And we’re back!

Here’s your daily dose of good news.

🏠 Using carbon offsets to keep households warm

Offsets are typically created in the Global South – for instance, say a company in the US buys a carbon credit generated by a reforestation project in Panama. But this approach has come under plenty of fire due to the fact the quality of the offsets aren’t reliable, while the practice comes with a history of displacing smallholders and not delivering benefits to local people. 

Instead, researchers argue that companies could pay to cut carbon in their own countries in ways that actually benefit people’s lives – like installing insulation or heat pumps in the homes of low-income families. This could provide much-needed relief for households who would otherwise have to make the choice between heating and eating, while allowing companies to contribute to decarbonization in a meaningful way.

🍺 A beer with a surprising source

Singapore has created a beer with a special ingredient you won’t be able to guess from its taste – sewage. Made from treated wastewater (or to used its preferred term, ‘used water’) the beer is part of a campaign to highlight the benefits of innovative water management. As a state with no natural water sources, used water is a solution Singapore has been championing since 2003, and it hopes transforming the water into beer will help overcome any lingering skepticism.

💐 The tiny flower patches with a big impact

Small patches of wildflowers in cities can have as much thriving insect biodiversity as meadows in the countryside, a new study has found. Polish researchers found these small pockets of nature were visited even by rare and protected species. With the number of wildflower meadows having hugely declined, these easy-to-install spaces can provide a refuge for insects in cities and help stave off biodiversity loss.