Gando Primary School. Photo by Simeon Duchou

African architects are creating comfortable, low-carbon buildings that offer valuable lessons for a warming world. As temperatures continue to rise, architects across Africa are showing that staying cool doesn’t always require energy-hungry air conditioning. By combining centuries-old building traditions with modern engineering, they are creating climate-responsive architecture – buildings designed to work with nature rather […]

Aligator in a Florida swamp

Today is the perfect day to celebrate biodiversity: it’s the International Day for Biological Diversity! But why should biodiversity matter to you? Here are five big reasons (according to our friends at Conservation International): The ecosystems we all rely on cannot survive and thrive without wildlife. Humans cannot stay healthy without intact biodiverse systems. It is […]

intergenerational volunteering

Retirement is often seen as a time for rest but for many older adults, it’s a new chapter of giving back. Across the globe, retirees are making significant contributions through mentoring and volunteering, enriching their communities and enhancing their own well-being. Global Contributions Retirees are increasingly central to community services, dedicating time to schools, hospitals, […]

electrically conductive firebricks in thermal energy storage systems

Snagging the Energy Slipping through the Cracks   As the world grapples with the twin challenges of rising energy demand and urgent climate goals, one of the biggest puzzles we face is how to store and distribute energy more efficiently. A surprising hero has emerged in this story: heat. More specifically, the kind of heat […]

Earth Day 2025

Every year on April 22, Earth Day reminds us of our shared responsibility to protect and preserve the environment. It’s more than just a date on the calendar – it’s a call to action. Every small step we take contributes to the larger goal of a healthier planet for future generations. A Movement with Deep […]

Vathaba - Integrated Agriculture - Rice grown in a banana plantation

To end 2023 on a positive note, here are the outcomes of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, earlier this month. For the first time in nearly 30 years of conferences (the first was held in Berlin in 1995), the delegates at COP recognized the need to transition […]

Waxworm By Sam Droege - https://www.flickr.com/photos/54563451@N08/19051745004/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41690212

In the quest to solve the plastic pollution crisis, organizations of all types are working on solutions. The Good Times has highlighted a few on these pages in the past, such as the Ocean Cleanup removing plastics from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Aquapreneur Innovation Initiative to remove microplastics from water, bacteria that have […]

Mina Guli completes 200 marathons

This woman is truly remarkable. She is Mina Guli, an Australian businesswoman active in the environmental sector and CEO of Thirst. The Thirst Foundation is a non-profit organization “focused on delivering groundbreaking action on water.” How has Mina captured attention and delivered that action? By running marathons. In 2016, she completed 40 marathons in 40 […]

Water lentils 3268zauber, CC BY-SA 3.0 Source: , via Wikimedia Commons

As the world’s population grows, so does the need for proteins to ensure healthy diets. But current practices to produce protein, such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy products, are unsustainable and harmful for the environment. Whether red or white, meats require prodigious amounts of water to produce them, both to raise the animals […]

Kenyan humanitarian Umra Omar has put her entrepreneurial spirit and energy into a social enterprise that provides healthcare to marginalized and indigenous communities within the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya. The archipelago is a group of 65 islands over 6,474 square kilometers (around 2,500 square miles) near the northern coast of Kenya. Omar’s organization, Safari Doctors, […]