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he island's current water supply comes from local wells, supplemented by the desalination plant located at the SCE Pebbly Beach Generating Station. The existing desalination facility produces up to 200,000 gallons of water per day, and with this GE expansion, the overall future capacity will increase to up to 350,000 gallons of water per day.

Comcast, DirecTV, Cisco, AT&T and other consumer electronics and pay-TV companies, along with the Energy Department and other organizations, have developed standards for cable TV boxes expected to avoid more than 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

NRG Energy, Inc. has announced ambitious sustainability goals as part of its continued corporate growth strategy. NRG says it estimates that its new carbon-reduction goals will avoid approximately 3 billion tons of CO2 emissions by 2050.

"Non-GMO" is one of the fastest-growing label trends on U.S. food packages, with sales of such items growing 28% last year to about $3 billion, according to market-research firm Nielsen. In a poll of nearly 1,200 U.S. consumers for The Wall Street Journal, Nielsen found that 61% of consumers had heard of GMOs and nearly half of those people said they avoid eating them. The biggest reason was because it "doesn't sound like something I should eat."

Finally, the fashion industry realizes we cannot continue this trend in a world where the rising population will have to devote more land to food - or even energy. We cannot continue to grow cotton like mad, nor can we endlessly spin fossil fuels into polyester or other synthetic fabrics. The road toward more sustainable fibers will be a long one with plenty of failures and misses, but it is one we need to take. That is, at least, absent a total rethink of how many clothes we really need in our closets - a discussion the large global clothing chains want to avoid.

The Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament diverted 100% of its waste from landfills for the second consecutive year. The tournament also avoided 346 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, 369,000 gallons of water, and 471,000 KW-h of electricity.

Dell's Connected Workplace program helped the company avoid 6,700 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions last year.

To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the world needs to invest $44 trillion in clean energy by 2050 - an average of $1.2 trillion per year for the next 36 years. Yet global investment in clean energy was just $254 billion in 2013, down from $286 billion in 2012 and down from the record $318 billion in 2011. We have a long way to go to achieve the Clean Trillion goal. There are, however, several signs of progress.

PepsiCo announced that its transportation fleet reduced fuel consumption by 24% from 2010 levels, enabling the company to avoid 55,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions. PepsiCo also announced new efforts to seek lower-carbon fuels from suppliers, join the Business for Social Responsibility's Future of Fuels program, purchase additional electric delivery vehicles, and help to develop appropriate U.S. fleet fuel efficiency standards.

Unilever achieved zero non-hazardous waste to landfill across its global factory network. The company reportedly avoided around $229 million in costs and created hundreds of jobs. Editors note: Unilever explained that hazardous waste only represents a small percentage of total factory waste.

Environmental group Basel Action Network launched a new mobile app that measures the benefits of using e-Stewards Certified Recyclers to dispose of e-waste. The app will provide data on avoided GHG emissions, toxic metals diverted from landfills, and precious metals recovered from the electronic device.

Private equity firm KKR announced that Del Monte, Dollar General, Sealy, and the 24 other companies in its Green Portfolio Program have collectively avoided more than 2.3 million metric tons of GHG emissions from 2008 to 2013, generating $1.2 billion in new savings and revenues. Companies in the Green Portfolio Program agree to assess, measure, and optimize their environmental performance in ways that improve their businesses.

The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute will offer a material health certificate, a tool for manufacturers across industries to avoid chemicals of high concern, shift to safer ones in their products and encourage product and supply chain transparency.

Walmart launched a new sustainable agriculture strategy emphasizing locally sourced produce, sustainability training for farmers, and supply-chain environmental assessments. The company will also seek to reduce food waste in stores, purchase sustainable palm oil, and avoid Brazilian beef linked to Amazon deforestation.

President Obama will issue an Executive Order to cut the Federal Government's GHG emissions by 40% and increase its consumption of electricity from renewable sources by 30% over the next decade, compared to 2008 levels. The plan is projected to save taxpayers up to $18 billion in avoided energy costs.

Environmental health non-profit Environmental Working Group launched a verification standard to help consumers identify personal care products and cosmetics that avoid the use of toxic and potentially harmful chemicals.

Companies and consumers are increasingly gravitating toward "clean labels" that include simple, transparent and jargon-free information about products, often including their health and environmental impacts, writes Andrew Winston. "Neglecting the clean-label movement will cost you customers and workers; avoiding it as a purposeful strategy could destroy the company or a few careers," Winston warns

The Paris climate accord heralds a new era for the global economy, with a wide range of investors and industries now likely to seek ways to avoid carbon risks and adopt less carbon-intensive ways of doing business, experts say. Secretary of State John Kerry says the deal will be a net job creator and sends a powerful message to the marketplace. Nancy Pfund, managing partner of DBL Partners, agrees. "It's very hard to go backward from something like this. People are boarding this train, and it's time to hop on if you want to have a thriving, 21st-century economy," she says. 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is expanding its program to clean up the products it sells, setting a 2022 target for reducing potentially harmful substances and widening the list of chemicals it wants to avoid.

Billed as a planetary health diet for both the Earth and its people, the set of guidelines put forward by the EAT-Lancet Commission gun for nothing short of a "Great Food Transformation," something they say would feed 10 billion people, save lives and avoid large-scale environmental destruction.