Residents in Pueblo, Colorado pay some of the highest electricity rates despite being one of the lowest-income cities in the state. In an attempt to become independent of the corporate utility company that determines the price of energy, the community is working to become powered by 100 percent renewable energy and convince local government to implement a city-run utility.

Eight million metric tons of plastic waste ends up in the ocean every year, including in Haiti where it litters the beaches and causes sanitation issues. A social entrepreneur from Executives Without Borders partnered with Haiti Recycling to streamline processes, increase efficiency, and sustainably monetize the collecting and recycling of plastic waste through a new organization, Ramase Lajan. When oil prices tanked and the recycling centers struggled to maintain a profit, social enterprise Thread stepped in to take up the plastic, turning it into fabric to make socially responsible goods for sale.

As wildfires have become increasingly more pronounced due to climate change which primes areas to burn, lands and communities are being destroyed all over the world. To have a chance for survival, projects throughout Spain and North America are working towards landscape adaptation that makes the areas apt to resisting forest fire.

Hurricane Maria left many properties and people in Puerto Rico completely devastated. One family decided to do what they could to begin the reconstruction process on their own by forming Solar Libre Puerto Rico - a volunteer organizing that brings emergency solar to the region.

Movies, books, apartments: these are all things we commonly rent. One Danish couple is adding baby clothes to the list to reduce waste.

The country of Jordan has one of the scarcest water supplies of any country on earth - one that can barely sustain its population, especially with Syrian refugees pouring in and further straining limited resources. Poor piping infrastructure and leaks greatly contribute to the shortage. An organization called Water Wise Women is training women in plumbing skills, empowering them to repair leakages in their homes and communities to help save precious water.

Shandong Province in China is burdened with heavy air pollution due to being a hub of coal mining. To create a cleaner energy system, one man created a "city" entirely powered by solar energy, complete with a "solar museum" and "solar hotel". The buildings are designed to adopt solar panels into its structure, making the "city" not only beneficial to the environmental, but a one-of-a-kind architectural masterpiece.

When something breaks, most people go to the store to replace it. In Amsterdam, the UK, and elsewhere, people take their broken goods to repair cafes. Led by volunteers who want to preserve the art of repairs while also reducing waste, these organizations can make a big difference. There are now at least 1600 repair cafes around the world.

Fariel Salahuddin was determined to tackle the extreme lack of access to fresh water she encountered in rural Pakistani communities, but she wanted the model to be sustainable, not dependent on donations. Most of the communities didn't have regular access to rupees to help sustain their solar water pump micro-enterprises - what they did have, however, were goats. Salahuddin set up a scheme where villagers could pay for their clean water access with livestock instead of cash, which she then sells using Facebook at high rates during Muslim festivals to generate a sustainable revenue source.

Two towns are fighting back against fossil fuel companies. From fossil free energy fairs in Pennsylvania to a solar energy co-op in the UK, citizens are relying on the idea of community power to unite in favor of renewable energy. In the UK, the creative financing structure of the co-operative REPOWERBalcombe will generate both financial and environmental returns.

Waste has value, says Bilikiss Abiola, founder of Wecyclers. Her team travels through the slums in Lagos on bicycles, paying families cash in exchange for their recyclable trash. The business has made the city cleaner and created at least 80 jobs.

Jenna Jambeck is an environmental engineer specializing in waste management that became increasingly concerned about how much plastic was washing into oceans and where it was actually originating from. Her seminal research study resulted in an appointment by the U.S. State Department to advise environmental groups and foreign governments on possible responses to managing plastic waste.

Tucson has slashed its per capita water consumption by more than a third, and one of the more startling ways it's done that is by reusing water after it's flushed down the toilet or run through a washing machine.

Water was scarce in the Moroccan Ait Baamrane tribal region, which meant women and children often had to travel great distances to fetch water from wells. A new technology that harvests water from fog, however, has changed their way of life by generating enough clean drinking water for the entire region.

Tortoises as well as other species native to Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands are facing increasingly critical threats due to climate change. Thanks to a program that is embedded in the Galapagos school system, however, high school students are playing a major role in collecting important data on the species while also becoming experts in climate change mitigation.