Good News for the Environment

Sustainable stories of progress for the planet

This climate solution is sitting in America's trash — and it has bipartisan support

Even as the Trump administration rolls back key climate and environmental protections, senators from both parties reintroduced legislation to simplify food expiration labels — one longtime driver of unnecessary waste.

The backs of Sebastião Salgado and his wife, Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado, as they overlook their property full of 2.5 million trees

Over the course of 20 years, this couple planted 2.5 million trees: 'The region can be seen from space'

Instituto Terra was born from the dream of Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado and Sebastião Salgado to recover the forest that existed on the family's former farm.

This cookbook is all about the climate impact of the foods you love: 'Serving up science on a plate'

Author Mark Easter has written more than 50 scientific papers and reports related to carbon cycling and the carbon footprint of agriculture, forestry, and other land uses.

Composite panels made with Australian reishi fungi and biomass waste. Kumar Biswajit Debnath/UTS

These fire-resistant 'mushroom blocks' could be the construction material of the future

Because mycelium grows by binding itself to whatever it feeds on, it naturally forms a kind of living glue.

A lake covered by snowy mountains and trees

Researchers find and map 'climate change safe havens' that are more resilient to warming: 'We can buy crucial decades'

The study of climate change refugia — places that are buffered from the worst effects of global warming — has grown rapidly in recent years.

Betty Reid Soskin stands in front of the Rosie the Riveter National Park Education Center

Betty Reid Soskin, oldest US park ranger, dies at 104. This is what she believed was her greatest contribution

Betty Reid Soskin spent her life preserving Black history, women’s stories, and overlooked voices in the country’s national park sites.

A photo collage of 2 bikers biking on a bicycle lane, a statue of Barbara Rose Johns holding up a book, hero Ahmed el Ahmed in his hospital bed, an aerial view of apartment buildings, and a line of solar panels

Good News This Week: December 20, 2025 - Puppets, Raccoons, & Grandmas

Your weekly roundup of the best good news worth celebrating...

A man, Chris Doel, takes a selfie, holding up a few discarded vapes and sitting next to a large battery cell

Engineer powers his entire home using 500 discarded vapes: 'Over a million tossed out every day'

Chris Doel has powered an e-bike and portable charger solely using batteries from discarded vapes. Now, he’s living off-grid.

A young man and woman sit together on a bench in a clothing store, smiling at a laptop

This clothing swap app lets shoppers use their own clothes as currency: 'An ever-changing wardrobe'

Closest Closet makes it easier to thrift and swap clothes while saving money, inviting users to trade clothing items instead of donating and buying.

Sushma Devi (in green), a local woman trained in air quality mapping, demonstrates the use of an air quality monitor to women in Mahuda village, Dhanbad

A grassroots group of women mapped air pollution in their Indian village. It forced coal companies to act

Within three to four months of publishing their findings, the researchers said coal companies immediately took action to reduce air pollution.

An entrance to a cave under a grass hill

Site with 12,000 year Indigenous history may soon be the next national park

The 3,000-acre park protects land and features important to the Mississippian culture, which built the mounds there starting roughly 3,000 years ago.

A herd of giant cardboard animal puppets scale a glacier in Jostedalsbreen National Park, Norway

Giant animal puppets journey from the Congo Basin to a melting glacier in the Arctic with an important message (PHOTOS)

The Herds is a large-scale and participatory public art experience that brings to life the impact of climate change on a global scale.