Business

Seattle joins other progressive cities like San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver and New York to have composting mandates. Last September, the Seattle City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting food from the city’s residential and commercial garbage The ban went into effect on Jan. 1, but fines won’t be issued until July. In the meantime, the city has […]

Indoor vertical farming is often derided as a pipe dream and completely infeasible on a commercial scale, but Shigeharu Shimamura’s farm proves that indoor farming is not only possible, but profitable. Shimamura started Mirai, an indoor farming company in 2004. When the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan, sparking the Fukushima nuclear disaster and causing […]

Probably the first thing you think about when you settle in at the bar and order your favorite beer is not “How is this impacting the climate?” More and more eco-friendly beers are on the market each year. Photo credit: Shutterstock But a lot of beer makers are thinking about it. Eco-friendly beer is an […]

For a long time in America, the dominant mentality was always “bigger is better.” Finally, “small is beautiful” is having its moment. Tiny houses offer a viable solution for people looking to reduce their environmental impact and live more simply. “Micro-living,” as its proponents call it, is becoming increasingly popular. Tiny houses are even being touted as […]

Now that solar is cheaper than electricity from the grid in 42 of 50 largest U.S. cities, it’s no wonder that a coalition of education, health, labor and environmental organizations launched a campaign to encourage North Carolina’s public school districts to transition to 100 percent renewable energy. Repower Our Schools was launched today calling for the Charlotte and Durham, North Carolina […]

Have you ever wondered about how sustainability plans develop within local government? Michael Freedman-Schnapp, director of the New York City Council’s Policy & Innovation Division, recently spoke with students about this topic at a Sustainable Development Speaker Series event. Freedman-Schnapp guided undergraduate and graduate students through the city’s various plans to achieve its ambitious sustainable development […]

Water conservation is one environmental issue that people have been conscious of for years, long before “climate change” was in everyone’s lips. But with droughts such as the ongoing one in California that has seen wells running dry and home water supplies in jeopardy, public awareness has certainly increased. That red light means “Time to […]

Numerous studies are showing that Americans are driving less. Younger people no longer see buying their first car as an eagerly anticipated rite of passage. Fewer own cars for reasons ranging from cost—they’re paying off student loans, not making major purchases—to the fact that many are moving back to cities where a car is not […]