Sustainable Urban Development
With cities expected to host about 70 percent of the world's population, sustainable urban development is key to making communities worldwide more resilient against the growing threat of climate change. Find out about the latest urban practices from across the world aiming to make our cities more sustainable and inclusive in these good-news stories from The Optimist Daily.
Germany accelerates schedule to become carbon neutral
People are more animated than ever before for green energy and calling on their governments to aim bigger. And it seems like they're listening. With increasing gas prices from the war in Ukraine and scientists' warnings about climate change, governments realize the need for a speedier change to Read More...
This former coalmining town is revitalizing itself with eco-tourism
While coal is very harmful to the environment, phasing it out of use has left an economic hole in many communities. People used to rely on coal as a means of living. Now, communities are going green, energy sources are going renewable, and these formerly coal-powered communities are Read More...
Chile joins the legislation green wave
A beautiful thing about democracy is that it is inherently self-correcting. Democratic constitutions survive because they change with the times. They adapt to new environments. That’s why they’re called “amendments” to the constitution. Chile is joining a wave of constitutional change in Read More...
The EU proposes plan to ensure fast fashion goes out of style
At the end of last month, the European Union announced a plan to counter the pollution generated by mass-market fast fashion with the overarching goal of ending the throwaway culture that compels consumers to use cheap clothing that becomes deformed or ruined after only a few wears. The EU Read More...
Architects transform old wine silos into apartments to minimize resources
Breathing new life into old things is one of the best ways we humans can reduce the number of resources extracted from the environment. A new development in Amsterdam did just that by creatively repurposing former industrial wine silos into residential buildings. Beyond reusing the obsolete silos, Read More...
Why we should all trade our fences for this environmentally supportive alternative
To tackle the climate crisis and reduce pollution, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in the UK urges gardeners and homeowners to take down their fences and plant hedges instead. The charity partnered with scientists to explore what types of green infrastructure could be implemented, Read More...
Study finds forests on indigenous lands sequester twice the carbon
We have written at length, in great volume, and with great enthusiasm about the importance of green spaces in cities, carbon sinks, and environmentally helpful trees in general. Forests are absolutely essential to sequestering carbon and our continued adaptation to a changing climate, but some Read More...
This cultural center in Sweden makes a case for wooden skyscrapers
Back in 2019, we introduced you to the world’s tallest wooden building in Finland. Today, we’d like to take you across the border to Skelleftea, in Sweden, where wood is regaining popularity as the go-to material for new buildings. A few months ago, the Swedish town actually became home to the Read More...
Can NFTs help save the Amazon?
Non-Fungible Tokens, commonly known as NFTs, are crypto-acquired assets in the form of digital art. These “one-of-a-kind” digital pieces rose in popularity last year, with plenty of influential personalities and celebrities purchasing them, often at exorbitant prices. Well, whether you’re Read More...
Ultrathin "honeycomb" solar panels achieve record efficiency
One day, cities and hopefully everything else will be powered by renewable resources like wind and solar. To do that, though, we will need to continue to improve on our renewable tech, like creating solar panels that can absorb solar energy in many different levels of sunlight. A new development Read More...