Michigan's bottle bill, enacted in 1976, has helped keep our roads, parks, and waterways clean for nearly 50 years. Today, the state legislature is considering whether to expand it, building on a policy that has long protected natural resources while respecting taxpayers.

The Michigan Beverage Container Deposit Law requires a 10 cent deposit on certain beverage containers, money that consumers get back when they return them. It's a market-based approach that has made Michigan's program the most effective in the nation.

Even in more recent years, despite economic shifts and pandemic disruptions, hundreds of millions of dollars are still returned directly to consumers annually. $275.7 million were refunded in 2024 alone. Unclaimed deposits, which come from containers not returned, generate additional funds, with a portion distributed to retailers to offset their operational costs.

The data shows a long track record of high participation, significant refunds to citizens, and a system that largely sustains itself — reinforcing that Michigan's approach has been both effective and financially disciplined over time.

Other states like Oregon, California, Maine, New York, Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont, Hawaii, and Massachusetts have also successfully implemented this system. Their successes highlight the importance of continued support for such initiatives.

Source: Michigan EGLE — Bottle Deposit Law

Pennsylvania families and taxpayers have kept $136 million in their own pockets by making child care more affordable through targeted tax relief. Over the past two years, the state expanded tax credits for working families, and created a new incentive for businesses to help cover employees' child care costs. This approach empowers parents, strengthening families and the workforce.

Childcare failures hit the economy hard. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation reports that states lose billions each year due to parents being forced out of the workforce. Texas loses $9.39 billion annually, Pennsylvania loses $3.47 billion, Arizona $1.77 billion, Iowa $935 million, and Mississippi $673 million. When parents can't work due to unreliable childcare, productivity drops and states lose economic output, costing families, business, and taxpayers alike.

Pennsylvania's model shows what it looks like to treat childcare as an economic issue rather than a social one. The new employer incentive brings businesses directly into the picture: when companies invest in their employees' childcare, they get a more stable workforce in return. Paired with expanded family tax credits, this means more parents are able to show up, stay employed, and contribute to a stronger state economy.

Source: PA Governor's Office — Childcare Tax Credit

Member-owned financial institutions like credit unions show how banking can stay closer to the people it serves while still operating in a competitive market. From family farm loans to emergency food bank donations, institutions such as the America First Credit Union offer better rates, and a fundamentally different relationship with the people they serve.

For families, farmers, and small businesses, these alternatives can offer more personalized service and, in some cases, more flexible lending criteria than larger national banks. This can benefit families struggling with high-interest loans, small businesses turned away for being too risky, and farmers without affordable financing for innovations.

For example, the America First Credit Union (84 years old and member-owned) provides a range of services including small business lending, family banking, and community support programs, often with a strong local focus. It opens small business accounts in minutes, provides personalized lending, and maintains an emergency reserve.

The Clean Energy Credit Union is another alternative that aims to make it easier and more affordable for Americans to adopt practical, reliable energy solutions. It provides financing for home energy improvements and efficiency upgrades (geothermal systems, solar panels, etc.), supporting both household cost savings and work for local contractors and installers.

Lastly, the Bank of North Dakota — established in 1919 — works alongside local banks to support agriculture, student lending, small business growth, and infrastructure financing. Its model highlights how public and private financial institutions can cooperate at the local level to expand access to credit.

This is how finance looks when communities are both the customers and the investors. A hybrid system of member-owned credit unions and public–state banking partnerships with local financial institutions can improve access to credit, lower borrowing costs on mortgages and car loans, expand flexible lending for small businesses, and enable faster emergency lending during economic shocks.

Sources: America First Credit Union · Clean Energy Credit Union

Many people assume that universal healthcare, free education, and paid parental leave are luxuries our country cannot really afford. Countries like Norway challenge that assumption. According to PWC, the average Norwegian pays around a quarter of their income in taxes, comparable to what many middle-class Americans already pay across federal, state, and local taxes combined. Norway proves that investing in people doesn't have to mean paying dramatically more in taxes, but rather thoughtful choices about how public resources are used.

People often assume Scandinavian countries have extremely high taxes. In reality, the median Norwegian earner pays around 26% of their income in taxes. That is not dramatically different from what many middle-class Americans pay when you add up federal, state, and local taxes, but what it "buys" is almost incomparable.

Childbirth is covered through the public healthcare system, and parents receive a full year of paid parental leave. Education is publicly funded through the PhD level. A public livable pension is guaranteed. Annual out-of-pocket healthcare costs are capped at $330, and employees can receive paid sick leave for up to one year to recover from illness or injury.

The range of services that taxes help provide in Norway is therefore very different. As a result of these policies, Norway consistently ranks among the most innovative, productive, and happiest countries in the world. This shows that, when people are not one medical bill or one job loss away from financial collapse, they take more risks, start more businesses, and contribute more to their communities.

Source: Statistics Norway · World Happiness Report

In 1979, Portland established a legally mandated line around the city, separating urban development from surrounding rural land. Known as an Urban Growth Boundary, the policy was meant to preserve farmland and natural areas, while fostering more compact, walkable neighborhoods, and good infrastructure at reduced costs for residents. This has made Portland one of the most studied models of future-oriented urban planning in the world, proving that protecting the land outside a city can be one of the smartest investments we can make for the people living inside it.

The first US urban growth boundary was established in Lexington, Kentucky in 1958. By 1999, the policy was adopted in more than 100 cities, counties, and regions across the country. After establishing the urban growth boundary in 1979, Portland grew by 54% in population over the next two decades, but used only 36% more land to do it. Rather than sprawling outward and using more public funds for new roads and utilities, Portland grew efficiently by concentrating development where infrastructure already existed.

Portland's urban growth boundary has preserved millions of acres of Oregon farmland and forest, while directing investment back into existing neighborhoods. The result has been a denser, more connected metropolitan area, and a stronger community. Residents in dense, walkable Portland neighborhoods spend significantly less on transportation than the average American household. Portland's experience suggests that thoughtful land-use planning can both support growing cities and help protect the land and resources surrounding them.

Source: Oregon Dept. of Land Conservation & Development

In Copenhagen, which aims to become the world's first carbon neutral capital by 2030, residents pay less for energy, commute cheaper, and consistently rank among the happiest people on earth. The city has invested heavily in clean energy, public transit, and bike-friendly infrastructure. These investments have helped maintain a high quality of life, showing that efforts to build a cleaner city can often go hand in hand with making it a more practical, affordable place to live.

Copenhagen set out to become the world's first carbon-neutral capital by making the sustainable choice the practical one. It made significant investments in transit and cycling infrastructure, and the results speak for themselves: since 2010, transport emissions have dropped by 9%, driven by a 12% increase in cycling. Here, the majority commutes by bike, followed by other forms of public transit.

The city's energy system tells a compelling story as well. In the 1970s, following the energy crisis, Denmark launched comprehensive heat planning involving municipalities and energy companies in an intensive national effort. Treating heat as a shared resource, more than 98% of demand is now covered by district heating, where the City of Copenhagen pipes hot water from a small number of large plants directly into buildings across the city. Much of the heat comes from burning waste and biomass that would otherwise go to landfill. Their famous waste-to-energy plant, "Copenhill" is not only energy infrastructure, but also a public space, featuring a rooftop ski slope with artificial turf and a 270-foot open-air climbing wall.

In terms of impact, district heating costs around 45% less than individual oil or heat pump solutions, resulting in lower bills for residents. Overall, every dollar Copenhagen spends on its climate plan generates $85 in private investment elsewhere in the city. This approach created jobs, lowered household costs, and made the city more competitive globally. Denmark consistently ranks among the happiest countries in the world, and Copenhagen is a large reason why. This shows that policies aimed at reducing emissions can also support economic competitiveness and affordability when designed thoughtfully.

Source: City of Copenhagen — Urban Development

Romania has introduced a recycling system that uses financial incentives to encourage participation, while helping reduce waste. Under its new Deposit-Return Scheme, bottles and cans are sold with a small deposit attached. Return it, get your money back. Keep it, lose it. A bottle that gets returned, washed, and refilled is no longer waste, but a resource. Romanians were throwing away tons of usable materials every year, but in the two years since the scheme was launched, beverage-packaging collection has skyrocketed to as high as 94% in some months.

Romanians found a way to put money back in people's pockets, cut municipal costs, and clean up their streets, all without government spending. It is a simple scheme: when buying soft drinks or alcoholic beverages, the customer pays an extra $0.11 USD per bottle and gets the money back when returning the packaging, cleaned and in its original shape, to a collection point, in any shop that sells beverages. The results were immediate: within the first year, litter dropped dramatically, and businesses that run the collection points generated revenue.

The scheme is self-financing. Municipal waste costs fell because less packaging ends up in landfills or on roadsides. This puts money back in people's pockets, reduces costs for local governments, and creates a private sector infrastructure that sustains itself. Romania's successful Deposit-Return Scheme proves that some of the best outcomes come from good incentives, and from equating the right choice to the financially smart one.

Source: RetuRO — Romania's Deposit Return System

As the largest home-owning city in Europe, Vienna proves that affordable housing at scale creates economic stability and community resilience. In the place that retains its reputation as the world's most livable city, Vienna's renters pay roughly a third of their counterparts in London, Paris or Dublin, on average.

About 40 years ago, Vienna started a "land procurement and urban renewal fund" that reserves land in the city exclusively for social housing. Today, over 40 percent of the city's housing units are social housing, providing permanently affordable, publicly subsidized, climate resilient homes for the majority of the city's renters. Social housing is equitably distributed throughout the city, boasting greater income diversity within neighborhoods — and far less inequality between them — than comparable American cities.

As the city's population has grown over the past two decades, Vienna has continued to build affordable housing, where grandparents live down the street from their grandkids, in homes that are energy efficient. Developers' competition in subsidised housing accelerated social innovations and new solutions for climate protection and climate adaptation in the building sector. Its municipal green social housing system provides an example of how, in the context of a conservative national government, states and cities can still take bold action to tackle the housing and climate crises together.

Source: Wiener Wohnen — Vienna Social Housing

Starting in 1989, participatory budgeting let residents in Porto Alegre vote on how to use a portion of city funds. The results were remarkable: clean water reached nearly the entire city, schools multiplied, child mortality dropped by almost 20%, and university attendance doubled. Participatory budgeting became one of the best practical ways to deliver stronger and healthier communities.

Over 11,000 cities, states, and institutions around the world have since adopted the model. In the U.S., cities like Los Angeles and Denver have used it to fund job training, affordable housing, safer streets, and services for underserved communities. In LA, the city allocated $8.5 million to nine neighborhoods where at least 87% of residents are people of color. Residents directed money toward job training, rental assistance, urban agriculture programs, and medical services. In Denver, the People's Budget funded affordable housing, accessible transit, and safer intersections.

Participatory budgeting has helped bring measurable change to smaller communities too: safer streets for pedestrians in Durham, North Carolina, less food waste in Marin County, California, and new bus shelters giving residents in King County, Washington reliable access to transit. Small investments, decided by the people who need them most, added up to more livable, connected communities. The model has spread globally, from Argentina to Finland. Today, Switzerland stands out as the country where participatory budgeting is a binding rule.

Source: Participatory Budgeting Project

Amsterdam became the first city in the world to formally adopt the Doughnut Economics model, replacing GDP growth as the primary measure of success with something more meaningful. Rather than asking how fast the economy is growing, the city asks whether people have enough, and whether the city can sustain that for generations to come. It is a simple shift in question that leads to very different decisions.

Within two years from its adoption (2020), Amsterdam launched over 40 circular economy initiatives, significantly reduced single-use plastics, and redirected urban development planning away from growth-at-all-costs, toward meeting residents' basic needs within ecological limits. The framework has since been adopted by over 70 cities worldwide, from Brussels to Dunedin, signaling a growing recognition that measuring only GDP misses most of what makes a city worth living in.

Source: City of Amsterdam — Doughnut Economics

In the 1960s, Curitiba was fast-growing and facing a choice: build for cars, or build for people. The city's urban planning favoured pedestrianisation, mixed-use neighbourhoods, public transport use, green space and heritage protection. It chose people, and the results have been studied by urban planners around the world ever since.

Curitiba started integrating green spaces with public transit, focusing on a road system and land use that promoted socio-economic development and environmental preservation. Curitiba created the first pedestrian-only street in the city center in the early 1970s. It launched transit corridors with express buses using dedicated lanes, alongside lanes for slower traffic. This system, combined with terminals and a single fare system, created an approach now known globally as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

The largest city and capital of the Southern Brazilian state of Paraná, Curitiba has over 1.7 million inhabitants. More than 60% of commuters travel by bus daily, due to its efficiency and affordable fares. The city maintains 52m² of green space per person, one of the highest densities of urban green space in the world. When severe flooding caused $50 million in damage in the early 80s, Curitiba responded not with expensive concrete infrastructure, but with a natural drainage system using green space to absorb excess water.

Curitiba's 30-year economic growth rate ran 3.1% higher than the Brazilian national average, while per-capita income is 66% higher. The population grew by 1,000% over 60 years, without the inequality and congestion that typically follows that kind of growth.

Sources: City of Curitiba — Urban Planning · RTPI — Case Study: Curitiba