sustainability

By Tim Lydon Climate-related disasters are on the rise, and carbon emissions are soaring. Parents today face the unprecedented challenge of raising children somehow prepared for a planetary emergency that may last their lifetimes. Few guidebooks are on the shelves for this one, yet, but experts do have advice. And in a bit of happy […]

By James Clasper A dozen children are sitting in a circle when the bell rings. Instead of rushing to their next class, the children close their eyes. “Raise your hand when you can no longer hear a sound,” said their teacher, holding a pair of bronze cymbals — the kind you might find in a […]

Just because that plastic item you rinsed out and placed in your blue bin says it is recyclable doesn’t mean it actually is. A new Greenpeace report released Tuesday found many examples of companies putting misleading labels on products that could not actually be processed by most U.S. material recovery facilities (MRFs). “Retailers and consumer […]

By Petros Kusmu, George Patrick Richard Benson We can all take steps to reduce the environmental impact of our work-related travels. Individual actions — like the six described here — can cumulatively help prompt more collective changes, but it helps to prioritize by impact. As the saying goes: be the change you want to see […]

By Tyler Wells Lynch For years, Toni Genberg assumed a healthy garden was a healthy habitat. That’s how she approached the landscaping around her home in northern Virginia. On trips to the local gardening center, she would privilege aesthetics, buying whatever looked pretty, “which was typically ornamental or invasive plants,” she said. Then, in 2014, […]

Consumers may waste more than twice as much food as previously thought, a new study has found. The study, published in PLOS ONE Wednesday, estimated that consumers wasted 527 calories per day per person, BBC News reported. That’s more than double the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate of 214 calories per day per […]

By Paul Brown An international team of scientists has developed a cheap way to provide fresh water to thirsty communities by making seawater drinkable without using electricity. So long as the sun is shining, they say, their device will produce enough high-quality potable water to cover a family’s needs, at a cost of around $100. […]

By Maria Stamas Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti on Monday committed all new or substantially rehabilitated buildings owned by the City of Los Angeles to be 100 percent carbon free — and to use less carbon-intensive building materials in the process. His executive directive not only has Los Angeles leading by example on ways to reduce […]