As we hit the end of September, it’s about time to start up the new, monthly post on the sustainability blog – one that I have personally been wanting to write for a while.

This is the first edition of Monthly Good News, in which I round up all the good news I can find from the month to remind you that the world is not actually ending this exact moment, and good things still exist. And I promise you, good things do still exist.

We’re going to focus mainly on social and environmental sustainability (because we are, after all, a sustainability blog), so buckle up and get ready to feel a little bit better about the world you live in.

Today’s good news blog, as the first of the year, is also going to mention a few things from over the summer too – just so you’re hit with a big enough dose of serotonin to make it through to the end of October.

June

• Madrid, Spain, is building a wind garden that is estimated to lower the temperature in the city by 4 degrees Celsius
• It is now cheaper to switch from coal to renewables than coal to gas due to the rising prices of gas
• To revive a declining species, more than 500 glowworms were released across the grounds of a Hampshire hotel over the summer

July

• Stockholm, Sweden, has announced a new electric “flying” ferry, that will use hydrofoil technology to go faster and produce less emissions than traditional ferries. It will be trialled throughout 2023 and is another step to Stockholm’s emission-free ferries by 2025 goal
• Eurasian beavers will be a legally protected animal in the UK from the 1^st of October
• There are 40% more tigers in the world than in 2015
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced plans to plant 1 billion trees in the next decade
• Sydney, Australia, now runs on 100% renewable energy, using locally sourced clean energy from wind and solar farms

August

• University of Illinois researchers bioengineered the efficiency of photosynthesis to make greater yields without losing quality in crops
• Chemists have developed a way to destroy the “forever chemicals” that was recently discovered in global rainfall
• The U.S. is set to pass a bill promising nearly $370 billion in climate investments, making the first significant step for the country in fighting the climate crisis and bringing them much closer to Biden’s goal of cutting emissions in half by 2030
• Plans to plant 6,000 trees in Lincoln, UK, are currently under consideration
• Announced in August, New York is to have the largest composting program in the U.S.; it will start in October
• Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is making a comeback! Two-thirds of the Reef recorded the greatest coral cover in almost 40 years

September

• Waitrose has scraped ‘best before’ dates on 500 products to help tackle food waste. It is following the lead of other supermarkets like M&S and Tesco
• 1 billion trees will be planted in the U.S.A. as part of reforestation plans
• Billionaire has donated 98% of his shares in his company to a not-for-profit that is dedicated to preserving nature and battling the environmental crisis
• Popular cryptocurrency, Ethereum has slashed 99.95% of its energy use
• California is covering 8,500ft of canal with solar panels, producing energy and stopping water from evaporating

See? As promised, lots of good things happening in the world right now! It’s not all doom and gloom. But, just in case you don’t believe me (or my lovingly curated headlines) – this is going to be a monthly event. At the end of every month, a round up of all the good news I can find (and some I probably missed before) to remind you that there’s a lot of great things in this world, and a lot of people striving to do better.

You just don’t always get to see them.


By Bethany Climpson, Sustainability Engagement Assistant