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London's Heathrow Airport has saved more than 130 million liters of water annually using General Electric's water treatment technologies, GE says, adding that its technologies also saved the UK's largest airport $310,000 in a year.

Obama (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) President Barack Obama unveiled a multimillion-dollar plan Wednesday that would help Western states cut carbon emissions and deal with climate change. The plan would ramp up renewables in Southern California, make a $230 million investment in stormwater management and provide up to $29 million for a pair of geothermal projects in Nevada and Utah. The Hill (8/31)

Ending food waste is a key concern across the Western world, with new initiatives cropping up almost every day. Now, a group of British companies and universities have won access to a £340 million EU innovation program aimed at changing the way we eat, grow and distribute food. The new project, called EIT Food, has ambitious aims to halve food waste in Europe within a decade and reduce diet-related illness diet by 2030. It has received €400 million (£340m) of EU research funding, matched by €1.2 billion (£1 billion) of funding from industry and other sources over seven years.

* We'd be remiss if we didn't mention Patagonia's landmark decision to donate 100 percent of its global Black Friday sales to nonprofits benefiting the planet. The campaign was so popular, the company beat its goal of $2 million dollars in sales by five times that amount - resulting in $10 million in donations to hundreds of grassroots environmental organizations.

The U.S. Government collaborated with India and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to launch a $20 million initiative that aims to increase funding opportunities for renewable energy projects - such as distributed solar - across India.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that more than 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) were on the road in 2015, including 400,000 in the United States. In order to limit global warming to 2°C or less, the agency says the world will need 150 million EVs by 2030 and 1 billion by 2050, implying a 21 percent compound annual growth rate from now until 2050.

Lego is pumping millions of dollars into its quest to find new, sustainable materials for its popular plastic toy bricks. While the company's goal with this initiative is to build better toys, it may end up shifting the plastics industry away from its oil-based roots.

A report in the journal Nature Climate Change said climate change and rising sea levels could threaten 13.1 million people living along the coastal United States. The study combines population projections with rising sea level models. The areas with the greatest percentage of people at risk are Florida's Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Smaller communities are threatened too and are dealing now with environmental changes.

A successful campaign led by chef-turned-activist Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall drew attention to a big problem: In the UK, less than 6 million takeaway hot beverage cups are recycled each year, while 7 million are thrown out each day. The attention led to an increased discount for Starbucks customers who bring their own coffee cups, as well as a call from a British natural plastics manufacturer for an increased focus on bio-based and biodegradable materials. 

According to a recent United Nations University report, e-waste generation is growing fast in both total volume and per capita measures throughout East and South-East Asia between 2010 and 2015. Driven by rising incomes and high demand for new gadgets and appliances, the average increase in e-waste across all 12 countries and areas analysed was 63% in the five years ending in 2015 and totalled 12.3 million tonnes. China's more than doubled to 6.7 million tonnes, up 107%.

Walmart has agreed to pay $1 million to settle greenwashing claims that allege the nation's largest retailer sold plastic products that were misleadingly labeled "biodegradable" or "compostable" in violation of California law.

Every year an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic waste are added to the ocean. Without immediate intervention across all points of the pollution pathway, 250 million metric tons of plastic waste could be in the ocean in less than 10 years. The Ocean Conservancy and Trash Free Seas Alliance's new report, The Next Wave, examines some of the solutions and technologies currently available and looks forward to establishing a framework to generate greater collaboration and innovation toward long-term solutions.

Nestlé has introduced new 2020 sustainability and development targets, building on its first set of 2020 goals announced in 2013. The company also announced long-term ambitions in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including helping 50 million children lead healthier lives, helping to improve 30 million livelihoods in communities directly connected to its business activities, and striving for zero environmental impact in its operations

Columbia, Md.,-based W.R. Grace & Co. under its bankruptcy plan of reorganization, paid over $63 million to the US government to resolve claims for environmental cleanups at approximately 39 sites in 21 states, the US Department of Justice and the EPA announced today

Real estate firm Peabody Properties is saving $1 million and avoiding 5 million KW-h of electricity consumption annually by implementing web-based tools from utility analytics company WegoWise to track and benchmark consumption.

An $8 million battery lab opened yesterday at the University of Michigan that will help Ford develop batteries that are smaller, lighter and less expensive to produce.

Siemens will invest $264 million to build production facilities for its 6MW offshore wind turbines in the UK. The facilities are expected to create over 1,000 jobs and begin producing rotor blades by 2016.

The Carton Council of North America says that just over one million households had cartons added to their recycling programs between January and March. That brings the total of US households with access to 56,970,294.

Asia Pulp and Paper will restore and conserve 1 million hectares of Indonesian rainforest, targeting threatened species like orangutans, elephants, and tigers. The plan was developed with input from Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and other environmental groups.

Nestlé has invested $7 million to transform its milk factory in Modesto, CA to a "zero water" operation to avoid use of local freshwater resources. The project is expected to save around 63 million gallons of water annually and is due to be completed by the end of 2016