Future Perfect

Cities are growing around the world, and the need for more drinking water is growing right along with them. Here are a few ideas for making water management more sustainable. 

Germany’s most sustainable towns and cities rely on the participation of their residents. Quite a lot can be achieved even with comparatively few financial resources.

A very small number of people question whether each individual online search query or the sending of every photo on the Internet is really necessary – this, too, can actually be environmentally harmful.

Working towards sustainable energy for the future: Germany wants to completely abandon coal mining by 2038, an ambitious goal with quite a few obstacles still blocking the way.

Piesteritz Garden City was revolutionary when it was built 100 years ago. As Germany’s largest car-free housing estate, it could still serve as a model settlement today – if its continued existence were not under threat. 

Wasteful use of the earth’s resources is a leading cause of environmental disasters, and the wealthy industrialized countries are benefiting from the exploitation of developing countries, says author Petra Schönhöfer.

Plastic bans, disposable dinnerware made of bioplastics, and streets made of plastic waste: countries, companies and private citizens are all pursuing initiatives that show what the world would be like without plastic.

We analyse the students' funniest, most unusual and best-known protest posters.
 

‘Namami’ – ‘I bow before you’. The Sanskrit word is the namesake of the Namami Gange programme devised by the government in 2014 to help restore the Ganges to health. Progress has been patchy.

In September 2019, the German research vessel Polarstern will depart for the Arctic to drift with the sea ice for a year. 600 scientists from 17 nations on board will study the dwindling, not-so-permanent ice pack.
 

Ulrike Reinhard has disrupted life in the village of Janwaar and proven a force for positive change. The skatepark she and skateboarders from around the world have built has given the whole village, and especially the kids and young people there, a new lease of life.

A resourceful skater is on a mission to develop public spaces in Amman. This is the story of Jordan’s first skate park.

Sustainability and climate protection start in daily life, and they are something children can learn. Educational establishments all over Germany are involved in UNESCO’s Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development – and schools are foremost among them.

There’s a cheeky joke that’s often made about India: ‘It’s rather peculiar that in a country with 1.3 billion people and growing every day, nobody ever has sex!’ At least the topic of sex is silenced. A new platform provides a healthy, fun and colourful approach to sex-ed.

Computer geeks in Rostock have set up a communication network for citizens that blocks intelligence agencies and businesses that use data for commercial purposes.

Hip hop and breakdance only have a niche presence in the land of Bollywood. However, Sunil Rayana has done a great job of making the subculture popular in his neighborhood. He has even bigger plans for his company, Slumgods, in Mumbai.

Gamcheon in South Korea’s biggest port city Busan was once a hilltop slum. Thanks to an unusual move by a group of villagers, artists and local officials, it is now a picture pretty collection of art studios, shops and residence buildings and a major tourist attraction.

With his online project, Rural Archive of India, journalist, Palagummi Sainath, is trying to give India’s rural inhabitants a face and a voice. The images and texts on his website speak to the cultural diversity and the vitality of provincial India, but also from poverty and instability.

The Goethe-Institut Australia's exhibition "Dynamics of Air" wants to explain air and climate phenomena. The architect and intellectual theoretician Friedrich von Borries explains his fictional project UN-Mahac, which he developed for the exhibition.

Ahmad Hassan wants to offer culture for all – that is why he opened a cultural center in a suburb of his hometown of Cairo, inspiring the locals with theater, film and photography.

‘How do we want to live together in the future? How can we shape a sustainable society? What makes us happy?’ Thirty young people from Mumbai, Kolkata and Düsseldorf engaged with these important questions during a youth conference titled Future (t)here, held between 8–11 June 2018 at the performing arts theatre, Junges Schauspiel Düsseldorf.

A German couple with a vacation home in Witless Bay, Newfoundland have called to life an initiative to save puffins, the famous seabirds of Canada’s Atlantic coast, from stranding on the coastal streets due to light pollution.

What does sustainability mean? Should it be considered from a global perspective, integrated into our community systems and inculcated in our personal lives? How does one find the balance between a debate for the environment and one for social equality as well our personal happiness? More importantly, how does one go beyond a theoretical study and implement change in personal lives? 

Every year, more than 350 million shoes are discarded across the globe. As per a recent report by WHO, 1.5 billion people across the world are infected by diseases that could be prevented by wearing proper footwear. The start-up GreenSole has found a smart solution: colourful pairs of recycled slippers.

The three-year voyage of the Hōkūleʻa, a giant Polynesian sailing canoe, helped spread indigenous knowledge and concern for Earth’s future around the globe.

Delivery girls thrive in India's male-dominated logistics sector. One of them is 21 years old, Scooter-Riding Sunita.
 

imall, a philanthropic online store for universities, is the first Chinese Online-to-Offline (O2O) community e-commerce business. The imall team uses an online platform to create a philanthropic cycle of goods and capital.

India’s Lifeline Express is the World's first hospital train. Kitted with state of the art medical facilities, it travels to rural and remote parts of the country providing free medical health care to the poor.

Khel Khel Mein or Just For Kicks are non-profit aimed at bringing sports education to low-income schools where it's lacking or neglected.

FUTURE (T)HERE, the first Youth Conference on Sustainable Living took place just a few days back in Mumbai. 120 Students from 17 government, public and private schools were invited to explore and exchange their ideas and hopes for a better future. 

Her concern with women’s health has led medical doctor Laila Garda to become an entrepreneur. In her manufactory in Pune, India, women are earning their livelihoods creating female hygiene products.

In Kodagu, India, a couple has created a biodiversity haven. Over two decades, the Malhotras bought abandoned farmland and planted a rainforest to invite all kinds of animals into their sanctuary.