In the midst of deep concerns over global warming, climate change and severe economic downturn, there’s an equally important area deserving of a bright spotlight.

The idea that predominantly negative situations are occurring around the world in regards to climate change is grossly inaccurate. There is an amazing amount of creativity and innovation going on with products that successfully address some issue or problem related to our Environment. From building materials that help homes save significantly on heating expenses to a prototype revolving door that generates electricity to power the lobby of a building, from a high school student discovering a method that allows thin white plastic bags to decompose in record time to an office chair that’s 90 percent recyclable – there is an amazing amount of talent and drive to create solutions to problems that are so vividly splashed across media headlines around the country.

Little coverage is given to progress being made with these harbingers of possibility. Perhaps because of this, there’s a growing sense among the population that we are on a downward spiral when facing the serious threats that climate change presents.

It’s time for a new focus, a new perspective to be paid attention to, one that could inspire people to see that positive things are being done by ordinary individuals who are making a difference with one little piece of the puzzle.

Take for instance 16 year old, Ontario, Canada high school student, Daniel Burd, who got tired of dealing with those now-being-banned thin plastic bags and decided to do something about it. Taking this as his science fair project, he worked to find a way to speed up plastic’s decomposition rate – estimated to take around 1,000 years – to a much more rapid timeframe.

Eventually, he came up with a formula that’s simplicity is almost mind boggling. Mixing up a witches brew of landfill dirt, yeast and tap water, he added plastic and let it “stew”. Finding that it did speed up the decomposition process, after experimenting with different temperatures and structures, he isolated the bacteria that were the catalysts for the change. This resulted in hastening the process to an estimated 3-month breakdown period – a dramatic breakthrough – and netted him the Science Fair’s 1st prize, a $20,000 scholarship, and a $10,000 prize at the national science fair.

This is just one example of regular folks making a difference. Imagine the impact on the average American if these creative innovations and breakthroughs were more widely reported on a regular basis? Could it raise our national morale? Perhaps even inspire people to believe they too could do something, dispelling the oft believed “I’m only one person, what can I do?” perspective?

Paul Skehan of the European Retail Round Table was right when he said, “consumers are the most powerful agents of change in the economy.” The simple ability to read and hear more about the positive side of the equation could be the trim tab factor that makes the difference.