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The North Face today announced its Fall 2016 line, including more than 500 down product styles that feature certified responsible down through the Responsible Down Standard (RDS). Officially launched in January 2014, the RDS is the most comprehensive, global, third-party certified animal welfare and traceability standard for down and feathers available for use by any company. The North Face initially committed to include 100 percent certified responsible down in all retail and wholesale down products by Fall 2017, and was able to achieve the increase a year sooner than anticipated. 

The North Face set a goal of procuring 100% of its down from sustainable sources certified under the Responsible Down Standard. The company also plans to use 100% sustainable down for its Summit Series and European styles by 2015.

H&M, Eddie Bauer, The North Face, Marmot, Mammut, Helly Hansen, Outdoor Research, DownLinens, Down & Feather Co. and other leading international fashion, bedding and outdoor brands have adopted the Textile Exchange's Responsible Down Standard, a third-party certification standard that can be applied to any waterfowl-based supply chain to help ensure humane treatment of animals from gosling to end product.

Patagonia will use 100 percent traceable down across its entire collection of down-insulated products starting in the Fall 2014 season, the outdoor apparel company says.

The North Face announced the completion of its Responsible Down Standard (RDS), a tool that will provide a global standard through which the outdoor-gear retailer says any organization can evaluate and certify its full down supply chain.

In response to cries of animal mistreatment, some winter-wear companies have sworn off live-plucked, force-fed down, while others have dropped it completely.

On Wednesday, The North Face announced the completion of its Responsible Down Standard, a tool that will provide a global standard through which the outdoor-gear retailer says any organization can evaluate and certify its full down supply chain.

Chines courts are allowed to hand down the death penalty for serisous cases of pollution

As evidence mounts that excessive use of light is harming wildlife and adversely affecting human health, new initiatives in France and elsewhere are seeking to turn down the lights that flood an ever-growing part of the planet

mounts that excessive use of light is harming wildlife and adversely affecting human health, new initiatives in France and elsewhere are seeking to turn down the lights that flood an ever-growing part of the planet.

Starting this month, the big box giant aims to drive down the price of organic food nationwide with its new in-house line of 100 or so products in exclusive partnership with Wild Oats, a pioneering health brand of the 1980s. Walmart's new Wild Oats organic products - including kitchen cupboard staples like olive oil and black beans - will cost about 25 percent less than those sold by competitors, based on price comparisons of 26 national brands.

The North Face and Patagonia have launched rival standards for animal welfare, with a particular focus on the way the ducks and geese used to produce down are treated. Now the two companies are sparring over which set of standards actually does more to protect the birds.

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.

There's only so far that community or family hand-me-downs can go to address the booming issue of textile waste, so I:Collect (aka I:CO) created a global collection network to keep discarded clothing and shoes out of landfills.

A new peer-reviewed study shows that widespread use of algae in animal feed could help limit the rise in global temperature to 2°C by 2100 and possibly even turn back the clock, bringing atmospheric carbon concentrations down to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Algae-based feeds have proven to be equal to or better than other feedstocks in nutritional value and digestibility, and could free large swaths of arable land and simultaneously address food security issues in an era of rising demand for animal proteins.

New software breaks down the performance of financial investments in environmental conservation.

Microbeads are bad news, but fortunately most of us know that by now. There has been growing resistance to the miniscule pieces of plastic, added to personal care products for their ability to exfoliate skin, or sometimes just to look pretty in a see-through bottle. These microbeads, however, wreak environmental havoc as soon as they're washed down the drain. The outcome is described here by campaign group 'Beat the Microbead':

More than 200 million gallons of contaminated wastewater from a fertilizer plant in central Florida leaked into one of the state's main underground sources of drinking water after a massive sinkhole opened up beneath a storage pond, a phosphate company said Friday. The sinkhole, discovered by a worker on Aug. 27, is believed to reach down to the Floridan aquifer, the company said in a news release.

Coral reefs around the globe already are facing unprecedented damage due to warmer and more acidic oceans. If carbon dioxide emissions continue to fuel the rise in temperature, the widespread loss of coral reefs by 2050 could have devastating consequences, according to new research published in the scientific journal PLOS. "Some of the places that have the most to lose... are also among the biggest carbon emitters," Dr Pendleton said. "They really have it in their power to bring down the levels of carbon" they emit into the atmosphere. The researchers acknowledged that further study is needed to more fully understand what is happening to coral reefs around the globe and how that will affect humans.

Solar Impulse 2 touched down in Abu Dhabi today, becoming the first fuel-free plane to successfully circumnavigate the globe.