Chicago is seeing book returns surge 240% after the mayor eliminated fees
A little over a month ago, we published a story about Chicago libraries doing away with overdue book fees, which are disproportionately affecting the city’s lower-income residents. Now, one month since the fines were eliminated, Chicago libraries are reporting a 240 percent increase in the number Read More...
Slingshotting pumpkins and other ways to deal with post-Halloween pumpkin waste
After each Halloween, more than 1 billion pounds of pumpkin get tossed out and left to rot in America’s landfills. Some are thrown away the day after Halloween, contributing to the 30.3 million tons of annual food waste in the U.S. When left to decompose in a landfill, that food waste Read More...
Kids in Indian town pay their tuition fees with plastic waste instead of money
Used plastic is usually seen as a waste product, but for the students of a school in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, it is no less than a means to acquire free education. As a way to make school more accessible and help clean up their local community, the primary school of Akshar began to Read More...
Every city and town should have a tool library
The tool library: it’s a brilliant concept that embodies the true meaning of the shared economy. At its core, a tool library is a place where civilians can rent or borrow community-owned tools such as hammers and drills instead of having to buy separate tools themselves. Having a tool library in Read More...
City life
From The Intelligent Optimist Summer 2016 All over the world, millions of people flock to cities. Is this a recipe for more problems and decay? What associations come to mind when you think of cities? Do you see images of moral decline, crime, unemployment, beggars, congested streets and a loss of Read More...
Changing Lives, one dance at a time
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Fall/Winter 2016 By Jurriaan Kamp Changing lives, one dance at a time. That is the mission of the California-based initiative World Dance for Humanity. Since 2010 dancer and anthropologist Janet Reineck has brought together women who explore the best of world Read More...
Remaking Work
How to find your inner economy in an outer economy that, more than ever, is willing to let you be you. By Valerie Andrews From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 Imagine no more drudgery—just years of doing what you love, stretched out before you. Work is never boring, because it keeps evolving. Read More...
Community labor creates an oasis in the Ethiopian desert
Moving mountains is not just a biblical image when political will is present and the community rallies around a common goal. Some 20 years after a severe drought and political turmoil caused a devastating famine that claimed more than a million victims in Ethiopia, a village has successfully Read More...
Customer, king and keeper
The management at the British company Standing on Giants knows how to prevent customer service frustration: Build your company’s core around your clients. “There are always people who are passionate about your product, whether you’re selling telephones, insurance or cosmetics,” says Vincent Read More...
A different kind of trade school
Megan Snowe, a New York arts administrator and passionate Russophile, will teach the basics of the Cyrillic alphabet for a handball lesson, gray or black medium-length socks (women’s size 7½) or gluten-free beer. Interactive artist Barbara Ann Michaels will take organic lettuce or a “fun, wide Read More...