Today’s Solutions: January 20, 2025

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.

For the good of all, make your

For the good of all, make your city more walkable

If you care about humanity, you should be doing what you can to make your city more cyclist- and pedestrian-friendly. Almost everyone benefits, especially the most vulnerable among us, including the poor, the elderly, and the Read More...

Small Indian state takes top p

Small Indian state takes top prize in UN award for going 100 percent organic

When the small Indian state of Sikkim decided to ban chemical fertilizers and pesticides in 2016, the state’s decision was met with much skepticism. Now those skeptics have been turned into believers after the state won the top prize in a UN-backed award for its 100 percent organic policies. Read More...

Even as it grows, Seattle aims

Even as it grows, Seattle aims to go carbon neutral

From the Bullitt Center’s roof, Seattle’s status as the North American crane capital is in full view. Sixty-five cranes are currently reshaping the Seattle skyline, a building boom that reflects this city’s phenomenal growth Read More...

Britain wants to ramp up effor

Britain wants to ramp up efforts in fight against climate change

Following the recent UN report that warns that we have one last chance to prevent a climate disaster, the British government is seeking to increase its efforts to achieve full-on carbon neutrality. The country’s current target of reducing carbon emissions by 2050 stands at 80 percent, but experts Read More...

How mushrooms can unlock a fut

How mushrooms can unlock a future of sustainable production

A sustainable innovation company is using the mycelia of mushrooms to help create anything from lab-grown meat to 3D-printed organs and biofabricated leather. Mycelia, the complex hair-like network of cells that grows in mushrooms, can be manipulated into high-performing materials that are both Read More...

Cleaning up: the world’s

Cleaning up: the world's worst plastic polluters ranked

In June and September 2018, more than 10,000 volunteers in 42 countries participated in events to tidy up their surrounding. Their main goal was to collect plastic waste and record the names of the brands that produced Read More...

Courts in Europe hold governme

Courts in Europe hold governments accountable for climate change policies

Courts in several European Union countries are holding governments accountable for their climate change policies. This week, a German court has stopped one of the country’s oldest forests from being cleared away to make space for a coal mine, and an appeals court in the Netherlands ordered Read More...

How climate change could be a

How climate change could be a spark to create a better world

One great taboo in the climate change debate is how much has improved over the past three decades: in public perception; in transnational consensus and determination; in scientific understanding and discovery. To stress, these things seem to ignore the urgency of the situation, minimize the scale Read More...

The Ocean Cleanup project has

The Ocean Cleanup project has succeeded in first big challenge at sea

After undergoing virtually successful trials of its advanced technologies in the Pacific Ocean, Ocean Cleanup, the non-profit organization is now venturing onward on its journey of relieving our oceans of plastic. The project is now officially headed towards the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Read More...

To save a forest threatened by

To save a forest threatened by mining, this startup offered to buy it

Germany is working on plans to phase out coal, and the head of a large German energy company, RWE, has said that the company is “ready to abandon coal.” But before that happens, the company wants to cut down the remaining slice of a 12,000-year-old forest to expand a coal Read More...