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Create A New Collection

Collections are versatile, powerful and simple to create. From a customized course reader to an action-guide for an upcoming service-learning trip, collections illuminate themes, guide inquiry, and provide context for how people around the worls are responding to social challenges.

  • Name and describe your collection

  • Add Stories

  • Add external links at any time

  • Add to your collection over time and share!

1. Name your collection

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2. Add Stories

Add stories to your collection from your list of Favorites below, or add stories directly to a collection from Search or Discovery. Anytime you see the collection icon you can add a story. Just click the icon and follow the instructions on your screen.

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Solutions Story Tracker®

Welcome to a curated database of rigorous reporting on responses to social problems.

15,700 stories produced by 8,900 journalists and 2,000 news outlets from 89 countries. The stories cover responses in 192 countries, in 17 languages. This resource is made possible because of a growing movement of journalists who use solutions journalism to illuminate both problems and evidence-based responses to them.

Learn more about the Solutions Story Tracker.


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  • 320,000 High Schoolers to Get Free Water Bottles. The Goal? 54 Million Fewer Single-Use Drinks

    James Barron
    2018-09-25 19:19:59 UTC
    2

    September 23, 2018 |

    The New York Times |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    S’Well, the namesake of trendy water bottles, was founded on the environmental principle of reducing single-use plastic bottles throughout the world. As part of their mission, the company is donating a water bottle to every New York City high school student in order to promote this environmental awareness.

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    • 5221

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  • How to get people to behave better? Use carrots, not sticks

    Mattha Busby
    2018-10-10 16:22:27 UTC
    0

    September 21, 2018 |

    The Guardian |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United Kingdom

    Incentivizing good behavior is a tried and true tactic often used in child development. However, as the need for better behavior around issues such as recycling and public discord rises, some are finding that going back to a system of incentivizing the preferred behavior is the most successful pathway to creating habits that are crucial for the betterment of society and the environment.

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    • 5421

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  • In Sweden, Trash Heats Homes, Powers Buses and Fuels Taxi Fleets

    Amy Yee
    2018-09-25 19:41:47 UTC
    2

    September 21, 2018 |

    The New York Times |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Sweden, Linköping

    In Sweden, waste is not just waste, or so the country explains with a total of 34 waste-to-energy power plants that turn garbage into electricity. With an already staggering low percentage of waste ending up in landfills, 50 percent of the portion that does is transformed into energy through an incineration process that plays a large part in heating many homes throughout the winter.

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    • 5223

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  • Meet the robots and other contraptions making Colorado's recycling more efficient

    Tamara Chuang
    2019-05-09 18:01:39 UTC
    0

    September 19, 2018 |

    The Colorado Sun |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Colorado

    Technological innovations are making single stream recycling more efficient. Allowing consumers to place their recyclable waste into a single container for disposal increases participation in recycling programs, but adds pressure on processing plants. Using AI vision technology allows machines to learn, identify, and sort materials efficiently.

    Read More

    • 6839

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  • Rooftop farming: why vertical gardening is blooming in Kampala

    Nils Adler
    2018-10-29 18:23:25 UTC
    2

    September 19, 2018 |

    The Guardian |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: Uganda, Kampala

    As the population of urban areas in Uganda grows, many farmers are finding that they are running out of space to cultivate successful business in agriculture. One solution that has surfaced has been to build up instead of out.

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    • 5596

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  • Recycling can be a hard sell in rural Colorado. That hasn't discouraged a resourceful nonprofit effort in Swink.

    Kevin Simpson
    2018-10-08 13:14:22 UTC
    0

    September 18, 2018 |

    The Colorado Sun |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Swink, Colorado

    Recycling doesn't come easy for small, rural towns where the cost to export recyclables often realistically outweighs the benefits of this sustainably practice. Clean Valley Recycling, a nonprofit launched by local community members in the tiny town on Swink, Colorado, has gone against all odds though and serves not just as a recycling resource for the town, but for the surrounding region as well.

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    • 5390

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  • This bike path is made from recycled plastic

    Adele Peters
    2018-10-23 12:46:12 UTC
    2

    September 14, 2018 |

    FastCompany |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: Netherlands, Zwolle

    What do you get when you combine the efforts of an engineering company with an energy company? In the Netherlands, you get a new type of environmentally sustainable roads. PlasticRoads, a piloted initiative in the city of Zwolle, uses discarded plastic to build bike paths that help cut down on plastic waste.

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    • 5543

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  • Is this the greenest outdoor shop in the country?

    Shawnté Salabert
    2018-09-19 13:59:20 UTC
    2

    September 14, 2018 |

    Outside Business Journal |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Fayetteville, Arkansas

    Pack Rat Outdoor Center, an outdoor retailer in Arkansas, is making their mark in the fight for sustainable practices. Through efforts to recycle, compost and upcycle materials, the store sends less to a landfill than it does to recycling centers. The efforts have been so successful thus far that even community members are joining in and becoming more active in sustainable practices and education.

    Read More

    • 5150

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  • Berlin's mayor tries to wean Germans off the water bottle

    Luisa Beck
    2018-10-10 17:46:18 UTC
    1

    September 14, 2018 |

    The Washington Post |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Germany, Berlin

    Although commonplace in many parts of the world, Berlin has recently adopted the practice of using water fountains to cut back on plastic bottle usage. Not everyone supports this environmental push, but the mayor is hopeful they will at least catch on with tourists who are accustomed to the invention already as well as act as a resource for refilling plastic bottles rather than throwing them away.

    Read More

    • 5424

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  • A road full of bottlenecks: Dutch cycle path is made of plastic waste

    Daniel Boffey
    2018-09-29 17:48:17 UTC
    3

    September 13, 2018 |

    The Guardian |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: Netherlands, Zwolle

    The first bicycle path made of recycled plastic opened in the Netherlands and the inventors see it as a way to prove a concept that could be adapted more widely to roadways as Europe works to eliminate plastic waste. The path has sensors to monitor its performance and the amount of traffic that uses it, as well as a design that drains rainwater and allows cables and utility pipes to be installed inside. A second path is under construction in another city and possibly in Rotterdam.

    Read More

    • 5289

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Please sign in via My Profile before submitting a story. This will allow you to view the status of your submission and get notified if the story is added to the Solutions Story Tracker®.
Filter your search by the language of the story. As the Solutions Story Tracker grows, we are working to include more stories in more languages. Your story submissions can help! Submit stories here.
These factors identify the ways communities overcome the big challenges and help you see the insights. Learn more about the Success Factors here.

Solutions Journalism Around the World

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Solutions In Focus

Discover curated content about themes that matter to you, exclusively from the Solutions Story Tracker. Explore collections, resources and more.

  • Climate Solutions

  • Advancing Democracy

  • Youth Mental Health


Go to All Solutions in Focus

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    Video Tutorials

    Learn how to find what you need in the Solutions Story Tracker in español and in français.

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    Submission Guidelines

    This database is powered by user submissions. Submit a story.

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    Custom Story Alerts

    Get notified when new stories match your interests by setting up custom story alerts in My Profile.

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Solutions Story Tracker® FAQ

  • Solutions journalism…
    • Describes a response to a problem and how it works.
    • Seeks to draw out insights that explain success or failure.
    • Presents the available evidence about the effectiveness of a response.
    • Explains the shortcomings or limitations of the response.
    Learn more.
  • The Solutions Story Tracker® is a curated, searchable database of solutions journalism stories — rigorous reporting about responses to social problems. We vet and tag every story in the Story Tracker, which offers an inspiring and useful collection of the thousands of ways people are working to solve problems around the world.

  • You can learn more about how we source, vet, and tag stories here, as well as how we share them. We also have video tutorials in Spanish and French that show how to use the Solutions Story Tracker to find what you need.

  • Story collections are curated by our staff or other partners to explore a theme, pattern, or trend via selected solutions stories and external resources. Some story collections focus on an in-depth exploration of a topic with solutions journalism; others highlight journalists and how they report on topics. Certain story collections include discussion questions and notes, so that educators and community discussion leaders can lead learners to fully engage with the stories.

  • The Solutions Story Tracker® is powered by user submissions. We encourage submissions from journalists, as well as from anyone who has an eye for solutions journalism. Click here to submit. (Why submit? So many reasons!)

  • You can submit a story directly on the Solutions Story Tracker®. You will be prompted to register or log into the Solutions Journalism Network website, if you are already logged in. (It is free to register!) Logging in allows you to track the status of your submissions under My Profile, as well as save your favorite stories, create story collections and story alerts, and access other helpful features of our website.

  • After you submit a story to us and assign it a topic, it is sent to one of our Solutions Story Tracker team members. Our team member evaluates the story for the four qualities of solutions journalism, and on the basics: The story must come from a news outlet and have a date and a byline. If the story meets our criteria, our team tags it accordingly and adds it to the database. If the story falls short of the mark, our team will include the reason why. We include stories in the Story Tracker that meet our standards of solutions journalism. Inclusion does not mean we support the initiatives, policies, organizations or approaches featured in those stories.

    Discover common reasons why a story may miss the mark for inclusion in the Solutions Story Tracker®.

    Learn more about the history of the database.

  • Solutions Journalism Network features these stories in the searchable database making them publicly accessible to anyone who wants to search for rigorous reporting on solutions to social problems. Any story that is added has the potential to make more impact than its original purpose. Added stories are used in journalism trainings, school curricula, research projects, and independent analysis on issue area trends. This now includes artificial intelligence tools, which are applied for educational value to find stories and support story vetting, as well as to extract insights from the stories. SJN has digital products and newsletters that give new life and exposure to the stories meeting people where they are at. Story data also is used to develop innovative tools to reach the general public with solutions journalism as well as some specific research projects requested by researchers. If you have any questions or concerns about our use of story data or added stories, please contact Lita Tirak.

  • News outlets determine whether all users can access their stories — and some limit the number of stories that anyone can view, or require a subscription. The majority of stories in the database can be accessed for free.

  • We work with journalists, academic researchers and others who feel that our database will support their research. We are especially interested in research that seeks to develop new insights about solutions journalism and its spread and its impact on social problems. Please complete all sections of the Data Request Form, and we will contact you to discuss your request in greater detail.

  • We do not fact-check the stories in the Solutions Story Tracker®. We do ensure that each story comes from a credible news source that has its own editorial infrastructure.

  • We worked with Tara Pixley and Jovelle Tamayo of the Authority Collective, who developed a guide for using equitable visuals. We follow this guide when choosing images for our website.

  • We welcome your feedback and additional questions. Please use this form to get in touch.

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