What’s Good This Week
A weekly round-up of good news in our community, our industry and our world.
There’s no shortage of disheartening news in our world, so we decided to take time each week to pause, take stock and focus on the positive.
Each Friday, we’ll share five encouraging news updates from the social impact sector. From empowering social enterprise stories to the positive innovations in social impact moving society forward, take a look and be inspired. It’s not all bad — here’s “What’s Good.”
1. Designers Are Turning Flint Water Bottles into Recycled Textiles
It’s been three years since officials found lead contamination in Flint’s water system, yet residents must still use bottled water for drinking, cooking and washing. Now, the community is struggling to deal with the millions of plastic bottles in their waste system. Artist Mel Chin saw the issue and proposed an idea — to turn the bottles into clothing. Since initiating the project, over 90,000 used water bottles have been collected and transformed into recycled performance fiber and the items were sewn into garments by at-risk women in a local commercial sewing program.
Renowned designer, Tracy Reese has designed the pilot collection, which is displayed, for the first time, this week at Queens Museum Watershed Gallery.
2. Hershey’s uses “Cocoa for Good” to invest 500 Million in supporting farm communities
The Hershey Company is launching a new social impact initiative, Cocoa for Good, to address poverty, nutritional deficiencies and other vulnerabilities in cocoa-growing communities. Chief Procurement Officer, Susanna Zhu shares the company’s goal is to ensure the cocoa supply chain is sustainable while consciously protecting the environment and bettering lives for cocoa farmers, their families and communities. The four main goals are: Nourishing children, elevating youth, building prosperous communities and preserving natural ecosystems.
3. TOMS and Clare V. launch shoe collection to support of MADE by DWC
The two Los Angeles-based brands launched their limited edition footwear collection this week as a special way to give back to their hometown. The collection supports the L.A. social enterprise MADE by DWC, an organization that empowers formerly homeless women with skills and vocational opportunities. Their product development workshops and thrift store retail space provides opportunities for the women to have a stable income and transition out of homelessness. The Clare V. x TOMS collection celebrates the unique brand style of both companies and is available for purchase now.
4. Microsoft just signed the the largest corporate solar agreement in the US
The digital economy takes another step toward switching to renewable energy. This week, Microsoft entered an agreement with renewable energy company, sPower, to buy 315 of the plants 500 megawatts of power. The massive solar energy agreement will help to power Microsoft’s data centers in Virginia, as well as its cloud business. This isn’t the first step into renewable energy Microsoft has taken. The tech firm owns enough renewable power to light 100 million LED bulbs, including a rooftop solar project in Singapore, and wind mill projects in The Netherlands, Ireland and several American states.
5. This Supermarket is selling soup, beer and soap made from food waste
Jumbo, one of the biggest Dutch supermarket chains, is on a mission to reduce food waste. The supermarket was the first of 18 stores to launch the “Waste is Delicious” campaign, offering a variety of products made from discarded foods. Branch operator, George Verberne says they’ve sold 700 items in one week, including; “soups and chutneys made from wonky vegetables, beer from stale bread, cider from blemished apples and soaps from discarded orange peels.” According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, nearly $1 trillion worth of food is thrown away, globally, every year. The Netherlands hopes its national programs, including the Waste is Delicious initiative, will half the amount of food thrown away by its people by 2030.
