Best Sustainability News of 2025
2025 has been a year of significant change. In the world of the environment and sustainability, there have been setbacks that are often heavily covered by media outlets, but it is equally important to highlight the positives occurring in the world as well. Keeping environmental hope and highlighting progress is essential to an optimistic view of our future.
From new electric bus fleets to corporations investing in forest conservation, this article showcases captivating and inspirational sustainability stories from 2025. Luxiders previously published a highlights article in 2022 featuring inspiring stories, making it important to continue the conversation and expand its sustainable narrative.
Creation of Largest Marine Protected Area to Date
Exciting advancements emerged at the United Nations Ocean Conference, where the President of French Polynesia pledged the creation of a marine protected area covering nearly 5 million square kilometers. Once established, the total protected area will be nearly twice the size of France. This initiative not only fosters marine conservation but also highlights traditional knowledge and actively involves the public in management efforts. It is an especially impactful development, as French Polynesia, a small island nation disproportionately affected by the negative consequences of climate change, continues to demonstrate a strong and positive commitment to environmental leadership and change
Corporate World Stepping Up to Preserve Forests
In 2021, the World Wildlife Fund introduced Forest Forward, a new initiative that enables the corporate world to engage in and invest in conservation, ultimately making a positive impact. In just four years, it has expanded to over 26 companies and 4 million hectares, making 2025 a milestone year not only for WWF but also for the companies involved. Forest Forward is just getting started and has exponential room to grow in the coming years, providing an optimistic blueprint for more companies to get involved.
Powerful Art Showcases Highlighting Ecological and Sustainability Themes
Climate and art go hand in hand. Art provides a medium for climate to be explored beyond words, engaging instead with feeling, emotion, and community. The 2025 ESEH Climate Histories Conference is a strong example of this intersection. The thought-provoking installations featured videography, participatory artwork, dance, and sculptures made from biomaterials. While the showcase took place in Scandinavia, the curators featured global work and successfully presented climate storytelling across multiple mediums, each as impactful as the next.
Dakar Wins the 2025 Sustainable Transport Awards
Highly urbanised areas such as Dakar have been searching for solutions to the environmental and social challenges that have emerged in recent years. Dakar’s response was the launch of an all-electric bus fleet across the city. The project has been a success, reducing CO₂ emissions by 53,000 tonnes, cutting travel time into the city by 45 minutes, and making over 180,000 jobs more accessible to low-income individuals. Successful across environmental, economic, and social fronts, the initiative now stands as a powerful blueprint for what cities can achieve.
Advancement in Farming Technology: Precision Agriculture
With the global population on the rise, farmers must keep pace with growing demand for crop production while continuing to provide consumers with a steady food supply. Increasing climate extremes and soil degradation have made agricultural production especially challenging in recent years; however, new technologies are allowing growth to continue. Precision agriculture, which combines granular sensors with geographic information systems, creates optimized farms where every inch of land is effectively utilized. These sensors provide real-time data on irrigation and nutrient levels, maximizing efficiency while minimizing waste. Advancements such as precision agriculture have boosted yields by up to 30%, and continued optimization is expected with the integration of artificial intelligence.
EU Welcomes Climate Education into the Curriculum
Education on the climate crisis is essential to building a broader understanding of the issue, as well as a collective awareness of what is currently happening and where change is needed. EU nations recognize climate education as a vital skill and are equipping the next generation with knowledge that will allow them to enter the workforce as changemakers, regardless of the industry they pursue. Climate education now reaches 152 countries, making the next generation more climate literate and, hopefully, inspiring meaningful change.
“Essential for fostering an informed understanding of the climate crisis, building resilience to disinformation, and creating a sustainability-skilled workforce.”
Advancements in Recycling
2025 has been a significant year for recycling development and research. Advancements in chemical recycling, which sort plastics based on polymer types and convert them into new end products, have proven to be more effective than traditional mechanical recycling methods. These innovations help address challenges such as improperly sorted loads and unwanted contaminants, making recycling more efficient overall. Alongside chemical recycling, the expansion of AI-driven sorting systems and waste upcycling initiatives is helping the industry keep pace with the realities of a single-use society.
Sporting Organisations Going Green
In the United Kingdom, one of the most beloved and historic sporting organizations, the Premier League, has made tangible changes to its sustainability efforts. Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium is run 100% by renewable energy and can store clean energy in a battery for use in off-peak hours. The fan experience itself is also going green. Wembley Stadium had aluminum cups for its fans, making recycling easier and saving 400,000 plastic cups. These advances, however big or small, are big wins for sustainability in large event spaces.
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