What Works

From Alaska to California, people are creating successful enterprises that are low carbon, attuned to the ecology, locally rooted. They’re employing, training, producing, sustaining. Here you’ll find regular reports on what works for the economy we need.

Blue crab background on market

Crab Shells Have a Wonder Ingredient. So This Company Got Cracking

From husks that would go to waste, Tidal Vision extracts a polymer with many green uses.

By: Pippa Norman

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CambridgeCreekWetlands

The Thriving Business of Rewilding

How wizards of wetlands restoration are bringing biodiversity back to West Coast landscapes.

By: Isaac Phan Nay

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Visitors mingle with Titan’s fleet of electric Class 8 freight haulers at the company’s Portland headquarters. Electrification is advancing fastest in passenger cars, but far heavier trucks contribute a lot more greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution, vehicle for vehicle. The dirtiest are semis, buses and garbage trucks. Photo supplied.

Unveiling the West Coast’s Electric Big Truck Future

The heaviest diesel semis are the dirtiest. Titan Freight Systems chose the electric lane and says it’s paying off.

By: Peter Fairley

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A pile of discarded used infectious medical masks on a white background.Infectious waste is prevented by the covid-19 virus, a pandemic.The concept of improper disposal is dangerous.Top view.Copyspace

Medical Masks Save Lives but Harm Nature. This Maker Stepped Up

BC’s Vitacore figured out how to recycle difficult plastics like the respirators it manufactures by the millions.

By: Katie Hyslop

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Tasha Nathanson with one of her fish leather boots. ‘Artisanal is wonderful because each time you make your product it’s a bit different. Commercial is the opposite — it needs to be of consistent quality, the same every time.’ Photo by Kathleen Hinkel.

Fish Leather Is Incredibly Strong and Beautiful. Can Makers ‘Scale Up’?

Meet artisans in Alaska and BC who are sustaining, and advancing, an ancient art.

By: Brendan Jones

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TayybehFood

Refugees Needed Jobs and Belonging. Tayybeh Cooked Up a Solution

The Vancouver caterer keeps growing, all the while changing lives of Syrians fleeing war.

By: Samantha Holomay

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Ragfinery- Branding

A Treasure Trove for Upcycled Clothing

Visit ‘an amazing place’ that swaps consumerism for creative joy while keeping textiles out of landfills.

By: Pippa Norman

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A forest of Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, grows in the cold eastern Pacific waters that flow along the California coast. Kelp forests support a surprising and diverse array of marine biodiversity.

Adventures in West Coast Kelp Farming

Meet hardy harvesters in Alaska and BC working to make a regenerative seaweed industry flourish.

By: Tim Lydon

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Dawson Creek’s Loop Resource diverts food waste from a network of 500 grocery stores to about 4,000 small farms across Canada to support the diets of local livestock.

A Better Way to Nourish Livestock

Loop Resource gathers what grocers are ready to toss out, providing a more ecological source of animal feed.

By: Pippa Norman

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How to Build a Local Farming Food Hub

The Comox Valley Organic Co-operative connects growers to customers small and large.

By: Larry Pynn

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