When two college students in Oakland discovered they could grow mushrooms in used coffee grounds, they started a company to recycle the waste from local cafes. Each morning the Back to the Roots team picks up 8,000 pounds of grounds in the back of a van and are on track this year to divert 3.5 million pounds of coffee grounds from landfills.
German sportswear company Puma announced a range of biodegradable shoes and clothes on Monday, seeking to lead in protecting the environment as it tries to catch up with rivals Nike and Adidas in sales.
At the ripe old age of 12, Sam Klein is a dedicated CEO of his own recycling business. He collects empty printer ink cartridges from local businesses, keeping them from the landfills, while earning hundreds of dollars by sending them back to manufacturers. Even more impressive, Sam has given more than $1,000 to charity.
1,500 tons of food that would have gone to waste will now go to UK charities every year thanks to an innovative plan by the British grocery chain, Asda. Teaming up with hunger charity FareShare, Asda will divert surplus refrigerated food that arrives from suppliers, ensuring it won't end up in the trash bin.
Emily Nunez and her sister have led military lives since birth. While attending a social entrepreneurship event as a senior in college, Emily realized that there were tons of surplus military gear being routinely thrown away that could be recycled into something reusable. She came up with the idea of turning tents, sleeping bags and parachutes into messenger bags.
Banks are slashing the asking prices of homes with delinquent loans to their lowest levels in at least seven years, making it easier for homeowners to get out from under troubled mortgages and more appealing for homebuyers to snap up properties at a discount.
Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes rose to their highest level in more than two years - up 2.4 percent - in July, an industry group said on Wednesday, suggesting the housing market recovery was gaining traction.
Sometimes you have to dig for good news. And this is surely true in the real estate sector. There are some nuggets of good news buried in the latest housing data. Here are three encouraging trends.
Ten of the nation's major banks, such as Bank of America and Citibank, have agreed to pay $8.5 billion after an investigation into the abuse of homeowners during foreclosures on mortgages during the recent housing crisis. According to the Fed, $3.3 billion of the settlement will be direct payments to eligible borrowers and $5.2 billion will go toward other assistance, such as loan modifications and forgiveness of deficiency judgments.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of 30 blue-chip U.S. stocks, finished 2011 with a gain of 5.5 percent, the third consecutive year that the bellwether index has finished in positive territory.
It's capitalism with a conscience. Nordstrom recently opened a test store where all profits go to charity. Starbucks has three coffee shops where a big chunk of the money made helps the needy. In the past few years, dozens of America's biggest brands have embraced social generosity.
In the US economy, the good news is finally starting to outweigh the bad. The private sector -- especially small and medium sized businesses -- has been adding jobs for several months in a row now. Everybody wants to know where the jobs are. Here are 20 fields where jobs are starting to return.
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