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.
Peatlands restoration project will absorb carbon like a sponge
With intensifying fires and floods, the climate crisis is making itself very difficult to ignore these days, but a project in the UK plans to address both of these issues by restoring the dry and barren landscape of a moor near Manchester. Over the past six months, conservationists led by the Read More...
Spain puts plows on hold in favor of regenerative agriculture
The province of Jaén in southern Spain is known for its olive production. It’s called the sea of olives, with 70 million olive trees expanding in all directions—but despite this striking scene, the land has nothing else to offer. There are no other plants, flowers, or critters scurrying about Read More...
German farm demonstrates dual benefits of agrivoltaic systems
Agrivoltaic systems make for the perfect symbiotic relationships on farms. They combine solar panels and farming to provide localized renewable energy while helping shade crops to reduce water usage. The plants also work to cool the solar panels for increased productivity. At one farm in Germany, Read More...
Ways to curb your fast fashion habit
Haven’t you heard? Sustainability is in style, while exploitative and wasteful consumerism is out. So why is it so difficult for the fashion industry to catch up with the trends? In the past, many of us would go clothes shopping to buy cheap garments with short lifespans that we end up Read More...
Researchers make a surprising discovery about common west coast flower
The western false asphodel, or Triantha occidentalis, was first noted in the scientific record in 1879 and commonly dwells in bogs near urban centers of the Pacific Northwest. Despite being on scientists’ radar for over 140 years, it was not until very recently that researchers discovered a Read More...
How to properly clean out candle jars for recycling and reuse
If you’ve embraced zero-waste living choices, then you already know that reusing jars and bottles is a great way to reduce, reuse, and recycle. However, some containers prove much more difficult to clean out, even if you do want to repurpose them. An example of this is candle jars—many of them Read More...
Dole is partnering with Piñatex to scale up vegan leather production
A few months ago we wrote a story about Piñatex, an innovative company turning pineapple leaves into vegan, petroleum-free leather products. Now, food giant and pineapple distributor Dole Sunshine Company has partnered with Piñatex to minimize waste from their operations and scale-up Read More...
This concept puts the urban garden at the heart of city design
Earlier this year, we shared the exciting news about the Parisian plan to turn the iconic Champs-Élysées avenue into a public garden. With the same goal of greening up the French capital, a new urban design proposal, created by architecture firm Rescubika, showcases how the future of Paris’ Read More...
Novel material converts waste heat to electricity with record efficiency
Researchers at Northwestern University have come up with an extremely high-performing thermoelectric material that may be the most efficient yet at converting waste heat into electricity. Thermoelectric systems generate electricity by using a temperature gradient. When one side of special material Read More...
Simple parking policy incentivizes employees to take greener routes to work
A key goal of public transportation is to reduce the number of cars on the road and therefore improve air quality and reduce emissions, especially in urban areas, but a small detail in the US federal tax code is actually working against this goal. The federal tax code has an exemption for Read More...