Today’s Solutions: November 26, 2024

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.

San Francisco Tenderloin

A victory against rent-hikes for Tenderloin residents

At The Optimist Daily, we're happy to see solutions to the housing crisis. While we enjoy innovative solutions, we also love to see communities coming together to help their members hold onto their homes in the face of increasing rent prices. In 2016, when a new owner took over 285 Turk Street, Read More...

Serre Chevalier ski resort

“All we need is change”—Serre Chevalier makes skiing more sustainable

Does the climate catastrophe that we find ourselves in herald the end of ski resorts? Visiting the slopes for a weekend of skiing and snowboarding is now tinged with the guilt of all the environmental damage that goes along with it.  Between the short-haul, carbon-emitting flights many skiers Read More...

Novoloop founders

Female-led start-up Novoloop figures out how to upcycle plastic waste

A new, female-led US-based start-up, Novoloop, has an exciting announcement— they’ve come up with an effective solution to problematic polyethylene (aka the regular everyday plastic that’s polluting our planet). Scientists and Novoloop founders Jeanny Yao and Miranda Wang have been working Read More...

ethnic woman reaches into laundry machine

UK households get paid to curb daily energy use

Households in the UK could soon be paid to curb their electricity usage for a certain time of day (during peak usage hours) under a new scheme to help reduce energy bills while pushing for a zero-carbon power supply system. Starting in this past week, the trial for this plan, led by Octopus Read More...

Pile of used, discarded batteries

This is how old batteries could help plants grow

Properly recycling our used batteries is key to preventing toxic waste from polluting the environment. With that said, recycling rates in Australia are quite discouraging, with about 97 percent of alkaline batteries ending up in landfills. A company called Envirostream wants to change that by Read More...

solar panels in dry hot California

California shades irrigation canals with solar panels to boost energy and save water

Solar energy is one of the fastest-growing renewable energy industries in the world, however, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t faced with challenges in the widespread implementation and harvesting of solar power. One of the biggest issues with solar energy is that the land that is usually ideal Read More...

Grey wolf protection reinstated

Protections for endangered gray wolves renewed across much of US

Last Thursday, a howl of gratitude sounded from the endangered gray wolves of the US, after Federal protections were reinstated after being removed by the former administration.  In a trend of environmentally positive action, Judge Jeffrey White of the US district court of Oakland, California Read More...

High angle view of metallic vats in brewery for precision fermentation.

Precision fermentation: The food evolution to watch

Providing our readers with planet-saving tips and products is something we're passionate about at The Optimist Daily. With climate change lingering over humanity's head, people want to make changes in their everyday lives to slow this process as much as possible. This was apparent by the boost in Read More...

Thailand’s pristine Maya Bay

Thailand’s pristine Maya Bay reopens with eco-restrictions after tourism ban

If you haven’t been there yourself or seen it in tourism ads, you may recognize the iconic Maya Bay from the 2000 film The Beach, by Danny Boyle starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In the movie, Maya Bay is the setting of a jealously guarded secret beach, whose location cannot be exposed to the public Read More...

Blue Ful carbonated drink made from spirulina blue-green algae

This tasty blue soda has no food coloring and captures CO2

We’ve previously talked about the benefits of spirulina. Considered a superfood, blue-green algae have been touted for its high nutritional value. And although it has become popular as a supplement among wellness-focused people, the algae still hasn’t reached mainstream adoption.  That may Read More...