Good News for the Environment

Sustainable stories of progress for the planet

Two wind turbines stand in a colorful green field on a sunny day

Global efforts to repurpose wind turbine blades lead to innovative designs

The Danish port city of Aalborg, where the new recyclable blades are being made, has found an innovative new use for old blades, by turning them into bike shelters for the city’s cyclists.
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A bald boy wearing a face mask plants a tree and gives a thumbs up to the camera

The United Nations Declares Access to a Healthy Environment a "Human Right"

This is great news for the future of humanity: with this historic decision, this means the UN will be taking climate action more seriously on a global scale.
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Light coming through a foggy forest

Researchers Have Found a Creative Way To Save Forests: They're Letting Trees Tweet

The tweeting tree’s messages are based on data from a suite of sensors on and around its trunk, using a real-time approach to tree monitoring pioneered by Witness Tree’s inspiration and sister project TreeWatch.net.
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The bottom of a bridge is shown — with the concrete grooved in long patterns. Children run underneath on the grass.

Researchers Have Figured Out How to 3D Print Bridges With Dramatically Less Waste and C02

Researchers have used 3D printing to build load-bearing concrete structures that require significantly less material and no steel reinforcement or mortar.
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Plants adorn an environmentally efficient public housing complex in Paris, France

Paris Shows How to Make Public Housing Greener and More Habitable at the Same Time

In the past decade, Paris has worked hard to align social housing with its larger climate goals. And Americans have a lot to learn from their efforts.
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Fishing in Greece

Virtual Reality May Help Us Develop Empathy for Oceans and Marine Life

Getting people to care about the oceans — which are out of sight and out of mind for many — can be particularly challenging. And virtual reality may be a creative solution.
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Young native woman rides a white and brown horse through a snow-covered parking lot/campground

Water Protectors in Standing Rock Are Fighting For a Safer America

At the Standing Rock Reservation between North & South Dakota, a community of Indigenous activists is working to protect water and water systems across the U.S. They are known as Water Protectors: a group of cultural organizers who believe in the sacred nature of water and land.
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Man smiling surrounded by plants

Tilling North St. Louis, Planting for a Healthier Future

Large swaths of St. Louis are without easy access to fresh food and nutritious produce. These “food deserts,” are most often in low-income communities. Organizers, farmers, and nonprofits are using a variety of creative methods to ensure people have access to the food they need
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Jeans being weaved on a machine

How an Italian Denim Manufacturer Has Created the World's Most Sustainable Jeans

Candiani's denim operation is sometimes called “the greenest mill in the blue world.” And their denim formula has been awarded Global Organic Textile Standards GOTS approval and won numerous awards.
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How to Ethically and Sustainably Dispose of Your Yard's Leaves This Autumn

Putting raked leaves in a landfill has a long-term cost for a community. Even recycling green waste via community-wide collection, while less problematic than throwing it away, is still not the simplest and most economical use of this gardening treasure.
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Workers painting streets with reflective white paint in Los Angeles

L.A.'s New Reflective Streets Bounce Heat Back into Space

Cities are painting their streets white. The air in these neighborhoods is getting cooler — with huge (positive) implications for the planet.
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MacArthur Foundation Fellow

Meet the World-Changing Fellows of the 2021 MacArthur Program

By investing in solution-makers, the Foundation remains committed to doing real, actionable good. As part of their program, the foundation has an annual fellowship where some of the brightest minds are given a no-strings-attached grant of $625k over the course of 5 years.
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