The Latest Good News

Costa Rica has reversed decades of deforestation by paying people to protect ecosystems and involving indigenous communities in ecosystem restoration projects.

Since the programme started in 1997, the country’s forests have doubled in size, leading to a boom in ecotourism and contributing $4bn (£2.91bn) to the economy, an achievement that has been rewarded at the Earthshot Prize.

The government of Costa Rica said it will use the prize money to expand its work to protect oceans, and also help other countries replicate the model.

New Delhi-based Takachar has developed a technology that could end the practice of burning agricultural waste, which causes severe air pollution in India.

The company’s cheap, small-scale, portable technology attaches to tractors in remote farms and converts crop residues into saleable products like fuel and fertiliser.

Takachar said it will use the prize money to get the technology to more rural communities around the world.

Coral Vita is a Bahamas-based conservation organisation that cultivates coral on land and replants it in the ocean. Its technique is reportedly 50 times faster than traditional methods and is believed to help reefs become more resilient to climate change.

As well as restoring reefs, Coral Vita works with local communities, public bodies and private companies to improve education and create new jobs in the environmental sector.

Coral Vita wants to establish a global network of coral farms, and said the Earthshot Prize money would help it kickstart that ambition.

An initiative that has dramatically cut food waste while tackling hunger saw Milan win the waste-free world category.

Launched in 2019, with the aim of halving waste by 2030, Milan’s Food Waste Hubs programme recovers food from supermarkets and restaurants, and works with local NGOs to distribute it to citizens in need. Milan is the first major city to enforce a city-wide food waste policy, encompassing public agencies, food banks, charities, NGOs, universities and private businesses.

Each Food Waste Hub recovers about 130 tonnes of food per year or 350kg per day — equivalent to around 260,000 meals. Milan officials said the money would go towards helping other cities replicate its approach.

The AEM Electrolyser turns renewable electricity from wind and solar farms into emission-free hydrogen, which can be used to power factories and other high-energy buildings.

Judges at the Earthshot Prize said the technology had the potential to transform how we power homes and business.

The firm behind the electrolyser, Enapter, said the prize money would help the technology enter mass production. The company aims to account for 10 per cent of the world’s hydrogen generation by 2050.

Repurposing waste into wearable gems

Independent makers are going against the grain and embracing repurposing. Instead of mining the Earth, London-based jeweller Lylie’s sources its precious metals from the 155,000-tonne mountain of electricals that are discarded every year in the UK. The pile is enough to make around 850,000 gold rings, according to the Recycle Your Electricals campaign.

Lylie’s founder Eliza Walter says that planned obsolescence is a particular bugbear of hers: “It makes me despair that products are still being designed to break. It’s not just the financial cost of something, but the environmental cost.”

The practice of using recycled metals is becoming more mainstream. Global player ‘Pandora’ used only recycled gold in 2020, planning to do the same with silver by 2025. London firm YagoEco is melting down single-use carrier bags giving them second lease of life, transforming them into colourful earrings, necklaces and cufflinks. Since February 2019, the company has saved 1,500 bags from ending up in landfill.

Australian company Dinosaur Designs makes pieces using resin developed from oil industry byproducts. In Denmark, AYM crafts items from salvaged ocean plastics by hand. Additionally a whole host of UK-based makers, including Sadie Jewellery, The Strandline and Fresh West Silver, swap precious stones for sea glass that has been handpicked from local beaches.

You would be forgiven for thinking that ‘Sky Diamond’ is the title of the next James Bond film, and the idea of extracting diamonds from thin air, the work of a cat-stroking villain in a slick swivel chair.

But instead, it’s the latest venture from Ecotricity’s founder and environmental campaigner Dale Vince. It’s a project which removes carbon from the atmosphere, locking it away in diamond form. “It goes far beyond carbon neutral. Making the diamonds actually means there’s less carbon in the atmosphere,” Mr Vince says. “The amount of carbon sequestered is not much – about 1g per carat,” he admits, “but when you take into account the avoided impact of the high emissions that mining creates, it makes a big difference.”

The diamonds are grown in a lab – an increasingly popular practice as consumers look to avoid the myriad environmental and human rights abuses associated with conventional mining. The exact method is a secret, however the sequestered CO2 is liquefied and combined with hydrogen made from chemically split rainwater, which is then pressurised and heated to around 8,000ºC using 100% renewable energy.

Currently, a facility in Stroud, Gloucestershire, is capable of producing 200 carats a month (enough for around 330 average-sized engagement rings). Later in 2021 production is set to increase five-fold, at which point they will go on sale in the UK.