More than half a million Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring Jordan since the armed conflict began eight years ago, straining the host country’s water, housing, and electric sectors, as well as social relations. The Jordan Green Building Council and Habitat for Humanity jointly lead a green infrastructure pilot program in Dhlail, Jordan, a city […]
Hurricane Maria Inspires Resilience & Adaptation in Puerto Rico
Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico: demolished homes, food and water shortages, and a decimated power grid characterized daily life for months. While millions of people began the process of rebuilding what previously existed, a couple in Puerto Rico took an unconventional approach and decided to build an Earthship. Developed 50 years ago, Earthships are sustainable […]
Elderly Kenyan Entrepreneurs Preserve Forests & Livelihoods
The Theraka Green Gold Group, made up of women over the age of 60, is a group of Kenyan entrepreneurs who weave baskets and harvest baobab and tamarind fruits to make juice. These income-generating activities have replaced the practice of making and selling charcoal, which deforests the area and degrades the local environment. The planting […]
California Requires New Homes Have Solar Panels, Energy Efficiency
In mid-May, the California Energy Commission voted unanimously to approve building standards that will require new California homes to have rooftop solar panels, greater energy efficiency, better ventilation, and lighting standards for commercial buildings. All in all, these rules will lead to a reduction of 493 million pounds of carbon emissions every year. The commission projects that the […]
Urban Mining Turns Waste into Value
Urban mining, or recycling and reusing everything from buildings to electronics to household waste, is a way to preserve the value of goods that would otherwise be thrown away. Nearly everything can be recycled: “Paint is dried up to make chalk, the rancid oils are processed into cosmetics, and old devices dismantled to recycle materials such as paper, plastics, metals […]
Turning Mountaintop Coal Mines into Farms
Coalfield Development, a nonprofit social enterprise in West Virginia, is working to turn former coal mining areas and mountaintop removal sites into farmland and forest, using farm animals to root out invasive plants and fertilize the depleted soil. These efforts have created dozens of full-time jobs, and residents are offered training and stipends to work on their […]
Regenerative Agriculture Protects the Land and Its Inhabitants
Regenerative agriculture is a type of farming that sequesters CO2 while improving water retention, soil health, and rainfall conservation. It uses techniques such as agroforestry, crop rotation, and rotational grazing, while excluding pesticides and factory farming. Many of the techniques used are an adaptation of indigenous and local farming practices. Regenerative agriculture can help communities […]
The Netherlands Recycles Toilet Paper to Pave Bike Paths
The Dutch province of Friesland is innovating by recycling toilet paper and using it to enhance the safety of asphalt, which is used to pave bicycle paths. Normally, toilet paper is filtered out at wastewater treatment plants and then incinerated, which releases CO2 and destroys the resources contained in the toilet paper. Instead, this project extracts […]
Learning Conservation in Prison
The Sustainability in Prisons Project is partnering with inmates to develop and advance conservation efforts in prisons in the United States. Some of the conservation programs include zero-waste centers, cultivation of native plants to restore local habitats, and breeding threatened pollinator species. These programs engage prisoners and give them opportunities to learn more about conservation, […]
Clam Gardens Restore Coastal Health and Indigenous Cultures
Coast Salish tribes in British Columbia, together with The Clam Garden Network, are reviving ancient clam gardens using traditional First Nations methods. These coastal gardens, maintained without the use of plastics or pesticides, provide habitat for sea life and improve local biodiversity. They also provide a sustainable, local, and healthy food source to the coastal tribes. The […]