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"Global investments in clean energy hit $367 billion last year, beating expectations, according to a new report from Clean Energy Canada. "

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial leaders met Thursday and pledged to double clean energy investment and meet or exceed Canada's international emissions-reduction commitments. "We are moving toward a pan-Canadian framework for clean growth and climate change," the leaders said in a joint statement.

Palm Oil Free Certification programme launches in UK and Australia A new certification programme has launched to validate consumer products that make no use of palm oil, which has been blamed for fuelling deforestation in Asia. Set up by a group of women experts, the Palm Oil Free Certification Accreditation Programme (POFCAP) is now in operation in Australia and the UK following approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, IP Australia, and IPO UK. Fourteen other nations have applied to introduce the label. Australia-based eco cleaning products company Clean Conscience is the first to carry the label, and the group is working with a host of other companies on certification. Despite improvements to tackle deforestation, POFCAP said "only 17% of all palm oil used can be classed as 'non-conflict'". The scheme is based on extensive research and trusted methods to trace all potential palm oil and palm oil derivative ingredients of a product back to their source. (Business Green)

As national parks face issues with unmanaged waste during the government shutdown, Keep America Beautiful, the largest community improvement organization in the United States, and Nestlé Waters North America, one of the leading beverage companies in North America, announced today that they are teaming up to help mobilize affiliate organizations and volunteers across the country to clean up these shared public spaces.

The team, at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genoa, is using coffee grounds to clean water, turning the grounds into a foam that can remove heavy metals like mercury. "We actually take a waste and give it a second life," says materials scientist Despina Fragouli. Her team took spent coffee grounds from IIT's cafeteria, dried and ground them to make the particles smaller. They then mixed the grounds with some silicon and sugar. Once hardened, they dipped it in water to melt away the sugar, which leaves behind a foam-like material.

JPMorgan Chase has committed to using renewable energy to meet 100% of its global energy needs by 2020. The bank also committed to facilitating $200 billion in clean financing through 2025.

Mission Blue, a new initiative launched by National Geographic and Water Aid India, aims to raise awareness about the 76 million people in India who lack access to clean drinking water. The channel and the organization also are working together on MissionBlueMySchool to provide clean drinking water to 2,500 southwest Delhi students, whose school's water supply now depends on tanker trucks

Two years ago, Apple embarked on an ambitious plan to help its biggest suppliers switch to clean power sources. As of early June, the tech giant has managed to get eight partners on board.

A solar distillation system uses vacuum tube solar collectors to mimic nature's process and produces clean water from nearly any source at low cost. The system by WaterStillar Water Works functions even on cloudy days, although at a slower rate, and can be scaled up to produce as much as 2,642 gallons of drinking water per day. 

The Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) founder is joined by some of the world's richest people in supporting a 20-year fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Investors include Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, and Alibaba (BABA, Tech30) Executive Chairman Jack Ma. Gates will serve as the chairman of the fund, which is the venture arm of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group founded last year to accelerate research and investment in clean energy.

New data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration also highlighted another potential contradiction: Virtually every state suing to block the Clean Power Plan has itself shifted toward burning less coal to generate the electricity its residents need since the year 2007 - in some cases by very large amounts.

Clean-energy investments of up to $1 trillion a year are needed to avoid climate change, and that will require new commitments by major institutional investors, according to a Ceres report. The usual energy investors -- banks and utilities -- won't be able to raise that amount, the report warns.

Last year saw more clean energy milestones than we could fit on one page, but here are 13 of the key breakthroughs that happened this year.

Many facilities are now implementing a number of programs to help reduce the amount of energy, water, fuel, and other resources that they use. If structural, mechanical, or similar changes must be made to decrease consumption, managers often turn to outside engineers and contractors to help with implementation.

Starting Oct. 1, California's Safer Consumer Products law (also called the Green Chemistry Initiative) goes into effect, with the goal of making hundreds of commonplace consumer items safer -- from shampoos and cosmetics to cleaning supplies and food packaging.

At plants in Wisconsin and Holland, SC Johnson -- maker of cleaning products such as Mr Muscle and Pledge -- is using on-site wind turbines and advanced waste-reduction strategies to reduce its footprint. The aim is to develop a network of zero-waste, 100%-renewable facilities around the world. "Every place should be a better place because we are there," says CEO Sam Johnson.

Green cleaning products company Ecover will launch an algae-based laundry detergent in Europe later this year. The product eliminates the need for palm oil, a common ingredient in traditional detergents.

ESA's Clean Space initiative is looking at developing a satellite that can rendezvous with space debris and render it harmless by netting it like fish. According to ESA, there are 17,000 trackable objects larger than a coffee cup orbiting the Earth and many more down to the size of paint chips. This may not seem like anything very dangerous, but at orbital velocity, even a paint chip can hit like a bullet and a steel nut has the impact of a hand grenade.

A few basic (and often profitable) changes in a factory's manufacturing process can go a long way in cutting down pollution. That's the takeaway from Clean by Design, a new alliance between NRDC, major clothing brands-including Target, Levi's, Gap, and H&M-and Chinese textile manufacturing experts.

The nation's largest companies are rapidly embracing renewable energy sourcing and greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts, according to a new report from Calvert Investments, Ceres, David Gardiner & Associates, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The nation's largest companies are rapidly embracing renewable energy sourcing and greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts, according to a new report from Calvert Investments, Ceres, David Gardiner & Associates, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).