Pollution
Aisata Ibamie, right, a young renewable energy engineer and innovative clean energy activist from Cameroon, demonstrates how her ASAAB Thermal Cooker is used. (Photo courtesy Aisata Ibamie)
Mandela Washington Fellow
Most people in sub-Saharan Africa still use a wood fire to cook food. Aisata Ibamie, a young renewable energy engineer from Cameroon, has a low-tech solution to reduce indoor air pollution and save trees.
Nelson Boateng, founder and Chief Executive Officer of NelPlast Eco Ghana Limited, stands in front of some of his award-winning bricks made from recycled plastic. (Photo courtesy Nelson Boateng)
Mandela Washington Fellow
A former tech worker turned eco-entrepreneur in Ghana works to intercept plastics on the way to the landfill by repurposing the plastic into an award-winning building product.
George Washington University
Through fashion, Brazilian designer Daniel Davilla detects the intrinsic beauty of “junk” and molds it into a garment that appeals to all audiences.
A hoop house composed with plastic sheeting and tubes provides cover for a raised garden in Washington, DC. (Lance Cheung/USDA (Public Domain Mark 1.0))
University of Maryland
University of Maryland international Ph.D. student Krisztina Christmon launched her award-winning idea of repurposing farm plastic as part of a university innovation challenge in 2020. One year later, she serves as CEO of Repurpose Farm Plastic LLC.
The George Washington University
As the awareness of the perniciousness of plastic grows, companies and universities are implementing initiatives to go plastic free. GW was the first university in Washington, D.C., to do so.
Pictured (left to right): Berkana McDowell, Eva Stanton, Alexis Hernandez, Maya Cheav, Ben Jensen, Ruby Baldwin-Smith, Veronica Warner, Max Burrous, Kate Hartshorn, Holland Hatch, Christian Grevin, Hannah Waldorf, Amy Asmussen, Kelly Ly, Hilary Lee, Dr. Richelle Tanner, Koa Tanner. (Photo by Chapman University)
Chapman University
When 25,000 gallons of oil spilled along Huntington Beach, Calif., in early October 2021, damaging valuable, intertidal ecosystems and threatening public health, environmental advocacy students saw an opportunity to make a difference.
(Photo by Hannah Richter/ University of Chicago)
University of Chicago
Composting is a growing practice that diverts food waste from greenhouse gas-producing landfills; Chicago colleges provide a case study into how this practice can be implemented more broadly today.
“Traditionally, EPA regulations under Section 111(d) have concerned only what goes on within the fenceline of the sources,” said Craig Oren, professor emeritus of Rutgers Law School and Clean Air Act expert. “EPA’s Clean Power Plan is a very extensive program that goes beyond what happens inside the fence line.” (ETA+/Unsplash)
Northwestern University
Jorja Siemons reports: West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency concerns an Obama-era environment regulation that the Supreme Court suspended in 2016. Yet, it could be the most impactful environmental case in a generation.
Volunteers raise up their grabbers which were supplied by Anacostia Riverkeeper before the cleanup at Pope Branch Park begins Saturday. (Isabel Miller/Medill News Service)
Northwestern University
Isabel Miller reports Anacostia Riverkeeper held a community river clean up day on Saturday in commemoration of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy of service.
Paige Valego, GW class of 2021. (Greer Blount/George Washington University)
Planet Forward Correspondent | George Washington University
So Long, Single-Use? | As George Washington University students returned to campus in the fall of 2021, they took ownership of the university's single-use plastics ban through the personalization of reusable water bottles.