Entrepreneurship & Innovation
We believe you can be smart without being cynical. Meet the dreamers behind today's most progressive ideas, and explore their plans to move the world in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Future of Cities
Paving the Way With Recycled Roads
Future of Cities
Paving the Way With Recycled Roads
The world is facing a massive build up of waste. But this solution of recycled roads may pave the way for a cleaner future.
A recycled road has been paved with asphalt that contains the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of plastic bags, along with thousands of glass bottles and printer cartridges’ worth of waste toner. In addition to the sheer amount of recycled materials the process will divert away from landfills, these longer-lasting roads also help to reduce the carbon footprint of construction.
Future of Cities
Merging Nature and Sustainable Design: An Interview with Daan Roosegaarde
Future of Cities
Merging Nature and Sustainable Design: An Interview with Daan Roosegaarde
From towers that create pockets of clean air to a luminescent bike path that glows like children's ceiling stars, Daan Roosegaarde's entire practice is centered around the beauty of living with nature and removing pollution from urban life.
From towers that create pockets of clean air to a luminescent bike path that glows like children's ceiling stars and windmills drawing lines of light across the sky, Daan Roosegaarde's entire practice is centered around the beauty of living with nature and removing pollution from urban life.
Catalysts
This Woman is On a Mission to Turn Beer into Food
Catalysts
This Woman is On a Mission to Turn Beer into Food
Jacquie Berglund is using the profits from her beer company to buy organic produce from local farmers and distribute the produce to food banks in the area.
Jacquie Berglund considers herself more of a wine drinker than a beer drinker, yet she is building an empire around the beer brand, Finnegans. When Berglund purchased the brand for only a dollar, she knew that if Finnegans were to make an impact, the beer needed to be in every pub in Minnesota. Now you can find Finnegans in four Midwest states. But Finnegans is more than a beer company.…
Future of Food
These Pioneers are Building the Sustainable Food Systems of Tomorrow
Future of Food
These Pioneers are Building the Sustainable Food Systems of Tomorrow
In a new Freethink original series, Michael O'Shea goes around the world to introduce us to the scientists who are working hard to ensure that we can feed our future world.
There are currently over 7 billion human beings alive on Earth --- and in 2050 the world's population will rise by almost 2 billion. That's a lot more mouths to feed considering that roughly 11 percent of the world goes hungry today. "in the next 40 years, we need to produce the same amount of food as we did over the last 8,000 years." Ernst van den Ende , Managing…
Future of Food
A Look Inside Farms of the Future
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Future of Food
A Look Inside Farms of the Future
With a growing population, changing consumption behavior and a climate crisis, how will we feed our future world? The answer…
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With a growing population, changing consumption behavior and a climate crisis, how will we feed our future world? The answer may not be increasing resources--land, water, and employees--but rather improving production efficiency. The key question: How do we increase the amount of food we produce while using the same or fewer resources? In the first episode of our original series, Future of Food, we take a look at sustainable agriculture.…
Global Impact
Could We End Earthquake Deaths?
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Global Impact
Could We End Earthquake Deaths?
Thousands die in earthquakes every year - even though we know how to build safely. This engineer is working with people in the most vulnerable places to figure out why.
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Earthquakes and hurricanes kill thousands of people a year - but they don't have to. Elizabeth Hausler, founder of Build Change, has spent years identifying the barriers to safe housing worldwide. Here, she shares how we can overcome them to create hurricane and earthquake proof buildings. So far, over 330,000 people are living and learning in safer housing and schools because of our work. That means over 60,000 buildings…
Move the World
Giving Homeless People Something Most of Us Take for Granted
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Move the World
Giving Homeless People Something Most of Us Take for Granted
This one small thing can mean the difference between a spot in a shelter or sleeping on the streets, a job or no job, a place to eat or going without food.
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“Welcome to the land of broken dreams” Just a few years ago, there were only 16 public showers available for 7,500-12,000 homeless people across the city of San Francisco. This left most of them with no place to shower, use the restroom, or a place to get privacy. A hot shower means a fresh, clean, and renewed start. Cleanliness can be the difference between a spot in a shelter or…
Innovation
Hacking Surfboard Fins to Fight Climate Change
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Innovation
Hacking Surfboard Fins to Fight Climate Change
How can a surfboard modification help save the oceans?
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He doesn’t surf, he doesn’t code, but he’s hacking surfboard fins to combat climate change and it’s working. Meet Andy Stern, citizen scientist and founder of Smartfin. He's brought together surfers and oceanographers to create a smart surfboard fin that's collecting vital data to track and fight climate change. As far as oceans go, the environmental crisis doesn't just affect the icebergs - it affects all of us. Surfers…
Innovation
The Edible Six Pack Ring That's Saving Marine Animals
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Innovation
The Edible Six Pack Ring That's Saving Marine Animals
18 billion pounds of plastic are dumped in the ocean every year. This microbrewery created biodegradable six pack rings to help stem the tide.
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Saltwater Brewery was a regular microbrewery that made great craft beer - packaged with the usual plastic six pack rings. As fishermen who saw firsthand the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean, though, they felt they needed to make a change to help marine animals. They came up with the idea to create edible six pack rings made of biodegradable materials left over from the brewing process. Now, they’ve…