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In a creative attempt to protect California's waning water supply, Los Angeles released 20,000 "shade balls" into the LA Reservoir. According to researchers, shade balls could reduce surface evaporation by 85 to 90 percent, protect water quality by preventing chemical reactions triggered by sunlight, deter birds and other wildlife, and protect the water from rain and wind-blown dust. 

Cambodian fashion brand tonlé is revolutionizing the textile industry not only with its ethical business model, but also a creative approach to zero waste, creating unique and delicately woven garments perfect for shoppers who are conscientious about how their clothing is made. We caught up with founder Rachel Faller to learn more about the company's motives and impact.

The Grand Central Creative Campus (GC3) Phase 2 received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification-the council's highest honor. This award marks the first Platinum building in the Disney portfolio. The King's Mountain Technology Center, a Disney property in North Carolina, also received a LEED Silver certification.

Skanska has turned its Elizabeth River Tunnels project in Virginia into an example of how civil construction can improve its environmental impact while augmenting modern infrastructure. The company has a recycling/reuse rate of 99% for the project, and its creative ways to benefit the surrounding environment include using concrete waste to create oyster habitats. 

As waste continues to pile up in our landfills, companies are taking a second look at product packaging and devising creative ways to cut back.

Tackling global challenges including Bangladeshi floods, water scarcity, fashion waste and death in childbirth requires creativity and innovation. Here are the runners up for the Sustainia Awards from which a winner will be chosen.

A growing number of organizations from Google to the federal government are incorporating homages to nature into their office blueprints, not just to earn more green building certification points but to reduce employee stress, improve cognitive function and encourage creativity.

The problem of ocean waste, particularly the plastic variety, is a big one, and many creative people are working on ways to clean it up. Finding ways to repurpose the plastic debris collected from the ocean is one component of that, and the U.S.-based startup ByFusion has responded with technology that recycles ocean plastic into durable construction blocks. This way, the plastic waste can be repurposed permanently, rather than being used to create another disposable plastic item that might wind up right back in our precious waterways.

Technology that compresses plastic waste items turns them into blocks suitable for construction, providing a permanent way to remove discarded plastic from the environment. The RePlast system developed by New Zealand-based inventor Peter Lewis is said to be nearly 100% carbon neutral and doesn't require the plastic to be sorted or washed.

The Silk Leaf, by RCA graduate Julian Melchiorri, is the first manmade material that can perform photosynthesis. It has huge implications for science and technology and it could also make long-distance space travel a possibility.

CMO Keith Weed talks about why Unilever's corporate brand has gone from invisible to the forefront of sustainable business.

Their new doc Unbroken Ground is also a 25-minute ad for the brand's new food business, Patagonia Provisions.