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Each year, Future 500 releases a report of what we predict will be the most critical social and environmental issues driving corporate-stakeholder engagement in the coming year. This year, we anticipate that corporations will be challenged to go even further than last year, using their economic influence on policy and politicians while being asked to take a bigger stand on global issues.

In 2016, we predict that stakeholders will continue to organize around issues like chemicals, water scarcity and local control of resources, challenging the private sector to drive change in their supply chains, make more time bound commitments and be more transparent. We anticipate increased focus on women impacting the global economy and concern around global ocean health, an issue moving to the forefront of our list.

A committee of the International Civil Aviation Organization has proposed standards for aircraft carbon dioxide emissions. "When fully implemented, the standards are expected to reduce carbon emissions more than 650 million tons between 2020 and 2040, equivalent to removing over 140 million cars from the road for a year," the White House said in a fact sheet

While so much of our lives have veered toward the digital, many organizations' operations still rely to some degree on paper. Innovative solutions to help minimize the impact of continued paper use include print-optimization technologies and more "sustainable" fonts. Now, Seiko Epson Corporation has developed what it believes to be the world's first compact office paper-making system capable of producing new paper from securely shredded waste paper with minimal use of water.

TiE Silicon Valley, a not for profit organization dedicated to "fostering entrepreneurship in the Bay Area and globally," has announced an upcoming hackathon event focused on tackling three real-world issues within the "smart city" space: smart parking, waste disposal management and water access management. The event will begin in January 2016 and will last for two weeks. Winners will be invited to attend TiECon 2016, TiE's largest annual conference, and will also have an opportunity to win prizes and publicity.

Climate negotiators in Paris are warming to the idea of "carbon farming," or sequestering carbon in soil. That's a critical adjunct to curbing emissions, since it allows the active removal of existing atmospheric carbon, experts say. "This is a game changer," said Andre Leu, president of IFOAM -- Organics International

While so much of our lives have veered toward the digital, many organizations' operations still rely to some degree on paper. Innovative solutions to help minimize the impact of continued paper use include print-optimization technologies and even more "sustainable" fonts.

580+ groups, businesses call for extension of clean energy tax credits  Over 580 organizations and businesses, including the American Wind Energy Association, have written a letter to Congress calling for the extension of tax credits relating to clean energy. "Businesses and investors need stable, predictable federal tax policy to create jobs, invest capital, and deploy pollution-reducing energy technologies," they wrote. 

Sports organizations are increasingly rallying together to promote environmental causes, reduce their climate impacts and try to persuade their fans to go green. "There is a global recognition now of the power of sports to advance environmental messaging," said Green Sports Alliance director Allen Hershkowitz.

Adidas collaborated with Stella McCartney to launch an apparel and footwear line that aims to promote the importance of environmentally friendly fashion. The apparel and footwear line incorporates fabrics such as recycled polyester, organic cotton, and recycled ocean plastic.

Fifty of the world's largest businesses, retailers and fishing companies from across the tuna supply chain have banded together to stamp out illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in their industry, protect the health of oceans and eliminate forced labor from fishing vessels. The agreement was brokered by the World Economic Forum and is supported by policymakers and 18 civil society organizations.

Two of the world's leading sustainability certification bodies, Rainforest Alliance and UTZ, plan to merge later this year in an effort to simplify the certification process for sustainable agriculture. Under the name Rainforest Alliance, the organization create a single global certification standard by 2019 that will streamline certification for farmers and empower companies to build more responsible supply chains, more efficiently.

Shanghai, with its chic cafes, glitzy shopping malls and organic health food shops, is emblematic of improving quality of life for China's urban middle class. Yet while the city's veil of smog has lifted slightly in recent years, its water pollution crisis continues unabated - 85% of the water in the city's major rivers was undrinkable in 2015, according to official standards, and 56.4% was unfit for any purpose.

As FSC's highest decision making body, the General Assembly sets the direction for the organization for the coming years, with several important areas of responsible forest management, conservation and sustainability on the agenda. These include, among others, the protection of High Conservation Value areas such as Intact Forest Landscapes, ensuring the rights and participation of Indigenous Peoples in forest development, and the future directions for forest restoration and conservation, all while permitting forests to continue to supply the vital products the world depends on for many purposes.

Thirteen nature conservation organizations are urging world leaders to back a plan to protect 30 percent of the world's surface and oceans by 2030.

The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute is now offering its Cradle to Cradle Certified Catalyst Program free of charge. The program helps product developers, designers, and manufacturers better understand and implement the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Program within their organization.

BASF has partnered with Cargill, Procter & Gamble and German Development Agency GIZ to build a sustainable and transparent supply chain for coconut oil in the Philippines and Indonesia. The partnership is organized under a German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) program.

Two years after Greenpeace launched a campaign demanding Thai Union, the world's largest tuna company, take action to eliminate exploitative and unsustainable practices from its supply chains, the two organizations have finally put their long-running conflict to rest.

In a recent GreenBiz webcast, a panel of experts - including strategists from General MIlls, Kering and McDonald's - explained why going big on sustainability goals is increasingly a smart business strategy, as well as a good stewardship policy. They discussed the intersection of today's major frameworks, such as science-driven goal setting, the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTI), planetary boundaries, Sustainable Development Goals, and more, and provided concrete business cases from several organizations on how they are conducting this transition.

An estimated 50 to 80 percent of southern wetland forest is now gone, and that which remains provides ecosystem services totaling $500 billion as well as important wildlife habitat. Logging is considered one of the biggest threats to the 35 million acres of remaining wetland forest in the southern U.S., and conservation organizations are saying this threat is coming largely from the wood pellet biomass industry.