Not yet knowing what would be in store for all of us from the end of February 2020, we had started the year 2020 with a lot of motivation. Going beyond the usual stories on changemakers and organisations doing incredible work related to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, we established a new Solutions section on our website. On this page, we present unique and innovative solutions that are being taken all around the world, by various people, to address several challenegs like poverty, inequality, pollution and climate change.
Objectives behind our Solutions Page
Amidst all the negative news that we hear about the world and things going wrong around us everyday, it is easy to lose motivation. Positive stories and promising solutions are also difficult to come across. To address this, we at seventeen goals magazin decided to create the solutions page in order to:
- Provide concrete examples and measures that can be taken in order to promote sustainable development.
- To break down major challenges into smaller, more manageable problems, and then finding a few alternatives for tackling them.
Communities, urban spaces and sustainability
We started the year with an article on sustainable cities and urban spaces, where we showed the challenges faced by urban spaces in supporting an ever-growing population and how citizen's participation is crucial in making cities more liveable. Related to the same topic, we showcased a solution article on child labour as a major problem plaguing our society, and how we can take action as a community.
Initiatives for Climate Action
The climate change agenda had achieved considerable momentum in 2019-2020 with the Fridays for Future Movement. In order to ensure that the pandemic does not overshadow the urgent need for climate action, we published several different articles related to climate change in 2020:
- The first article on 6 German Organisations leading the climate agenda showcases the relentless work being done by six different organisations in Germany. This includes big names like Climate Alliance Germany and WWF Germany.
- The second article on 5 Initiatives for Climate Action presents five promising solutions from different countries for preventing adverse impacts of climate change.
- Our next article on Climate Change solutions from Germany elaborates the various steps Germany has been undertaking in order to become climate neutral, by switching to green infrastructure and mobility, for instance.
- Another article in this category was on Clean Energy Solutions from Germany, that presents five innovations that have the potential to greatly impact the energy ecosystem, not only for the country, but beyond borders.
- The last article in this category was on Forests as a solution to Climate Change where we shared a rather conceptual perspective on how the good health of forests can do wonders for climate action
Reduce-Reuse-Recycle
With the increase in population, the waste generated per day has increased by great proportions. Our article on Recycling at a glance, explains the idea of reduce-reuse-recycle, and gives five tips on how people can get more active about recycling. For further inspiration, our second article on Nine innovations for Recycling and replacing plastics gives nine good examples to show how plastic can be reused and up-cycled in innovative ways!
Farming, agriculture and consumption
We believe that many challenges like pollution, environmental degradation, climate change or even poverty and hunger, can be addressed when supply chains in the agriculture sector are sustainably managed. In our article on livestock farming – challenges and solutions, we explain how rethinking our consumption patterns and stronger legislations are important, not only for a cleaner environment, but also for protecting animal rights. Building on this, our next article on 11 initiatives for Sustainable food and agriculture offers an insight into great initiatives that consistently contribute to a sustainable diet.
Fair Finance and Sustainable Investments
Quick fact: According to the report “Don’t bank on the bomb,” since 2012, European banks have invested more than 300 billion USD in nuclear weapons.
Most customers are unaware that their money in bank accounts are being used to fund activities that can prove to be harmful for the society and environment. To address this, and shed some light into fair finance, our first article on Fair Finance as a solution for sustainable use of our money explains the concept of fair finance and why it is increasingly becoming necessary. Our second article on five German banks leading sustainable investment shows the different banks in Germany which are using customers money in a fair and equitable way.
Sustainable gift ideas
To end the year on a high note, we also shared an interesting article with 21 innovative gift ideas for Christmas. The gift ideas are unique because they are very sustainable, environment friendly, and mostly supporting local artists. Many of the gifts mentioned can also be used for other occasions like birthdays and anniversaries!
While these are the main articles on Solutions that we covered in 2020, we aim to write about several more solutions for our readers in the coming months. Meanwhile, you could also read our article on 2020: Year in Review of seventeen goals magazin, where we have presented a snapshot of all our different stories of changemakers and organisations from 2020.
