Nexus

Sheep grazing and using solar panels for shade on an agrivoltaic farm. 

Andenes or platforms for agriculture in Peru

“Johnny Pineseed” near Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada.

Regenerative rancher Greg Judy smiling with his cattle on pasture.

Red algae, Asparagopsis taxiformis, from the Mediterranean, Malta.

A Morelet's crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii) amid profuse Azolla fern in Laguna Catemaco, in Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve at the center of the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico.

The sinuous trunk of a Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) being overtaken by Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys heterocycla f. pubescens) in the Gyeongsang-do walled town in Korea.

Tar sands deposits being mined at the Syncrude mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. The tar sands are the largest industrial project on the planet, and the world’s most environmentally destructive. The synthetic oil produced from them is three times more carbon intensive than conventional oil supplies. The tar sands are responsible for the second-fastest rate of deforestation on the planet, second only to the Amazon rainforest. They produce millions of liters of highly polluted water every day, which leaches out into the Athabasca River and has serious health impacts on First Nation peoples living downstream.

Biochar made of chicken waste and wood chips from Josh Frye’s farm in Wardensville, West Virginia.

Snow-covered taiga forest in Finland.

The Atlanta headquarters for ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) is a deep-energy retrofit that transformed an energy inefficient building from the 1970s into a daylit, industry-leading, efficient facility with advanced HVAC systems, LED lighting, and building automation systems. It is a fossil fuel-free and net-zero energy facility designed by McLennan Design.

The twenty-four-story high HoHo Tower complex in Vienna, Austria, is currently the world’s tallest timber building. It houses a hotel, apartments, a restaurant, a wellness center, and offices. Most of the building was prefabricated and assembled on-site. The construction system was kept deliberately simple, consisting of stacks of four prefabricated building elements: supports, joists, ceiling panels, and facade elements. About eight hundred wooden columns made of Austrian spruce carry the floors. It is designed to achieve “passive- house” energy efficiency.

The Gyapa cookstove is made in Ghana, which has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. It is the cocreation of ClimateCare and Relief International. The liners and claddings are made by local ceramicists and metal workers, providing local employment. Over 4.1 million Gyapa cookstoves have been made, saving users more than $75 million thus far. It reduces smoke and energy use by 50 to 60 percent. Richard and Gladys Eken make ceramic liners that are designed to create more complete combustion of charcoal or biomass.

(Left) A model presents the autumn/winter 2020–2021 creation of Dominnico during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Madrid, Spain, 2020. (Right) Dump site for garment-factory waste found in the Export Processing Zone of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Industrial compost made from composted vegetables and animal manure in the UK.

Coral reef scenery with a pair of golden butterflyfish (Chaetodon semilarvatus), Red Sea orange face butterflyfish (Chaetodon larvatus) and an exquisite or blacktail butterflyfish (Chaetodon austriacus) swimming past soft corals (Dendronephthya sp). Egypt, Red Sea.

Polymetallic nodules coat fields of the ocean floor and are rich in critical minerals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles.

The Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor Project in Western Australia aims to link existing nature reserves by restoring land to create a 200-kilometer corridor. Since 2008, more than 30 million trees and shrubs indigenous to the region have been planted on 14,000 hectares. Over 90 percent of the restored area was cleared in the 1900s and is no longer suitable for traditional agriculture. Pictured above is restoration in progress from one of their earliest plantings. With active management, shrubs and grasses will gradually return to join the overstory trees. Techniques to encourage concurrent seedling and understory growth are being implemented in newer sites, including more dense and close row spacing, curved and contoured row alignment, and full-time removal of sheep.

Desertification affects 27.4 percent of China’s land, impacting about 400 million people.

Blue EV buses charging. 

The Haw River House is a 2,600-square-foot, net-zero home located in North Carolina. Its rooftop solar array provides all of its electricity. Insulation, passive house design, energy-recovery ventilators, and solar reflective shades improve energy efficiency and help maintain a constant temperature. A geothermal heat pump handles the rest of the heating and cooling needs. It is also water independent; a small well supports a rainwater collection and purification system that, when full, can provide water for 230 days.

This is the first stage of the now completed Cerro Dominador concentrated solar power plant situated in the Maria Elena Commune in the Atacama Desert, Chile. The molten salt technology employed in the plant can store up to eighteen hours of electrical generation capacity, which allows for a continuous flow of solar energy twenty-four hours a day. The completed plant covers 1,750 acres and contains 10,600 heliostats that automatically track the sun.

Basalt columns are natural pillars made of hardened lava, caused by the contraction of volcanic rock as it cools. Northern Ireland.

La Rambla de la Llibertat, in the old town of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.

Nature Conservancy fire worker Char’rese Finney uses a drip torch to start a controlled burn to manage a longleaf pine forest in central Florida.

Young farmers at Soul Fire Farm near Albany New York. Founded by Leah Penniman, Soul Fire demonstrates, practically and visibly, how regeneration connects health, nourishment, soil, society, education, and a renewed sense of dignity and self.

Milford Sound is one of New Zealand's natural wonders; the fresh waterfall creates symmetrical patterns in fjord water and is a popular tourist destination. 

Tree Fungi (Coriolus versicolor) - commonly found on dead wood. Though it's not edible, it does contain polysaccharide-K, widely used for medicinal purposes. 

View of pipework and Geothermal power plant, Reykjanesvirkjun, South West Iceland.

Sisters returning home from the Ewaso Primary School in Ewaso, Laikipia, in Northern Kenya. This and other local schools are funded by ecotourism revenues from the Loisaba Wilderness Conservancy.

Trawler fleet docked at pier in Middelburg / Netherlands.

Sunlight on grasslands in the Tibetan Plateau at an elevation of over 13,000 feet.

A Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies worker moves bags of cement with a forklift, in a storage room in the production site, in Bournezeau, western France, on May 10, 2023. Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies produces decarbonized cement with a carbon footprint reportedly six times inferior to traditional variants due to a technological breakthrough based on the cement composition and the creation of a cold manufacturing process. In addition, the company caters to 50% of its electricity needs with its own solar panels.

China's largest solar green hydrogen facility. It can store 210,000 cubic meters of hydrogen and transport 28,000 cubic meters of hydrogen every hour. 

Two residential modern heat pumps buried in snow

HOOK, HAMPSHIRE - APRIL 04: Senior Engineer Gregg Walker looks towards a "Picostream" floating turbine generator during installation in an old water mill on April 04, 2023, in Hook, Hampshire. Amid persistently high energy prices and environmental concerns, interest has grown in alternative energy sources. While most of the attention is aimed at solar and wind energy, hydroelectricity is seeing an increase in available options. Founded by Henry Reily-Collins, the Fish Friendly Hydro Company is in the process of developing a floating hydropower turbine generator that can be installed in flowing water on residential and commercial properties, with their 1000-watt PicoStream producing the same amount of electricity in a year as a 40 solar panel array or a 4kW wind turbine. Designed specifically to have a very low impact on the ecology of the waterway, the turbine floats on the surface, meaning the river requires no harmful damming.

A four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) resting on a stem, covered in early morning dew.

Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) with Red-bellied oxpeckers (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) on his head in river, Luangwa National Park, Zambia.

A woman carrying a crate of freshly harvested organic vegetables from her plot.

River and mangrove forest in the Sarawak Mangrove Reserve, Borneo, Malaysia.

Hawaiian green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) crowding into a small seaside cavern to bask at sunset. Resting on shore is a behaviour that is very rare for sea turtles, except in Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands. Hawaii, USA.

Kahauiki Village in Hawaii is a 144-unit community that provides long- term, affordable residences for homeless families and a suite of on-site services and facilities. Funded through a public-private partnership, it was built using low-cost, maintainable, and sustainable construction solutions, including repurposing emergency homes originally built for the 2011 Tohoku tsunami victims. The community is mostly energy independent, powered by a 500-kilowatt solar-powered microgrid with 2.1 megawatt hours of battery energy storage. The system is supported by some gas appliances, a generator, and a trickle of backup power from the grid to charge the batteries in extended overcast conditions.

Electric bikes intended to expand transport options for citizens at affordable prices in Rome. Rome was chosen as the first city in Italy to launch one of the largest sharing-mobility networks.

Aerial shot of the Rohingya Refugee Camp. Since August 25, 2017, over 700,000 Rohingya refugees have sought sanctuary in Bangladesh, constituting one of the swiftest and most extensive population movements in recent history. These refugees, predominantly from the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, are fleeing a situation the United Nations has deemed genocidal, stemming from decades of persecution and human rights violations. They have streamed into Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, joining a pre-existing community of more than 200,000 Rohingya who had fled in previous years. Presently, approximately 880,000 stateless Rohingya refugees inhabit Kutupalong, the world's largest and most densely populated refugee camp, with nearly half of them being children.

Vertical Forests was designed by Stefano Boeri as part of a broader Greener Cairo vision, which envisages six decarbonization strategies for the Egyptian metropolis aimed at achieving the ecological conversion of the city. In addition to planning new architectural forms, the vision includes a large-scale campaign for making the thousands of flat roofs of the city green. It also includes increasing urban vegetation through the creation of a system of green corridors that cross the old capital and join a larger orbital forest, making Cairo the first city in North Africa to deal with the challenge of climate change and ecological conversion.

Vancouver, Canada, has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030, and to be a net-zero city by 2050. The areas of focus will include natural gas use in buildings, gas and diesel in vehicles, walkability, and overcoming historic discriminatory legacies of social injustice. By 2030, 90 percent of citizens will be within walking or rolling (bike, scooter) distance of their daily needs. Two-thirds of all trips will be by public transit or nonmotorized active transportation. Half of all mileage will occur in zero-emission vehicles. Carbon pollution limits for existing buildings will be set to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. All replacement heating and water systems will be zero emissions (geothermal heat pumps). Embodied carbon in new building construction will be reduced by 40 percent.

Children of families who live in the Isangi Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Offsets have stopped a former logging concession in the lowland tropical forests, an area that hosts 11 percent of the world’s known bird species. 

The Southern Cardamom Forest lies in southwest Cambodia and covers 1.24 million acres of relatively intact tropical forest. Offset payments fund rangers, who confiscate over fifteen hundred chain saws a year from illegal loggers. It is home to more than fifty endangered species, including the Asian forest elephant, clouded leopard, pileated gibbon, Siamese crocodile, and sun bear. Offsets prevent 110 million tons of carbon emissions and support the local communities in tenure registration, scholarship funding for higher education, and ecotourism projects.

Palm fruit is moved into high-pressure steam chambers to remove impurities. The Sapi palm oil plantation is said to be the largest palm oil trader in the world. One hectare produces six tons of palm oil (soy oil produces one ton per hectare).

Early morning mist rising from the canopy of the lowland forest in the Danum Valley, Sabah, Borneo.

From Left to Right: Avocados | Breadfruit | Chestnuts | Pistachios

(Left to Right) Waxberries | Pepino melons | Golden Bootleg Mushrooms | Yacon Root.

SKM, a recycling company in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, declared bankruptcy; its six major warehouses were full of recyclable materials awaiting processing. The Victoria government and the warehouse owners, Marwood Constructions, did not know how to deal with this material, which is largely unsorted and cannot be sold easily to other materials processors. With no one to process their household recycling, Victoria councils were forced to send thousands of tons of recyclable waste to landfills.

Bangladeshi villagers line up to have their photographs and signatures taken and saved to an extensive database in Rajashi Division, some 200 kilometers northwest of Dhaka on March 16, 2008, as part of a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) voting initiative. One of the main reasons for the deferment of the January 2007 elections was an inaccurate electoral roll that was not acceptable to opposition parties. The UNDP is supporting the Bangladeshi government’s creation of a fresh voters list with photographs and fingerprints. It is the first time in Bangladesh that photographs are being included in the voters list. The completion of this list will eliminate fraudulent entries and build the nation’s confidence in the credibility of parliamentary elections.

Julia heleconia (Dryas iulia) butterfly on head of Yacare caiman (Caiman yacare). Butterflies often land on caiman's head to drink the salt from its eyes. Pantanal, Brazil.

Scientists measuring the health and caliper of the largest trees on earth, the giant Sequoia of Sequoia National Forest in Tulare County, California. The larger trees are over 250 feet high and up to 102 feet in circumference at the base, more than the distance between home plate and second base in a baseball field.

Rain showers over sagebrush-steppe at the foot of the Sawtooth Mountains in Clark County, Idaho.

EPA workers prepare to remove freon, compressor oil, mercury switches, and rotten food from refrigerators and other "white goods" at the Katrina Dumpsite on October 19, 2005, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Removing the hazardous materials helps minimize soil and groundwater contamination and prevents highly potent greenhouse gases from leaking into the atmosphere.

A producer in Stanly County, North Carolina, rolls down a cover crop just minutes before planting corn. The ”blanketlike” results of rolling or crimping provide season-long weed protection, moisture retention, and food for soil microbes.

An entirely different ecosystem has emerged from ending the intensive industrial farming and dairy practices at the Knepp Estate. Without any farming at all, it now produces 75 live-weight tons of organic, wild- pasture fed, free-roaming meat every year. Rewilding has resulted in huge gains in terms of soil restoration, carbon sequestration, water storage and water purification, flood mitigation, air purification, and habitat for rare species and other wildlife, including pollinating insects— a space for nature, contributing to human health and enjoyment.

Top view from drone of green rice terrace field at mu cang chai, Vietnam.

The Great Barrier Reef, the only living structure visible from outer space. It is home to fifteen hundred species of fish, four thousand mollusks, and five hundred types of seaweed, making it one of the most biologically diverse environments on earth. It is dying due to acidification and warming. A massive infusion of marine kelp platforms could reverse its demise.

Green turtles can travel thousands of miles in their lifetime, traversing entire oceans. They read the earth’s magnetic field perfectly to guide them in their migrations. They return unerringly to the beach where they hatched.

Algae farm field in Indonesia.

The sheep act as lawn mowers, weed eaters, do some pruning, and provide much needed fertility. All of these services translate into fewer passes of a tractor through the vineyard. Every opportunity to decrease the number of tractor passes is an opportunity to save money and burn less fossil fuel, not to mention decrease the soil compaction that the weight of a tractor causes.

The Nasu-Minami Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant located on a former golf course in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.

Reeds and mudflats on the North Sea in Holland.

Sunrise over lowland rainforest in the Danum Valley in Borneo. The Danum Valley Conservation Area encompasses 171 square miles. It is one of the most diverse forests in the world, with over 200 species of plants per hectare, 270 bird species, and 124 species of mammals, including the Bornean rhinoceros and pygmy elephant. The rainforest is said to be 130 million years old. In 2019, the tallest tropical tree in the world was discovered there, a 331-foot Yellow Meranti Tree.

An assortment of ultra-processed foods.

The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative runs an urban agriculture campus in Detroit’s North End neighborhood to increase food security and promote education, sustainability, and community. Over ten thousand volunteers have grown and distributed over 120,000 pounds of organically grown produce to over 2,500 local households. One hundred percent of the produce is available free of charge, using a pay-what-you- can model.

An XE40 battery-electric bus operated by TriMet in Portland, Oregon, connected to a SAE J3105 (OppCharge) overhead recharging station (2019).

Aerial view of orchard plantings at Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, Ventura County, California.

This photo taken on January 4, 2021 shows Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers assembling during military training at Pamir Mountains in Kashgar, northwestern China's Xinjiang region.

A heap of windfall apples.

Headquartered in Sweden, CorPower Ocean brings high-efficiency Wave Energy technology enabling reliable and cost-effective harvesting of electricity from ocean waves, with this ocean farm pictured generating 300 MW.

Wetland area of Scots pine in the Abernethy Forest, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland.

A family of elephants returning to dry brushland.

Block Island Wind Farm, with five turbines in 90 feet of water two miles off the shore of Rhode Island, is the first offshore wind farm in the United States. The wind farm has a total generating capacity of 30 megawatts and will produce over 125,000 MWH each year, enough to power 17,000 homes. Approximately 10 percent of the capacity is for use on Block Island, and the rest will be sent to the mainland via underwater cable. The cable will also allow Block Island to get power from the mainland at times when there is not enough wind power. The turbines are 360 feet above sea level, with blades 240 feet long. The wind farm is permitted for a twenty-year life span, and when decommissioned, it is required that the supporting foundations be cut off at sea bottom. So far, local fishermen say that the towers have increased habitat for fish and other forms of marine life.

Coodad is a women-led cacao growers cooperative established in 2017 on lands adjoining the Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Democratic Republic of Congo, celebrated for its spectacular scenery and the world's last mountain gorillas. The cooperative emerged after regenerative chocolate company Original Beans focused expansion of production on women. Recognizing their role in forest management for firewood and in healing their war-torn communities, the company organized leadership and artisanal enterprise training for hundreds of women in the remote villages around Virunga Park. The "Femmes de Virunga” cooperative shares know-how and income from cacao crop sales with more and more women. In 2020, each participating woman planted more than fifty new trees on average, more than one hundred thousand in total. Communal forest conservation areas have grown to the size of thirteen thousand soccer fields.