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We Mean Business describes itself as "a coalition of the world's most influential businesses calling for ambitious climate policy and bold climate action." The new group - a coalition of coalitions, really - aims to fill a void to counter well-heeled trade groups, think tanks and corporate lobbyists aimed at maintaining the status quo.

AkzoNobel has launched the Human Cities Coalition, a multi-stakeholder group that is dedicated to accelerating progress against UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. The coalition is comprised of more than 150 stakeholders and 20 partners, including Arcadis, Philips, and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The New Climate Economy launched the Coalition for Urban Transitions, a global initiative to bolster the economic case for improvements in urban development. The Coalition will work with countries - including China and India - to ensure effective urban infrastructure investment is a central part of their growth strategies.

The Natural Capital Coalition selected the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the International Union for Conservation of Nature to develop the Natural Capital Protocol, a methodology for companies to assess their reliance on natural capital. The organizations will also lead pilot projects with major companies to test the protocol.

CVS Health has joined GreenBlue's Sustainable Packaging Coalition to advance efforts around reducing product packaging waste in collaboration with its suppliers. The Sustainable Packaging Coalition has more than 190 members, including Amazon, BASF, Dow Chemical, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, and more.

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.

The Minnesota Sustainable Growth Coalition is a business-led public-private partnership harnessing the collective expertise of over 25 companies, including 3M, Aveda, Dow Water, Ecolab, General Mills, the Great Plains Institute, and Target, to advance the next frontier of corporate sustainability - the circular economy - here in the U.S. Environmental Initiative, a local nonprofit organization, is convening and facilitating the coalition

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), which counts more than 100 major companies among its members (including clothing brands such as Adidas and Hanes, as well as retail giants such as Target, H&M, and JCPenney), is working to create stronger standards for sustainable products

A coalition of more than 20 public interest groups, sent a letter pressuring Kraft Foods to reduce its packaging waste. The group, calling themselves the Make It, Take It campaign, has asked Kraft to develop plans to design packaging from safe, sustainable materials using recycled content, while minimizing unnecessary packaging.

The Coca-Cola Company, The Dow Chemical Company, and Kering are among 10 companies to begin testing and refining the new Natural Capital Protocol, in collaboration with the Natural Capital Coalition and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. The participating companies will use the Protocol to assess water use opportunities and risks in site-specific locations, explore methods for aligning strategic business decisions with natural capital assessment results, and more.

The Governors of California, New York, and Washington have formed the United States Climate Alliance-a bipartisan coalition of nine states committed to upholding the Paris Agreement despite President Trump's decision to end U.S. participation. The nine states - California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Oregon, and Hawaii - represent nearly a third of U.S. annual GDP.

Unprecedented momentum is being delivered by over 600 companies committed to bold climate action, through the We Mean Business coalition's Take Action campaign. The campaign brings together strategic climate commitments, facilitated by the We Mean Business coalition partners, which are collectively helping these companies tackle some 2.31 gigatons of Scope 1+2 emissions - equivalent to the total annual emissions of Russia. These initiatives are also helping companies to harness climate action as a driver of innovation, competitiveness, risk management and growth.

Rates materials in apparel an footwear manufacturing for their environmental sustainability.

The Coalition for Higher Ambition issued a statement calling on EU officials to "act on the Paris Agreement and ensure that EU climate policies are coherent with its goals." The Coalition for Higher Ambition is an informal group of businesses, investors, NGOs, and others working together to promote leadership on climate change mitigation in the EU.

BSR and Forum for the Future launched the Net Positive Project, a coalition to clearly define what it means to be net positive and build a framework on how to scope, measure, and communicate net positive outcomes. Founding company members include Dell, The Dow Chemical Company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Kimberly-Clark, and others.

The political outcomes of COP21, the UN climate conference, may still be unknown, but at least we can expect substantial investment in clean energy following two initiatives announced earlier this week: Mission Innovation, a commitment from 20 participating countries to double their governmental and/or state-directed clean energy research and development investment over five years; and the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a global group of private investors who will support the commercialization of clean energy ideas

news broke of a pending decision by the RSPO Complaints Panel to lift the suspension of IOI Group's certification under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification system. If successful this move would do irreparable harm to the RSPO's credibility. Less than five months after the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) suspended Malaysian palm oil producer IOI Group's certification, that suspension has been lifted - much to the dismay of NGO campaigners. While the RSPO's Complaints Panel has said it is "satisfied that IOI has met the conditions set out in its letter to IOI," Greenpeace Indonesia and the Center for International Policy says they have yet to see any real action on the ground. This was the second time a suspension has been placed on an IOI subsidiary. A coalition of NGOs has rapidly issued an appeal, urging the RSPO to maintain its suspension of IOI Group stating that it is far too premature to lift the suspension given that the company has not come into full compliance with the RSPO Certification Systems nor resolved outstanding complaints. There are fears that any change at this stage would seriously hinder the resolution process between the complainant and the company.

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.

The company became the first within the toy industry to adopt such an 'environmentally friendly' stance towards their packaging, which took approximately six years to develop. Adam Gendell, Sustainable Packaging Coalition Associate Director told Toy & Hobby Retailer, "Disney is rising to the challenge by reinventing its long-standing practices to set a new standard across its industry that is not only more sustainable but that will inform what generations of children will expect of packaging and its environmental impact."

The Natural Capital Coalition launched the Natural Capital Protocol, a framework for harmonizing natural capital valuation across business sectors. The framework was developed over the last two years with input from more than 450 organizations and has been piloted by companies including The Coca-Cola Company, Dow Chemical, Nestlé, and others.