The Beautiful Place that Stopped Big Bottled Water

Thanks to years of government intervention, the city of Copenhagen has almost perfectly clean water — even better than bottled water. Denmark utilizes overflow barriers, underground water storage, and rerouted wastewater to keep their public water sources clean. Public awareness and a water tax also contribute to the city's success so that residents conserve and value their water (using only 26 gallons a day as opposed to the 80-100 gallons that Americans use).

Platte Farm Open Space used to be a garbage dumping ground in Denver, but it’s now an urban green space thanks to the efforts from community members, organizations, and the government. This community-led project was able to secure funding to replace the contaminated land with fresh soil that now attracts animals and includes walking paths and a playground for children. This project offers lessons on how to build a green space in a diverse neighborhood and the health benefits that come from such an initiative.

TARU, an Indian thinktank, has found that Indians cities have combined decentralized action and "multi-stakeholder engagement" in public policy to respond to problems of scarcity in water and power as well as climate change-related natural disasters. Municipalities are putting responsibility for improving local lives at the grassroots level; integrating disruptive technologies from the private sector; and fostering collaboration between government and citizens.

Turning a coal plant carbon neutral requires a community effort. In Holyoke, Massachusetts, community organizers from the Toxics Action Center and Neighbor to Neighbor, a local Latinx organization, succeeded in getting the coal plant in their city shut down and transformed into a commercial solar farm. Today, Holyoke’s electric utility uses the solar energy as part of a carbon-neutral plan.

Scientists and activists in India are training citizens to collect information on water issues like contamination — and upload it so it can be used to push for change.

Population growth, historical dryness and predictions of a warming climate all mean a future of scarce water in the Rio Grande's Upper Basin. Farmers and the irrigation districts are left to try and find ways to conserve what river water they have - and there's a lot to be saved. To minimize such losses, both irrigation districts have taken a number of steps.

After an abandoned copper mine destroyed the Tsolum River in Canada, it took decades and cross-sector collaboration to reduce acid runoff and bring back fish populations. The government, a restoration society, and even the mining industry worked together to come up with solutions to save the river. Their latest attempt — capping the mine waste with glacial sediment and an asphalt covering — in 2009 succeeded. In 2015, 129,000 pink salmon came back to the river — a record return since fish counts began in 1953.

After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, knocking out power across the country, solar energy has stepped in to be a sustainable possibility. Such efforts have included lobbying local legislatures to incentivize communities to create their own solar project and training residents to install solar panels on their own. Many of the solar initiatives that have started have been community-led and hyper-local, meaning that what many deem a basic right – access to energy and electricity – are more accessible than ever.

After amassing a large amount of property in Chile, the Tompkins Conservation would donate millions of acres to the government to maintain as national parks for wildlife conservation and sustainable land use. This was the largest act of “wildlands philanthropy” in history. When the Tompkins started buying land, locals were at first distrustful, but now they’re concerned the government won’t be able to maintain the properties. Thanks to the Tompkins Conservation, wildlife, like the South Andean deer, are being reintroduced and forests have recovered.

After the legacy of acid mine drainage from abandoned coal mines in Appalachian Ohio, there are several initiatives working to clean up the rivers and streams. Change-agents from universities, local organizations, and the government joined together in the 1990s to use both active and passive methods of neutralizing the pH level of the streams. Since then, they've brought the pH acidity down from 4.5 to 7 and grown the number of fish species from 4 to 37, and efforts are still ongoing and optimistic.