A new crowdfunding platform is helping homeless people train up and get into work Founded by Alex Stephany, also CEO of JustPark, Beam crowdfunds employment training. It launched with a pilot in September and is backed of The Mayor of London and Nesta, with James Bowen, author of A Street Cat Named Bob as ambassador. Beam partners with…
An Indonesian company uses seaweed as environment-friendly packaging One potential solution to the massive plastic pollution problem could come from Evoware, which makes seaweed-based packaging that is not only 100% biodegradable, but is edible as well. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, some 33% of all plastic is “used just once and thrown away,” which…
Remembering Father Pops: 5 person take about his legacy Father Emmett “Pops” Johns died Saturday January 13 2018 at the age of 89. The organization he founded, Dans la rue, announced his passing on Sunday. Johns founded Le Bon Dieu dans la rue in 1988. He took a used RV on nightly rounds, looking for street kids and offering them meals and…
UK supermarket plans on going plastic-free by 2023 LONDON (Reuters) – British supermarket Iceland plans to eliminate plastic packaging from all of its own brand products by the end of 2023 and called on the industry to follow its lead. Theresa May pledged to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste within 25 years as part of the…
Harvard’s remarkable new battery can run for more than a decade Researchers have discovered a way to make the promising flow battery much more practical. Flow batteries store energy in liquid-filled tanks. Prior to this most recent discovery, flow batteries, after a number of charge-discharge cycles, would suffer from rapid storage capacity degradation. In order to…
Nikki Reed and Dell create gold jewelry line from recycled computers Dell has partnered with designer Nikki Reid to create a jewelry line that has 99% less impact on the planet than if it were traditionally mined. Did you know that only 12.5 percent of electronics are responsibly recycled globally? Many of these devices…
China will plant over 16 million acres of forest in 2018 The pollution-beleaguered country plans to increase forest coverage to 23 percent of its total landmass by the end of the decade. I’ve always wondered how China could sit by as its air, water and other natural splendors were being turned into the stuff of…
Young engineers discover genius solution to restore Gaza Could ‘Green Cake’ help rebuild the besieged Gaza Strip? Majd Mashharawi has invented environmentally friendly, cheap and lightweight blocks that use ash instead of sand. With an all-female team of engineers in Gaza she’s developping an affordable new way to produce concrete from the leftover rubble of homes destroyed…
Intergenerational senior homes More retirement and nursing homes are asking college students to move in, an arrangement that benefits everyone. On his way home from class, Jurriën Mentink takes a slight detour to pick up some fresh fillets from the fishmonger. His neighbor has an affinity for fish and, since he cycles by the market…
US: 1 million smart thermostats to low-income families Smart thermostats like Nest do appear to pay for themselves in energy savings, but the upfront cost of several hundred dollars can be pretty hard to swallow for many households. That got a little easier recently with the launch of Nest Thermostat E (review coming soon), which…