This week, we were drawn to stories about determined communities taking their renewable energy futures into their own hands.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from the growing impact of the HPV vaccine to a new plan to save the Joshua tree.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from the story beneath NYC’s steam stacks to the Land Back movement’s role in climate resilience.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from matchmaking corals to a massive food donation. Plus, an update on congestion pricing in NYC.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a scrappy, solar-powered New York lifestyle to early media literacy lessons in Finland.

We asked our readers a simple question: No matter who wins this election, how will you continue to make the world a better place? Here’s what you told us.

The outcome of the US election will impact a lot, but it won’t change everything.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from farmland restored to salt marsh to salmon thriving on an un-dammed river.

See what caught our attention this week, from remedies for a water crisis to the story behind decades-old parking regulations.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a new way of tracking wolves to a more rehabilitative approach to prisons.

Scenes from an ecstatic celebration in New York City.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a vast restoration effort in Canada to the end of coal in the UK.

A behind-the-scenes look at one of the stories we’ll be sharing at RTBC’s upcoming live event in celebration of our fifth anniversary.

Peek behind the curtain at one of the stories we’ll be sharing at RTBC’s upcoming variety show in celebration of our fifth anniversary.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a new California law to protect wildlife to flood management success in Vienna.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a mountain’s historic name change to the movement for spongier cities.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from progress on protected waters to a record Columbia River sockeye run.

A series about how electrification is leading toward a more sustainable energy transition.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from the promise of a delicate fruit to a new way to protect the Great Salt Lake.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from zero-emission travel schemes to hotels converted into housing for the homeless.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a program keeping Philadelphians in their homes to a simpler cervical cancer test.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a comic about farming in Oregon to South Korea’s impressive food-waste recycling.

A series about how the cultural practices of others, past and present, can teach us how to prevent or solve problems.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a self-watering pot to zippy new subway systems in Europe and Asia.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a more sustainable Olympic Games to unarmed civilian response teams replacing the police.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from customizable housing trends to a flood of water conservation funding.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from city planning in Bratislava to a new way of paying respects on US national park visits.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from renewable abundance in the Golden State to Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests.

A new series about how whole-person health is transforming the patient journey.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a pollinator protection milestone to a new take on the old-fashioned house call.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a basic income boon in Denver to major cuts in plastic pollution in Vanuatu.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from one city’s Juneteenth story to Black communities preparing for extreme heat.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a bit of Texas cool-down history to why US solar is outpacing wind.

The delusion that cars belong in places like Manhattan is stubbornly hard to break. But across the world, cities are coming to their senses.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from a unique Los Angeles overpass to the tradition of Ciclovía in Bogotá.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from drought resilience in the American West to good news for fish.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from payments to First Nations to California’s first Black-led land trust.

See what stories caught our attention this week, from an Ecuadorian patrol group to “community-owned cooperative real estate.”

See what stories have caught our attention this week, from an exploration of Britain’s apples to an intriguing conservation bill in the US.

See what stories have caught our attention — and learn what good news we’re celebrating at RTBC headquarters this week.

See what caught our attention this week, from accessible kids’ programs to sustainable Indigenous practices.

See what caught our attention this week, from neighborhood “NatureScores” to prescribed burns.

See what caught our attention this week, from a landmark climate ruling to the encouraging rise in renewable energy in the US.

See what caught our attention this week, from the carbon footprint of sporting events to the persistent problem of palm oil.

See what caught our attention this week, from blue catfish filets to a lesson for New York’s housing crisis.

See what caught our attention this week, from the economics of cycling infrastructure to a contested waterway in Delaware.

See what caught our attention this week, from parents stepping up as bus drivers to biodegradable birth control implants.

See what caught our attention this week, from cracking down on ecocide to a milestone for sports at HBCUs.

See what caught our attention this week, from hardy grains in Scotland to reforestation in the Dominican Republic.

See what caught our attention this week, from a book ban’s boomerang effect to climate resilience plans.

Peek behind the curtain at what our team is reading and discussing this week.

Eavesdrop on our team’s ongoing conversation about solutions stories in the news.

Find out what stories got our team’s wheels turning this week.

In the latest edition of our new series, we offer a glimpse at what our team is reading and thinking about this week.

Check out this week’s edition of our new behind-the-scenes series.

We’re trying something a little different: a weekly behind-the-scenes peek at what our team has been reading, learning and discussing.

177 ways the world got better in 2023.

Seven beavers have been released into tribal waters as part of a broader restoration effort. They’ve got their work cut out for them.

As many baby boomers retire without succession plans for their businesses, employees are banding together to own their futures.

A new city-wide program puts mental health support at teenagers’ fingertips.

Three years after a fire tore through Big Basin Redwoods State Park, once-blackened trees are showing new green growth.

States from Minnesota to California are working to open up more recreation opportunities to people with disabilities.

As the state explores ways to use less water, agave is emerging as a viable alternative to thirstier crops.

As offices across the US sit vacant, a slate of federal measures aims to convert them into much-needed housing units.

As autism diagnoses rise, so too does the need for play spaces specially tailored to the needs of autistic youth.

Only electric vehicles will hum through the city center, thanks to a stringent low-emission zone.

Pairing public defenders with trained advocates can change a defendant’s fate in court and beyond.

By showing the value of caregiving, the city’s “care blocks” aim to chip away at gender inequality.

Schools across the state are leaning into plant-based meal options — good news for both kids’ nutrition and the planet.

With a telescope and an inflatable planetarium, an enterprising astronomer is widening views in more ways than one.

In a Los Angeles neighborhood where trees are scarce, reflective pavement coatings are bringing measurable relief.

Good news for city gardeners: Australian researchers found that very small interventions can still make a real ecological difference.

Stigma and affordability have long been obstacles to mental health care in vulnerable communities. What happens when both are removed?

Going to the dentist makes lots of people anxious. But it could be the first step in getting mental health care.

The landmark case will force the state to consider climate effects before approving fossil fuel projects. “More rulings like this will certainly come.”

An Oakland-based group is building a supportive community within the traditionally white-dominated sport.

For one Indigenous tribe in India, an artificial alternative to the animal parts long used in traditional headgear is catching on.

Stories at the nexus of water, climate and food.

With one dam down, the biggest dam removal project ever undertaken in the US. has begun along the Klamath River.

The country is the first to ban the thin plastic bags, encouraging shoppers to opt for reusable ones instead.

Goals become realities this week at the unique tournament in California, which is free to livestream.

The church is taking measures to help restore its home valley’s beleaguered body of water.

A recent report shows the results of years of advocacy — good news for both Indigenous peoples and the climate.

Facing a STEM skills crisis, Australia is starting early with playful approaches to learning.

Filled with food and emergency goods, the machines unlock automatically when earthquakes or other natural disasters strike.

A sprawling industry with a large carbon footprint is stumbling toward sustainability.

Toronto is investing billions in nursing the Don River back to health.

It only happens once or twice a year. But when fish rain down on the town of Yoro, Honduras, residents can now trade their catch for cash.

For urban cyclists in the Netherlands, half a million secure bicycle parking spots make for seamless connections to rail journeys.

A cutting-edge mapping system lends new legitimacy to the country’s most marginalized neighborhoods.

The colorfully lit, art-lined path through a mountain is almost two miles long and shortens bike commutes by 20 minutes.

By helping their land absorb the excess water, Central Valley farmers are making sure the state’s deluge doesn’t go to waste.

Globe, Arizona cleaned up overgrown paths once used by miners to make way for beautiful murals and walks with a view.

People on bikes represent 40 percent of non-pedestrian rush hour traffic in the city, and cars are trending down.

The tenants come from diverse generations and cultures — and commit to socializing with each other at least two hours a week.

In Tunisia, where education is underfunded, one school is flush with cash after covering itself in solar panels and selling the energy back to the grid.

Covid transformed cities, jobs, even entertainment in ways that seem to be ever more permanent — and in some cases, made the world a better place.

In Borneo and Madagascar, communities committed to protecting trees instead of logging — and people got healthier.

The UN treaty would make it possible to designate international waters as protected areas, bringing conservation to vast new swathes of the sea.

When dozens of companies experimented with shorter working hours, employees swapped commuting for low-carbon fun.

Now-dormant medical surveillance spaces are being repurposed as everything from food stalls to pharmacies to places where you can borrow a book.

A team is planting Australian eucalypts in deforested areas of Brazil’s rainforest to harvest for timber and generate money for reforestation.

The city’s “Right to Counsel” initiative is based on research showing that legal representation helps keep people in their homes.

The ‘Venice of the North’ has thousands of new bike parking spots at the city’s busiest transit hub.

Across the US, early screening, vaccines and better treatments are making the disease less fatal than ever.

Following an extraordinary global effort, the UN announced that the planet’s critical sun shield will completely recover within 40 years.

Urban foresters see an infusion of $1.5 billion to increase tree canopies as a “once-in-a-career opportunity.”

183 ways the world got better in 2022.

A soon-to-open plant in South Carolina will use mushrooms to make faux leather that those in the know say is just like the real thing.

Phoenix’s Hushabye Nursery is designed to keep parents and babies withdrawing from drug dependency close together.

In Sweden, the world’s first commercial-scale textile recycling plant is a sign of things to come.

In Village Landais, having dementia doesn’t mean giving up your independence.

At the UN’s annual climate conference, a groundbreaking — if not-yet-binding — promise from the US and EU “offers hope to vulnerable communities.”

A mandate to blanket the asphalt in photovoltaics could provide as much energy as 10 nuclear power plants.

In our new ongoing series, Build Better, we explore how advancements in construction are leading the way toward decarbonized cities.

Defying dire predictions, the sprawling event once again showed the power of civic engagement.

A new analysis shows that when the pandemic closed streets to traffic, bars and restaurants made more money.

In Madison, Wisconsin, library patrons borrow electric bicycles for a week at a time, saving them thousands on buying their own.

They successfully lobbied for a state park to preserve the ecosystem that keeps their surf break intact.

The wax worm’s saliva quickly breaks down polyethylene waste, and could eventually be sold in at-home recycling kits.

A Montreal importer is upping the price of a bunch to get fairer wages for farmers and workers in Central and South America.

Introducing our membership program, a chance to support solutions journalism and help us grow for the future.

A new buoy-to-satellite system that detects whale song helps ship captains avoid fatal collisions.

As the entire fleet goes gas-free, the cleaner air will save over 1,300 lives every year.

Residents of the Rhine River Valley’s Andernach get their fresh produce from a large public garden at no charge.

A free flight training program is inspiring high-schoolers to pursue career dreams they never even considered.

A new app helps bike commuters travel together in “pods” as a response to a lack of protective infrastructure.

A new study shows how more pro-bike policies could have a major impact on climate change.

Beneath the city, an ingenious, sustainable system uses the Seine to cool down buildings like the Louvre.

A one-week series about surprising ways cities can crank down the temperature.

Maya Bay could have been famous. Instead, it’s living happily ever after.

“This is a hyperlocal model that supports the people who live in the area.”

In an age where creditors view reliance on fossil fuels as a liability, switching to renewables makes fiscal sense.

With an energy crisis looming, Spain is suspending train fares to encourage people to take transit instead of driving.

The latest strategy for combating invasive species? Turn them into jackets.

In a country where laws often penalize the unmarried, a “singles rights” movement is gaining steam.

By connecting the city’s rooftops, the floating bridges pay homage to under-appreciated urban spaces.

Thousands of British workers are about to start clocking out a little earlier.

The decision opens the door to protecting bees at a critical moment.

A new analysis confirms the reporting in RTBC’s latest series: conservative states are big players in America’s clean power movement.

Native birds are flocking back to cities after generations of absence.

The unit focuses on community engagement and job creation. Its tactics are working.

The Land of Enchantment just launched the closest thing the U.S. has to universal child care.

The reintroduction of California condors into the state’s northern redwoods is the latest milestone in the birds’ spectacular comeback.

From the archives of We Are Not Divided, three stories that look at our ability to bridge our divides — and find reason for optimism.

As climate change increases contact between bears and people, a new system helps keep them socially distanced.

Fruiting trees that replace dump sites are cared for — and feed — the communities they’re in.

In Algeria, a complete recycling plant — delivered in a shipping container — helps refugees earn a living while reducing waste.

Jubilee Market in Waco, Texas exists for one reason only: to provide quality food in a neighborhood that lacks it.

When markets closed, some Pacific Islands returned to traditional farming practices — and found more people had enough to eat.

By planting crops and trees together, farmers are making a living while forests thrive.

Davis, California has maintained low Covid rates thanks to a unique collaboration with its hometown university.

An urban wetland that people can use becomes a shining example of flood adaptation.

A model of water exchange that aids diplomacy between Israel and Jordan could work for parched areas of the U.S. and Mexico, too.

Columbia, Maryland, the quintessential 1960s planned community, is preparing for a 21st century makeover.

In a country where being gay can be dangerous, one church promises: “There is no judgment.”

Under a proposed law, district attorneys who have received money from the police would have to recuse themselves from cases involving them.

Tired of delays, they cobbled together a software program that could change the way billions of dollars are spent on homelessness.

From the archives of We Are Not Divided, we revisit three stories that explore our surprising — and encouraging — openness to others’ points of view.

A California flight academy is tackling the pilot shortage and equity issues in one fell swoop.

Properly maintained, their towering pylons often become an ideal habitat for endangered marine life.

A study showed that consumers cut way back on pop — and didn’t buy other sugary products as a substitute.

A study shows that ‘1-800-273-8255’ put a statistically significant dent in the U.S. suicide rate.

192 ways the world got better in 2021

We don’t have ads or paywalls — we only have you. Will you support us?

An ingenious system using chilly lake water makes air conditioning unnecessary in major buildings, from hospitals to an NBA arena.

From shorter work weeks to repairable computers, here’s what you loved to read about this year.

As interest in worker-owned businesses spreads across the U.S., one city is way ahead of the game.

Erected in the 1950s, they’re riddled with exactly the kinds of inaccuracies you might expect.

In Baltimore, a more immersive method of violence interruption is putting clinical psychology at its forefront.

Scientists are serenading fish with friendly sounds, and coral reefs are reaping the benefits.

Some 1,200 workers have moved to the city, and it looks like most plan to stay.

An effort that pairs the orphaned pups with adoptive otter moms has led to thriving kelp forests.

In the U.K., a government program holds onto deposits to make sure renters get back what they’re owed.

As the world’s biggest climate conference comes to a close, we see reasons for hope on the horizon.

Ending deforestation. Slashing methane. Achieving net-zero emissions. Here are the most impactful deals and pledges that have come out of COP26 so far.

To control rodents, the vast majority of Napa Valley winemakers have turned to birds of prey.

In a country where disability is often invisible, these dancers say, “I want to let more people see us.”

The city has spent the last decade making its public housing better for the planet — and for people.

The waterfront property, seized in 1924, is being given back to the family that originally bought it. It’s now worth $75 million.

Arizona is sending fewer kids to jail — and reinventing the places where they were once locked up.

A steelworkers organization is embracing workers of all stripes, from nurses to coders.

In places where bus service has vanished, dirt-cheap taxis are keeping people mobile.

What could we do besides lock people up?

A Shanghai mental health center was a target for stigmatization. Then its syrupy snack went viral.

Holes in the ground that once chugged out fossil fuels now provide clean, green energy.

A locally owned startup’s devices are powering hundreds of homes and over a dozen schools.

At an “intergenerational healing circle,” elders offer young men job advice while the youth teach the older folks how to use Instagram.

The city is giving non-car commuters a tax exemption normally meant for drivers.

A program pioneered in the little city of Eugene is improving policing in Harlem.

The more easily a product’s packaging can be recycled, the lower the fees.

At the end of the day, you’ll need to send them photos to prove you’ve completed your work.

In a state where a trip to the supermarket sometimes requires getting on a plane, biomass-powered greenhouses could be a game-changer.

There are only 21 left. A movement is taking shape to preserve them.

Tired of being overfished by wealthier countries, they stopped competing and started collaborating.

Ivory Coast produces more cocoa than anywhere else in the world. Now they’re using it to generate green energy.

Every 17 years the insects’ dramatic appearance is recorded by thousands of volunteers.

“Culture, community and land-based wisdom” form the pillars of a new modeling agency that’s elevating representation above profit.

A mining technique that damaged the environment for decades is now being used to protect it.

And now a lot of cities are making their “open streets” permanent.

Public health and church officials have turned the shots into a Sunday ritual.

Grab an oar — and some trash while you’re at it.

A pop-up site at a clinic that serves sex workers saw 99 vaccinations in a single day.

A credit-for-clunkers program offers drivers thousands of euros to switch to two wheels.

It grows everywhere and could help save the planet with every serving.

An experiment started during the pandemic to reduce jail populations will continue indefinitely.

A complaint filed by a student group argues the venerated university’s investments in fossil fuels are illegal.

The self-proclaimed boondocking capital of the world is going green.

The garbage-picking stork was considered a bad omen. Then the baby showers began.

A partnership to pool energy produced by smaller turbines could circumvent opposition to large wind farms.

Meet the marine geographer teaching Chennai urbanites how to buy seafood the traditional way.

The English National Opera has partnered with a hospital to turn lung recovery exercises into song.

When a newly elected county supervisor saw where farm workers were living, he was appalled — and inspired.

How the Seahawks finished the season as the only team in the league without a single infection.

A seed banking cooperative is making sure age-old agricultural practices don’t get lost.

Journeying to the state’s remote mountain hamlets, these mobile clinics are taking house calls to new heights.

Some companies that reduced employee hours during the pandemic are keeping the shorter work week in place — even as they reinstate full pay.

Defying harsh weather and roadless terrain, America’s most undeveloped state has achieved one of the country’s highest vaccination rates.

To fight xenophobia, nearly 2,000 families have shared a meal. Many have come back for more.

112 bits of good news that kept us sane in 2020.

An 80-unit complex in Seattle will provide housing that reflects the culture of the Coast Salish People.

Community refrigerators are showing up on city streets, full stocked with food that’s free for the taking. Care for a snack?

Large dairy farms started dumping their milk during Covid — until smaller ones swooped in to turn it into food for the hungry.

With tourism at a standstill, the city is leasing the flats and subletting them to locals.

To reach those in need who don’t want to visit in person, one food bank is embracing Amazon-style shipping.

When war broke out, a group of intrepid scientists hustled Syria’s chickpea and lentil stash to a vault deep in the Arctic Circle.

Defining access to food as a human right, a city in Brazil is making sure everyone can afford a trip to the market.

The key is forest management processes that mimic what nature would do.

Swing voters. Covid converts. Some people seem highly persuadable. Why does that bother the rest of us?

For the next six weeks, Reasons to be Cheerful is doing something a little bit different.

Private landowners are part of a statewide push to save the trees that make it rain.

Registration caravans on wheels are making sure Latino communities don’t get missed.

“Lifers” face a daunting re-entry after decades in prison. One California program recruits their formerly incarcerated peers to help them navigate.

From bicycle parking spaces to a citywide registry for stolen bikes, the Colombian capital is creating a full-fledged cycling ecosystem.

A Depression-era form of relief is helping residents of Tenino, Washington through the crisis.

The devices could help close the language gap between kids from wealthy and low-income families.

Sixteen congregations of Dominican nuns are collaborating with Morgan Stanley to invest in marginalized communities impacted by global warming.

The African nation’s Premier League football club will become the first in the world to fund its men’s and women’s teams equally.

New research shows that sprinkling rock dust on fields where crops are grown could have a huge effect.

“When folks say, ‘I cannot believe a trans person could win in a place like West Virginia,’ I think, ‘This is the very place I believe a trans person could win elected office.”

The remnants of a destructive form of mining have inadvertently helped the elk return to coal country for the first time since the Civil War.

Neuroscientists have determined that creation can keep you from going Covid crazy, so we asked you to send us the art you’ve made under lockdown. It’s amazing.

At a police-free zone in Seattle, “sentinels” are keeping the peace in peaceful fashion.

Shelters and hotel rooms are expensive and temporary. Are tiny houses a homelessness solution that can outlast the crisis?

Minneapolis isn’t the only city starting to redirect the funding it spends on law enforcement.

Some advocates, seeing violence as an epidemic, are starting to treat it like one.

So that everyone can worship safely, the walls that separate churches and mosques are coming down.

How one country is using its economic rescue to clean up a polluting industry.

Masked chambermaids, sanitized keycards and nurses who pop in to see how you’re feeling.

In this week’s briefing: Reviving a woodland refuge for honeybees and partnering with poachers to bring back buffalo to a national park.

In this week’s briefing: building bridges to assist wildlife on their journeys, Italy gets homeschooled and a debate over the merits of poop-powered energy.

In this week’s news briefing: renewable energy has an undisputed leader, and anti-violence outreach workers help their at-risk clients shelter in place.

In this week’s briefing: Kiwis crush the curve, a Brazilian school exceeds all expectations and transit projects leverage car-free streets to hurry forward.

In this week’s briefing: Australian tour operators repair the Great Barrier Reef and a city keeps its restaurants afloat by hiring them to cook for the homeless.

In this week’s news briefing: Governments help companies pay their workers, France uses its bullet train for high-speed triage and Indigenous graduation rates soar.

In this week’s news briefing: social media data is tracking COVID-19 and schools begin to open with anti-viral measures in place.

American bartenders get a lifeline, French perfumers churn out hand sanitizer, Britain grows a volunteer army and locked-down Chinese students find classmates in Israel.

In this week’s news briefing: the strafed summits of Kentucky find a grizzled savior and an underground turbine keeps the lights on in Halifax.

In this week’s news briefing: a device that turns impassable into accessible, a preschool wrapped in a bus and free legal help for tenants facing eviction.

In this week’s news briefing: Brewery emissions find a higher purpose and transit-oriented soccer fields sprout in Atlanta.

In this week’s news briefing: a device to prevent rotting produce, gay rights advance in Virginia and Japan makes a science of lost-and-found.

In this week’s news briefing: empathy-based political canvassing, old seeds grown anew and pavement that lets the water in.

In this week’s news briefing: The triumphant return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, and a company dispatches teenagers to help seniors with their iPads.

In this week’s news briefing: a millennia-old approach to controlling Australia’s wildfires, and a city in Illinois gets to know its homeless.

In this week’s news briefing: simulating disability in a retail environment, turning down take-away plastics and tidying up the ocean floor.

In this week’s news briefing: Medicaid picks up the tab for ride-hailing to the doctor, and wind farms sprout from Fukushima’s abandoned farmland.

In this week’s news briefing: moms get mad, journos shack up and cash for cops finds a new home.

Homicides fell, green space grew and your weather forecast got a lot more precise. The last 10 years were filled with positive change—really! Read our list…

In this week’s news briefing: the need to hydrate brings peace between rivals in Darfur, and renewable energy gets some unlikely proponents.

In this week’s news briefing: housing former prison inmates in people’s homes, building bird-friendly skyscrapers and solving an equestrian community’s poop problem.

From us to you, to yours. Give your loved ones a reason to be cheerful this holiday season.

In this week’s news briefing: buying up housing to keep it affordable, crunching the data on opioids and stopping storm surges with sand.

In this week’s news briefing: CPR dummies finally get breasts, lettuce becomes natural gas and an ancient air conditioner cools New Delhi.

In this week’s news briefing: incubating a new generation of agri-preneurs, soaking up stormwater and canceling carbon.

In this week’s news briefing: Brazilians put down roots in Japan, Jamaican gardeners cultivate coral and medical care arrives on the islands of Bangladesh.

In this week’s news briefing: ending homelessness for profit, coffee saves the rainforest and rural America takes on climate change.

In this week’s news briefing: healing Israel’s overcrowded hospitals, healthier snacks for condors and a ski slope that converts waste into energy.

In this week’s news briefing: helping India’s “wandering” people find their way home, a broader lens on bikeability and a plan to keep teachers from walking away.

In this week’s news briefing: Pulling drinking water from the mist, post-prison seniors and hyper-humane malaria eradication.

In this first edition of RTBC’s weekly news briefing, stories of street redesign in Amsterdam, solar systems in California and cooperative farming in China.