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Corporations interested in sustainability have become a major driver in the renewable energy industry, said experts at the North American Energy Markets Association meeting in Florida last month. "There is about 15 GW of latent demand for renewables that wants to be built by 2020 in order to meet the targets of Fortune 500 companies that have committed to some degree of renewable energy in their supply portfolios," said Invenergy Vice President of Sales and Marketing Craig Gordon. 3M, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft are among the companies seeking power purchase agreements with renewables in the US.

Increasing urban consumption contributes massively to deforestation, a major source of emissions, despite growing sustainability efforts.

The building industry has become more analytical and data-driven as it has moved toward more sustainable forms of construction. Conventional construction is falling by the wayside in major markets because "people are just realizing that green building makes sense," said Nathan Taft, director of acquisitions for green builder Jonathan Rose Cos.

Turn off your air conditioner and stay cool in your shirt instead. That's the idea behind a new plastic-wrap-like material that Stanford University scientists say could be made into "cool" clothing, the use of which could slash emissions and energy consumption in buildings. If woven into fabric, the wearable cloth could keep humans cool on the hottest of days, eliminating the need to adjust the thermostat or crank up a fan. That could make a dent on a major source of U.S. greenhouse gases, the researchers say.

EUROPEN and 35 other associations representing major consumer goods brands, packaging producers, material producers and extended producer responsibility organizations are calling for a long-term, ambitious EU policy framework that enables and facilitates sustainable resource use from a full life-cycle perspective, incentivizes economies of scale and takes into account value chains at all levels, each with their different functional needs, supply and demand realities.

Leaders of eight major seafood companies and fish feed organizations signed a pledge for ocean sustainability after a kickoff meeting of the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship last month in the Maldives. Signatories agreed to improve transparency in their own operations, build on and share best practices, engage in science-based efforts to improve fisheries management and productivity, work toward pollution reduction goals, and support the development of new sustainability technology and initiatives.

H&M, the second-largest clothing retailer in the world, is working with German textile recycler SOEX Group on a system where previously used fibers would make up the majority of the material they use in clothing manufacturing. H&M's head of sustainability, Anna Gedda, says the company has collected 34,000 pounds of waste since the program began.

According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, before 1900, the cheetah population numbered over 100,000 and its range included the majority of Africa through the Middle East and into Asia. Since then, however, the animal has gone extinct in more than 20 countries, with a mere 7,100 animals remaining globally

With carbon dioxide emissions continuing to rise, an increasing number of experts believe major technological breakthroughs - such as CO2 air capture - will be necessary to slow global warming. But without the societal will to decarbonize, even the best technologies won't be enough.

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.

ainforest Action Network (RAN) claims it has found many Japanese companies are either 'systematically misreporting compliance' under Japan's Corporate Governance Code, or have a 'fundamental lack of understanding as to what constitutes meaningful sustainability reporting.' RAN evaluated ten major Japanese companies' Code reports and asserts that none of the companies are sufficiently disclosing their risks. The NGO advises shareholders take heed.

Poultry company Perdue Foods became the target of animal welfare organizations after an undercover investigation by Mercy For Animals (MFA) revealed illegal animal abuse at two of the company's contract farms. Almost 182,000 people signed a petition urging Perdue to adopt better animal welfare standards. After negotiations with MFA and other groups, Perdue announced new animal welfare policies this week. And animal welfare organizations are praising the company's new policies. MFA described it as the "most comprehensive animal welfare policy ever adopted by a major chicken producer." Perdue is one of only four companies that control most of the chicken industry.

The Environmental Defense Fund's partnership with Wal-Mart has resulted in major sustainability improvements, particularly through its supply chain, writes Diane Regas, EDF's executive director. "The ripple effect of our partnership with Walmart has reached hundreds of influential brands, hundreds of thousands of suppliers and millions of consumers," she writes.

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.

REI reported a 9.3% jump in sales last year, when it launched a Black Friday campaign encouraging consumers to go outside rather than shop and closed its stores on the major shopping day. The outdoor retailer also grew its co-op membership by 7.3% in 2015, and now boasts more than 6 million members.

A dozen major retailers have joined a push for tougher restrictions on trucking emissions and are asking regulators to push for swifter and steeper reductions in fuel use by the freight sector. The firms, which include General Mills, Ben & Jerry's, Stonyfield Farm, and Patagonia, say stronger standards would help reduce their operating costs and make it easier to pass savings along to consumers.

San Francisco just took a major step to save the environment. The city's Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an ordinance to ban the sale of polystyrene - more commonly known by its brand-name "styrofoam" - on Tuesday. It's the broadest ban on the product in the country, according to Mother Jones. "The science is clear," London Breed, Board of Supervisors president, said in a statement in April. "This stuff is an environmental and public health pollutant, and we have to reduce its use." Starting January 1, 2017, vendors will no longer be able to sell polystyrene products, from food packaging and coffee cups to packing peanuts and pool toys, according to Science Alert. And starting July 1, styrofoam fish and meat trays in supermarkets will also be banned.

Most companies that use cotton aren't doing enough to promote sustainability in their supply chains, according to a Rank a Brand report, with 29 of 37 major cotton-users getting a failing grade. Only about one-fifth of sustainably produced cotton is sold as such, while lack of demand leads the rest to be marketed as regular cotton.

Apple released its first Green Bond Impact Report, which highlights 16 projects made possible by proceeds from a $1.5 billion green bond it issued last year. The company allocated approximately $441 million to environmentally beneficial projects in fiscal year 2016, with the majority of funds going toward renewable energy (about $129 million), green building (about $232.6 million), and energy efficiency (about $74.6 million).

Before this year there had been three major bleaching events identified in the modern history of the reef - 1998, 2002 and 2016. Researchers last month identified the signs of another bleaching event taking place this year.