Author: Camellia Moors ‘22
Welcome back to Good News Friday! Today we are covering positive stories on solar energy, carbon emissions, and plastic waste.
School district goes solar: Arkansas’ Batesville School District recently installed 1,500 solar panels, enabling the district to produce roughly half of its energy needs from solar power. Batesville schools now join the approximately 7,300 school buildings across the country relying on solar energy. The district’s decision reflects the gradually decreasing cost of solar installation and increases in solar energy capacity, providing hope that more school buildings will soon do the same.
Businesses call for emissions reductions: This week, over 300 businesses executives representing companies with a collective 6 million employees and $3 trillion in annual revenue signed an open letter to President Biden asking for tougher American carbon emissions cuts as part of the Paris Agreement. The letter requests a target of a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases compared to 2005 levels by 2030. When the United States initially joined the Paris Agreement in 2016, the emissions reduction goal set by President Obama was 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025. If adopted, this new proposal would constitute a near-doubling of current emissions targets.
Virginia restricts plastic use: Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam recently signed an executive order to reduce plastic waste in his state by phasing out the use of non-reusable plastics at all state institutions, including state agencies and colleges, over the next 120 days. The order also mandates that state institutions craft plans to eliminate all non-medical single-use plastics by 2025. Given that Virginia either burns or sends to the landfill 23 million tons of solid waste each year, this new rule could provide some relief to the state’s infrastructure while being significantly more sustainable.
That’s all for this week! We hope to see you again next Friday, and contact us if you have any positive environmental news to share!