Eric Cardinal

This is Coco Gauff in 2012 dancing at the US Open when she was 8 years old. But today, she looks to win her first Grand Slam as the youngest American US Open finalist since Serena Williams in 1999. Life is crazy.

Environmentalists tried to stop the Dutch GP from coming to Zandvoort for years. They said the event would endanger Zandvoort's dune reserve and counter its effort to fight climate change. So race organizers implemented a unique incentive-based system to combat littering. Here's how it works 👇 When fans arrive at the track, they are given a token to exchange for a plastic cup when buying a drink. If you bring your plastic cup back when buying drink #2, you are given another plastic cup in exchange. If not, you had to pay 1 euro for a new cup. What about your last cup when you know you aren't getting another drink? When you bring your last cup back, you are handed a token with a code you can enter online to win prizes. The result? 70,000 attendees leave no trash left behind. Race officials also close public roads into Zandvoort. That requires attendees to take public transportation or bikes to the race. The result is 98% of attendees traveling via bike or train, with just 2% coming via personal vehicle. So the lesson is simple: The battle between environmentalists and event organizers is draining, often including lawsuits and protests. But incentives run the world, and this is just another creative way of using them to drive outcomes. It'll be interesting to see if these strategies are more widely adopted. **Follow me @JoePompliano for more breakdowns like this.