Three oil companies pull out of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Indigenous and environmental groups led a campaign against drilling in the refuge, and 29 banks and 14 insurers now say they won’t fund drilling in the refuge.
Business
This archive collects stories about businesses — from startups and local enterprises to multinational corporations — taking meaningful action on social, environmental, and economic challenges. These reports highlight moments when commerce and accountability intersect in constructive ways.
Hawaii startup just launched world’s first ocean-assisted carbon removal plant
Each Heimdal can pull 1,000 tons of carbon out of the ocean per year at just a fraction of the cost of air-capture methods.
The largest battery recycling facility in Europe begins operations in Norway
The Hydrovolt factory is now in commercial operation and expects to recycle 12,000 tons of depleted batteries a year initially, rising to 70,000 tons by 2025 and 300,000 tons by 2030.
Starbucks will now pay for employees who need to travel for abortions
Starbucks says it will pay travel expenses for U.S. employees to access abortion or gender-confirmation procedures if those services aren’t available within 100 miles of a worker’s home.
New seed-firing drones are planting 40,000 trees every day to fight deforestation
In comparison to traditional methodologies, they are not only 25 times faster, but 80 per cent cheaper, according to developer AirSeed Technologies.
Egypt to build world’s first climate-positive, net-zero city
The new city, Nexgen, to be located east of Cairo, will produce more food and energy than it consumes.
First COVID-19 breath test authorized for use in U.S.
A COVID-19 breath test just cleared a major hurdle: the FDA has authorized the first device that can detect the virus from a single exhale, returning results in about three minutes. Made by InspectIR, the device picks up a signature pattern of five compounds the body releases during infection, and in a study of nearly 2,500 people it correctly flagged 91 percent of positive cases. No swabs, no lab. Beyond this moment, the authorization is a real proof of concept for breath-based diagnostics — a field researchers have long hoped could one day help detect cancers, kidney disease, and other conditions, especially in communities where traditional testing is hardest to reach.
Portugal’s floating solar energy auction sets world record negative price
Portugal’s floating solar auction just made history with a negative price: one winning bidder agreed to pay the grid 4.13 euros per megawatt hour for the right to generate clean electricity over 15 years. EDP Renováveis pulled this off by bundling 70 megawatts of floating panels on Western Europe’s largest artificial lake with wind power and battery storage, letting the profitable pieces carry the solar contract. The environment ministry estimates the auction will deliver 114 million euros in savings for Portuguese electricity consumers. It’s a striking signal of how far renewable economics have come — and a glimpse of what’s possible when countries get creative about stitching clean energy technologies together.
Abu Dhabi start-up invents method to produce fresh water from the ocean without electricity
The novel evaporation method produces no waste and can be performed without electricity, and does not generate any carbon emissions or produce toxic by-products like brine.
General Electric produces its first 100% recyclable wind turbine that can be reconstructed as it ages
Recyclable wind turbine blades just moved from concept to reality: a French-led consortium has built a 62-meter prototype in Ponferrada, Spain, designed to be fully broken down and reused at the end of its life. The secret is a thermoplastic resin called Elium, which can be chemically separated from its glass fibers so both materials return to the manufacturing stream as good as new. Engineers will now put the blade through structural lifetime testing in Denmark, with the recycling process itself validated soon after. If the approach proves commercially viable, it could close one of renewable energy’s most persistent loops — turning the blades that power our clean-energy future from a looming waste problem into a genuine circular success story.