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From the use of antibiotics in farming to China's environmental tipping point - a look at the issues that could define the next ten years

PepsiCo has announced it will restore and protect a handful of watersheds in Latin American countries in which it operates, including Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Guatemala. The company announced plans to "replenish" all the water used during manufacturing in high water risk areas by returning it to the watershed from which it was taken.

"Just 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally, one third ends up in the natural environment and if current trends continue, by 2050 our oceans could contain more plastics than fish, by weight," says Rob Opsomer, lead of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's new plastics economy initiative. "We need to fundamentally rethink the way we produce, use and recover plastics, redesign plastic packaging and adopt common standards."

A growing number of billion-dollar companies are showing that sustainability can be a real driver of profits, writes Freya Williams. Companies such as Tesla, Chipotle Mexican Grill, IKEA, Nike and Whole Foods Market are making serious money through eco-friendly business models. "The green giants are turning a strategy of sustainability or social good into a billion-dollar business proposition, and profiting in the process," Williams explains

Tackling global challenges including Bangladeshi floods, water scarcity, fashion waste and death in childbirth requires creativity and innovation. Here are the runners up for the Sustainia Awards from which a winner will be chosen.

Dow Chemical and the Ocean Conservancy explain why they have formed an unlikely alliance to prevent plastic from choking the world's oceans.

Our live chat explored what value consumers place on the sustainability of the products they buy. Here are 10 things we learned

Violent tensions over water are on the rise, from India to Iraq. The solution lies in good governance and business has a key role to play

Vegas still prides itself on selling unfettered indulgence. Round-the-clock gambling, high-end nightclubs and decadent restaurants are not going away. Yet the opening of the Strip's first green space last month is further evidence that, regarding its relationship to the environment, Sin City is turning a new leaf. Featuring native Southwestern plants, recycled metal furniture and fountains built with locally sourced quartz, The Park, as it's called, is designed to create a sustainable microcosm of the surrounding desert landscape and provide a leafy path away from the Strip's tourist-choked sidewalks. It's a bold move away from fabulist themes that ignore the local ecosystem.

A Haitian initiative supported by apparel company Timberland has given way to a more ambitious goal to farm sustainable cotton on the island

Levi Strauss has created a process for using 100% recycled water in parts of its garment production, Michael Kobori, vice president of sustainability at the company, has told the Guardian.

What must be done and why consumer goods companies must step up their efforts to meet the 2020 goal of zero deforestation

Uruguay is generating nearly 95% of its electricity from renewables, according to the Guardian.

It may come as a surprise to learn that we are in the middle of the third great coral bleaching event in human history. And scientists are calling it the severest yet. The last great bleaching event was in 1998 when 11% of the world's coral reef coverage was lost. Some areas like the Maldives lost as much as 90% of their reefs. This event is worse, possibly much worse. 38% of the planet's reefs will be affected, with 12,000 sq km of reefs killed off entirely according to experts.

British shoppers could be unknowingly buying wooden furniture, flooring and even food items that are byproducts of destructive illegal logging in the Amazon, environmental campaigners are warning. Friends of the Earth is calling on ministers to make companies reveal the source of their products in order to stop the black market trade. Last week human rights watchdog Global Witness revealed that 185 environmental activists were killed in 2015, many of whom had been trying to stop illegal logging in the Amazon. An estimated 80% of Brazilian hardwood is illegally logged.

The citizens of four major European countries think the impacts of climate change such as severe floods and storms are already affecting them, according to a major new polling study. The research dispels the idea that global warming is widely seen as a future problem, and also shows strong support for action to tackle global warming, including subsidies for clean energy and big financial penalties for nations that refuse to be part of the international climate deal signed in Paris in 2015 - as US president Donald Trump has threatened.

Technology is being developed to reduce water use in dyeing but the use and abuse of water to dye clothing continues

The paper industry is pushing back against the "paperless" workplace and trying to persuade corporate decision-makers that paper can be greener than you'd think. Sustainably produced paper doesn't harm the planet and is arguably better than technologies that produce electronic waste, industry reps say. "We have to be careful when we pin one product against the other and say it's better. It's a tricky thing to do if you don't have all the data to back it up," says Phil Riebel, president of industry group Two Sides U.S

Shell is set to confront the risk that climate change may pose to its future, after backing a resolution from activist shareholders. The move came on the same day it announced $15bn (£10bn) in cost cutting due to plummeting oil prices and said it wanted to resume drilling for oil in the Arctic.

Shanghai, with its chic cafes, glitzy shopping malls and organic health food shops, is emblematic of improving quality of life for China's urban middle class. Yet while the city's veil of smog has lifted slightly in recent years, its water pollution crisis continues unabated - 85% of the water in the city's major rivers was undrinkable in 2015, according to official standards, and 56.4% was unfit for any purpose.