Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Tell us what you’ve been reading at info@reasonstobecheerful.world and we just might feature it here. Marketable skills With few jobs available, youth in the U.K. are taking their skills to market — literally. That’s according to a Positive News story shared by Contributing Editor Geetanjali Krishna. Thanks to a scheme that grants them free market stalls, young entrepreneurs are tapping into an old trade while getting to try something new. One young trader compares the market space to a “live R&D lab” — a place where ideas can be easily tested, with real-time feedback — and a great fit for those less suited to formal workplaces. Geetanjali says: I love stories about projects that help young people find creative alternatives when conventional avenues don’t work out. The U.K.’s National Market Traders Association is offering stalls free to people between 16 and 30, and the nation’s markets are turning into vibrant business incubators. I mean, who’d say no to chili sauce with mango and pineapple? Or to duck-shaped candy floss? Green houses This year, Berkeley, California, became the first U.S. city to require emissions-reducing upgrades any time a home is sold. As the Daily Californian reports in a story shared by Executive Editor Will Doig, the new policy is part of the city’s effort to reach net-zero emissions by 2045. Will says: The best opportunity for cities to get involved with housing upgrades is often when a home is flipping to a new buyer, so it’s good to see one city seizing that moment to green its housing stock. What else we’re reading Denver Cut Street Homelessness Nearly in Half — shared by Contributing Editor Michaela Haas from Governing Study finds cash for pregnant women leads to healthier babies — shared by Editorial Director Rebecca Worby from NPR Now (video) More Shelters Make Room for Four-Legged Friends — shared by Michaela Haas from the New York Times U.S. street drug deaths keep dropping, but some Western states see deadly overdose surge — shared by Will Doig from NPR From our readers… Last month, we published RTBC Founder David Byrne’s interview with Mark Gold, former director of water scarcity solutions at the Natural Resources Defense Council, about how places like Orange County and Las Vegas have become leaders in water recycling, an increasingly vital practice in the parched American West.  Reader Rosemary Cairns reached out to let us know that our interview had left out a key innovator in water recycling: Namibia, where a “pioneering facility … has been producing drinking water from wastewater since 1968,” she writes. And, she notes, people from the U.S. and elsewhere have been traveling there for years to learn from the country’s “progress in developing unconventional water sources.” Read more in Rosemary’s Substack post about Namibia’s success in making every drop count. Thanks for sharing this with us, Rosemary! The post What We’re Reading: Why Young Entrepreneurs Are Flocking to Britain’s Old-School Markets appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.