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India is delaying a decision on asking for a dispute settlement panel at the World Trade Organisation against domestic content regulations in renewable energy programmes run by eight states in the US as it is hoping to work out a "mutually beneficial'' solution with the new regime under Republican leader Donald Trump. "New Delhi is still hopeful that it could work out a compromise with Washington on the flexible implementation of the WTO verdict against it in the solar power programme dispute. It may decide not to ask for a panel against US renewable energy programmes if it gets an assurance from the Trump administration on leniency in the solar case," a government official told BusinessLine.

L'Oréal has outlined a new sustainability plan it hopes will help it reach its target of 1 billion new consumers by 2020 by producing more products with less environmental impact and helping customers make desirable but sustainable lifestyle choices.

L'Oréal has outlined a new sustainability plan it hopes will help it reach its target of 1 billion new consumers by 2020 by producing more products with less environmental impact and helping customers make desirable but sustainable lifestyle choices.

Construction is finished at the 33-story Tower at PNC Plaza in Pittsburgh, a structure considered one of the world's greenest buildings. It was designed to use 50% less energy and 77% less water than a regular office building. The project used new materials techniques, requiring construction workers to understand the latest technology. "They get trained and they get retrained when new things come out," said Jack Shea, Allegheny County Labor Council, AFL-CIO president. 

The governments of the East African Community hoping to ban imports of secondhand clothes. The logic is that by stopping the trade of used garments, the apparel industry will be revitalized, create jobs and exports, and bolster their economies. What impact would this ban have on the donating Western countries? If we could no longer offload our unwanted discarded clothing onto the poor, what would we do with those clothes?

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

The medals in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be maybe just a little more hard-earned than usual: The Japanese organizers are hoping to source the medals from e-waste, stripping gold, silver, and bronze from old gadgets and cellphones.

Developer FivePoint has a new plan to reduce carbon emissions at its proposed $12.7 billion master-planned community in California's Los Angeles County after a court blocked the project on environmental grounds. The company hopes to begin construction in 2018 and will implement zero-net-energy construction when it builds the 21,500 homes, each of which will have a charging station for electric vehicle.

Rising temperatures and changing precipitation are taking a toll on coffee farms worldwide, including the plantations around Mount Kilimanjaro. If the world hopes to sustain its two billion cup-a-day habit, scientists say, new climate-resilient species of coffee must be developed.

The Minnesota National Guard installed solar panels and geothermal systems at its Camp Ripley base in an effort to reach zero emissions. The Guard earned a silver LEED rating for its readiness center and hopes to achieve a similar rating for all of its federally funded buildings.

Companies including SABMiller, Dow, Novozymes, and many others have begun to align their corporate responsibility targets with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since the United Nations (UN) launched them in September. Indeed, aligning corporate strategy with the SDGs demonstrates the relevancy of social and environmental efforts, and private sector contributions are essential if we hope to achieve the 17 ambitious targets by 2030.

More than 800,000 volunteers planted saplings in public spaces in the state of Uttar Pradesh hoping to reduce greenhouse gases and reforest the countryside

H&M, one of the most eco-conscious fashion stores out there, has been battling against just that since 2013, and is hoping to enlist the help if its customers with a powerful new video. Entitled Bring it on, a short film shows what happens to the garments you recycle, from being turned into new fabrics for new clothes to being used as cleaning clothes. In doing this, it hopes to collect 25,000 tonnes of unwanted clothes per year by 2020. 

H&M's "Bring It On" campaign encourages customers to recycle unwanted clothing at local stores, with Londoners getting a gift voucher worth about $6.25 in exchange. The company aims to collect more than 27,500 tons of used clothing and donate the funds from the garments toward textile recycling and human rights organizations.

A giant solar receiver in California's agricultural region may offer some hope for farmers who have been denied water in a record-setting drought. Conservation policies to protect endangered fish species have have contributed as well.

Palm oil production is a big business in Malaysia and Indonesia, but environmental pollution is one of the industry's biggest problems. A Silicon Valley company hopes to turn that problem into a profit by converting wastes from palm oil production into fuel

America's Best Coffee Roasting Company has been pulling out all the stops to reduce its waste, sending coffee chaff to animal-feed makers and leftover sacks to gardening companies. Now it's switched to using bulk containers rather than plastic bags that can't easily be recycled. "In hindsight, it didn't really take that much effort. I hope other companies feel inspired and consider similar changes for their businesses," says Vice President Kelly Zeissner.

A Dutch court has ordered the government to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent by 2020 in a groundbreaking climate case that activists hope will set a worldwide precedent.

In a country experiencing one of the most rapid deforestation rates in the world, an experiment in community-managed timber production lends some hope to the possibility of net zero deforestation harvesting.

The world's climate negotiators are in Lima this week for talks that it's hoped could yield a new global accord on tackling climate change. The deal between Beijing and Washington has paved the way for meaningful discussions at the global level, participants say. "The prospects are so much better than they've ever been," said former Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

When the drivers of deforestation are buried deep in the supply chain, innovative and collaborative solutions are required. Many companies have made big commitments toward solving the problem, but upholding them has been almost as difficult as gaining transparency into the supply chains themselves. For many companies, the hope for making good on their promises may come in the form of powerful partnerships.

For decades, the slaughter of sharks - sought after for their fins and meat - has been staggering. But bans on finning and new attitudes in Asia toward eating shark fin soup are leading to optimism about the future for these iconic ocean predators