Cutting animal agriculture buys time to get off fossil fuels: study

Good News Notes: “Eliminating animal agriculture over the next 15 years would effectively stop global warming in its tracks – largely halting the increase of greenhouse gases for the next 30 years, according to a recent study in PLOS Climate. The largest contributor to that decrease in heating would be a massive expansion in prairie, forest and…

Dolce&Gabbana drop animal fur starting in 2022

Good News Notes: “Dolce&Gabbana announced Monday that it would drop the use of animal fur in all its collections starting this year, and transition to eco-friendly faux fur. The Milan fashion house joins other luxury brands, including Armani, Gucci, Prada and Moncler, in adhering to guidelines set by the Fur Free Alliance, a network of…

‘Ocean battery’ targets renewable energy dilemma

Good News Notes: “A wind turbine sitting idle on a calm day or spinning swiftly when power demand is already met poses a problem for renewables, and is one researchers think can be tackled under the sea. In one vision, offshore wind farms could use seawater to essentially store energy until it’s needed, helping wean humanity off fossil fuels….

Energy Dome uses CO2 for long-term power storage for renewable energy

Good News Notes: “….The company told us that a CO2 battery’s optimal charge/discharge cycle ranges from four to 24 hours, positioning it perfectly for daily and intra-day cycling. It points out that this is a fast-growing market segment, not well served by existing battery technologies. Specifically, the hope is to charge the CO2 battery during the daytime…

Amazon plans to cut waste following backlash

Good News Notes: “Amazon has launched two programs as part of an effort to give products a second life when they get returned to businesses that sell items on its platform or fail to get sold in the first place. The so-called Fulfilment by Amazon programs, announced in a blog post on Wednesday, will help to build a circular…

Forte_Forte Unveils Bloom, Its Latest Upcycling Capsule

Good News Notes:  “As fashion moves more toward sustainable practices, upcycling seems to be the hottest and trendiest topic right now, with brands such as Miu Miu, Burberry, Alexander McQueen and Marine Serre all tapping into the trend. Contemporary fashion label Forte_Forte, meanwhile, quietly embraced it almost 10 years ago by partnering with silk specialist Mantero Seta…

The Farmer Trying to Save Italy’s Ancient Olive Trees

Good News Notes: “In early 2016, Giovanni Melcarne, an agronomist and the owner of an extra virgin olive oil farm in Gagliano del Capo, walked through the southern Italian countryside of Puglia. He was with a fellow olive-oil farmer who had called and told him there was something he had to see. The two approached a…

Here’s a cool green way to upcycle millions of old tires

Good News Notes: “If you’ve ever seen a tire graveyard piled high with trashed rubber, you can easily understand that Israeli company EcoTech Recycling has a green gem of an idea. EcoTech’s nontoxic process produces a unique material, Active Rubber (AR), from end-of-life tires. With1.6 billion tires manufactured annually, and 290 million tires discarded each year in…

Explore a sustainable skincare village in Parma, Italy

Good News Notes: “Creating a sustainable beauty brand is always a noble but inevitably fraught endeavour. Without even an established definition of what ‘sustainable beauty’ means – does the packaging have to be recyclable? must the formulations be vegan? – it can be difficult to distinguish which brands really deserve the moniker and which are just using it for show. …

Retired Italian teacher leaves fortune to hospitals, charities

Good News Notes: “A retired Italian teacher has bequeathed more than 25 million euros ($30 million) to hospitals and charities, stunning residents of the northern city of Genoa where she lived who had no inkling of her wealth. Marisa Cavanna died in December aged 96. She was described as a reserved woman who never got…