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Global trade has made it easier to buy things. But our consumption habits often fuel threats to biodiversity - such as deforestation, overhunting and overfishing - thousands of miles away. Now, scientists have mapped how major consuming countries drive threats to endangered species elsewhere. Such maps could be useful for finding the most efficient ways to protect critical areas important for biodiversity, the researchers suggest in a new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. For example, the maps show that commodities used in the United States and the European Union exert several threats on marine species in Southeast Asia, mainly due to overfishing, pollution and aquaculture. The U.S. also exerts pressure on hotspots off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and at the mouth of the Orinoco around Trinidad and Tobago. European Union's impacts extend to the islands around Madagascar: Réunion, Mauritius and the Seychelles. The maps also revealed some unexpected linkages. For instance, the impact of U.S. consumption in Brazil appears to be much greater in southern Brazil (in the Brazilian Highlands where agriculture and grazing are extensive) than inside the Amazon basin, which receives a larger chunk of the attention. The U.S. also has high biodiversity footprint in southern Spain and Portugal, due to their impacts on threatened fish and bird species. These countries are rarely perceived as threat hotspots.

National Geographic released its first Sustainable Tourism Impact Report, which details the social and environmental impact initiatives at properties across its "Unique Lodges of the World" collection. In less than two years, member lodges in National Geographic's collection have achieved the following: rehabilitated and protected over 3.7 million acres of land and sea; provided over $76 million in direct contributions to historic and cultural site preservation; diverted over 3 million pounds of waste from landfills around the world; and more.

Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest travel and leisure company, today launched a new brand called fathom™, defining a new travel category it is calling "social impact travel," that will offer consumers authentic, meaningful impact travel experiences to work alongside locals as they tackle community needs

A group of companies united in the Roundtable for Product Social Metrics today announces the publication of the Handbook for Product Social Impact Assessment, a practical tool for assessing a product's social impacts throughout its life cycle. The handbook is the result of a unique collaborative effort of market leaders including AkzoNobel, BASF, L'Oréal, Marks & Spencer and Philips.

Marriott International launched Serve 360, a sustainability and social impact platform designed to "guide the company's commitment and deliver positive results" across four priority areas: communities, responsible operations, workplace readiness and access to opportunity, and human rights. As part of Serve 360, the company announced new 2025 sustainability and social impact commitments including targets to reduce water use by 15%, carbon by 30%, waste by 45%, food waste by 50%, and more.

The citizens of four major European countries think the impacts of climate change such as severe floods and storms are already affecting them, according to a major new polling study. The research dispels the idea that global warming is widely seen as a future problem, and also shows strong support for action to tackle global warming, including subsidies for clean energy and big financial penalties for nations that refuse to be part of the international climate deal signed in Paris in 2015 - as US president Donald Trump has threatened.

Honda launched its "Green Path" approach-a suite of initiatives to reduce the total life-cycle environmental impact of its products and operations in North America. Notable initiatives include pledging to reduce its total GHG emissions by 50% from 2000 levels by 2050, investing $210 million in a paint facility to cut CO2 emissions in the painting process by 18% and reduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 66%, 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.

But climate change is making it harder for resort owners and tour operators to make good on this promise. Climate change is having more of an impact on tourist destinations by eroding beaches and bleaching coral reefs. Mountain destinations are not immune either, as a warming climate melts glaciers and snow pack. The latest bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef has again brought to the forefront the growing impact of climate change on tourist destinations. According to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, warmer than usual waters have caused bleaching (PDF) along much of the reef, and have killed nearly a quarter of its coral.

Novo Nordisk became the world's first pharmaceutical company to publish an environmental profit and loss account, which places a financial value on the company's environmental impacts. The analysis revealed that Novo Nordisk caused over $305 million in environmental damage during 2011, with the company's supply chain accounting for 75% its impact.

60 percent of surveyed companies believe LEED positively impacts their return on investment (ROI).

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. 

We have put a cost on the environmental impact of plastic through research we did for the Plastic Disclosure Project. We calculate that plastic costs the planet a colossal $75bn costs per year in the consumer goods sector alone, due mainly to the carbon emissions from plastic manufacturing processes. Oceanic pollution accounts for $13bn as a result of impacts such as the harm done to marine wildlife by discarded nylon fishing nets and ingesting microscopic plastic particles.

What if everyone could have access to food that meets their dietary needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs? That's the idea at the heart of sustainable nutrition. Increased attention to the environmental impacts of food types drives interest in sustainable nutrition, helping spur innovation and interest in those foods that can deliver nutritional value with a reduced environmental footprint.

This year's World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report lists water as the number one risk in terms of impact. The impact of water can already be seen and felt across different parts of society, especially recent droughts in the western United States and Brazil, which have made international headlines, and are evidence of an underlying problem.

Four years after launching its corporate responsibility strategy, Travel with Purpose, Hilton Worldwide says its investments in global partnerships and sustainability programs is not only driving positive social impact, but also supporting long-term business success. Hilton discusses its strategy and provides updates on its global impact in its fourth annual corporate responsibility report.

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has released a new report highlighting the positive impact certification can have in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The MSC Global Impacts Report 2017 details more than a thousand examples of positive change being made by certified fisheries to safeguard fish stocks and marine habitats.

In the largest study of its kind, we pored over more than 1,600 companies' disclosures to CDP on physical climate change impacts, the financial implications of these impacts and what companies were doing to manage them. The disclosures we considered included many of the world's largest corporations, covering 69 percent of global market capitalization. The findings were fascinating, unsettling and inspiring.

Federal agencies must disclose how their actions will impact climate change, according to White House guidance issued today. Read more: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2016/08/02/white-house-to-federal-agencies-consider-climate-change-impacts-of-your-actions/#ixzz4II292aQe

The deforestation consequences of ever-expanding agriculture is well understood. New research suggests that what is less well known is the impact from other industrial practices, including mining, particularly in the Amazon region. In a push for development and growth, governments have been scrambling to reap the economic benefits of extracting large amounts of metal ores, with the deforestation associated with such development in areas of ancient virgin forest more serious than previous thinking suggested, according to a new study.