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An Architecture Firm's Push to Build Net-Zero Apartments—on a Budget

Russell Gold

February 05, 2021 |

Wall Street Journal |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Apartments at Front Flats, a new residential building in Philadelphia, is powered by 492 solar panels that are wrapped around the building. The point: to demonstrate that developers can design buildings that are energy-efficient and be built at an affordable cost. It’s not clear yet if the building is “net zero” in terms of producing as much energy as it consumes, but residents are paying only $40 a month for utilities.

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How steel might finally kick its coal habit

Maria Gallucci

February 03, 2021 |

Grist |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Woburn, Massachusetts

Boston Metal is transforming how steel is made by replacing coal with electrons. Instead of using the fossil fuel in furnaces to melt iron ores, the Massachusetts-based company uses electric currents to heat the ore, which doesn’t create any greenhouse gas emissions. So far, the company has made only several tons of steel, but it recently received investor funding to expand its work.

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Indigenous Elders Are at Risk of Freezing to Death Because Wood Is So Expensive

Terry Greene Sterling

January 29, 2021 |

Slate |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Navajo Nation, Arizona

A collaborative experiment between Indigenous community activists, tribal officials, loggers, nonprofits, and the U.S. Forest Service is delivering firewood to residents who need it for heating and cooking. The program, called Wood for Life, also doubles as a forest management initiative to thin out Arizona’s forests to prevent deadly wildfires. The shuttering of a local coal mine and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this home heating crisis and group members in 2020 delivered a total of 650 cords of wood to several Indigenous nations.

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Harnessing People Power to Protect Alaska's Last Remaining Wilderness

Breanna Draxler

January 27, 2021 |

Yes! Magazine |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Alaska

A viral campaign from Indigenous activists, TikTok creators, and documentary filmmakers led to about 6.3 million letters being sent to federal agencies encouraging them to halt fossil fuel development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. They created social media content and a toolkit for creators to use on their platforms that made it easy for the message to spread.

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The new use for abandoned oil rigs

Isabelle Gerretsen

January 26, 2021 |

BBC |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Santa Barbara, California

As oil rigs stop producing fossil fuels and become decommissioned, many are being repurposed into artificial reefs that support populations of marine wildlife with food and shelter. In the United States, more than 500 oil and gas rigs have been converted into artificial reefs. The California-based company Blue Latitudes has worked to raise awareness about this solution throughout the world, though has struggled to make traction with the Golden State’s oil platforms. Yet, reefing a platform is less expensive than completely removing it.

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In pursuit of self-determined development, Borneo's indigenous tribes turn to homegrown renewables

Tim Ha

January 21, 2021 |

Eco-Business |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Malaysia, Kampung Buayan, Borneo

An indigenous-led nonprofit group called Tonibung installed a micro-hydro electrical system for a village deep in Borneo’s rainforests. The project not only supplied much-needed energy for the villagers of Kampung Buayan, but it is also protecting the surrounding ecosystems, creating jobs for people, and encouraging youth to get involved. “We want to advocate for native rights to self-determination and empower indigenous groups to choose the kind of development that meets the aspirations of their people,” says the founder of the organization.

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A Florida Study Showed How to Save Energy at Home. Why Aren't More Cities and States Following Suit?

Chad Small

January 21, 2021 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Florida

A pilot energy retrofit project in Florida has shown that these upgrades for homeowners ultimately saves them money and energy, and can be made accessible to people from all types of socioeconomic backgrounds. This private-public partnership retrofitted 56 single-family homes, some with “shallow” retrofits like LED lightbulbs and smart plugs and some with “phased deep” retrofits like energy-efficient windows and air conditioners. The program showed that all participants saved energy and could be scaled to other states.

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Electric car batteries with five-minute charging times produced

Damian Carrington

January 19, 2021 |

The Guardian |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Israel

Batteries that can be fully charged in five minutes have been created for the first time, allowing electric cars to recharge faster. The Israeli company StoreDot produced 1,000 of these new lithium-ion batteries, which can be recharged for 1,000 cycles while retaining 80 percent of the original capacity. It could be a few years before they are mass produced, but the CEO of the company says that this feat “demonstrates it is feasible and it’s commercially ready.”

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A Thin Green Line With Global Impact

Robert McClure

January 18, 2021 |

InvestigateWest |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

For over a decade, environmentalists, Indigenous tribes, ranchers, politicians, scientists, and fishers in the Pacific Northwest have been able to defeat more than 20 proposals from coal and oil firms to ship fossil fuels from their ports. Through protests, public hearings, and petitions to government agencies, activists blacked almost every fossil fuel effort in the region between 2004 and 2017.

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How Solar Panels Could Help Save Struggling Farms

XiaoZhi Lim

January 18, 2021 |

The Huffington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

As the amount of farmland decreases in the United States and climate change brings hotter and drier conditions, many farmers are turning to agrivoltaics — growing crops and installing solar panels on the same land — as a way to make ends meet. Research on a garden in Arizona showed that certain crops like tomatoes and chiltepin peppers were able to thrive under the shade of solar panels, while also improving the solar panels’ productivity. “It’s a very unique positive feedback,” said one of the researchers.

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