How last year's Christmas trees are rebuilding New Orleans' coast

Each year the brown waters of the Gumani river swell during the summer monsoon, creeping over the surrounding fields to flood Charbhangura, a village of 2,500 people in the Pabna district of northwest Bangladesh - when the fields flood, the farmers have no work. Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha trains locals to create floating farms and provide work, money, and food in all seasons.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture assists farms which follow the sustainable farming style, Silvopasture, but few farmers take advantage of the program. ForeverView Farms in Vermont is advising policy groups about ways they can boost this type of farming.

In Colombia, traditional cattle pastures have caused soil degradation, deforestation, and desertification. To reconcile this, several thousand acres of land in Latin America have been transformed into a silvo-pastoral system of grazing and raising cattle with agro-forestry. The Colombia-based Center for Research in Sustainable Systems of Agriculture seeks to reduce pasture land by 26 million acres while increasing cattle numbers by 2019.

For the past three years, water levels in the San Antonio Edwards Aquifer have decreased to uncomfortable levels and drought periods may continue as the population booms. The San Antonio Water System organization has set up rules to limit water use and has recycled water for conservation frugal innovation.

Throughout India, wastepickers – people who scour landfills for garbage they can sell to recyclers – live at the bottom of society. But the city of Pune did something radical: with the help of a collective, they did away with expensive garbage trucks, and now all household garbage is collected by wastepickers with pushcarts. Pune saves millions of dollars each year and recycles more – and the wastepickers have decent wages and social standing. The concept is now spreading globally.

Colombia’s National Development Plan for cattle ranching seeks to reduce pasture land from 94 million acres to 70 million acres while increasing cattle numbers from 23 million head to 40 million. The program focuses on planting trees on grazing land and the "cut and carry method," whereby farmers grow fields of shrubs and distribute the fresh cuttings to cows in pastures. The result is greater cattle productivity and a more eco-friendly farming system.

In Africa, many people rely on wood from trees to cook food over stoves. The tremendous usage of wood contributes to deforestation and environmental decline. Using bamboo instead of wood is a more profitable and greener solution.

Renovating and furnishing a home can be hugely expensive. Homeowners who are renovating on a budget, and want to do so in a way that is evironmentally friendly, can find recycled luxury kitchens and other lightly used fixtures at stores like Green Demolitions.

One in five seniors reports cutting back on basics like food or heat to afford prescription drugs - for many, cutting back on medicine led to faster health declines, increased hospitalizations and premature death. Sirum, a new nonprofit, was designed to make it easy for institutions to donate medicines with the assurance that they would be safely transported and dispensed to people who needed them.

Nationally, only about a third of municipal solid waste is recycled. An initiative to use simpler, standardized signs and labels is helping communities reap greater benefits from recycling.