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…
Bhopal Junction, 1st India’s railway station to install a sanitary napkin vending machine While it is common to see most railway stations equipped with ticket counters, passenger helpdesks, toilets, refreshment stalls and waiting rooms, Bhopal has made yet another necessity available for its women commuters by making low-cost sanitary napkins available at the railway station.…
Iceland: January 1, it’s now illegal to pay male more than women for the same job On January 1, Iceland implemented a new law that makes it illegal for companies to pay male employees more than women for doing the same job. As a result, Iceland is now the first country in the world to ensure equal…
Bike-sharing systems: Philadelphia integrate equity strategies Bike-sharing systems have been growing in popularity across the U.S. in the past decade. Since the launch of Smartbike DC (now called Capital Bike Share) in Washington D.C. in August of 2008, residents in many major American cities now have access to a bike-share system. That’s the good news.…
In Vancouver, shipping containers are the new tool libraries This spring, Vancouverites may find renting a set of camping equipment as easy as borrowing a book from the library. The Thingery project is a recent initiative launched by Vancouver Tool Library founder Chris Diplock. The first Thingery pilot project was carried out in summer 2016, and Diplock…
Denmark’s reduce recidivism with architecture “We truly believe, and evidently the statistics support us in this, that a hard and less-stimulating environment creates more re-offenders,” Mads Mandrup, an architect and partner at C.F. Møller Architects About 70 miles southeast of Copenhagen, in the town of Gundslev, Storstrøm Prison looks more like a university campus than a…
3D printer technology project makes prosthetic limbs for amputees in Haiti The majority, about 80 percent, of the world’s estimated 33 million people with limb loss live in poor countries and are often without access to prosthetics care. Amputees are victims of war, violent conflict, natural disasters, unsafe working conditions, and lack of healthcare. Haiti has a particularly large…