Environment
Need some good news about the environment? The Optimist Daily is your go-to herald of positive environmental news, highlighting eco-friendly solutions and scientific progress around climate action, circularity, conservation, and more. Learn about everything eco in our Environment section.
Use the “dirty dozen” and “clean 15” to make more conscious produce choices
Organic produce is healthier for local ecosystems and also eliminates the potential human health hazards of pesticide ingestion, many of which we don’t know the full extent of. However, buying organic is more expensive and not always available in remote areas. Learning about which fruits and Read More...
Buy Nothing groups help save money and foster local connections
Do you ever find yourself with unused miscellaneous objects in the back of your cupboard that you know you won’t use but don’t want to throw away? Thanks to the Buy Nothing Project, your excess stuff can be easily picked up by a household near you that needs it instead of adding to a landfill Read More...
This furniture maker will disclose the carbon footprint of all its products
Earlier this month, we wrote about the promising carbon labeling trend among brands to inform their customers about the ecological impacts of the products they use. Now, we’re happy to share that this trend is going beyond the food and cosmetic sectors to include the furniture industry Read More...
This electric 'urban sled' is a model for zero-emissions parcel delivery
A growing urban challenge created by delivery vans is that, when they stop for deliveries in crowded cities, they tend to block lanes and cause traffic. One way to alleviate this problem is to replace delivery trucks with electric cargo bikes (aka trikes), which can fit on bike lanes and also help Read More...
This social enterprise in Zambia puts sustainability and community first
As the business sector comes to grips with the fact that it needs to shift away from business-as-usual and contribute to a more sustainable and equitable world, impact-driven social enterprises serve as a source of inspiration for how to achieve that. Take Tribal Textiles, for example. The Zambian Read More...
GameStop investors have raised over $200K for gorilla conservation
Reddit’s WallStreetBets community, which was responsible for sparking the massive stock rise of video game retailer GameStop, is now looking to put their newfound money to good use: supporting gorilla conservation nonprofit. The philanthropic movement was initiated by a member of the Read More...
This startup is repurposing wastewater one flush at a time
Water conservation is a pillar of environmentalism and critical for protecting the Earth's dwindling fresh water supply. We've featured desalination solutions that are aiding in this effort, but today we're focusing on localized water treatment as a path to water security. Startup Epic Read More...
Athens is tackling urban air pollution and heat stress with "pocket parks"
Adding greenery to urban areas can do wonders for the liveability of a city. On top of providing shade and a cooling effect, trees, and shrubs also remove pollution from the air. That’s why Greece’s capital, Athens, has embarked on a mission to green up the city by creating “pocket parks” Read More...
CityLoops is a grand experiment on the scalability of circularity
If you sit on a bench in the city of Musicon, about 30 kilometers from Denmark’s capital of Copenhagen, you’ll likely be sitting on a slab of concrete recycled from a nearby demolition site. Musicon is one of seven cities around Europe selected for experimentation by CityLoops, a project Read More...
Cultivate a more sustainable closet with these green fashion tips
We recently shared three strategies for buying clothes more eco-consciously. In addition to shopping with sustainability in mind, taking a deeper look at your clothing habits, in general, can help you develop an environmentally-friendly closet and ditch fast fashion for good. Here are five Read More...