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.
Science Moms: This group is rallying mothers to become climate activists
As a climate scientist and a mother, Emily Fischer says it can be hard to study climate change because the data feels “very real” to her. She thinks about our climate timeline in terms of her own kids, knowing that the estimated 10 years or less that we have to perform a massive shift in the Read More...
Re-Wind wants to build things using old wind turbine blades
While a rapidly growing wind energy industry is a positive sign for our transition toward carbon-free energy sources, there is a disadvantage to all this growth: more waste. The blades on wind turbines only have a lifespan of about 20 years, so older decommissioned wind turbine blades from early Read More...
Food and beverage giant PepsiCo pledges to achieve zero-emissions by 2040
Being one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, it comes as no surprise that PepsiCo also has a ginormous carbon footprint. In 2019 alone, the company was responsible for putting 57 million metric tons into the atmosphere. Aware of the key role it plays as an industry leader to Read More...
GM launches all-electric delivery fleet for a greener e-commerce future
The pandemic has created a boom in the already exploding e-commerce industry. People are ordering goods online more than ever before, but delivering those goods is a carbon-intensive process. General Motors has launched a new line of all-electric products to help make e-commerce Read More...
Project to stop desertification in Sahara gets $14 billion cash injection
The area that is now the Sahara desert was once home to fertile land that supported the people who lived there, but creeping desertification has left the land all but inhabitable, plunging people into poverty and driving many to migrate. To address the problem, the African Union launched the Read More...
Sustainable urban design: Stockholm transforms street into a 1-minute city
Rethinking our orthodox ways of urban design is essential if we are to achieve meaningful action in our fight against climate change. This is the line of thinking behind an experimental project in Sweden, which has transformed a conventional made-for-cars city block in central Stockholm into a Read More...
AI-powered robot that rapidly sorts through recyclables is going global
Before plastic can become recycled products, that plastic needs to be manually sorted by workers at a recycling center. The problem is that recycling centers can’t afford to hire the number of people needed to sort through all the plastic they receive each day, and even if they could afford it, Read More...
This non-profit raises awareness about ocean plastic by making art out of it
From shifting consumer behaviors to holding corporations accountable, raising awareness about plastic pollution can go a long way in helping tackle the plastic crisis. In an effort to do exactly that — though in a rather unconventional way — environmental non-profit Washed Ashore uses the Read More...
Karbon could be Canada’s first carbon negative brewery
Traditional beer brewing uses lots of water and energy. We have shared stories of many green breweries like Swinkels Family Brewery in the Netherlands, which uses sustainable iron fuel energy to brew their beer. Today we bring you another innovative company that is striving to become the first Read More...
This sleek chair is made of recycled plastic from electronic waste
In 2019, the world generated 54 million metric tons of e-waste — a worrying number that’s expected to increase to 64 million metric tons by 2030. London-based designer Tom Robinson wants to help curb that amount by turning e-waste into sleek, minimalist furniture. The designer’s latest Read More...