10 Good News Stories From Around The World: To Make You Smile This Earth Month

10 Good News Stories From Around The World: To Make You Smile This Earth Month

Welcome back GFZ’s! We are here for another Good Earth News story but this time…

Times 10! Woohoo!

In celebration of Earth Month we’ve selected 10 incredible good Earth news stories from around the globe. Stories and updates to lift your eco-spirits and encourage you to keep fighting and doing what you do for our beautiful planet! 

Oooo yes, and you best believe we kicked this off with a good one close to home! 

1. Woolworths in SA Expected to Divert 70 Tonnes of Plastic Waste From Landfill!

This month Supermarket giant Woolworths launched a home compostable fruit and vegetable bag in its South Australian stores! This change is expected to divert 70 tonnes of plastic waste from landfill each year!

The organic bags are made in South Australia by Biobag and will be available across the retailers’ fruit and vegetable departments along with reusable nylon bags! Woolworths is also working to make100%of its own-brand packaging recyclable, reusable and compostable by the end of next year.

 Oh we are SO ready Woolies!

2. Hawaiian Coral Showing Resilience! 

Research has revealed that three common species of Hawaiian coral are more resilient to warming and more acidic waters caused by climate change than previously thought, providing cause for optimism that some corals may survive into the future.

While the study gives us a strong YAY!! It does not mean that coral faces no threat under climate change, but this is definitely fantastic news for our future of coral and its ability to not only endure but in some cases thrive in such conditions!! 

3. Seaweed To Reduce Methane! 

Sea Forest (an Aussie company) is commercially growing a native red seaweed called Asparagopsis. Yep we had to go over that one twice too. The seaweed is added to livestock food to significantly reduce methane emissions they produce! Mind blowing! 

This incredible red seaweed native to Australia Coastal waters is helping clean and de-acidify our oceans! Asparagopsis absorbs nutrients and CO2 via photosynthesis and grows faster than land-based plants! Insane!

Animals whose diets contain even just as little as 0.2% of the Sea Forest’s supplement will have methane reductions up to 98%!!

Sea Forest was one among so many other inspirational finalists including the Go For Zero team of The Telstra Best of Small Business Awards, with Sea Forest actually taking the winning prize for promoting Sustainability! Such a worthy winner!!  

4. California Mandating Battery & Hydrogen Powered Cars

California has developed a plan to phase out new sales of gas-powered cars by 2035! They are mandating that 35% of new cars sold in the state will be battery or hydrogen powered by 2026. 

The plan follows an executive order from the government to phase out gas-fueled cars so the state can become carbon neutral by 2045. State experts estimate the program would lower emissions by nearly 384 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. That’s a little less than all emissions across California’s economy in a single year! 

Yessss! Gimme more! 

5. Hope For Endangered Tree Frogs!

The NSW Government recently released 80 critically endangered Spotted Tree Frogs into Kosciuszko National Park since they were severely affected by the 2019-20 summer fires. 

The programstarted back in the year 2000 to prevent the frog from nearing extinction! The Spotted tree frog among so many other tree frogs play a vital role in our ecosystem and this program sees hope for their future! 

6. Renewable Energy Capacity to Double in The US! 

The US Biden Administration plans to almost double renewable energy capacity by 2023, witha report to Congress that shows regulators and developers moving rapidly to advance new wind farms and solar arrays in Arizona, California, Nevada and other Western states! 

This will all be to plan to have the U.S. power sector emission-free by 2035! With the powers of solar, wind and geothermal energy production on public lands by 2025!! 

7. Huge Conservation Investment Made to Koalas!

NSW has this month released its largest investment in koalas, with 30 actions to conserve and grow their population! This investment is the largest investment to any single species in Australia, which goes to show how committed the conservation and protection is for our cute friends! 

A 5 year road map has been constructed to help deliver the ambition to double the number of koalas! The road map will continue and build onprotection of  koala habitat, fixing koala roadkill hotspots, providing wildlife care training and funding scientific research, and more! 

8. Car Free For Earth day In NYC

Several New York City streets went car-free for Earth Day 2022! Whole streets were closed but were open to pedestrians, cyclists and some streets even held small stalls and sustainability activities! 

While this for sure may have created some chaos in one of the biggest cities in the world, it truly goes to show what can be done on such a large scale when we use our voices! 

9. Mandate of Minimum Recycled Materials in Clothing to Be Made!

Europe is introducing a mandatory minimum of recycled materials required in clothing by 2030 in an effort to encourage people to shift away from fast fashion!The new rules are also a huge part in Europe’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2050! 

Currently, clothing has the fourth-highest environmental and climate impact in the EU, after food, housing and transport.

The plan is to expand the current eco-design rules and regulations which include set energy efficiency standards for items like washing machines and toasters and will  include new standards for how long a product should last or whether or not it is easy to recycle! In other words, clothing that ACTUALLY lasts! 

10. Go For Zero Gives Back to Our Earth & Community! 

That’s right! Yours truly, here at Go For Zero we have removed 10,462 kilograms of plastic from the ocean, fed 14,710 Aussies in need, and planted enough trees to store 126 tonnes of CO2 with our donation partners and counting! 

Just some of our giveback partner programs that are benefitting our Earth include: 

• I=Change x GFZ: We donate $1 from every go for zero online sale to support an Aussie purchase project of your choice through i=Change such as Greening Australia who restore the land. Just $50 plants enough trees and shrubs to store 1 tonne of carbon dioxide.
• Sendle & Australia Post: We use carbon neutral delivery methods. Our postal service providers compensate for the amount of carbon dioxide used when shipping by investing equally in restoring ecosystem projects.
• Shop Pay is our online payment method which also offsets delivery emissions for each order, which makes these deliveries carbon negative (removing more carbon than they produce!) *woot woot*
• Trace: Offsets emissions created by individual employees, warehouse, and international freight! Trace calculates the amount of carbon emitted during the above activities and invests our money into projects that will offset it.Our offset programs include restoring bushland biodiversity in Australia, community wind farms in Taiwan, replanting forests around the world and Prony wind farms!

It feels good to do good! 

A Quick Reminder…

WE hope these 10 Good Earth News stories boosted your day and gave you a refreshing reminder that your change and your voice is needed and seen! Individuals can change the future! 

We must not be willing to compromise when it comes to our planet and we will continue to learn, fight, teach and grow together!

Keep going GFZ’s! We’ve got this! 

GFZ Team xx