The Sundolier, a cross between a skylight and a low-grade telescope, is a high-tech, active natural daylight system.

On a visit to Mozambique in 2005, Elizabeth Scharpf heard a statistic that nearly half of girls and women in Rwanda miss school or work when they are menstruating because menstrual napkins are too expensive.

When Anders Wilhelmson met with Mahila Milan, a group of women pavement dwellers in Mumbai, India, they told him they didn’t need an architect, they needed clean hygiene.

Indoor air pollution is one of the leading causes of death for children under 5 in the nomadic Himalayan communities of China whose common source of fuel is biomass, or animal dung.

While the sun, water, wind and hot core of the earth continue to yield exciting opportunities for generating clean and renewable energy, some pioneering designers have looked to harness human exertion rather than elemental forces.

Rainwater tanks are the primary source of water in many parts of the world. However, today almost 60 percent of the world’s population lives in cities.

Greywater Action began as a grassroots solution for high water consumption. In 1999, founders Laura Allen and Cleo Woelfle-Erskine started a garden behind their housing cooperative.

The Aravali Mountains in northwestern India are home to the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, established in 1937.

Water bladders are an efficient, life-saving method of distributing and storing potable water in emergency situations.