A start-up in India treats the poor as discerning customers, not aid recipients

Raton, a town once surrounded by eight coal mines, now has a main street of boarded-up buildings. There is reason for optimism as the town diversifies its local economy, betting on "a mix of small manufacturing businesses, health care and specialty services, and hospitality for travelers" to endure the sudden decline in mining revenue. Its calculated revitalization may hold lessons for other towns.

New York is determined to become a national leader in the renewable energy sector, and they are leveraging numerous approaches to help integrate better and more environmentally conscious technologies into the grid. The multi-faceted approach includes updating laws and regulations to be more renewables-friendly, hosting competitions to foster entrepreneurship and creative solutions in the field, piloting new technologies, and creating better incentives for utility companies.

FEMA’s response to Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Irma has been the “longest sustained domestic airborne food and water mission in the nation’s history. The agency has never distributed more food or installed more generators.” However, due to bureaucracy and delayed decision making, there are still thousands of Puerto Ricans who have not received aid, or were underserved.

Over two million baby boomers own their own companies, and with retirement looming, the government stepped in with a solution. A portion of a 2018 federal bill included language that will push the Small Business Administration to help baby boomers transition ownership of their companies to their employees if they wish. This will mitigate job loss often associated with a retiring business owner putting the company up for sale. Employee owners on average make a higher salary and have higher job stability, supporting the idea that employee ownership is beneficial for everyone involved, as well as for the econom

Solar power is a great advancement for renewable energy, but traditionally relies on connecting to a grid in order to function correctly. So when hurricanes hit Puerto Rico, even those with solar panels lost access to electricity. A micro-grid offers an alternative solution, however, by relying on battery power.

Despite being the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the UK passed the Climate Change Act in 2008, a move that reduced coal-fired electricity generation by 33 percent in only five years. The UK's carbon tax helped spur the phasing out of coal, but the political and economic conditions that enabled it are by no means universal.

In the wake of a massive natural gas extraction project by Chevron, the Australian government asked the oil behemoth to bury as much as 4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. The technology fueling the burying initiative, called carbon capture and storage (CCS), has had success in similar projects around the world in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the oil creation process.

Europe's generous social policies, such as allowing employees to retain their salaries while taking sick time to care for themselves or family members, may help to mitigate the coronavirus outbreak while also safeguarding the economy. Although the long-term impacts are yet unknown, in the short term, government-provided incentives are helping people and businesses stay afloat.

After an initial shock to business-as-usual, some independent booksellers are trying new methods to get their products in the hands of readers. Home deliveries, online sales, and fundraising efforts are keeping some longstanding institutions afloat, at least for now.

Solar energy is a clean, cheap, renewable, and land-efficient resource, making it a valuable technology to scale up in the face of climate concerns and clean energy. Diversifying the supply chain for creating and sourcing solar panels can help make solar energy more reliable when faced with geopolitical and human rights issues.