Read the full story in CityLab.
One of the fundamental drivers of the environmental-justice movement is that low-income communities and communities of color are often at the forefront of environmental harm, since they are more likely to live in the path of air pollution and near toxic facilities like oil refineries.
But a study recently published in Nature Sustainability highlights the fact that communities of color are also disproportionately missing out on the benefits of rooftop solar power.
Read the full story in Fast Company.
An innovative partnership between the brands Harper Wilde and For Days aims to recycle a nearly unrecyclable garment.
Read the full story at Motherboard.
Electronic waste is a growing threat to the environment. Thanks to the low cost of manufacturing, it’s easier than ever for corporations to pump out millions of laptops, smart phones, internet of things devices, and other electronics. Electronics companies want consumers to keep buying new products, and believe repair and reuse hurts their bottom line. Old CRT monitors and televisions fill warehouses across the country, and companies like Apple and Microsoft pay lip service to the problem, but often pursue business practices that make the problem worse.
That’s led to a world where people throw away broken devices instead of repairing them, and those discarded iPhones, televisions, and laptops are poisoning the planet. A new initiative combining the efforts of the United Nations and the World Economic Forum and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development wants to change that.
Read the full story in Science Daily.
Scientists have used a Nobel-prize winning Chemistry technique on a mixture of metals to potentially reduce the cost of fuel cells used in electric cars and reduce harmful emissions from conventional vehicles. The researchers have translated a biological technique to reveal atomic scale chemistry in metal nanoparticles. These materials are one of the most effective catalysts for energy converting systems such as fuel cells.
Read the full story in the Washington Post.
The continental United States is 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was a century ago. Seas at the coasts are nine inches higher. The damage is mounting from these fundamental changes, and Americans are living it. These are their stories.
Read the full story at My Modern Met.
Today, many color-loving creatives aim to illustrate and identify tones found in the natural world. From landscape-based color palettes to real-world Pantone matches, these polychromatic pieces sort and specify the colors that surrounds us. While new technologies have made this task easier than ever, the practice has been popular for centuries, with Abraham Gottlob Werner’s 19th-century book, Nomenclature of Colours, as an extraordinary example.
Nomenclature of Colours served as a must-have reference for artists, scientists, naturalists, and anthropologists alike. The exquisitely rendered guide showcases the earth’s rich range of color by separating it into specific tones. Illustrated only by a small swatch, each handwritten entry is accompanied by a flowery name (like “Arterial Blood Red” and “Velvet Black”) as well as an identifying number. What the book is truly known for, however, is its poetic descriptions of where each tone can be found in nature.
Read the full story in Fast Company.
Loop will send you name-brand products, like Tide detergent, Crest mouthwash, or Häagen Dazs ice cream. When you’re done, you ship the empty container back, where it gets cleaned and reused for the next customer.
Read the full story in Grocery Dive.
Kroger has announced a new “moonshot” effort to eliminate food waste across the company by 2025, according to a company statement. In doing this, the retailer also hopes to end hunger throughout the communities where it operates.
The grocer outlined its “Zero Waste” 2020 goals in its annual sustainability report, which includes actions like 90% diversion from landfill in its facilities, increased use of reusable plastic containers, perishable foods donations and composting. Now, in partnership with both Feeding America and World Wildlife Fund, Kroger has also set the objective to eliminate food waste by 2025 through prevention, donation and diversion efforts in its stores.
“Zero Hunger | Zero Waste is a vision for the America we want to help create with our associates, customers and stakeholders. This is our ‘moonshot,’ ” Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen said in the company statement. “We recognize we have a lot of work to do. But we know when Kroger’s more than 443,000 associates put their passion to work to make something happen, we can uplift our communities, the planet and each other.”
Read the full story at Curbed.
A new library in Hanoi is more than a vessel for books. Vietnamese architecture studio, Farming Architects designed it to be a full-service learning center, complete with an aquaponic farm, koi pond, and roaming chickens that all contribute to the library’s ecosystem.
From Data to Viz is a classification of chart types based on input data format. It comes in the form of a decision tree leading to a set of potentially appropriate visualizations to represent your dataset.
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