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A sewage recycling system pioneered by Applied CleanTech (ACT) is reducing a Dutch water board's operational costs by around $1 million a year while reducing sludge by up to 30%. ACT's technology is designed to help industrial and agricultural wastewater treatment plants transform wastewater into raw materials for plastics, insulation, pulp and paper, construction, bio-fuels production, nano-cellulose, and other industries.

The North Face may have just started a new trend in sustainable apparel: locally grown. Taking a cue from the local food movement, the outdoor apparel company developed an all-cotton hoodie that was grown, designed, cut and sewn within 150 miles of its corporate headquarters in California.

The growing amount of solid waste being added to landfills from product packaging is an environmental concern to Cisco. To address this, we strive to design packages that protect against shipping damage while minimizing material usage. Our employee-led "Pack It Green" Initiative, which promotes optimized packaging and order fulfillment, is a big part of this commitment.

Transport for London has today (Wednesday 27 August) announced that it is to trial innovative technology that will enable specially designed buses to wirelessly charge their batteries while they wait at bus stands.

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 industry has resisted pressure for years from environmental groups to warn investors of the risks that stricter limits on carbon emissions could have on their businesses, although that appears to be changing. Energy experts said prosecutors may decide to investigate companies that chose to fund or join organizations that questioned climate science or policies designed to address the problem, such as the Global Climate Coalition and the American Legislative Exchange Council, to see if discrepancies exist between the companies' public and private statements.

The USGBC recently released its 2015 Top Ten States for LEED list, naming the U.S. states that lead the nation in sustainable building design, construction, and transformation. For the third year in a row, Illinois topped the list of total square feet of LEED-certified space per resident. 

HVAC producers, working jointly with design professionals, are in the forefront of the war on climate change," writes Alex Carrick, chief economist for CanaData, part of Construction Market Data Group. The industry has been instrumental in helping to develop innovative plumbing, lighting, glazing and roofing products to increase sustainability, reduce water consumption and improve air quality.

Leveraging biomimicry's unique approach to research and design can lead to sustainable, profitable technologies that mitigate risk and reduce costs. 

Levi Strauss & Co. launched its Wellthread Collection, which is produced with around 65% less water in the dye process and requires up to 50% less water on denim finishes, compared to conventional methods. The collection is also designed for 100% recyclability and produced at facilities that invest in the advancement of financial literacy, women's health, and family wellness. 

London, Amsterdam and Copenhagen have announced they will work together to design a project that will improve the capture of plastics. City officials from the three capitals will share information and experiences on the development and delivery of circular economy action plans. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation recently estimated plastic packaging waste at $80-120 billion annually. 

C&A is the world's first retailer to offer jeans that are completely Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM at the Gold level. Designed in partnership with Fashion for Good, a global platform that aims to make all fashion good, the jeans were made with completely sustainable materials and were produced in compliance with the high Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM Gold level.

The fashion and textile industries continue to make strides towards circular models with the emergence of new resources and technologies that make a sustainable shift easier than ever before. The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute's Fashion Positive Initiative has unveiled a set of online resources designed to rapidly increase environmental and social outcomes in the fashion industry, while the H&M Foundation and The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel have uncovered a new hydrothermal process that fully separates and recycles fabric blends that can then be reused directly without any quality loss.

n Italian fashion designer is spinning the country's spoiled milk into clothing.

New recycling technology will allow paint to be recycled cost effectively and on a large scale, according to UK design company Seymourpowell, working with Dulux paint-brand owner AkzoNobel and Newlife Paints to create this technology.

The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute is now offering its Cradle to Cradle Certified Catalyst Program free of charge. The program helps product developers, designers, and manufacturers better understand and implement the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Program within their organization.

Hershey has redesigned its display cases in such a way that by 2025, they will have reduced packaging material by 25 million pounds, the company says. The new display case is a one-piece design with no cover packaging. It also eliminates the center divider. With these and other changes, the cases use 32% less material, Hershey says. The cases also use about 62% less time to open and set up.

Chile is set to become the first country in the Americas to ban plastic bags to help protect the environment and especially the ocean. Congress unanimously approved the measure on Wednesday. The bill was initially designed to outlaw plastic bags in Patagonia, but was later extended nationwide.

London's Heathrow Airport has unveiled a new sustainability leadership strategy designed to make Heathrow a center of excellence in the aviation industry. The strategy announces ambitious goals to reduce the airport's and the industry's environmental impacts while maximizing economic opportunities throughout the UK. Plans include a new R&D incubator, an ambition for growth from a new runway to be carbon neutral and at least halving the number of late-running departures to reduce noise for local communities.

"Trend Report: The Future of Sustainable Fashion" (H&M Foundation and Accenture) identifies five megatrends driving sustainable innovation in the fashion industry based on an analysis of 3,000 applications submitted for the H&M Foundation's 2017 Global Change Award: the sharing economy, digitalization, biodesign, re-selling and re-design, and innovative recycling.