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Target has set a goal to remove "all unwanted chemicals" from its own product line by 2020. The company expanded its list of high-priority ingredients but removed endocrine-disrupting chemicals from that registry.

Agribusiness giant Olam International has for the first time published a list of the firms it buys palm oil from, part of the company's response to allegations that it is driving forest destruction in Southeast Asia and, more dangerously, perhaps, in West Africa. Almost all of the world's palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, but as those countries run out of available land, companies like Olam are turning to Africa to expand. In defending itself against the NGOs' allegations, Olam points to the "right to develop" of nations like Gabon, where a third of people live below the poverty line and a fifth are unemployed.

Some of the world's biggest companies are seeing waste reduction and energy efficiency as opportunities to help the bottom line. Wal-Mart is changing its sell-by labeling to reduce food waste, while IKEA is running furniture-recycling and clean-energy initiatives to reduce its costs. "We've taken power from a cost to profit center," says IKEA Chief Sustainability Officer Steve Howard.

Companies are increasingly seeing climate risks as a major bottom-line threat and viewing corporate sustainability as a must-have rather than an optional extra, writes Matt Timms. Finding effective environmental strategies and messaging remains a challenge, but a growing number of success stories are making it clear that CSR doesn't have to come at the expense of profitability. "[B]usinesses have a responsibility to acknowledge what many consider to be the defining challenge of our time," Timms argues.

Elsewhere, a number of high-profile companies, including Apple, Disney, Microsoft and PepsiCo, are experimenting with small renewable energy projects fueled by biogas generated through organic waste. General Electric is another vocal advocate - mainly because it provides a line of industrial generators and combined heat and power systems that can operate using this fuel source.   

Foodservice packaging company Pactiv has added a new line of foam cups to its EarthChoice portfolio. The new foam cup is made with up to 25 percent post-consumer recycled content material, the company says.

Chipotle in February will launch "Farmed and Dangerous," a Web series lampooning the factory-farming industry. The show, which will run on Hulu, stars a character named Chip but otherwise has little obvious connection to Chipotle's brand or products, Noam Cohen writes

Panera Bread has been using antibiotic-free meat for a decade, but unlike rival Chipotle, it's struggled to effectively communicate its green credentials to consumers. writes Andrew Marder. The company is introducing a communications strategy touting its produce, donations and community cafes for low-income families. "[T]here's a lot of value in the work that Panera is doing, and it just takes a few good ad campaigns to bring that value to bear on the bottom line," Marder writes.

Now that climate change is directly impacting the well-being and safety of many communities, the conversation has officially shifted from mitigation to adaptation.

Swiss chemical giant Clariant today announced the launch of Nipaguard® Zero - a powerful line of optimized preservative blends for cosmetics that contain no parabens, yet deliver a comparable performance.

Delta Air Lines has joined oil industry trade groups in fighting the US biofuel mandate. Through its refinery unit, Monroe Energy, Delta has filed a lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging the EPA's 2013 renewable fuel requirements, FuelFix reports.

H&M's sustainable fashion collection, Conscious Exclusive, hits stores this week. The eco-fashion line is the brainchild of the Swedish retailer and eco-design think tank EVER Manifesto, whose founders, Elizabeth von Guttman and Alexia Niedzielski, model the collection alongside supermodel Amber Valletta. 

H&M is running a series of print ads in British newspapers to promote its "Conscious" line of eco-friendly clothing, and to tout a clothing-collection service that rewards shoppers with a £5 discount voucher for each bag of used clothes they drop off at a branch of H&M. "We want to inspire people to make a difference and engage with our customers to do things that are more sustainable," says Linda Maggs, H&M's sustainability manager.

Just weeks after partnering with surfer Kelly Slater on his new men's apparel line, Outerknown, upcyled fiber supplier Aquafil has announced it has partnered with Speedo USA on a take-back program that will allow Speedo's post-manufacturing swimwear scraps to be upcycled into Aquafil's 100 percent regenerated ECONYL® nylon. The take-back program gives new life to leftover fabric scraps, which would otherwise end up in landfills, and allows them to be turned back into raw nylon fiber and eventually new swimsuits. 

Developers in Japan built too many golf courses during a recent real estate boom, and now some of the under-used facilities are being converted into solar farms, with hundreds of thousands of solar panels lining former fairways and putting greens. Similar strategies are being considered in the U.S. as interest in the sport wanes

The Ford Foundation, together with the Climate and Land Use Alliance, will host a meeting among major corporate, indigenous and government leaders for a conversation about what it will take to slow deforestation, reduce conflict over forests and stem global climate change.

According to Kobori, the waterless jeans are as good for the environment as they are for Levi's bottom line - they cost less to produce than a standard pair because they consume less water and energy. In 2014, Levi's saved an estimated $1.6 million in costs of goods sold from the program.

A number of leading apparel companies have come to realize that the way we produce clothes has a direct impact not only on the world's valuable water resources, but also on the industry's bottom line.

The non-GMO labeling movement received a big boost last week when PepsiCo announced that it would begin including the Non-GMO Project's butterfly seal on the Tropicana juice line. "Tropicana Pure Premium is non-GMO, and it always has been," said brand chief Björn Bernemann. "Some consumers, however, are expressing a desire to get beyond what brands are actually telling them, and we felt having external verification would give our consumers assurance." 

Increasing the recycling rate to 100 percent industry-wide could generate an estimated $10 billion in cost savings and natural capital benefits, according to Trucost. For example, creating better closed-loop processes for reusing gold would have a bottom-line benefit of almost $100 million compared with $14.6 million at current recovery levels, according to the Trucost data.