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Britain has gone a week without using coal to generate electricity for the first time since Queen Victoria was on the throne, in a landmark moment in the transition away from the heavily polluting fuel.

Serious labour rights violations have taken place at Brazilian farms linked to some of the largest international coffee certification systems, including Rainforest Alliance and UTZ, according to an investigation by Repórter Brasil. Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world, with about one-third of all coffee consumed planted in the country. These violations include workers' pay packets being falsely docked resulting in some receiving less than half Brazil's minimum wage, and workers being hired informally and without mandatory medical tests. One farm even promoted its output with a Fairtrade certificate it was not entitled to use.

Procter & Gamble plans to end the use of phosphates in all of its laundry detergents in the next two years, a move that will have the greatest impact on developing countries, the Guardian reports.

Cities could save a collective $22 trillion and vastly reduce global emissions by embracing green building, better infrastructure and other environmental measures, researchers say. "Becoming more sustainable and putting the world -- specifically cities -- on a low-carbon trajectory is actually feasible and good economics," said Seth Schultz, a researcher for the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. 

The capacity of renewable energy has overtaken that of fossil fuels in the UK for the first time, in a milestone that experts said would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

There are currently 11 wildfires blazing in the Arctic circle, The Guardian reported Wednesday. While fires are also raging in Russia, Norway and Finland, Sweden has seen the most extensive Arctic fires, which have forced four communities to evacuate,

Nine of the world's biggest fishing companies have signed up to protect the world's oceans, pledging to help stamp out illegal activities, including the use of slave labour, and prevent overfishing.

Just 15% of the environmental claims made by consumer brands in Brazil are confirmed by third-party certification, according to Brazilian research company Market Analysis. The number of products making sustainability claims has increased almost sixfold since 2010, the company's researchers found

People working in green buildings think better in the office and sleep better when they get home, a new study has revealed. The research indicates that better ventilation, lighting and heat control improves workers' performance and could boost their productivity by thousands of dollars a year. It also suggests that more subjective aspects, such as beautiful design, may make workers happier and more productive.

Falling coal use in China and the US and a worldwide shift towards renewable energy have kept greenhouse gas emissions level for a second year running, one of the world's leading energy analysts has said.

Starbucks, Nestle and the University of Cincinnati are among the organizations turning spent coffee grounds into bioplastics, laundry detergents and biodiesel, The Guardian reports.

The European parliament has overwhelmingly backed a wide-ranging ban on single-use plastics in an effort to tackle pollution in seas, fields and waterways. Under the proposed directive, items such as plastic straws, cotton swabs, disposable plastic plates and cutlery would be banned by 2021, and 90% of plastic bottle recycled by 2025.

Freshwater supplies have already seriously declined in 19 global hotspots - from China to the Caspian Sea - due to overuse, groundbreaking study shows

Swedish denim label Nudie Jeans is touting its 100% organic jeans, which it says need to be washed only once every six months, with the promise that it will repair them for free if users manage to ding them up. "People sometimes say that we'd earn so much more if we didn't have this service. ... Yes, we could, but that's not the point. We think long term," says CEO Palle Stenberg

Geoengineering technologies such as injecting sulfur into the atmosphere to offset carbon dioxide will begin to seem less like science fiction and more like a reasonable solution, argues David Keith of Harvard Kennedy School. Not everyone's convinced that's a good idea, though. "Solar climate engineering is a flawed idea seeking an illusory solution to the wrong problem," counters Mike Hulme of King's College London.

Almost two-thirds of companies say water shortages could affect business operations over the next five years, according to the CDP Global Water Report. That's driving shareholders to insist that companies plan for dealing with water scarcity. "It doesn't take many shareholders, especially big ones, to ask a few questions ... about water to make a company to do something," says Stuart Orr, freshwater manager at WWF International

James Cook University researchers are teaming with Australia's Fibercon company to create a greener concrete by using recycled plastic to reinforce it. "Using plastic to reinforce concrete instead of steel can reduce carbon dioxide production by about 50%," said Rabin Tuladhar, associate dean of engineering at the institution. "However, with recycled plastic, you can save 50% more carbon dioxide than you could with virgin plastic -- because you are using plastic that has already been made and repurposing it."

Environmental destruction and landgrabs could lead to governments and individuals being prosecuted for crimes against humanity by the international criminal court following a decision to expand its remit.

"Conscious brands" that are aware of their societal and environmental impact will move into the mainstream in 2014, predicts FutureBrand strategy chief Tom Adams. "No more hair shirts or specialist brands, just products and services across categories that work with the grain of human nature, take sustainability for granted and position themselves around it," he writes