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National Geographic released its first Sustainable Tourism Impact Report, which details the social and environmental impact initiatives at properties across its "Unique Lodges of the World" collection. In less than two years, member lodges in National Geographic's collection have achieved the following: rehabilitated and protected over 3.7 million acres of land and sea; provided over $76 million in direct contributions to historic and cultural site preservation; diverted over 3 million pounds of waste from landfills around the world; and more.

A group of companies - including General Mills, The Hershey Company, and Nestlé - have committed to working with the governments of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana to end cocoa-related deforestation, protect national parks from illegal cocoa production, and improve the livelihoods of smallholder cocoa farmers. The initiative is led by IDH - the Sustainable Trade Initiative, the Prince of Wales's International Sustainability Unit, and the World Cocoa Foundation, in partnership with the governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.

GRI, the UN Global Compact and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development have launched a new tool to help companies navigate and contribute to a new set of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations last week. The SDG Compass is a guide that companies can use to align their strategies with the relevant SDGs, and measure and manage their impacts. It is supported by a live and constantly updated inventory of business indicators.

The ocean's value has been estimated as high as $24 trillion, yet despite its inherent connections to the health and well-being of wildlife, humans, and the global economy, it continues to be overexploited and polluted. Plastic pollution and shark killing are two major problems that could be - at least in part - alleviated by new materials: a seaweed-based biodegradable plastic packaging, and a sugarcane-based alternative to a widely used moisturizer normally derived from shark liver oil.

The industry group Sustainable Apparel Coalition has opened use of its Higg Index suite of tools for measuring and evaluating supply chain impact to non-member small and medium-sized (SME) brands and retailers. SMEs may now take advantage of a special licence for full access to the Higg Index. The coalition, which has over 180 apparel, footwear and home textile company members, expects that increasing the number of SMEs participating in the Index will bolster reporting and impact a wider spectrum of the supply chain.

EUROPEN and 35 other associations representing major consumer goods brands, packaging producers, material producers and extended producer responsibility organizations are calling for a long-term, ambitious EU policy framework that enables and facilitates sustainable resource use from a full life-cycle perspective, incentivizes economies of scale and takes into account value chains at all levels, each with their different functional needs, supply and demand realities.

It is a great day for big cats who have long being bought and sold as pets and status symbols - but only for some of them. A newly enacted law in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has finally put a long-awaited ban on the ownership and sale of big cats like tigers, cheetahs, leopards, and more as pets. This is a huge victory for big cats who have long been mistreated and neglected by owners who do not have the capacity to care for an animal whose rightful home is the wild.

Logging emissions is an important step in securing the transparency that China needs to solve its pollution problems, Mr. Ma argues. Among the harmful pollutants are air particles known as PM2.5, which can enter deep into the lungs and even into the bloodstream. In an interview, he talked about the considerable progress he sees in the Chinese government's approach to air pollution, but also how concerns about social unrest continued to constrain discussion of pollution's damage to public health. Before 2013, levels of PM2.5 [the finest and deadliest particulate matter] were not monitored or made public in a single city. Now it's monitored and released in more than 400 cities. China has entered an era when air quality information is released. It's much more transparent. The 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans only referred to "emission reduction targets," so local governments could play games by claiming they had reduced emissions. Now, by saying by what year the PM2.5 must be below a certain amount, it's much harder to fake. The 13th Five-Year Plan is a progressive plan because it says that the public has the right to participate, to monitor, and that it's the public's right to know.

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.

Leaders of eight major seafood companies and fish feed organizations signed a pledge for ocean sustainability after a kickoff meeting of the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship last month in the Maldives. Signatories agreed to improve transparency in their own operations, build on and share best practices, engage in science-based efforts to improve fisheries management and productivity, work toward pollution reduction goals, and support the development of new sustainability technology and initiatives.

WWF's Living Planet Report 2016 shows the scale of the challenges we face regarding the future of our planet - and what we can do about it. The Living Planet Index reveals that global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles declined by 58 per cent between 1970 and 2012. But if humans can change the planet so profoundly, then it's also in our power to put things right. This report provides possible solutions - including the fundamental changes required in the global food, energy and finance systems to meet the needs of current and future generations.

Cotton is planted on 2.4 percent of the world's crop land and yet it accounts for 24 percent and 11 percent of the global sales of insecticide and pesticides, respectively. Organic cotton represents less than 1 percent of the global total annual crop, but National Geographic, international clothing brand C&A, and activist and filmmaker Alexandra Cousteau believe that needs to change. A new 60-minute documentary, For the Love of Fashion, emphasizes "the need for a paradigm shift in the cotton value chain."

A company created by Stanford University is developing a self-sustaining community in the Netherlands. The 25-home neighborhood will produce its own energy from biogas, solar and geothermal sources and will grow its own food. ReGen Villages describes its focus as "[d]esirable, off-grid-capable neighborhoods comprised of power positive homes, renewable energy, water management, and waste-to-resource systems that are based upon on-going resiliency research -- for thriving families and reduced burdens on local and national governments."

Wegmans Food Markets and other grocers, businesses and communities are working with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture to cut 50% of food waste by 2030. Municipal and state efforts to reduce waste are being accompanied by grocers' food-donation and recycling programs.

Plastics are an important part of the global economy and have many practical applications for everyday life, but their indisputable benefits are significantly outweighed by their environmental drawbacks - namely in regards to ocean pollution. Recognizing the seriousness of the problem, Dell, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and NatureWorks are finding new and innovative ways to tackle plastic pollution both at the source and at end-of-life.

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

Hotel chains and casinos are adding low-energy lighting to guest rooms, putting solar panels on roofs and using hotel limousines powered by compressed natural gas, but these sustainable practices could be bolstered by the use of third-party standards that measure hotels against one another, writes Marc Gunther. "[I]ndustry executives cite three reasons why they have begun to take action on the sustainability front: to save money, attract and motivate their employees, and respond to demand from business and leisure travelers," Gunther writes

What do tech giants Apple, Google, Intel and Microsoft, retailers Kohl's, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, the U.S. Energy and Veteran Affairs Departments, and the cities of Houston and Washington, D.C. have in common? According to recently updated data in the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership, they are the most prolific users of renewable energy in the United States.

The iPhone maker's master plan features extensive green space, aggressive water conservation and one of the largest corporate solar arrays in the world.

Just 12% of the global population lives in cities with acceptable air quality, and half of all urbanites are subjected to air pollution levels more than 2.5 times the recommended threshold, according to a new study from the World Health Organization. Mexico City, Karachi and Delhi are among the worst offenders, and researchers also found poor air quality in the U.S. and in European metropolises such as Paris and London