A global movement to localize the construction process, and design buildings for the climate they reside in, is bringing back practices like green roofs and using natural materials like mud and salt to keep people cool as the planet warms.

Plastic-eating mushrooms that grow in the Amazon and thrive in oxygen-starved environments like landfills could be a tool to help fight issues with plastic pollution. There has been a recent rise in using mushrooms as a plastic alternative to fight pollution in a variety of industries including fashion and mechanical engineering.

By feeding cows a seaweed diet, researchers at the University of New Hampshire are testing if the additive can reduce the amount of methane that cows burp, which contribute to climate change. Questions still remain if the seaweed impacts milk, meat, and human health, but trials suggest that the diet can reduce emissions by 20 percent.

Humus farming is a technique that doesn’t harm the soil or organisms living in it but instead nourishes it, thus making it more sustainable for long-term use. Humus farming and other climate change mitigation tactics to revive soil and make it healthy and usable are spreading across Europe.

Phool, a startup in India, makes a plant-based leather alternative using flower petals discarded from Hindu temples after rituals to feed microbes that grow the material. The product, named Fleather, keeps flower waste from contaminating rivers and is a sustainable, biodegradable alternative to animal leather.

In an effort to reduce or fully eliminate carbon emissions, several companies are proposing cycle-to-work schemes and financial incentives to get their employees to travel to work in a more sustainable fashion. Some of these initiatives, like the cycle-to-work scheme, have been used by over 1.6 million commuters working for over 40,000 different employers since it was introduced by the UK government in 1999.

Gipave is a new type of asphalt technology that combines plastic waste with bitumen, a material already used to pave roads, to make recyclable road surfaces with longer lifespans and reduce emissions from road work by 70%.

Off the coast of Grimsby, England, the largest offshore wind farm in the world created over 500 jobs for a deteriorating fishing town while providing enough clean, renewable energy to power over 2 million homes each day.

Uruguay has turned to biomass, solar, and wind energy to transition to a 98% renewable energy grid that decreased over half a billion dollars from their annual budget along with their carbon footprint.

An initiative in Kigali, Rwanda, pays locals to collect plastic and glass waste to be sold for recycling. The initiative provides income for unemployed youth and women while helping clean up the city and reduce waste.