— Written by Hana Leshner

Photo by Luke Zhang on Unsplash

Home Field Advantage 🏟️

A handful of venues are proving that massive local facilities can double as serious testing grounds for regenerative land management and zero-waste logistics. The teams calling these buildings home are completely rethinking how a stadium interacts with its local environment.

Oracle Park (San Francisco Giants) ⚾️ 

Traditional athletic turf management leans heavily on synthetic chemical regimens that strip the soil microbiome, leaving behind a sterile, lifeless crust. The Giants partnered with Performance Resource Management to brew thousands of gallons of custom liquid biological treatments on-site. By pumping beneficial bacteria and fungi directly through the irrigation system, groundskeepers naturally restored the dirt's resilience and broke up a stubborn, anaerobic compaction issue. Because healthy, porous soil acts like a giant biological sponge, it retains moisture far better than compacted dirt. This regenerative approach not only slashed chemical pesticide use by 90% but also significantly reduced their daily water consumption. Talk about winning a real turf war. 😉 

State Farm Arena (Atlanta Hawks) 🏀 

Atlanta hosts the first live-entertainment-venue to earn TRUE Platinum certification for zero waste. They engineered a closed-loop system for the mountains of cardboard generated during a typical game day. Waste from the arena gets separated, baled, and sent to a local vendor who molds it into compostable food service trays. The next time you grab a hot dog or some nachos in the third quarter, that tray is likely made from the very boxes that shipped last month's merchandise. Those trays then ship right back to the concession stands, eliminating a massive chunk of their procurement footprint.

Climate Pledge Arena (Seattle Kraken/Storm) 🏒 🏀 

Seattle completely rewrote the architectural rulebook. Housed beneath a 44-million-pound historic roof originally built for the 1962 World's Fair, this subterranean venue is the first in the world to achieve Zero Carbon Certification from the International Living Future Institute. 

Consider the ice itself. Instead of draining municipal pipelines, the facility captures runoff from the Pacific Northwest's notorious downpours in a massive 15,000-gallon underground cistern. This water is filtered and frozen to create the actual playing surface. When you hear the sharp, satisfying crunch of a skate carving through the crease, players are literally skating on recycled rainwater. While many rinks now use electric Zambonis to ditch the toxic fumes of propane machines, Seattle took it a step further. Their ice-resurfacing fleet is 100% electric and charged using exclusively renewable power.

Beyond the rink, the operations team achieved a staggering 93% waste diversion rate. This isn't automated magic. Housekeeping staff manually sort every single bag of refuse collected from the concourse into dedicated recycling, composting, and landfill streams at an on-site sorting facility. It is a grueling, unglamorous, and highly effective defense strategy against the landfill. They have also entirely banished single-use plastics from the fan experience, embracing reusable and compostable food serveware.

The Away Game Dilemma ✈️

While sustainable stadiums score local victories, operations are just a fraction of a team's climate impact. The real heavy hitter? Travel. From the World Cup to club teams, transit often fuels over 70% of total emissions. To keep leagues grounded, we need structural change—expanding public transit, building active mobility corridors, and restructuring schedules—not just offsets.

The Fan Playbook: Calling an Audible on Trash and Traffic 📢

Tired of wading through ankle-deep plastic beer cups or choking on parking lot exhaust after a win? You don't need to wait for league mandates to clean up your local arena.

Step 1: Scout. Find the biggest friction point at your next game. Is it an overflowing landfill bin or zero transit access?

Step 2: Pitch. Email the front office. Tie the mess directly to your fan experience—nobody wants to watch a game surrounded by a mountain of single-use plastic trash—and demand a specific fix.

Step 3: Rally. Share your letter template with local fan clubs to multiply the pressure.

This Week on The Apocalyptic Optimist 🌀☀️

When meteorologist Chris Gloninger linked extreme weather to climate change, he didn’t expect death threats—or orders to censor his science. Choosing integrity over the camera, Chris walked away from a 17-year television career. In this episode of The Apocalyptic Optimist, host Dr. Dana Fisher explores Chris's journey from a silenced newsroom to the front lines of climate communication at Woods Hole. 

Listen/watch to learn how to cut through the noise, bridge partisan divides, and tackle the upcoming Super El Niño without losing hope.

🎥 YouTube | 🎥 🎧 Spotify | 🎧 Apple

— Written by Hana Leshner

Photo by Emilio Garcia on Unsplash

The Great Sporting Paradox 🤝

Sport ecology is the study of how athletic events interact with, and are altered by, the changing natural environment. Today, this discipline is highlighting a fascinating, double-sided dilemma. On one hand, global sports transport millions of people and tons of gear across continents, creating a massive environmental footprint. On the other hand, outdoor games are actively suffering as climate disruptions cancel matches and alter playability.

Yet, we cannot simply pack up our gear and walk away from our playing fields. Sports represent a priceless social tissue, bridging cultural divides and stitching communities together over shared triumphs and heartbreaking defeats. This unique unifying superpower is exactly why saving our games—and reforming how we host them—remains a goal worth chasing.

The Beautiful Game’s Heavy Footprint 🌍

The current World Cup is putting sport ecology to the ultimate test. While millions of fans celebrate forty-eight teams battling for glory across North America, researchers warn our planet is taking a beating in the standings.

Localized stadium upgrades are a step in the right direction, but clean energy on-site only scratches the surface. Venue operations and renovations account for a mere 3.1% of projected tournament emissions. The real culprit flies overhead. Spectator travel and team transport drive a massive 87.8% of the total climate impact.

According to a recent Forbes op-ed, emissions are projected to touch a staggering nine million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) doubling the historic average. Fans following their teams through the group stages may travel over 1,760 miles between host cities, generating an estimated 3.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per supporter. That is a major defensive breakdown.

A Sneak Pique at our Playbook 📋

Over the next three weeks, we are pulling back the curtain on how leagues, innovators, and athletes are attempting to change the rules of the game to protect our collective communities. We will be exploring the diverse range of sustainable solutions and systemic changes being adopted across the industry to ensure the future of the sports we love.

Join the Home Team Huddle 📣

The Morning Brain Dump

We want to hear about how your experience with sports is changing in a warming world:

• For outdoor athletes: Do you do an AQI check as part of your pre-workout ritual?

• For the snow-seekers: Have you traveled to your favorite slope only to spend the weekend dodging brown patches of exposed mud and slush?

• For the gear enthusiasts: Have you swapped out worn-out gear for more sustainable, repairable alternatives?

Drop us a line with your questions, local observations, or sport-specific worries. Help us sketch out a resilient playbook for the pastimes we love!

Email us at newsletter@piqueaction.com.

— Written by Hana Leshner

The Silent Majority 📢

Doomscrolling through a feed full of planetary red flags under the cold glare of your phone at 2:00 AM has a way of triggering a familiar, tight knot in your chest. It feels like keeping a heavy secret, leaving you entirely isolated. Climate wayfinding is a framework for navigating this mapless terrain, focusing on how we live and act when the ecological future feels completely unwritten. Instead of carrying this heavy weight in isolation, it is about finding local, collective footholds to turn our quiet dread into shared power.

We tend to default to tactical checklists when the world starts to boil, hunting for immediate, bite-sized tasks to clean up our conscience. But scratching that superficial itch usually ignores a much larger human reality: we are simply trying to find our footing in a crisis that makes us feel incredibly small. A landmark study published in Nature Climate Change revealed that up to 89% of people around the world want stronger government action on climate. But here is the catch: most of those people believe they are in the minority. We suffer in a self-fulfilling spiral of silence. We think we are outliers, when in fact, we are the mainstream. It is time to break our silence and realize that community is our most vital climate tool.

This Week on the Pod: Building Sanctuaries 🎙️💒

In our latest episode of The Apocalyptic Optimist, host Dr. Dana R. Fisher sits down with best-selling author, strategist, and teacher Dr. Katharine Wilkinson to talk about how we navigate a mapless political landscape. We discuss her new book, Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home.

Katharine challenges the environmental movement to build physical sanctuaries to prevent movement-wide burnout. Historically, every major struggle had physical containers for the human spirit. Quaker meeting houses anchored the abolitionist movement, and consciousness-raising circles in local living rooms fueled second-wave feminism. Where are these watering holes for the climate movement? We have to build them. We promise this conversation is a total mind-opening experience.

👉 Watch the full episode on YouTube

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Re-cultivating Our Collective Care 🌱

While Katharine’s work focuses on building structured wayfinding spaces in higher education and grassroots groups, people everywhere are beginning to realize that tending to our inner environment isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessary strategy to keep ourselves in the fight.

Instead of relying on an overstretched, individualistic clinical system that wasn't built to handle systemic planetary anxiety, a quiet wave of community-led support is starting to emerge. From informal, peer-led climate cafes in local neighborhoods to structured peer support networks and intergenerational storytelling sessions in living rooms, the focus is shifting away from isolated worry and toward shared resilience. These aren't spaces meant to "cure" our anxiety; they are designed to give us a collective container to hold it together.

Our social networks are the relational shock absorbers we need to stay resilient. When we organize peer-led spaces to share our worries, we build the deep community trust needed for long-term adaptation.

Take a 15-Minute Climate Action 📣

The Morning Brain Dump

Before you reach for your phone or look at your inbox tomorrow, take fifteen minutes to sit down with a yellow legal pad and a pen.

• Step 1: Write three pages of completely uncensored, free-associative thoughts. Do not overthink it. Just write.

• Step 2: Let out all of your climate worries, anger, or hidden hopes on the page.

• Step 3: Close the pad. Cleansing this mental static is the first step to finding your own foothold forward.

Want to take a deeper step? Check out how you can join or host your own Climate Wayfinding Circle to start building local sanctuaries in your neighborhood.

— Written by Hana Leshner

Photo by Matt Paul Catalano on Unsplash

🌊 Sinking the Super PACs

Citizens United is a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that gave corporations the green light to spend unlimited, anonymous money to influence elections—unleashing a toxic flood of "dark money" that shields the identities of wealthy political donors. Before this ruling, bipartisan momentum around climate solutions was actually building. Right after, fossil fuel giants poured tens of millions into campaign networks, successfully scaring lawmakers into silence with the threat of negative ad blitzes.  Dark money election spending as skyrocketed with dark money groups spending a record-shattering $1.9 billion on the 2024 federal election.

Hawaii just decided to clean up its own backyard. Governor Josh Green signed S.B. 2471 to target this political pollution at the source. This is a corporate power reset. Instead of trying to regulate speech—which courts hate—the law dictates that the legal privileges granted to a corporation simply do not include the capacity to spend money on elections. If a business tries to buy political influence on the islands, its legal status is deemed ultra vires (beyond its legal authority) and immediately revoked.

⛰️ Shifting Tides and the Legal Horizon

Hawaii is not the only state trying to shift the scenery. The Montana Supreme Court recently dismissed a constitutional challenge to a similar proposal called The Montana Plan. Organizers say they have gathered the required signatures, and the initiative is now undergoing official certification to get on the ballot for November.

The hunger for structural change is clear. A recent Issue One opinion poll confirms that a massive, multi-partisan majority of voters wants strict limits on campaign cash. Across party lines, Americans are tired of feeling like their democracy has been hijacked by billionaire checkbooks. Still, any pioneering law like this faces a grueling courtroom war. Ultimately, this battle will likely wind its way back up to the Supreme Court, and it remains entirely unclear how the justices might rule when confronted with this new state-level strategy.

🔍 Dig in to Dark Money & Climate

If you want to dig more into the impacts of dark money on climate policy, check out these resources to go deeper:

• Sammy Roth’s reporting: A hot-off-the press, deep-dive into how anonymous cash is influencing high-stakes Colorado River negotiations.

• Penn’s research on denialism: An investigation into the funding networks that keep climate denial active and mainstream.

• NRDC’s breakdown of campaign lies: An eye-opening look at the common tactics Big Oil uses to spread misinformation during election cycles.

🎙️ What We’re Tuning Into This Week

• The Apocalyptic Optimist — Naomi Oreskes: To wrap your head around the corporate greed and misuse of power that keeps environmental progress locked in a legislative chokehold, queue up our recent interview with Harvard historian Dr. Naomi Oreskes on The Apocalyptic Optimist with Dr. Dana R. Fisher.

• On the Rise w/ Marcius Extavour: Because sometimes you absolutely have to laugh to keep from crying, check out the official launch of On the Rise. Hosted by Dr. Marcius Extavour—a quantum physicist, clean energy expert, and former XPRIZE Chief Scientist—Episode 1, “A Scientist and a Comedian Walk Into a Bar...”, features comedy writer and performer Ashley Botting. Watch the video version on YouTube, grab the audio on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and read the behind-the-scenes scoop on their Substack.

• Soil to Stream: Regenerative agriculture is the practice of restoring soil health to trap carbon and heal the water cycle. Water Hub’s new documentary follows fifth-generation Nebraska farmer Graham Christensen as he puts these practices to the test on his family land, questioning if regenerative farming can solve water contamination and soil erosion for good. Watch the Soil to Stream documentary on YouTube, check out Christensen Farms, and see how The Water Hub is sharing hopeful stories about our most precious resource.

— Written by Hana Leshner

Photo by Daniel Welsh on Unsplash

The Wild City 🌿🐝

You may or may not have heard of the term “urban rewilding.” The dictionary definition is the deliberate restoration of self-regulating, native ecosystems within urban centers to allow wildlife and natural processes to reclaim paved landscapes. What that means is - bringing nature back into the city – not as decoration, but as a working part of the neighborhood.  

For decades, planners treated nature as an optional, high-maintenance luxury — a cosmetic ornament confined to fenced-off parks. Today, pioneering cities are realizing that concrete is a static, depreciating purchase that decays, while biology is an appreciating asset that grows. Instead of manicuring sterile rows of non-native annuals, forward-thinking designers are leaving room for messy, functional native habitats. When we stop fighting natural chaos, our neighborhoods begin to breathe.

The "City in Nature" Strategy 🇸🇬

Singapore famously transitioned its municipal design from a "Garden City" to a "City in Nature" to combat urban heat and ecological isolation. They constructed over 380 kilometers of ecological corridors connecting fragmented forest reserves. Now, smooth-coated otters and rare pangolins navigate these green pathways, occasionally popping out of stormwater drains right beside evening joggers. By replacing concrete canal walls with sloped, grassy banks, the city created public parks that absorb intense monsoon rains while hosting 114 species of butterflies.

From Industrial Ruins to Wildlife Sanctuaries 🇬🇧

We can see this same transformation in London, where industrial scars are healing through biological design. Before the 2012 Olympic Games, east London’s lower Lea Valley was a dump site of contaminated soil, polluted waterways, and fly-tipped debris. Planners did not just cap the toxic dirt; they scrubbed the land and planted 300,000 wetland plants. Today, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a thriving, self-sustaining floodplain sanctuary. Native bees, rare beetles, and nesting birds have reclaimed the space, proving that even the most damaged urban soils can find a second life.

Stormwater Surges to Wildlife Pathways 🇨🇦

Further west, Vancouver is demonstrating how cities can overhaul their climate resilience and revive urban ecosystems simultaneously. Through its "Rain City Strategy," the city is deploying innovative "blue-green" corridors—transforming traditional asphalt roadways like the St. George Rainway into engineered networks of bioretention rain gardens. During heavy Pacific downpours, these systems act as massive urban sponges, absorbing and filtering runoff on-site to prevent legacy sewers from overflowing into local waterways. But the hydraulic engineering is only half the story. By weaving native, climate-resilient flora and expanded tree canopies into the streetscape, these corridors stitch together fragmented urban habitats. They serve as vital ecological pathways that actively draw in native pollinators, insects, and migratory birds, proving that defensive climate infrastructure can double as a thriving sanctuary for urban wildlife.

We are rooting for these wilder skylines to take over. When we invite nature back to work on our streets, we build a city with a pulse. Let’s do more of it!

Image: City of Vancouver

Take a 15-Minute Climate Action 📣

Conduct a BioBlitz

You cannot protect the biodiversity you do not see. Take 15 minutes to document the wild organisms living right outside your door.

• Step 1: Download a free citizen-science app like iNaturalist or Seek.

• Step 2: Go outside and photograph three different wild plants, insects, or birds in your neighborhood.

• Step 3: Upload your photos to contribute to these global biodiversity databases, helping urban ecologists map and protect local wildlife corridors.

Check out the latest from Apocalyptic Optimist 🎧️ 

If you look at mainstream news headlines right now, it feels like our environmental policy is in freefall. The administration is gutting scientific agencies, blocking clean tech deployments, and keeping fossil fuels artificially afloat via direct corporate handouts.

But according to renowned Harvard historian Dr. Naomi Oreskes, what looks like absolute dominance, is the exact opposite: It is a sign of sheer, unadulterated corporate panic.

In our latest podcast episode, Dr. Oreskes joins Dr. Dana Fisher to reveal why the fossil fuel industry's aggressive political maneuvers are actually a desperate "last gasp" from an entity that can no longer compete in an open market where renewables are the cheapest power source on the planet.  And why it’s all hands on deck to protect American democracy from this power grab.

Check it out: 🎥 YouTube | 🎥 🎧 Spotify | 🎧 Apple

Community Announcements 📣

London Climate Action Week 🇬🇧

Solutions House is hosting an exciting event for London Climate Action Week! We invite you to join and learn more about their latest initiatives.

Check out the full details and register here: Solutions House London and Luma Event Page.

Climate Mental Health Network 🧠🔥

Our friends at the Climate Mental Health Network are researching how the 2025 LA megafires impacted our school communities—and they need a hand. They’re hosting virtual focus groups for parents, educators, and students (14–17) to help them understand what support is needed for recovery.

Could you help spread the word? It’s a great chance to share your experience and make a real difference. Participants receive a $50 Visa gift card as a thank you.

Learn more on their study webpage or sign up here.

— Written by Kip Pastor

Our Favorite Annual Tradition 🎈

Climate change touches nearly every part of our lives: the food on our plates, the air in our lungs, the energy bills in our inboxes, and the weather apps we check with increasing suspicion.

But climate change is not a one-size-fits-all issue. Different communities experience its impacts in different ways, which means the climate movement needs more than one type of messenger. It needs scientists, doctors, educators, nature lovers, policy advocates, and creators who know when a well-timed joke can help a big idea land.

That is where this year’s Climate Creators to Watch come in.

For five consecutive years, we have partnered with the Harvard Chan C-CHANGE team on our mission to search the internet for these bright spots. This year, we are thrilled to unveil the dream team of online advocacy by recognizing creators sharing informative, original, hopeful, and highly scrollable content across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Together, they reach 6 million users with content about climate, health, sustainable living, weather systems, and the natural world, an announcement you can read more about in the official 2026 Climate Creators to Watch - Press release.

They prove that education does not have to be boring to be effective. By replacing partisan debates with culture, curiosity, and humor, they are successfully cooling down the toxic temperature of our feeds.

Filling the Climate Content Gap

More than half of American adults say they get news from social media at least some of the time. Yet only a quarter say they encounter climate content on social media at least once a month.

The creators on this year’s list are helping close this gap by making climate information accessible, actionable, and relevant to everyday life, starting with curiosity, culture, humor, health, and the questions people are already asking.

“Climate communication has changed dramatically over the last 18 months,” says Kip Pastor, Pique Action’s CEO. “The creators on this list are finding broader, more accessible ways to connect people to climate and sustainability in ways that actually resonate.”

Just What the Doctor Ordered 🩺

One of the most exciting shifts in this year’s roster is the rise of medical professionals entering the digital arena. Doctors and scientists are treating planetary hazards as immediate human health concerns. The creator duo behind Medicine Explained is using short-form video to connect climate patterns directly to our bodies and giving us a healthy dose of climate communication.

Currently, a mere 3.1% of online climate media addresses public health. This leaves a massive educational gap that our honorees are ready to suture. When people understand exactly how local air pollution or heat stress alters their own lungs, they shift from anxiety to advocacy. Connecting the health of the planet to our own well-being is a prescription for real progress.

Making Waves and Chasing Storms 🌊

The sheer variety of storytellers on this year's list proves that environmental action belongs to everyone. Out in Durango, Colorado, water advocate Teal Lehto is breaking down complex river rights, turning historically dry policies into fluid, high-energy entertainment. In Brooklyn, storm-chaser Katie Tutrone translates wild weather patterns into hilarious, lightning-fast comedy videos.

Yale researchers found that while over half of American adults get news from social media, only a quarter hear about climate topics online once a month. This list is here to flood that empty space with creativity. From the illustrated permaculture guides of Brenna Quinlan to the high-energy science experiments of Maynard Okereke, these creators are ensuring environmental literacy is accessible to all.

Beyond the Screen 🚀

We love this project because it has a track record of launching creators to major heights. Previous list honorees have jumped from smartphone screens straight to global decision-making tables. They have gone on to address United Nations summits, speak at the Harvard Youth Summit, and earn features in national publications.

By building a bold, culturally relevant vision for the environmental movement, these storytellers are proving that hope is a renewable resource. Go check out the full list, follow your new favorites, and let's make our algorithms work for the planet.

Check out this year’s list:

Angie Hong (Stillwater, MN) For her outdoor educational content on water, lakes, and nature that deepens people’s understanding and appreciation of the natural world.

Going Green Media (London, UK) For their solutions-focused climate storytelling that makes sustainability accessible and inspires people to take everyday action for a greener future.

Brenna Quinlan (Denmark, Western Australia) For her joyful illustrations and education on permaculture and low-impact living.

Jerome Foster II (Washington, DC) For his powerful youth climate leadership, bringing a vital youth voice to global decision-making tables.

Katie Tutrone (Brooklyn, NY) For chasing storms, telling people’s stories in real time, and turning those insights into sharp, funny, and accessible videos.

Kendra Nelson (Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada) For using orcas as an entry point to highlight the need for ocean conservation. 

Kevin J Patel (Los Angeles, CA) For his community organizing and empowerment of young people—especially those on the frontlines of pollution—to take action and get involved in the climate movement.

Lia Newman (New York, NY) For her clear climate education that demystifies climate policy and shows people where they can get involved. 

Maya Higa (Austin, TX) For using her platform to highlight wildlife conservation and animal welfare. 

Maynard Okereke (Los Angeles, CA) For his high-energy blend of hip-hop and hands-on experiments, making science fun and culturally relevant.

Medicine Explained (Los Angeles, CA) For their accessible, evidence-based medical explainers that break down complex health topics into clear, trustworthy information for everyday people.

Rachael Tancock (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) For her engaging, hands-on education that helps young people build curiosity and a lasting connection to nature.

Sabrina Pare (Detroit, MI) For her simple sustainability hacks that inspire people to cut waste and live more in alignment with the planetary boundaries.  

Teal Lehto (Durango, CO) For breaking down the challenging topic of water rights and highlighting the urgent need to protect our waterways. 

— Written by Kip Pastor

Announcing a New Series 📺️ 

We’re beyond excited to officially pull back the curtain on a new project from Pique Action: The Apocalyptic Optimist — a video podcast hosted by sociologist, climate activist scholar, and author Dr. Dana R. Fisher.

This launch feels personal for us.

Back in the fall of 2023, Dana R. Fisher reached out wanting to talk about screenplays, books, and climate communications. At first glance, she seemed like a very persistent academic. Then we actually talked.

It became immediately clear: Dana is a force of nature.

She’s one of those rare people who can spend all day immersed in terrifying climate data and still radiate humor, urgency, and practical optimism. A relentless doer disguised as a professor. Since that first conversation, we’ve become collaborators and friends, bonded by a shared belief that if we want people to act on climate, we first have to earn their attention.

That’s not a task for the weary.

Dana lives the ethos of The Apocalyptic Optimist: facing reality without surrendering to despair. This podcast is an extension of that philosophy — smart but accessible, grounded but hopeful, built for people who know everything about climate and people who know almost nothing.

This show is for anyone exhausted by performative posting, overwhelmed by climate anxiety, or wondering what real action actually looks like in 2026.

Because contrary to what the internet would like you to believe: doom is not a strategy. Action is. The idea is to frame what’s happening and provide tangible, tactical tools for what we can each do about it.

And honestly? The guest lineup is incredible.

We’re launching with conversations featuring Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything), Naomi Oreskes (Merchants of Doubt), Katherine Wilkinson (All We Can Save), Chris Gloninger, and more — people whose work has deeply shaped how we think about climate, media, organizing, and culture.

In our first episode, Adam Conover breaks down why algorithmic platforms want us arguing online instead of organizing in our real-world communities. If you want to actually reclaim your power and change the system, you have to show up where the digital filters can’t block you. Drop the phone. Step outside. And join something! Give it a watch or a listen, and don’t forget to subscribe! (Check it out on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify).

📣 Community Announcements 📣 

Hollywood Climate Summit is back in LA!

• 🗓️ When: June 3 & 4 in Los Angeles.

• 🌟 Featuring: Cast/creators from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds & Pluribus, Reggie Watts (comedy), Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, and more.

• 🎟️ Discount: Get 25% off any ticket with code HCS25. All tickets include plant-based meals & networking.

• 🔗 Full Lineup: The Wrap's Press Release | HCS website

$1M Open Call: Climate Futures + Immersive Media 🚀

Agog just announced its first open call: Climate Futures + Immersive Media.

• Grants: $25K–$200K for innovators, artists, organizers, impact-focused orgs, researchers, & studios.

• Requirement: No XR experience required.

• Deadline: June 12 → agog.org/opencall2026

Bloomberg Green Docs: Call for Entries 🎥

Enter your short climate documentary to compete for a $25,000 prize:

• Open to all filmmakers.

• Films must be under 10 minutes.

• Submissions accepted through August 14, 2026.

• Winner will be announced at our film festival in New York City on September 22, 2026.

See official rules at bloomberg.com/greendocs. (Questions: greendocs@bloomberg.net)

— Written by Hana Leshner

Photo by visnu deva on Unsplash

The Plastic Grass Trap 🏃‍♂️🟥

Synthetic turf might be the greatest branding coup since “clean coal.” Somewhere along the way, we collectively agreed that rolling out a giant petroleum welcome mat and calling it “grass” was a totally normal civic upgrade. It’s marketed as low-maintenance, all-weather, safer for sports’ injuries, cheaper, and game-ready—but beneath the bright green glow lies a plastic paradox. These fields don’t grow, cool, absorb rain, or support life. They just sit there, slowly simmering in the sun like a microwaved astroturf Hot Pocket. And while cities rush to “green” their parks with synthetic lawns, the irony is thick enough to mow with. Because it turns out replacing living ecosystems with plastic carpets may not be such a smart decision after all.

Synthetic turf is an artificial carpet of plastic blades designed to mimic a lawn without the need for mowing or watering. While newer installations are starting to shift toward no-infill designs, most fields are still packed with crumb rubber—those clingy, annoying black rubber pebbles that inevitably hitchhike home in your soccer socks, ruin your washing machine, and mysteriously colonize the floorboards of your car.

To save on irrigation bills, school districts and city parks are swapping natural sod for plastic carpets. This immediate convenience makes it look pitch perfect on paper. But when factoring in the required 8-to-10 year replacement cycle, converting conventionally-managed natural grass to regeneratively-managed natural drought tolerant grass is usually a cheaper choice in the long run, making it a true, permanent green infrastructure asset. Our shared public spaces—our parks and school athletic fields—are hard-working, multi-purpose systems that provide essential ecosystem services. Real grass cools our neighborhoods, absorbs heavy downpours, and hosts a vital soil ecosystem that feeds local wildlife. Replacing it with plastic breaks this biological chain. 

In fact, a landmark study published in Bird Conservation International found that replacing natural grass with artificial turf in urban parks stifles bird diversity, richness, and abundance by starving out the insects they need to survive. This biological desert leaves local bird populations with slim pickings.

The Superheated Pitch: Heat Islands in Our Parks 🌡️

On warm days, artificial turf turns into a localized thermal zone. A recent 2026 study published in Nature on thermal inequities in Los Angeles parks highlights how shade and green space are unevenly distributed, leaving public areas dangerously hot. Replacing living grass with plastic turf worsens these inequities. While living grass cools its surroundings by releasing water vapor, plastic turf absorbs solar radiation, baking surfaces up to a blistering 150°F (65°C). This transforms open community parks—which should be cooling sanctuaries—into unplayable, superheated islands that keep kids indoors.

The Fossil-Fuel Footprint 🧫

Independent testing reveals there is no such thing as PFAS-free synthetic turf because manufacturers rely on forever chemicals to extrude the plastic blades. Even without tire rubber infills, the carpet itself degrades under the sun, shedding microplastics before ending up as a 40,000-pound, unrecyclable block of municipal landfill waste. We are playing with fire when we swap a living ecosystem for petrochemicals.

The Regenerative Playbook: Activating the Soil Sponge 🌱🧪

Critics of natural grass often point to the high chemical and water demands of outdated lawn care, but pairing climate-appropriate, drought-tolerant species—like warm-season Buffalo or Bermuda grass—with regenerative practices changes the game completely. By prioritizing organic top-dressing, mechanical aeration, and compost teas over synthetic chemical cocktails, we foster a diverse underground microbiome. Fostering healthy soil biology helps the land capture carbon naturally while creating an immense stormwater buffer. In fact, organic land management—as outlined by the Toxics Use Reduction Institute—allows every 1% increase in soil organic carbon to hold an additional 20,000 gallons of water per acre, dramatically reducing irrigation needs. This also eliminates the need for petroleum-derived pesticides, prevents groundwater leaching, and naturally breaks down pathogens without the harsh chemical disinfectants required for plastic fields.

Reframing the Pitch: Sports Fields as Shared Ecosystems ⚽🌎

We need to change our field of vision when it comes to municipal design. Our neighborhood sports fields are not isolated, single-use spaces destined to be covered in plastic. When treated as living systems, they become hard-working climate infrastructure. Rather than choosing lifeless plastic carpets, investing in regenerative, resilient soils preserves public parks as cooling sanctuaries during dangerous summer heatwaves. These spaces must survive as true community assets: hosting weekend soccer matches while protecting our groundwater, supporting local biodiversity, and purifying our shared urban air. It is time we keep our climate strategies grounded in reality.

Take a 15-Minute Climate Action: 📣

The Turf Truth Share 🗣️ 

Before your school board or parks department decides to pave over another community field, make sure they understand the health and climate risks.

• Step 1: Download a comprehensive municipal evaluation package, pairing the microclimate and drainage analysis of the UBC Sustainability Scholars Framework on Managing Artificial Turf Impacts alongside the public health and safety data found in the TURI Artificial Turf Fact Sheet.

• Step 2: Email these resources to your local city council members, planning commissioners, and school board trustees. Remind them that covering public spaces in plastic directly subverts city-wide climate adaptation strategies, kills the soil microbiome, and intensifies urban heat risks.

• Step 3: Ask your officials to prioritize organic, drought-tolerant natural grass for all upcoming schoolyard and park renovations.

Sneak Pique 👀

Next week: We explore the concept of the Wild City. Find out how urban rewilding turns concrete jungles into thriving ecological corridors and why cities like Singapore are putting nature back on the municipal payroll.

📣 Community Announcements 📣 

Hollywood Climate Summit is back in LA!

• 🗓️ When: June 3 & 4 in Los Angeles.

• 🌟 Featuring: Cast/creators from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds & Pluribus, Reggie Watts (comedy), Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, and more.

• 🎟️ Discount: Get 25% off any ticket with code HCS25. All tickets include plant-based meals & networking.

• 🔗 Full Lineup: The Wrap's Press Release | HCS website

$1M Open Call: Climate Futures + Immersive Media 🚀

Agog just announced its first open call: Climate Futures + Immersive Media.

• Grants: $25K–$200K for innovators, artists, organizers, impact-focused orgs, researchers, & studios.

• Requirement: No XR experience required.

• Deadline: June 12 → agog.org/opencall2026

Bloomberg Green Docs: Call for Entries 🎥

Enter your short climate documentary to compete for a $25,000 prize:

• Open to all filmmakers.

• Films must be under 10 minutes.

• Submissions accepted through August 14, 2026.

• Winner will be announced at our film festival in New York City on September 22, 2026.

See official rules at bloomberg.com/greendocs. (Questions: greendocs@bloomberg.net)

— Written by the Pique Action Team

Photo by Sean Foster on Unsplash

The Living City: School’s Out for Asphalt 🎒🌳

Welcome back to The Living City, our miniseries exploring hard-working, nature-based urban solutions. This week, we’re having a long-overdue talk with asphalt (and its gray cousin, concrete) about why it’s finally time to move on.

What’s the big deal? Asphalt is used for roads, which is how we get around the city. Yes, asphalt is a relatively inexpensive paving surface that makes life easier for cars, but unfortunately, it also acts as a toxic, non-porous outdoor heater, trapping extreme heat, spreading chemical-laden runoff, and starving the water table—a complete roadblock for urban resilience.

Depaving is the physical removal of impervious surfaces like concrete and asphalt to restore the soil’s ability to absorb water and support life.

Across the globe, cities are finally deciding it is time to have the talk and officially break up with their asphalt. This grassroots movement found its footing in Portland, Oregon, where the nonprofit Depave began hosting community un-paving parties in 2008. Since then, the trend has gone viral. Paris is transforming its schoolyards into Oasis courtyards, and Chicago has liberated thousands of square feet of neighborhood concrete. These cities are proving that when we strip away the gray, we reveal a greener, more resilient future.

The Hard Truth: L.A. County’s Pavement Problem 🔥

Los Angeles is often dubbed a concrete jungle, but new data suggests we have been a bit heavy-handed with the hardscape. A recent DepaveLA analysis from Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA) reveals that a staggering 44% of L.A. County’s 312,000 acres of pavement—an area larger than the city of San Diego—serves no essential purpose for roads or parking. This unnecessary gray matter traps heat, prevents water from soaking into the ground, and leaves our neighborhoods parched. (Check out the map 🗺️ for hot spots.)

The Blacktop Burn: Why Pavement Is a Health Hazard 🌡️

Nowhere is this pavement problem more evident than on LA County school campuses. Across the county, 3,179 schools are smothered in blacktop, leaving students with roughly 137 square feet of pavement per kid. On sweltering days, these surfaces can bake at up to a blistering 180°F, which can burn skin in seconds. This transforms a simple game of tag into a high-stakes survival exercise. Instead of cooling trees, children are surrounded by an outdoor heater that worsens local air quality while heightening flood risks.

A Smarter School of Thought: Biology as Infrastructure 🧠

Transitioning these 15,240 acres of school pavement into rain gardens and nature-based play areas safeguards our students against extreme weather. We have concrete evidence that these changes work. By stripping away the asphalt, we create sponge campuses that absorb storms and offer students much-needed shade. Replacing deafening heat with quiet, imaginative green zones turns a playground from a liability into a literal lifesaver.

The Roadmap to Resilience: ARLA’s Call to Action 🌿

To make this vision a reality, ARLA recommends the creation of a cross-jurisdictional School Greening Roundtable. This taskforce would help districts coordinate and incentivize the removal of asphalt, ensuring that greening efforts reach the schools that need them most. It is time for our leaders to step up to the plate and ensure our children aren't just learning about the environment, but learning within a healthy one. We shouldn't let this opportunity slip through our fingers (or our storm drains).

Take a 15-Minute Climate Action: 📣

The Playground Check 📋️ 

Most schoolyards are hidden behind fences, but their heat impacts the whole neighborhood.

• Step 1: Visit a local schoolyard with a thermometer or simply use your palm to feel the surface temperature of the pavement on a sunny day.

• Step 2: Send a note to your local school board member. Remind them that school infrastructure is climate infrastructure and point them toward ARLA’s DepaveLA framework.

• Step 3: Ask about available School Greening grants to help fund the transition from blacktop to biosphere.

Sneak Pique 👀

Next week: We are heading to the pitch. Find out why synthetic turf on sports fields is a plastic heat trap and how your community’s favorite soccer field might be moonlighting as an outdoor radiator.

📣 Community Announcements 📣 

Hollywood Climate Summit is back in LA!

• 🗓️ When: June 3 & 4 in Los Angeles.

• 🌟 Featuring: Cast/creators from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds & Pluribus, Reggie Watts (comedy), Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, and more.

• 🎟️ Discount: Get 25% off any ticket with code HCS25. All tickets include plant-based meals & networking.

• 🔗 Full Lineup: The Wrap's Press Release | HCS website

$1M Open Call: Climate Futures + Immersive Media 🚀

Agog just announced its first open call: Climate Futures + Immersive Media.

• Grants: $25K–$200K for innovators, artists, organizers, impact-focused orgs, researchers, & studios.

• Requirement: No XR experience required.

• Deadline: June 12 → agog.org/opencall2026

— Written by the Pique Action Team

The Living City: The Biophilic Blueprint

Do you like tangible solutions that you can actually touch? Good. For the next four weeks, we’re getting out hands dirty! 

Welcome to The Living City, a four-part series exploring how nature isn't just decoration – it’s the most efficient, hard-working infrastructure we have. Trees don’t need office space, wetlands don’t need software updates, and moss is quietly doing more for air quality than most billionaires. Over the next four weeks, we’ll look at how shifting from static concrete to dynamic biology can cool our streets, protect our kids, and even make us a little happier.

Architecture With a Heartbeat 💓

Biophilic design (aka designing cities that work with nature instead of fighting against it) is an architectural movement centered on the idea that humans have an innate, biological need to connect with nature. The concept gained traction in the 1980s when biologist E.O. Wilson popularized the "biophilia hypothesis," suggesting that our tech-heavy, sterile environments contribute to a "nature-deficit" that impacts our health. In response, architects began moving beyond just adding "more windows" to creating buildings that mimic the sensory richness of an ecosystem. It’s a shift from building against nature to building as nature. We’re moving away from "barren cages" (as some critics call modern offices) toward spaces that stimulate our senses through natural light, organic textures, and living air.

Lately, there have been a slew of studies that show greener neighborhoods can reduce stress, improve concentration, and boost overall well-being. For example, participants in a PNAS study who took a 90 minute walk in a natural setting showed decreased repetitive negative thought patterns. 

From Parking Lots to Power Plants 🚗🔋

The Kendeda Building at Georgia Tech was born from a direct rebellion against the dead space of urban parking lots. Completed in 2019, it functions like a flower rather than a machine, infiltrating 15 times more water into the ground than it receives from rainfall and generating 200% of its own annual energy. Its "windows" aren't just glass; they are automated systems that track the weather to let in fresh breezes and the sound of the local birds. Inside, the massive timber frame and "occupiable stairs" create a sensory-rich environment that lowers stress while proving that even the most heat-radiating urban scars can be healed into restorative laboratories.

Kendeda Building 2023 Photo by: Gregg Willett

Biophilia for Everyone: Trudo Vertical Forest 🌿🏙️

Completed in 2021 in Eindhoven, the Trudo Vertical Forest represents a major shift in the movement: biophilia is no longer just for luxury penthouses. This is a social housing project. Each of the 125 apartments features a balcony hosting a mini-ecosystem of trees and shrubs—over 10,000 plants in total. This living skin absorbs 50 tons of CO2 and 8 tons of dust annually, effectively hiring nature to do the work of expensive air filtration systems. By bringing biodiversity to low-income residents, it proves that a connection to the wild is a human right, not a luxury.

Trudo Vertical Forest in Eindhoven, NL

Hiring the Living Workforce 🐝👷‍♀️

The newest trend in this movement is Urban Rewilding, where designers abandon manicured "perfect" gardens for functional, "messy" native habitats that attract pollinators and manage floods (we’ll be diving much deeper into this later in our series). We often devalue these features because concrete is seemingly cheap and doesn't need a gardener. But concrete is a one-time purchase that decays, while biology is an investment that appreciates. When we stop viewing nature as a luxury and start seeing it as a high-performance employee, our cities finally start to breathe. The results are simply un-be-leaf-able.

Take a 15-Minute Climate Action 📣

Audit Your Office 📋️ 

Most of us spend the majority of our day indoors. Take 15 minutes to identify "dead zones" in your workplace. Does your office have natural light? Are there living plants, or just plastic ones?

• Step 1: Snap a photo of a windowless or plant-free corner.

• Step 2: Send a friendly note to your facility manager or landlord.

• Step 3: Mention the Value of Nature-Based Solutions and suggest a small greenery pilot to improve air quality and productivity.

Sneak Pique 👀

Next week: we’re breaking up with the blacktop. Find out how strategic schoolyard de-paving creates cool, resilient green spaces that protect our kids. 🏫 🌳 

— Written by the Pique Action Team

Climate Storytelling & Data Masterclass at Little City Farm

🌴A Climate-Change of Scenery 🤝

Social infrastructure is the collection of physical places and community networks that foster human connection and collective resilience. Collective resilience is about increasing our capacity to withstand, adapt to, and grow stronger from disruption together. The key is making it collective. 

While digital tools keep us efficient, nothing quite replicates the spark of a handshake or a shared idea under the California sun. We enjoyed a variety of events in our hometown of Los Angeles for LA Climate Week, and it was a much-needed climate-change of scenery. Subbing our blue light filters for actual sunlight reminded us that this movement is built on human trust, not just efficiency. It’s always a bright idea to connect IRL. 

📊From Graph to Draft: Finding the Lede in Climate Data ✍️

📊From Graph to Draft: Finding the Lede in Climate Data ✍️

Climate storytelling is the strategic use of narrative to bridge the gap between complex data and human action. This translation—from raw numbers to relatable human stories—is what drives real momentum. During LA Climate Week, we gathered under the open sky for our Climate Storytelling & Data Masterclass to see how numbers translate into insight. We teamed up with climate educator Katherine Markova and the analysts at Climate Interactive to host a diverse crowd. We watched data scientists and communicators swap ideas, proving even the densest spreadsheets benefit from narrative clarity. The event, as Kip mentioned in his LinkedIn recap, felt like a collective breath of fresh air. We are rooted in the belief that these intersections are where the real work happens.

Huge thank you to Little City Farm for the gorgeous venue, and sustainable whiskey partner Parole!

Kip Pastor presenting during the program

Pique’s Climate Week Reflections… 💭 

Getting Grounded (Kip Pastor)

There was something poetic about where this conversation happened​ - an urban farm with soil under foot. A reminder that climate ​i​s physical, local, ​and lived. We’ve seen this pattern globally ​t​hat when climate solutions are rooted in community​ that they don’t just mitigate emissions, they build connection and belonging​. That same principle applies to storytelling.​ The closer the story is to someone’s lived experience, the more likely it is to stick.

Culture as a Catalyst (Hana Leshner)

Hana walked away convinced that culture is our most scalable climate technology. While tech solves specific hurdles, stories jump borders in an instant. She saw this in action at Resilience & Long Horizons: A SidePorch Convening, which reinforced that gathering in person is the best way to stoke the collective fire and prevent burnout.

Resilience & Long Horizons: A SidePorch Convening

The Future is Blue (Melissa Kepen)

Melissa walked away from the The Blue Forum: Innovator and Experts in Ocean Tech feeling invigorated about blue tech. The landscape for marine restoration and ocean tech seems to be shifting from pilot programs and experimental trials to long-term industrial viability. Many technical proofs of concept have been done. Now, the focus is on whether regulatory frameworks and market demand can support growth.

Kindness Fuels Climate Action (Prabhu Chandar)

Although our LA and climate-focused communities have faced many challenges and obstacles, all of the positive experiences of meeting so many wonderful, encouraging, ambitious, and open-minded people at The Carbonauts Sustainability Sips at Rivian - bringing their varied experiences & perspectives together towards a focus on community engagement and continued solutions - reminded Prabhu of how powerful our support for one another is in driving meaningful climate action and progress. 

When we move forward with empathy and shared purpose, the scope of the climate crisis shifts from an overwhelming weight into a landscape of opportunity. Prabhu felt energized and motivated, knowing that we are actively, collectively, and persistently building a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable world.

ICYMI: Play God with the Global Thermostat 🌡️

If you couldn’t make it to our outdoor shindig, you can still dive into the data side of things with Climate Interactive’s En-ROADS simulator. It’s a transparent policy simulation model that lets you toggle different "levers"—like carbon taxes or reforestation—to see their real-world impact on global warming. It’s a sobering and empowering way to determine which solutions carry the most weight and see directly why every tenth of a degree matters.

👀 Some Stories You Might Have Missed This Week 🗞️📺:

1. Green From The Go: UNESCO announced that their guidelines for incorporating sustainability into education have been adopted in over 100,000 schools across 98 countries.

2. Small But Mighty: The Environmental Defense Fund launched a research program investigating the potential power and side effects of using phytoplankton to remove atmospheric carbon..

3. Greener Gears: Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) announced a $1.8 million grant competition to support the planning of practical decarbonization in the state’s industrial sector and beyond.

— Written by Hana Leshner & the Pique Team

Photo by Steve Saunders on Unsplash

Welcome to the last edition of Climate Blueprints, a Pique Behind the Curtain mini-series exploring the neighborhood-level infrastructure keeping our cities livable. We’re zooming in on the Los Angeles region to see how local projects turn global goals into tangible community wins.

While LA County’s twin ports of LA and Long Beach are the busiest in the Western Hemisphere, they long suffered from major diesel congestion. The colossal effort to eliminate air pollution at the Port of Long Beach has been anchored in ambitious plans and massive investment for nearly two decades. 

Starting around 2005, the ports initiated ambitious environmental policies, backing them with significant infrastructure investment. This dedication is yielding remarkable progress: they are successfully trading decades of thick diesel smog for drastically cleaner air, proving that even the world’s busiest maritime hubs can navigate toward a carbon-neutral future. Now that’s what we call a shore bet for community health

The Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) ⚓⚡: A Breath of Fresh Air

The Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) serves as the bold roadmap guiding our docks toward a soot-free future. The goal is ambitious: 100% zero-emission drayage trucks by 2035 and zero-emission terminal equipment by 2030.

• Electrifying Everything: The Port is investing in zero-emission terminal equipment, including yard trucks and cranes, and supporting the transition to EV drayage trucks through incentive programs.

• Plugging In: Cargo ships now run off of the city’s power grid while parked instead of idling their diesel engines.

• On Dock Rail Expansion: Keep an eye on on-dock rail expansion. While the Port of LA recently finished a $73m on-dock rail expansion project, the Port of Long Beach is working to triple the amount of cargo moved by train, which could take thousands of trucks off the 710 freeway.  More trains, fewer tailpipes, and a much smoother ride for our coastal neighbors.

📊 By The Numbers

Diesel smog is a dangerous cocktail of pollutants, carrying health hazards like particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides—chemicals linked to chronic conditions such as asthma.  Since 2005, the ports’ programs have achieved substantial emissions reductions even as container traffic rose for both.

The Port of Long Beach (container traffic up 44%)

• ⬇️  92% of diesel particulate matter

• ⬇️  71% of nitrogen oxides

• ⬇️  98% of sulfur oxides

• ⬇️  2% of GHGs

The Port of Los Angeles (container traffic up 38%)

• ⬇️  90% of diesel particulate matter

• ⬇️  73% of nitrogen oxides

• ⬇️  98% of sulfur oxides

• ⬇️  18% of GHGs

Why It Matters: Port-Adjacent Communities 🫁 🏙️

Cleaning the supply chain has more immediate impacts than reducing global carbon emissions. It’s about community health. Historically, neighborhoods like Wilmington and San Pedro face higher rates of asthma due to heavy truck traffic. By electrifying the Port, we ensure the engines of our economy don't dump their exhaust on our communities. Everyone deserves to breathe easy! 🌬️💙

My Local Blueprint 📣

You don't need to drive an electric semi-truck to help the air. This week, take 15 minutes to:

• Check Your Commute: Use a Carbon Footprint Calculator to see your impact. Can you swap one car trip for a bike or bus? 🚲🚌

• Track the Trends: View PurpleAir maps to see real-time air quality in your neighborhood. 

• Pause Before You Purchase: Consider the carbon footprint of transporting the goods you buy and take a beat before your next Impulse buy! 

📣 Community Announcements 📣 

🎦 Bloomberg Green Docs has announced that the 2026 competition is open for submissions. Enter your short climate documentary by August 14, 2026 to compete for a $25,000 prize!

— Written by the Pique Team

Photo by Natalia Jones on Unsplash

Welcome back to Climate Blueprints, a Pique Behind the Curtain mini-series, where we look at the neighborhood-level infrastructure keeping our cities livable. We're zooming in on the Los Angeles region in the lead-up to LA Climate Week (April 8-15) to see how local projects are turning global goals into tangible community wins.

Ocean Friendly Gardens: The "CPR" of Gardening 🌻

Traditional lawns are basically slip-and-slides for pollution. One inch of rain falling on the roof of an average home generates about 1,200 gallons of runoff. As that water zips into the street, it picks up oil, trash, and fertilizers, making it the #1 source of ocean pollution. But there are ways to mitigate this!

The Watershed Approach is a landscaping philosophy that treats every individual yard as a mini-watershed, designed to manage rainwater on-site to prevent pollution from reaching the coast. 🌧️🧼 Instead of treating rain like a nuisance to be shunted into the street, this method turns your property into a sponge that protects our local surf. 🏄‍♂️

The Surfrider Foundation’s Ocean Friendly Gardens (OFG) program uses the CPR method to stop the "drain" on our ecosystems:

• Conservation: Swapping thirsty grass for native plants that thrive on local rainfall. 🌵

• Permeability: Replacing concrete with living soil and mulch. Healthy soil acts like a carbon-sequestering filter, pulling CO2 from the air and locking it underground. 🧽

• Retention: Using swales (shallow trenches) and rain barrels to slow, spread, and sink water back into the aquifer. It’s a "shore" way to keep our water table full! 💧💰

Public Spaces & Community Power 🤝🌳

You don't need a backyard to see an OFG in action! Surfrider chapters across the Los Angeles area are branching out into public spaces, transforming schools, libraries, and parkways into resilient green hubs.

• Long Beach Leadership: The Long Beach Chapter has been a powerhouse, organizing volunteer workdays to install and steward gardens that everyone can enjoy. These projects are hard-working green infrastructure that help keep the oceans clean for every swimmer and surfer.

• National OFG Map: Want to go on an urban safari? You can find certified gardens near you using the National OFG Map. It’s a great way to get some "ground-breaking" inspiration for your own space! 🗺️📍

• Community Stewardship: These public gardens are possible thanks to incredible local volunteers who protect them and keep them free of weeds.

Community installs OFG Project in Long Beach, Photo by Kathryn Dressendorfer

Why It Matters: Soil is the Soul of Resilience 🏙️🧪

It’s not just about clean water. Healthy soil lays the groundwork for a better climate all-around.

1. Carbon Capture: Biologically active soil (boosted by compost!) is a powerhouse at sequestering carbon.

2. Methane Reduction: Composting your yard waste prevents it from rotting in a landfill and releasing methane—a greenhouse gas that’s 20x more potent than CO2. 🍎🌀

3. Urban Cooling: Native gardens reduce the heat island effect better than artificial turf ever could. It’s time to stop playing it safe with lawns and start playing it smart with soil! 🦋✨

The Brains & Banks Behind the Gardens 🧠💸

This movement is led by the Surfrider Foundation, which has turned dirt-under-the-fingernails activism into a nationwide resilience strategy.

• The Visionaries: Surfrider chapters (like the ones in LA and Long Beach) partner with city of Long Beach and community partners to provide hands-on training.

• The Funding: Programs like the Direct Install Program (DIG) in Long Beach use funds from the California Coastal Conservancy to provide free ocean-friendly makeovers for homes in low-income neighborhoods. 💵🌱

• The Rebates: Most SoCal residents can get paid to un-pave paradise through Turf Replacement Rebates (check out LADWP or SoCal WaterSmart).

My Local Blueprint 📣

You don't need to be a landscape architect to make a splash. This week, take 15 minutes to:

1. Contour Your Thinking: Identify where rain flows off your roof. Can you point your downspout toward a garden bed instead of the driveway? 🚿🧐

2. Mulch Ado About Everything: Apply at least 2-3 inches of organic mulch (like wood chips) around your plants. It suppresses weeds, builds soil health, and keeps moisture locked in. 🪵🌿

3. Go Organic: Ditch the synthetic fertilizers. Try a handful of worm castings or compost instead—your local microbes will thank you! 🪱🍵

— Written by Hana Leshner & The Pique Team

Photo by Nick Wright on Unsplash

🌱 🌆 Welcome back to Climate Blueprints, a Pique Behind the Curtain mini-series where we look at the neighborhood-level infrastructure keeping our cities livable. We're zooming in on the Los Angeles region in the lead-up to LA Climate Week (April 8-15) to see how local projects are turning global goals into tangible community wins.

Committing to LA’s Critical Canopy 🍃☀️ 

In 2019, Los Angeles launched its own Green New Deal, setting an audacious goal to plant 90,000 trees across the city. This audacious goal was supercharged by the appointment of Rachel Malarich, the city’s first-ever City Forest Officer. This move signaled a commitment to rethinking the function of trees in the urban landscape.  Instead of seeing trees as decorative landscaping, they were officially being managed as critical infrastructure.

Urban forestry is the strategic management of a city’s green infrastructure—the collective network of trees and vegetation—to provide shade, scrub the air, and safeguard public health. As heatwaves intensify, we’re realizing these "biological air conditioners" are just as vital to our survival as the power grid or the water pipes.

Nature's Rx 🏥 🌲  

Trees are proven lifesavers, offering both physical and mental health benefits. Harvard research links time around trees to lower stress and sharper focus, and living near a dense canopy correlates with a 4% decrease in heart disease risk. For city dwellers, urban forests also significantly reduce depression and anxiety, making a healthy canopy an essential "multivitamin" for the concrete jungle.

Mapping the 2028 Sprint 🗺️🌳 

To treat trees like infrastructure, you need to know exactly where they are. LA planted the roots for green infrastructure by creating a massive digital Tree Inventory. Using TreeKeeper software, the city now tracks over 700,000 individual trees in real-time.

This inventory is mission control for the next big goal: the 2028 Tree Equity Sprint. Ahead of the Olympics, the ShadeLA Coalition is using this data to target "shade deserts"—neighborhoods where the lack of canopy leads to dangerously high surface temperatures. Now, the communities facing the deadliest heat get the planting priority they need.

Finding a Home for Every Sapling 🏡🕳️ 

Building a forest in a city requires a multi-pronged attack on the concrete. Depending on where you're standing, there's a different blueprint for growth:

• Private Yards: City Plants and LADWP provide free shade trees for private property to help lower residential energy bills.

• The Parkway: That strip of dirt between the sidewalk and the street is the focus of LA County Public Works planting efforts.

• The Parks: LA Recreation and Parks is leading a reroofing of our public "living rooms" by replacing aging trees in major parks.

My Local Blueprint 🏘️🚰

You don't need a green thumb to help our urban forest thrive. This week, take 15 minutes to:

• Pique into the Data: Explore the LA TreeKeeper map. Find the tree in front of your house, learn its species, and see the eco-benefits it provides. 🌳🗺️

• Spot the Stress: Check your block for signs of "topping" or neglected street trees. If you see a young tree in the parkway, give it a tall drink of water during a dry spell. 💧🕵️

• Claim Your Canopy: If you live in LA, visit City Plants to see if you’re eligible for a free shade tree for your yard. One tree can lower your home's surface temperature by up to 20°F! 🌸🏠

From the Pique Archives: The Afterlife of an Urban Tree 🌳 

What happens when a city tree finally reaches the end of its life? Usually, it's headed for the woodchipper. A few years ago we profiled Cambium Carbon, a startup salvaging fallen city trees to create beautiful, sustainable lumber. Check out our film on how they’re turning urban waste into local wealth. 🪵🎬

📅 Community Events 🌱

🗓️ April 8-15 | LA Climate Week is  almost here!  Check out the official trailer for LA Climate Week—edited by the team at Pique!  The calendar is packed with workshops, tours, and summits. From a Microforest Film Night on April 9th to habitat restoration at Eaton Canyon, there's a branch of action for everyone, including Pique’s event (see below 👇).

📢 April 8th Masterclass: We’re co-hosting The Stories Behind the Data: Masterclass on Becoming a Skilled Climate Communicator. Come for the tamales, stay for the strategy! Sign up here

— Written by Hana Leshner & The Pique Team

Photo by Trust for Public Land

Welcome back to Climate Blueprints, our special Pique Behind the Curtain mini-series zooming in on local projects building resilience to climate change in the Los Angeles region in the lead up to lead up to LA Climate Week. This week, we’re heading to South LA to see how a network of forgotten alleys was transformed into a "green machine" that’s paving the way for a cooler, more connected neighborhood. It’s working there, and it could work in your neighborhood too.  🏗️🌱

The Avalon Green Alleys 🌊🛣️

In South LA, nearly 900 miles of alleys were once seen as magnets for flooding and illegal dumping. But the Avalon Green Alley Network  flipped the script. By replacing cracked asphalt with light-colored, permeable pavers, these alleys now act like giant sponges.

When heavy rains hit, instead of flooding the streets and carrying pollutants to the ocean, the water sinks in to underground infiltration trenches. This recharges our local groundwater basins—the giant "underground piggy banks" we rely on during droughts. Plus, the light-colored paving helps kick back solar heat, keeping the neighborhood significantly cooler during those unbearable heatwaves. 🧊☀️

This isn't just a flash in the pan, either. The original 2016 project continues to function, with a 2023 study proving its "sponge-worthy" status by capturing and cleaning thousands of gallons of rainwater. Its success has paved the way for a whole new network of green alleys, inspiring projects like the Central-Jefferson and Quincy Jones corridors, and directly influencing the South LA Green Alley Master Plan. This original project is now a thriving model for a cooler, safer city.

Photo by Trust for Public Land

Photo by Trust for Public Land

The Asphalt-Alt: L.A.’s Pavement Problem 🛑🛣️

Why focus on alleys? Because Los Angeles has a serious pavement addiction. A recent report called DepaveLA (and an eye-opening feature in the LA Times) found that LA County is covered in 488 square miles of pavement—an area the size of the entire city of Los Angeles!

The kicker? Researchers found that nearly half of that pavement is completely unnecessary. It’s just dead weight that traps heat and prevents rain from reaching the soil. By depaving these spaces and turning them into green corridors, paving the path toward a more breathable city.

The Climate + Community Connection ❤️💪

In neighborhoods that lack green space, these alleys can be more than just water filters—they are safe routes to school and community hubs. This is a prime example of multi-benefit infrastructure, which is the practice of designing a project that solves several community problems at once—like tackling flood risk while simultaneously boosting health and happiness.

By prioritizing these projects in South LA, the city is addressing environmental justice head-on. We’re taking blighted spaces and turning them into vibrant hubs. This double-duty design provides a massive boost to:

• Public Health: By swapping heat-trapping asphalt for plants, we’re lowering the "fever" of the neighborhood. Cooler streets mean fewer heat-related illnesses and more opportunities for exercise, which is a breath of fresh air for community wellness. 🏃‍♀️🌬️

• Social Cohesion: Social cohesion is the glue that binds a community together through trust and shared experiences. When an alley becomes a clean, beautiful walkway, it acts as "social cement." Neighbors stop to chat, kids play safely, and the sense of community pride grows. It’s infrastructure with a pulse! 💓🏘️

The Big Lift 💪

This project was a five-year labor of love from a massive team of partners:

• The Visionaries: The Trust for Public Land (TPL) led the charge, partnering with LA Sanitation and the Council for Watershed Health.

• The "Equipo Verde" (Green Team): The real MVPs are the local residents, like the dedicated neighborhood moms and grandmothers known as Equipo Verde. They meet monthly to organize cleanups and plant trees—they are roots that keep the project growing! 🌱🤝

My Local Blueprint 🏘️🚰

You don't need a construction permit to help your neighborhood thrive. Living Infrastructure is the practice of combining built, natural, and social systems to help people and places thrive together. This week, take 15 minutes to:

1. Pique into the Data: Even if you aren't in LA, check out the Living Infrastructure Field Kit to see how built, natural, and social systems can be mapped together. It’s a map-nificent model for how any city can identify where a green-up is needed most. 🗺️✨

2. Spot the Dead Weight: Take a walk around your own block and look for unnecessary pavement—think wide, unused driveway aprons or cracked concrete patches that could be a garden. Identifying the potential is the first step to a groundbreaking project! 🌿🕵️

3. Cultivate the Canopy: Visit National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder (or your local equivalent) to find one plant that belongs in your specific ecosystem. Planting even one native species helps turn your home into a tiny wildlife corridor. Resilience can start in your own backyard. 🌸🐝

From the Pique Archives: More Sponge City Solutions 🏠💧

Want to see how other cities are adapting by building a circular water system? Dive into the Pique Archives and check out the Field Factors story, highlighting how the Rotterdam Zoo reuses 9 million liters of water per year. It's more proof that being "sponge-worthy" works at every scale!

— Written by Hana Leshner & The Pique Team

Introducing: 🏗️ Climate Blueprints 🌱 🌆

Welcome to the first installment of our special Pique Behind the Curtain mini-series, Climate Blueprints, where we zoom in on the local solutions that are a force for climate adaptation—or building resilience to climate change impacts. These city and neighborhood-level infrastructure projects are the MVPs of urban living, turning global goals into tangible community benefits right where we live. 🏘️

While we're focusing on the Los Angeles region in the lead-up to LA Climate Week (April 8-15 and come to our event!) 🗓️, the projects we explore are designed to inspire and inform communities everywhere looking to tackle climate challenges. They ensure our cities keep humming—and our taps keep running—even when the climate gets unpredictable. ⚡💧

Making Waves Underground 🌊🧪

In grade school, you probably learned about the water cycle and how all water cycles through the ecosystem, through organisms, through environment and back.  But did you know we actually throw most of our water away?

“Wastewater” is the stuff that goes down the toilet and drains in your house. This water is collected, treated to safe levels to be discharged in large bodies of water (oceans, rivers, etc), or recirculated to the city for non-potable uses, not because it can’t be treated to safe drinking levels, but because it’s hard to get communities past the “ick factor” of drinking it. 

“Stormwater” is rain and runoff that picks up heavy metals and other toxins from our buildings, businesses, and houses. In most municipalities, they don’t even bother treating this water because they don’t know what is in it. In the past, cities treated "stormwater" as a nuisance to be drained and "wastewater" as a problem to be hidden. But with California's "dry spells" getting longer, we can't afford to let any drop go to waste. LA is pivoting toward a future where we stop "importing" our problems and start "harvesting" our solutions.

Just recently, some pioneering water districts have started treating it to a very high standard and then use it to re-charge groundwater, which is a distinctly more efficient system.  There is one city in the U.S. working on a wastewater to drinking water solution due to come online soon.

What is One Water?

One Water is an integrated planning approach that treats all water—including rain, wastewater, and runoff—as a single, reusable resource rather than separate waste streams. It’s the ultimate urban recycling project: the philosophy that even the stuff we usually ignore is a precious resource that belongs in our taps, not just our storm drains. This could be a fully circular water system. All water used or collected can be treated to a level safe to drink and redistributed to the communities. 

Spotlight: The Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project (SWIP) ⛲

Though Los Angeles has its massive city-wide water plans, its neighbor Santa Monica recently finished a "first-of-its-kind" project that is making waves. Located entirely underground (under a parking lot!), the SWIP is a high-tech facility that captures stormwater and sewage to create a new, local water supply.

• The Stats: The SWIP Advanced Water Treatment Facility (AWTF) can treat up to 1 million gallons per day of stormwater and wastewater, purifying it to potable reuse standards. That’s enough to meet the needs of about 10% of the city!

• The Tech: It uses a rigorous multi-barrier treatment system to ensure the water is high-quality and safe. This process includes:

  • Membrane Bioreactors (MBR) and Cartridge Filters to remove organic pollutants, bacteria, and tiny particles.

  • Reverse Osmosis (RO) to scrub out larger contaminants like salts, pharmaceuticals, and viruses.

  • Advanced Oxidation using high-powered Ultraviolet Light and chlorine to form hydroxyl radials for destruction of industrial pollutants.

  • Final Disinfection using chlorine to disinfect the water one last time and protect water quality in the distribution system.

• The Goal: It’s helping the region reach water self-sufficiency by providing a reliable, local source for both non-potable reuse (like irrigation) and potable reuse to recharge local groundwater aquifers, reducing reliance on water that travel in open canals from hundreds of miles away.

• Making a Splash (California Firsts): The SWIP is the first below-grade AWTF designed to treat raw wastewater and stormwater to drinking water standards for groundwater recharge all within one facility. It is also the first stormwater harvesting project in the state to meet potable reuse standards and directly inject the treated water into the groundwater aquifer.

The Big Lift: Making ‘One Water’ Work 💪

You know what they say: teamwork makes the "stream" work. This $96 million project didn't just appear overnight; it was a masterclass in collaboration and regulatory grit.

• The Leadership: Led by Sunny Wang, Santa Monica’s Water Resources Manager, the city’s Public Works department spent years navigating the complex regulatory "plumbing" to get this approved—a critical step in making a project like this possible.

• The Funding: This was a true "all-hands-on-deck" financial effort.  The SWIP received grants from the State Water Resources Control Board ($8.77 million from Proposition 1 Stormwater Grant Program), LA County’s Measure W Safe Clean Water Program ($7.5 million), and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Local Resources Program (nearly $20 million over 25 years). The project also received $55 million in low-interest loans from the  State Water Resources Control Board and additional "liquidity" coming from the City of Santa Monica’s wastewater enterprise and locals Measure V stormwater funds.

Check out Sunny Wang’s digital tour of the facility here if you want to see for yourself!

The Bigger Picture 🏙️

This isn't just a Santa Monica thing; it's a blueprint for Los Angeles’ Hyperion 2035 vision. Los Angeles is currently scaling this model through its One Water LA 2040 Plan, a city-wide strategy to manage all water—from rain to sewage—as a single, integrated resource. LA Sanitation is working to transform the massive Hyperion plant into a 100% water recycling facility, mirroring the SWIP’s technology on a massive scale to clean up local groundwater basins and secure 50% of the city's water locally by 2040.

My Local Blueprint 🏘️🚰

You don't need to be a water engineer to start making an impact. Taking inspiration from the "One Water" approach, every drop matters in a larger community effort, and it starts with a little curiosity about your local system.

1. Explore Your Watershed: To find out about the health of the water right under your feet (or running into your storm drains), use the EPA’s “How's My Waterway?” tool.

2. Monitor Your Flow: Many cities, like Santa Monica, already have smart water meters installed. Contact your water district to opt-in to their program—it's a free way to get real-time leak alerts. Or, you can install third-party smart meters inexpensively, with some models even subsidized by your insurance, to catch those hidden drips or leaks before they become a flood.

3. Harvest the Wet Stuff: Be a rain-barrel hero by setting up a system to capture rainwater for your garden. It’s a great way to conserve, and it helps reduce runoff pollution (plus, it's a great excuse to buy a new 'barrel of fun').

4. Connect with a Local Group: To promote water recycling and conservation, consider joining a local watershed council, or simply call your municipal water district to ask what conservation and reuse programs they are currently pumping out.

From the Pique Archives: One Water in Building Form 🏠💧

Want to see "One Water" in action on a smaller scale? Dive into the Pique Archives and watch our film on Epic Cleantec and their building-scale 'One Water' solution. It's proof that the 'One Water' concept scales to every size, from a city plant down to a single building. 

📆 Community Events 🌱

🍀 Join us and our partner Carbon Collective for a St. Patty’s Day happy hour! Pastor Murphy will be preaching decarbonization from a bar stool instead of a pulpit. Absolution available between sips of stout. Forgive us, planet, for we have emitted. Sign up here

🌆 On April 8th, we’re co-hosting The Stories Behind the Data: Masterclass on Becoming a Skilled Climate Communicator. Come early or stay after for drinks, tamales, and conversation! Sign up here

— Written by Lyle Jarvis

2025: Our Best Year Yet

By many metrics, this was Pique’s best year yet. We worked with and employed 56 people, sponsored seven events, grew our partners, told instrumental stories, and started producing our first feature documentary with climate leaders like Dr. Dana Fisher (check out her TED Talk) and Dr. Katharine Hayhoe.

We put out climate content of all shapes and sizes, telling important stories about cool climate solutions, and sharing reasons for optimism:

• Launched Unf*cking the Planet - Season 2 

• Trailer and teasers for the Moonshot Podcast 

• Posted Season 2’s final episode of Reinventing Tomorrow 

• Began production on Saving Ourselves in Altadena and Washington, DC

We’re also proud to have published an incredible Climate Creators to Watch List this year, putting the spotlight on some hugely talented creators helping change the narrative on climate action.

We helped bring the climate community closer than ever by sponsoring some awesome events (across 34 days), and showing up as a team at: 

• Hollywood Climate Summit

• Climate Film Festival

• Panel at Los Angeles Climate Week + Official Media Sponsor

• Carbonauts + Pique Mrs. Robinson Screening

• Harvard / CCTWL

• True/False sponsorship

• Film2Future

We garnered some remarkably flattering reactions to our work…

“These are so good! I literally started getting a tear in my eye because they are so powerful — and they hit all the right notes.” - Climate fund

“ Hi team, Thank you so much for the incredible video. It is a work of art”. Department of Energy

"It was an absolute hit. It was incredibly well received. Everybody in the room loved it." - Climate philanthropy 

And along the way, we picked up some new hardware for the Pique trophy case:

• Telly Award - Audience Award GOLD 2025

• Telly Award - Silver Award - Branded Series 2025

• Webby Award 2025

• Shorty Award - Finalist - Branded Series 2025

The Elephant in the Room

It’s impossible to summarize 2025 without acknowledging the broader political and cultural landscape. The Trump Administration has reshaped our institutions, our public policies (specifically to climate policy and the I.R.A.), and our national discourse – especially around climate. Climate change and ESG not only became dirty words, they were effectively run out of town.

We witnessed first hand the corporate pull-back from climate communications, the evolution of sustainability framing, the dissolution of the EPA and much of the DOE. Many of the organizations we relied on as partners, clients, and allies were forced to scale back or redirect.

And yet, we emerged as a storytelling force. 

Pique-ing around the corner into 2026, we have a great deal to look forward to and to do. Supporting science, truth, and climate communications are absolutely critical, and next year, we will double our efforts to share stories to compel, inform, and inspire. We have some very exciting announcements in early 2026, so stay tuned!

2025 Was Far From Perfect, but Progress Prevails

Despite some of the headwinds mentioned above, there were still plenty of reasons to feel optimistic this year. Here are just some of the many wins we’re celebrating:

• Public Lands Were Saved from Sale: In a huge win for conservation, a provision in the disastrous budget bill that would have sold off millions of acres of public land was successfully pulled after massive public mobilization.
  

• States Drove the Clean Energy Transition: When federal efforts stalled, many states charged ahead, passing crucial laws to accelerate clean energy goals and lower energy bills for families. This is critical, as state-level action is a primary way to sustain progress and usher in wins. For instance, Nevada mandated heat mitigation plans for its most populated counties to combat extreme heat, and Ohio repealed harmful coal bailouts.
  

• Global deforestation appears to be in decline: Over the past few decades, the amount of forest lost around the world has been cut by millions of hectares. While it's still off track to meet critical targets, experts say it's trending in the right direction.
  

• Solar Shined Brighter Than Ever: Solar power continued its massive surge. This was supported by the growing excitement around our new tradition, Sun Day!
  

• A.I. further proved itself a climate solution. Mangrove-Planting Drones supercharged restoration across the globe. The new AI-powered platform Climate TRACE, co-founded by Al Gore, started fundamentally changing how we track emissions. Many, many more cool tech-powered solutions are paving the way for climate progress!

Hand Up: A Global Reality Check

Looking into a more broad “state of the union,” it’s time to say the quiet part out loud. The climate movement faced some serious challenges this year. The "Big Ugly Bill" was considered “the most anti-environment bill in American history,” Check out this article for a deeper dive into how the law is impacting states across the country.

Bonus read: Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is one big betrayal of American energy progress (Fortune)

As a result, the U.S. remains the world's largest producer of oil and gas. It also reached record production highs this year. Globally, new reports show that to meet the Paris Agreement goal, climate action needs to accelerate at least twofold, and up to fourfold in many sectors. 

Bonus read: 2025: The year the US gave up on climate, and the world gave up on us (Grist)

It’s becoming clearer than ever that the leader across green innovation and deployment of clean energy technology is China. Despite being the world's largest emitter, they boasted some significant climate strides this year. And while motivation from Chinese Leadership still appears to be economic, we'll take all the wins we can get.

Bonus read: There’s a Race to Power the Future. China is Pulling Away. (New York Times)

Moving into 2026, we’ve got our sights set on some important goals; like the global momentum toward improved climate finance and the $1.3T target, and the rise of A.I 's climate potential.

Newsletter Mailbag: Some Top Stories from the Year

Thank you all for another great year together. Whatever happens in 2026, we’ll be celebrating the wins, learning from the losses, and growing our community in the best ways we know how. Have some climate wins you’re celebrating this holiday season? Reply to this email to tell us about them!

In the meantime, rolling a few re-runs to close us out:  

• Up in the Air: The Future of the E.P.A. ☁️: The EPA is the government agency tasked with protecting our clean air and water. And despite a decades-long track record of protecting us from environmental threats, the EPA faced serious threats of its own this year.
  

• Your Imports Just Got Hotter: The Climate Impact of Tariffs: Tariff turbulence grinds on. And while much of the conversation is around geopolitics and economics, tariff policies can also pose massive impacts for our climate future. Read on to learn more!
  

• Better State than Never: Climate Progress in 2025: The Federal Government has flat out left us out to dry in the climate action department. Luckily, state and local efforts have been working double time to pick up some of the slack left by the feds.
  

• Climate Impacts Aren’t Colorblind: Climate change is hitting Black and Brown communities hardest — not by accident, but by design. In this Juneteenth edition, read on to see how history, policy, and pollution collide.

— Written by Lyle Jarvis

Photo: Olivier Rouge on Unsplash

Good Gifts Come in Small Packages, but the Best Ones Are Package-Free

The excitement of holiday gifting often comes with an unfortunate side effect: a massive surge in trash. In fact, household waste in the U.S. generally increases 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, roughly one million extra tons.

But the holiday season doesn’t have to be quite so trashy. Here are a few quick ways to cut back on waste:

• Choose digital or experience-based gifts (like concert tickets, online classes, or a gift certificate to a local spa) to avoid any physical waste entirely.
  

• Consider a nature-friendly experience gift, like this “America The Beautiful” National Parks Pass (honored at more than 2,000 parks), or an AllTrails subscription to help your loved ones get outside.
  

• For new purchases, sustainable options, companies like noissue offer eco-friendly, customizable packaging that's compostable or recyclable, so your gifts look great without contributing to the holiday waste pile.
  

• Better yet, ditch wrapping paper altogether! Article: 12 Unexpected Materials You Can Use for Wrapping Paper
  

• If you’re buying new products, try buying locally: Supporting small, local businesses greatly reduces how far those products need to be shipped, which can cut down on emissions.
  

• Sometimes, the most sustainable gift is often one that already exists. Thrifting for gifts is a fantastic way to find unique, high-quality presents while cutting down on production and transportation. Article flashback from last year: I Tried Thrifting All My Christmas Presents This Year — And I Spent Less Than $100 on 18 Gifts

Plants: The gift that keeps on growing. Consider gifting a potted herb, flower or mini succulent garden. Bonus points if it doubles as pollinator-friendly!

A Particular Grinch? Holiday Returns

Beyond just the mountains of bubble wrap, this time of year sees a huge spike in shipping and transportation, making for increased levels of shipping emissions. Oftentimes, the footprint it takes to deliver a gift goes right back to where it came from. Nearly 20% of online purchases this holiday season will be returned, doubling the carbon impact of each of those gifts. 

A 2023 report found that transporting returns generated more than 15 million metric tons of carbon emissions per year in the U.S. alone. That's nearly the equivalent of 3.5 million gas-powered cars in a full year! 

A rule of thumb when it comes to making holiday gifting more sustainable? Please don’t buy something if you’re gonna return it.

The Holidays Have a Shipping Problem

When it comes to holiday fleets, Amazon is, of course, impossible to ignore. More than five years ago, Jeff Bezos rolled out a climate pledge, touted his plans to upgrade his fleet to 100,000 EVs and more. But in September 2024, an investigation revealed Amazon increased its shipping emissions more than 75% between 2019 and 2023, from 3.33 million metric tons of carbon to 5.84 million.

The problem was, those EVs are often just delivering the last leg of a gift's trip, and they come on the heels of plane, cargo, or long-haul truck transit. This is the last-mile delivery; the final, shortest, and often most complex leg of a product's journey, when it moves from a local distribution hub (like a warehouse or sort center) to your doorstep. While it may be the smallest geographical part of the supply chain, it  accounts for up to half of all delivery vehicle carbon emissions.

Climate Solutions Make for Good Cheer

The good news is, we’re making progress in both the public and private sectors. Some of the world’s biggest companies are utilizing high-tech solutions like AI-driven route optimization, which saves fuel by reducing travel distances. In New York City, the DOT aims to shift 25% of last-mile freight deliveries from trucks to small, sustainable methods like cargo bikes by 2040. They're also rolling out programs to offer financial incentives for businesses to switch to EVs, move deliveries to off-peak times, all to reduce congestion, pollution and more. 

Startup Spotlight: Coco Robotics landed $80M to advance A.I powered, sustainable last-mile delivery

Wrapping it All Up

Whether it's workarounds to wrapping paper or avoiding reverse shipping, the cost of our holiday convenience is too high for the planet. The good news is, every decision, from secondhand gifts to advocating for smarter policies like e-bike delivery services, can make a world of difference.

Have an idea to make the holiday season more sustainable? Send it as a reply to this email, we’ll feature as many as we can for Pique readers!

Some Stories You Might Have Missed This Week 🗞️📺:

1. Nike, Superdry and Lacoste had ads banned in the UK after "misleading" sustainability claims. (The Guardian)

2. The Department of Energy awarded a combined $800 million across two modular reactor projects (Energy.gov)

3. Texas has become a hub of innovation for creating electricity using geothermal power. Just don't call it renewable. (NYTimes)

Community Announcements 🫂🌱📣

1. Cool Climate Job Alert 🚨🤝
   
   Looking to break into the climate world, and join an awesome team?
   MCJ is hiring a Content Specialist! 
   
   MCJ is an early stage firm investing in the transition of energy and industry, and the impacts of climate change. In this role, you’ll support the creation and distribution of multimedia content across social media, podcasts, newsletters, web and beyond!
   
   If you (or someone you know) might be a good fit, check out this link.
   
   

2. Spotlight: Climate Cabinet: 💡⭐
   
   Have you checked out Climate Cabinet? They're an organization focused on supporting pro-climate candidates in under-the-radar races at the state or city level.
   
   Climate Cabinet uses data science to comb through the more than 500,000 public offices that US citizens have the opportunity to vote on every cycle, identifies candidates who could make a real impact on the climate, and offers them financial and policy support. 

   
   They're also getting some buzz! Check out this article: Inside the climate group working everywhere but DC: ‘You can still have huge wins’ (The Guardian)

— Written by Lyle Jarvis

Photo: Roger Starnes Sr on Unsplash

Rates Are Going Through the Roof 💰

Home insurance rates in the U.S. are rising even faster than inflation. And for years, we've seen the link between rising costs and climate change become more and more clear. The root of the matter remains; according to the IPCC, the U.S. is becoming a more volatile place to live.

At your kitchen table, that starts with higher bills from your insurance provider, but more broadly it's turning a basic homeowner expense into a major crisis. In fact, some estimates suggest they’ve shot up by as much as 70% since 2021. Between higher premiums, more volatile markets, and increased climate damages, one of the biggest assets Americans can own is starting to erode. 

A new report covered by the The New York Times estimates just how badly these premiums are cascading into the broader real estate market. The study, which analyzed tens of millions of housing payments through 2024 to understand where insurance costs have risen most. In the top 10 percent of U.S. ZIP codes most vulnerable to hurricanes and wildfires, home values have dropped by an average of $44,000.

The Insurance Business has a Climate Problem 🌎

For years now, the insurance market has been trying to distance itself from California, leaving policyholders struggling to keep up with rising costs. In 2023, State Farm announced it would stop writing new homeowners insurance policies in California. Last year, it wouldn’t renew 72,000 policies. Other major providers are following closely behind. 

In the wake of the wildfires, State Farm made its case for emergency rate hikes on homeowners, which was granted. And starting in June, they were able to raise rates an average 17% for homeowners, 15% for renters/condos and 38% for rental dwellings. When asked about the 38-page decision, an administrative judge called it a "rescue mission to stabilize State Farm’s financial condition while safeguarding policyholders."

Last month, NYTimes published another piece detailing how California's 2023 plan to stabilize the fire insurance market hasn't gone as planned. Instead, through a series of negotiated loopholes, it's actually incentivized major insurance companies to drop policyholders in high-risk areas before securing rate hikes. Check out the article below.

Further reading: California Promised Insurance Relief, but Delivered Loopholes (NYTimes)

California isn't alone. Florida, Texas and Louisiana are following close behind, largely driven by extreme flooding. In fact, in Florida, the average cost of homeowners insurance this year was more than $5,700. In Midwestern states that are prone to hail, insurance eats up more than a fifth of an average homeowner's total housing payments.

Hiding from the Numbers 🫣 

Since data about climate risks might deter buyers from a particular home, it’d be easier for real estate companies to just squash that data altogether. To do it, they've been pressuring Zillow and other sites to do away with the risk data buyers have come to rely on. Just over a year after adding climate risk scores, Zillow has removed them from more than 1 million listings after real estate agents were complaining about sales. 

Luckily, Zillow scores aren't the only option for buyers to get an idea of a home's climate risks. If you type an address into the search bar on first street.org, it will run the flood, fire, wind, and air quality risk factors. Check it out!

Further reading: Erasing a Home’s Risks on Zillow Doesn’t Make Them Go Away (Bloomberg)

Getting Serious About Solutions 📈

Ultimately, any long-term, sustainable solution to the insurance crisis will depend on reducing the risk. This means we need to seriously boost our climate mitigation efforts, which is well within our reach technologically and economically. Here are a few ways we can do it:

Actions for Leaders

Making Resilient Building Mainstream: Millions of U.S. homes are at a higher risk of disaster because of outdated building codes. States can update building codes to weave climate resilience into infrastructure. We need to make the push for things like stronger structural resistance to extreme weather, mandating energy efficiency through better insulation, heat pump compatibility, and including features for things like flood control.

Public Insurance Options Last-resort programs, like the Fair Access Plan often provide expensive, limited coverage for folks who have been dropped by private insurers. States can help by pushing for lower-cost alternatives for a wider section of the population.

Buyouts: A last resort? For neighborhoods that have become unsafe, states are working to blueprint successful programs around home buyouts as a mitigation strategy. New Jersey boasts the Blue Acres program, a voluntary state-funded buyout program that acquires flood-prone residential properties, then converts the land to act as a natural buffer against floodwaters.

Making polluters pay: There has been a push for big insurers to bring subrogation claims against major polluters to recoup losses from storms strengthened by climate change.

Further reading: State Policy Considerations for Disaster Risk and Resilience (National Conference of State Legislators)

For Homeowners:

Home resilience & fortification: This is about making your home as resistant as possible to climate threats in your area. Homes that meet FEMA's hazard-resistant standards could see declines in average annual damages by up to 48%.

Upgrade Your Roof: Replace an older roof with a new, more durable one using modern, wind and fire-resistant materials. Fortifying your roof to a FORTIFIED standard (like in Louisiana) can reduce claims and may qualify you for significant discounts on your premium.

Create defensible space against wildfire and storms: If you are in a fire-prone region, remove vegetation, combustible ground cover materials, and tree branches within various distances of your structure. If possible, add storm shutters, impact-resistant roofing, or pressure-rated windows and doors to guard against severe weather. Further reading: Fire-resistant plants for home landscaping

Ask for Resilience Discounts: Inquire about specific discounts for home hardening and safety upgrades, as many insurers don't offer these upfront. Many states, including Florida and California, offer incentives or require insurers to provide discounts for specific mitigation measures.

Advocate for Change: Support Stronger Building Codes. Push your state to offer more tax credits, rebates, or grants for undertaking home mitigation measures, particularly for low-income communities.

Just like climate change, the longer political leaders wait to respond to this crisis, the more it will cost us. Even worse, the people who can least afford it will be the most vulnerable. The good news is, it creates an opportunity for states to respond with climate-smart solutions, and serve as powerful examples for the entire country.

👀 Some Stories You Might Have Missed This Week 🗞️📺:

1. Ding Dong, Coal is Dead: At least in California (Climate Colored Goggles)

2. New England kicks off $450M plan to supercharge heat pump adoption (Canary Media)

3. US drillers cut oil rigs to lowest in four years (Reuters)

4. These microbes could help reduce methane emissions (Washington Post)

— Written by Lyle Jarvis

Photo: Tejj on Unsplash

The Great Dam Debate

Dams have depleted fisheries and degraded river ecosystems on nearly all of our nation's rivers. They've destroyed aquatic habitats, disrupted natural river ecosystems, altered water flow, temperature and quality. They've also driven extinction for several species of fish.

The problem is, dams help us control and store water for when we need it (supply for homes, agriculture, and industry), handle floods and more. Dams are also used to protect against some invasive species, and perhaps most popularly, for power (although of the 90,000+ dams in the US, less than 3% actually produce power).

The Salmon are Back (And It’s Fin-tastic) 🐟

For over 100 years, four massive hydroelectric dams blocked the Klamath River, cutting off salmon from over 400 miles of their spawning grounds. For nearby tribes (Yurok, Karuk, and Klamath Tribes), this wasn't just an infrastructure issue; it was a threat to their culture and identity.

But after decades of tribal activism, the dams finally came down. And the results are already speaking for themselves:

• Immediate Fish Return: By late 2024, sonar detected approximately 7,700 fish passing the former Iron Gate Dam site.

• Cooling Down: Without the reservoirs acting as "heat batteries," the water temperature has dropped, making it safer for fish to migrate.

• Healing the Land: Crews are already revegetating 2,200 acres of former reservoir footprints to stabilize the riverbanks.

A new short film by Oregon Public Broadcasting, First Descent, follows a group of Indigenous youth kayakers paddling the river from source to sea, which hasn’t been possible for over a century.

🍿 Watch the full short film here: First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath

The Power Play 🔋 

From the power perspective, the idea that we have to choose between dams or no power is simply not true. We have many technical ways to capture the energy from moving water, or to provide the same reliable service to the power grid, all without destroying the ecosystem the way dams like the Klamath did.  Also, the cost of firming renewables with batteries has dropped to the point where it competes directly with the marginal cost of keeping aging hydro online.

In fact, a mix of solar power and 4-hour battery storage ($38-$78/MWh) is now cost-competitive with, and often less expensive than, keeping old hydro plants running or building new ones. When you consider the costs of wrecking a valuable ecosystem, it’s a no-brainer.

The Third Option: Fish-Safe Hydro 💡

If we can't remove a dam because we need the power or the water, we can at least stop it from blending the fish. If you’ve been reading along for a while now, you might remember our coverage of Natel Energy. 

Natel is pioneering a third option: retrofitting dams rather than removing them. With their novel turbine technology, they’re restoring California rivers and helping build a more sustainable future.

• How it works: They designed the "Restoration Hydro Turbine" (RHT) with thick, slanted blades that allow fish to pass through safely, rather than sharp blades that slice.

• Where is it? Their Monroe Drop project in Oregon is actively generating power inside an irrigation canal while letting rainbow trout pass through with 100% survival rates in testing.

• The Potential: By swapping out old turbines for these "FishSafe" ones, we could potentially keep the clean energy and save the salmon at large dam sites where removal isn't an option.

Besides retrofitting old larger dams, Natel is also pioneering restoration hydro approaches that combine large-scale dam removal and replacement with a series of smaller fish safe turbines that more closely mimic beaver dams.

Check out the Natel Energy episode of our NextNow series here!

👀 Some Stories You Might Have Missed This Week 🗞️📺:

1. Philanthropies pledged $300m for solutions at COP (UN)

2. How urban farms can make cities more livable and help feed America (Grist)

3. One of America’s most dangerous volcanoes will soon power homes (WSJ)