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.
Pilot program uses e-bikes to remove emissions from delivery in Brazil
The city of São Paulo in Brazil is full of hills, making it not the most bike-friendly city. That’s why when you order food there, it’s probably going to arrive via motorcycle, which is one of the main contributors to the city’s serious air pollution problem. A new pilot from iFood Read More...
We need diverse juries. New California law will help make that happen
Making the US criminal justice system more fair and effective requires many changes, but one big one is selecting juries that reflect the demographics of their community. To help achieve this, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law last week that draws jurors from income tax Read More...
New project is saving dying restaurants by giving ownership to employees
Like many other sectors of the economy, the restaurant industry has been brought to its knees by the pandemic. As a result, some private equity firms and hedge funds saw the situation as an opportunity to get their hands on large areas of real estate by looking for struggling restaurants to Read More...
Number of young black authors doubles to nearly 20% in UK
People of color have long been underrepresented in the publishing industry, but a new study out of the University College London shows that is starting to change amongst young adult writers in the UK. The study found that only 7.1 percent of YA authors in the UK were people of color in 2017. That Read More...
Ordering to-go creates a lot of waste. Dispatch Goods has a solution
The pandemic has fueled a rise in takeout orders from restaurants. Ordering to-go is a great way to safely support your favorite local businesses during shutdowns, but the rise in single-use takeout containers is increasing pollution across the globe. A new startup, Dispatch Goods, aims to loop Read More...
This initiative matches recently released prisoners with a place to stay
Every year, more than 600,000 people are released from prison in the US, the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world. One of the biggest challenges faced by those getting out of prison is finding a roof over their heads, which can be especially difficult in ultra-expensive housing Read More...
General Mills to become carbon neutral by 2030 by cutting food waste
Major food company General Mills announced this week that it plans to reduce emissions by 30 percent over the next decade and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. A big part of meeting this goal will be reducing food waste by at least 50 percent. In the past year, four percent of the company’s Read More...
Online tool helps mobilize Native American communities to go out and vote
Despite having been enfranchised in 1924, due to numerous legislative obstacles, many Native Americans living on reservations still can’t participate in the democratic process and elect candidates of their choice. With less than two months left until the election, two nonprofits have developed a Read More...
Data centers drain water supplies. Microsoft is investing big to fix this
Data centers are infamously energy-intensive, but what people aren’t always aware of is that they also require huge amounts of water to keep servers cool. And to make matters worse, data centers are often situated in desert-like places where water is already scarce. Part of the reason companies Read More...
“Hello Landlord” is a pro-bono legal resource for all renters
A variety of federal, state, and even local eviction bans have been implemented during the pandemic to protect workers from the economic toll of shutdowns, but for low-income families without access to legal resources, exercising their rights as tenants can be difficult. Fortunately, Hello Landlord Read More...