired Read More...

Paris

Lower traffic accidents linked to urban emissions laws

From the 1970s to the mid-1990s, the US and France were more or less the same in traffic fatality rates. In fact, they had both declined by 31 percent from 1979 to 1994. Today, though, people getting around in the US are three times more likely to die than in France. What happened?  Bloomberg Read More...

E-scooters

Boston e-scooter company soon to unveil safer model

While shared electric scooters have boomed over the last few years, there remain many concerns about their safety. Scooter-related injuries have become so common that some law firms offer legal action against scooter manufacturers on their websites. Some cities like Miami and New York have kicked Read More...

A hydrofoil boat approaching the port of the greek island Hydra.

The environmentally friendly, flying ships of the future

These days, electric cars, bikes, scooters, trams, and trains are common modes of transport. However, one mode of transport which hasn’t got the electric memo is ferries, which are still almost exclusively powered by fossil fuels. The problematic factor here is battery capacity, which cannot last Read More...

Ithaca, New York

“Digital twin” of Ithaca, NY helps to plot climate ambitions

In 2019, Ithaca, New York was the first US city to resolve to eliminate or offset all carbon emissions by 2030. The college town allocated $100 million to fund the effort, but they still needed a plan of how to decarbonize all its buildings.  Two architectural professors from Cornell University Read More...