How Hawaii is trying to save Haena State Park, a Kauai tourist hotspot that's been loved to death

To the two social entrepreneurs who founded nonprofit Feedback, the massive amounts of food waste being tossed into landfills in the UK and USA each year was a mounting challenge that required a creative solution. So they founded Toast Ale, a craft brewing company that not only reduced food waste by using unwanted bread from bakeries to brew their ales, but helps bring awareness to the issue through the brand, which is growing in popularity.

Depending on the swap, switching a home’s heating and cooling system for a residential heat pump can produce less greenhouse gas emissions and result in cost savings down the line.

As technology advances, so does the electronic waste that it produces as people throw out their old products to make way for the new ones. To reduce their e-waste footprint and keep the materials out of landfills, companies such as Dell are pushing for closed-loop recycling – a process that reuses the recycled product to make the same product again.

Aiming to improve road conditions and cut down on plastic waste, a Scottish engineer found a way to blend the two. After testing a series of different recipes, he found the perfect recipe that is now being used across United Kingdom and the Gulf, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Rainforest Expeditions, an innovative eco-tourism company in Peru, helps the local economy while also promoting conservation of the natural rainforest. By working with Infierno, the local indigenous community in a southeast part of Peru, the tourism company has empowered locals. The Inferno families are shareholders in the local lodges and have found career paths through this. Perhaps most important: as local people have a stake in tourism, they also have a stake in maintaining the rainforest. 


Strip mining, a method in which the entire top few hundred feet of mountain are blown up to expose coal seams, has left Virginia and other Appalachian states with nearly a million acres of flat, problematic lands. Environmental scientists have released a herd of elk at one of these former strip mine sites to enrich the habitat for diverse animal species and to revitalize the local economies through wildlife tourists and hunters.

The invasive prickly pear cactus is spreading over grazing lands in Kenya and is harming herders’ livestock. So a local environmental science graduate is testing a system to turn the cacti into biogas. While the system can be expensive to install, the gas can be used for cooking and fertilizer, which can free up time for pastoralists and reduce the amount of firewood used. The graduate is training eight women’ groups to use the system.

Localscapes is a program in Utah promoting more water-efficient landscaping. The program includes state-based horticulturists, landscape professionals, and water experts who help interested people make the most sustainable use of their yards and lawns. "The program focuses on five techniques: a central open space, gathering areas, activity zones, paths and planting beds."

The Flight of the Angel attraction has helped the area to create more jobs and improve the economy through tourism. In 2007, when the attraction opened, there were only two restaurants and two hotels in the city. But now, there are about 50 bed and breakfasts, eight restaurants and over 130,000 visitors annually.

Sausages made of fish processing waste and other bait alternatives are under development in Canada as members of the fishing industry work to save the declining populations of popular lobster bait fish like mackerel and herring.