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The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has announced the winners of the third Cradle to Cradle Product Design Challenge. 138 design professionals and students in 19 countries worked to submit 79 entries for this third round of the contest, which challenges design students and professionals to apply Cradle to Cradle principles to conceptualize and develop product solutions that can help drive the circular economy. More than 230 designers from 30 countries have participated in the Challenges to date.

General Electric has launched an up to CAD$1 million ecomagination open challenge to help accelerate emissions-reducing technology development in Canada's oil sands. The Innovation Challenge will target two of the biggest opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the oil sands: new uses for waste heat and improved efficiency of steam generation.

The Better Buildings Challenge says businesses that have participated in its initiative have reduced energy use 2% annually for a total savings of $1.3 billion. The goal is to make buildings 20% more efficient within 10 years. In total, 34,000 buildings and facilities have been part of the effort.

Caesar's Entertainment is the first company to sign up for the EPA's WaterSense H2Otel Challenge for organizations to encourage hotels to use best management practices that will save water and money, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the report, 95 percent of study respondents ranked aging facilities and infrastructure as one of the most significant challenges facing the industry, followed by the aging of management and plant workers.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Better Building Challenge partners have reduced their cumulative energy use by 240 trillion BTUs and saved $1.9 billion through energy efficiency measures since the launch of the program in 2011, according to the Better Building Challenge's 2017 progress report.

General Mills, Unilever and the Food Waste Reduction Alliance have joined the USDA's Food Waste Challenge as founding partners.

Companies are increasingly seeing climate risks as a major bottom-line threat and viewing corporate sustainability as a must-have rather than an optional extra, writes Matt Timms. Finding effective environmental strategies and messaging remains a challenge, but a growing number of success stories are making it clear that CSR doesn't have to come at the expense of profitability. "[B]usinesses have a responsibility to acknowledge what many consider to be the defining challenge of our time," Timms argues.

Nike on Friday announced two efforts to reduce its environmental footprint and enable business growth: a collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Climate CoLab to bring innovation in materials to the forefront of the climate conversation, and a commitment to reach 100-percent renewable energy in company-owned and operated facilities by 2025.

The BIOcultivator is just one of seven nature-inspired food system innovations participating in the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge Accelerator, a program designed to help budding sustainable entrepreneurs bring their biomimicry design solutions from concept to the marketplace. Over the past year, these teams have been working to test and prototype their designs, and this month, at the National Bioneers Conference in CA, will be vying for the $100,000 Ray C. Anderson Foundation Ray of Hope Prize

Cox Media Group (CMG) announced that the facility housing its Atlanta TV and radio stations (Channel 2 WSB-TV, News/Talk Radio WSB, B98.5, 97.1 The River and KISS 104.1) has met Atlanta's Better Buildings Challenge nearly six years ahead of the 2020 goal. The facility reduced its energy and water consumption by more than 20 percent and is annually saving nearly 650,000 gallons of water and 1,400,000 kWh of electricity through its conservation projects.

The Environmental Protection Agency's plan to cut CO2 pollution from coal-fired power plants now faces significant opposition

Each year, Future 500 releases a report of what we predict will be the most critical social and environmental issues driving corporate-stakeholder engagement in the coming year. This year, we anticipate that corporations will be challenged to go even further than last year, using their economic influence on policy and politicians while being asked to take a bigger stand on global issues.

In 2016, we predict that stakeholders will continue to organize around issues like chemicals, water scarcity and local control of resources, challenging the private sector to drive change in their supply chains, make more time bound commitments and be more transparent. We anticipate increased focus on women impacting the global economy and concern around global ocean health, an issue moving to the forefront of our list.

For a growing number of companies, fighting climate change is a zero-sum game. In late September, several organizations associated with nonprofit sustainability outfit The B Team declared a "net zero by 2050" (PDF) aspiration pertaining to greenhouse gas emissions. Among them: consumer products giant Unilever; apparel company Kering; Chinese construction company Broad Group; African telecommunications carrier Econet; Brazilian cosmetics manufacturer Natura; and British-born investment group Virgin - a geographically diverse group that underscores the global nature of climate challenges.

In the spirit of preservation at the heart of the National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park is setting an example and promoting sustainable building practices. The park's Living Building Challenge and LEEDv4 Platinum-certified project focus on transparency in choosing building products with labels that gauge a product's environmental and material impacts.

Amsterdam-based association Zero Waste Europe is developing a project to empower community groups across Europe to challenge wasteful products and facilitate stakeholder collaboration on their redesign. 'The People's Design Lab' is expected to launch in June, but with only one week left in its campaign, Zero Waste Europe has raised just over €4,500 of its €8,000 goal.

The global market for green chemistry is expected to boom from $11 billion in 2015 to about $100 billion by 2020, according to data from the American Sustainable Business Council and the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council. While challenges remain -- notably around building a consensus about what "green" chemistry really means -- consumers are increasingly demanding safer and more sustainable products. "In a nutshell, the green chemistry market is poised for takeoff," writes Libby Bernick. GreenBiz.com (5/6)  

Thirty-one New York City businesses, including ABC Disney, Whole Foods and Anheuser-Busch, have committed to divert at least 50 percent of their waste from landfill and incineration by mid-June, as part of mayor Bill de Blasio's Zero Waste Challenge.

South Korea has been using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and a 'pay-as-you-waste' system to help cut back on food waste. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the Mayor's Zero Waste Challenge as part of the city's plan to send zero waste to landfill by 2030. Thirty-one businesses, including Disney, Anheuser-Busch, Citi Field, Etsy, Whole Foods, and more, have committed to divert at least 50 percent of their waste from landfill and incineration.

FALLS CHURCH, VA and WATERBURY, Vt., [April 18, 2016] - The Recycling Partnership is delighted to announce that Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. (Keurig), a personal beverage system company that has revolutionized the way consumers create and enjoy beverages, is joining its dedicated and diverse circle of members. Both organizations share a vision to enact system-wide solutions to the recycling challenges of today, working across materials and the supply chain for a bright, sustainable recovery future.