How can Ashland preserve its past as it forges into the future?

An independent group in British Columbia is engaging young people with climate change adaptation and mitigation through its Youth Climate Corps programming. The programs work on projects specific to community needs, like green infrastructure installation, and prepare the participants for related careers.

Thanks to a government-funded electrification project, Modhera is the first solar-powered village in India, and as a result, nearly all of the residents pay nothing for electricity. Instead, they earn money from selling unused power back to the grid.

The Kansas City Streetcar provides fare-free transportation for residents, which helps to get them downtown and promote more economic development. The fare-free streetcar also makes transit more equitable by removing barriers for low-income passengers and improving mobility for people with disabilities.

HEAR/HERE is a mobile digital history project that documents and shares the stories of Black Oaklanders. The HEAR/HERE truck visits community events and gathering places and asks attendees to answer questions that are designed to help them connect with their neighbors.

Gorongosa National Park is a leader in community-driven conservation efforts. Last year, surrounding communities planted more than 260,000 coffee trees and 20,000 indigenous trees. The park has also led to employment for 1,500 locals, in an effort to protect the environment and keep the local economy afloat.

Baltimore’s green bin program shows there are relatively simple steps cities can take to tangibly improve the cleanliness of neighborhoods. The solution is also working in Philadelphia, through which people who live in the city are lidded trash cans and bins to store their garbage.

Once-bustling cities contend with population decline by rethinking their use of space for those who remain. Baltimore, New Bedford, and Youngstown have implemented strategies that range from knocking down abandoned houses and factories to developing community gardens and creating public waterfront spaces. Racial and class tensions have arisen when choosing where to spend limited government funding.

In 2014, Dunkirk, France, launched a four-year initiative to become the country's largest city with fare-free public transit. The city rebuilt its bus system with 150 vehicles serving 200,000 residents, redesigning routes, improving vehicle quality, repositioning stops, and implementing 10-minute service intervals. The approach included daily bus cleaning, same-day repairs, smartphone tracking apps, and a testing phase with free weekend travel before the full 2018 rollout. The initiative has increased bus ridership by 165%, with 10% of users abandoning their cars altogether.

Concrete mixed with shellfish waste is more porous than traditional concrete, allowing water to drain through rather than running off the surface of the pavement. The material has helped prevent flooding in places such as a community garden in Blackpool, England, which is in an area with many fish processors who can provide the needed shells for the concrete mix.

A utility company in Framingham, Massachusetts, worked with climate advocates to build a unique geothermal heating and cooling project that spans a whole neighborhood. A group of residential and commercial buildings share the infrastructure necessary to harness stable underground temperatures for heating and cooling, which reduces their greenhouse gas emissions and energy bills.