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When it comes to the private sector's efforts to curb climate change, the rubber hit the road at New York Climate Week. Companies and their nonprofit partners announced numerous milestones and hosted discussions throughout the city to translate lofty goals into action. Meanwhile, new initiatives were launched to deepen collaboration among the private sector, governments and civil society.

In June, C&A, the international Dutch chain of retail clothing stores, launched a line of T-shirts certified to the Cradle to Cradle standard, meaning that they were designed and manufactured in a way that is benign to the environment and human health, and whose materials can be recirculated safely back into industrial materials or composted into the soil.

Forget the romantic image of a lonely fisherman chasing his catch on the open water. Fishing supply chains have become sprawling, technology-driven operations rife with overfishing and human rights abuses.

Recent studies show that the soil in organic farms is up to 44% more effective at trapping carbon that conventionally farmed soil. This discovery is just one of many reasons the UN Food and Agriculture Organization is calling on the world to embrace more sustainable farming practices

The Congressional Budget Office says the government's spending on disasters could rise from today's $28 billion to $39 billion in current dollars by 2075, when 10 million US residents will be "substantially affected" by climate change. The CBO suggests requiring coastal residents to carry more of the financial burden of their risk, as curtailing emissions might not go far enough to address the problem.

According to a report issued today by CDP, deforestation is leaving as much as $941 billion in assets worldwide at risk as they are linked to commodities tied to deforestation.

Emerging evidence suggests oxo-degradable packaging could be more harmful than previously realized.

Last week, Nestlé announced that it will commit to sourcing only cage-free eggs across its entire global supply chain by 2025. This pledge comes almost two years after its U.S. division said it would switch to cage-free eggs for its food brands by 2020.

Marriott International launched Serve 360, a sustainability and social impact platform designed to "guide the company's commitment and deliver positive results" across four priority areas: communities, responsible operations, workplace readiness and access to opportunity, and human rights. As part of Serve 360, the company announced new 2025 sustainability and social impact commitments including targets to reduce water use by 15%, carbon by 30%, waste by 45%, food waste by 50%, and more.

The Carlsberg Group's brewery in Falkenberg, Sweden, is now using entirely renewable energy. The move comes after Carlsberg announced its goal to reach carbon-neutral status as part of its Together Towards Zero initiative earlier this year.

Coca-Cola said in its recently released 2016 sustainability report that while it has made progress toward its "grow the business, not the carbon," gemissions reduction goals, it is off track due in part to volume growth outpacing emission ratio improvements and insourcing of external manufacturing processes.

As an ever-expanding group of U.S. businesses commit to using more renewable energy to power their operations, a new study has found that for many companies, cost savings is the single most important reason for doing so. This is according to results of the first major survey of large electricity users since President Donald Trump announced his decision to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, conducted by SED Research. The Sept. 13 report, "Post-Paris: the State of Corporate Renewable Energy Sourcing," analyzes responses from executives at 94 companies and institutions, more than 40 of which are in the Fortune 500.

Social media giant Facebook has switched all electric accounts at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters to participate in a 100% renewable energy program created by a newly established California electricity supplier. 

Amazon has installed the largest rooftop solar system in the state of New Jersey at its warehouse in Carteret, New Jersey. The 5 MW rooftop system features 20,000 solar panels

According to the report, rising environmental concerns and growing public awareness about eco-friendly products are expected to drive the rapid growth of sustainable packaging market over the forecast period. In particular, consumer demand for sustainable food product packaging is projected to be a large driver.

This morning, UPS announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase up to 11.5 million gallon equivalents of renewable biogas a year well into the next decade. This gas, which is also known as renewable natural gas (RNG) or biomethane, is interchangeable with conventional natural gas, by which much of UPS' fleet has long been fueled.

In 2016, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts had environmental achievements that included saving 12.2 million gallons of water, recycling more than 17,000 pounds of paper for charity, and recycling over 23,000 gallons of cooking oil, according to the company's latest CSR report.

Latin America and the Caribbean are due for an ecological makeover. The World Resources Institute (WRI) says it already has the funding committed to restore some 131 million degraded lands across the region. The project has 16 investors so far. Another 19 investors are already hard and work funding the restoration of more than 24 million acres.

British fast food restaurants and grocery chains, including Tesco, Morrisons and McDonald's, buy their chicken from Cargill, which feeds its poultry with imported soy, much of it apparently coming from the Bolivian Amazon and Brazilian Cerrado - areas rapidly being deforested for new soy plantations.

Earlier this year, around Earth Day, Walmart announced an ambitious plan to work with its supply chain to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by one gigaton. I decided to run the numbers to see what role source reduction, specifically in Walmart's packaging, could play.