Solutions Journalism Network

As extreme climate events become more common, farmworkers are banding together to demand preparation, transparency, and resilience so they can stay safe while on the job.

Federal tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act and added incentives from the state of Colorado and its municipalities is drawing in clean energy companies, creating new jobs, and helping the state meet its decarbonization goals.

As a part of its journey to 100% clean energy, California is banning the sale of gas-powered landscaping equipment in 2024. The ban has done little to transition landscapers to electric tools. They cite the need for clients to understand that the tools might not leave a yard immaculate, better battery-powered options, and funding assistance as more helpful steps for the transition to electric.

Students in Porterville’s Climate Action Pathways for Schools program participate in paid internships that teach them how to lower their community’s carbon footprint and help prepare them for careers in the green jobs industry. Through student-led energy audits and schoolwide efficiency competitions, the program has helped the district save roughly $850,000 in energy costs over the past several years.

The Omaha City Council’s Master Plan’s Environment Element report of proposed strategies and goals related to climate action was left largely forgotten and ignored for two decades. Experts say the city’s new plan should be more actionable, a real commitment, and have a dedicated staff.

Automated indoor farming harnesses technology like artificial intelligence, robotics, and climate-controlled systems to limit the negative environmental impacts of growing food while maximizing nutrients and yields.

In the name of social responsibility and to lower their carbon emissions, businesses in Omaha, Nebraska, are installing solar panels to supplement their electricity supply.

After decades of planning and development, Sacramento’s R Street corridor went from an area full of abandoned warehouses to a flourishing, walkable neighborhood. The city planners’ prioritization of building high-density housing, bringing in new businesses, ensuring access to a light rail transit line, and safe, pedestrian-friendly streets helped this project succeed.

Permitting is an important, and mandatory, part of new development projects in clean energy and forest management to ensure compliance with various regulations relating to the environment and land use. It also gives communities a chance to be heard during public comment. But the process is so lengthy that it can halt projects for years.

Run by a nonprofit dedicated to creating economic development opportunities in underserved communities, the Solar Works DC training program provides people interested in entering the solar industry with certifications. The trainees are paid and spend up to seven weeks learning in the classroom and on the job.

Tucson-based Mission Garden’s crops are thriving in a drought-stricken region because of the use of techniques and knowledge from the Tohono O’odham Nation to plant traditional local crops and native plants that can handle the lack of water.

In an effort to fix the climate movement’s voter turnout problem, the Environmental Voter Project’s 6,000 volunteers use behavioral and data science in their outreach campaigns to encourage environmentalists to become consistent voters so the issues they care about are prioritized by politicians.

When compared to gas-powered cars, electric vehicles save drivers money on fuel and maintenance, are more energy efficient, and emit significantly fewer greenhouse gases.

A solar panel array at the Steelton-Highspire School District generates enough energy to meet the schools’ needs, and the switch to solar is estimated to save the district $1.6 million over the next 20 years, which it can use to improve programming for students.

Entrepreneurs are encouraging reuse models like return-from-home systems to transition towards a circular economy without single-use plastics. In this model, consumers pay a deposit to use takeout boxes, cups, and other containers. They get their deposit back when the containers are picked up from their home by a courier.

Landscaping businesses in California are trading in the typical tools and chemicals for goat herds. The practice of bringing in goats to munch on unwanted vegetation, called targeted grazing, is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than traditional landscaping.

When designed well, houses built on elevated platforms supported by stilts can help coastal communities adapt to climate change by reducing flood risk.

California pays farmers to turn cow manure into biogas in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Harvested in various ways, the gas collected from the waste is used to power farms.

Biodynamic farming is slowly spreading across the United States as a practice that improves the health of a farm’s ecosystem by creating a sustainable system that uses its waste to generate its energy. This way of farming also involves practices like crop rotation, cover cropping, and eliminating the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

People are logging environmental issues on the MyCoast app to help local governments figure out what areas of the municipality to allocate resources and funding to. Eight states in the U.S. use the app to track anything from climate change impacts to abandoned boats to flooding.

Alongside clean energy, wind farms built on property leased from locals in Nebraska are generating jobs, income, and local taxes that keep small towns like Petersburg afloat.

The organization Mask Oakland collects donations to supply masks to overlooked or marginalized communities when wildfire smoke worsens the air quality in the California Bay Area.

The first auction of Washington State’s cap-and-invest system raised $300 million dollars from businesses buying greenhouse gas emission permits. The system is meant to incentivize emission reduction while raising money to address climate change in the communities most impacted by pollution.

By going a step further than pollinator strips and hedgerows to create complex landscape structures, farmers create refugia with cooler microclimates that help pollinators and other animals acclimate and survive increasing temperatures.

Salt marshes are waterlogged areas along the U.S. coastline that absorb carbon by trapping it in layers of sediment and peat. The wetlands also act as buffers against natural disasters.