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Palm Oil Free Certification programme launches in UK and Australia A new certification programme has launched to validate consumer products that make no use of palm oil, which has been blamed for fuelling deforestation in Asia. Set up by a group of women experts, the Palm Oil Free Certification Accreditation Programme (POFCAP) is now in operation in Australia and the UK following approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, IP Australia, and IPO UK. Fourteen other nations have applied to introduce the label. Australia-based eco cleaning products company Clean Conscience is the first to carry the label, and the group is working with a host of other companies on certification. Despite improvements to tackle deforestation, POFCAP said "only 17% of all palm oil used can be classed as 'non-conflict'". The scheme is based on extensive research and trusted methods to trace all potential palm oil and palm oil derivative ingredients of a product back to their source. (Business Green)

Adidas launched its "Sports Infinity" research project, which aims to combine components from old sporting goods with excess materials from other industries to create new products. The goal of the research project is to provide soccer players with adhesive-free, recyclable, and zero-waste sporting goods.

BHP Billiton, Royal Dutch Shell, Schneider Electric, and other supporting organizations have formed the Energy Transitions Commission, which aims to develop actionable insights that help energy companies maintain their economic growth during the transition to a low-carbon future.

About half of Unilever's growth last year came from its sustainable living brands, which grew 30 percent faster than the rest of the company's business, according to the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan annual progress report.

Environmentalists would prefer that everyone drank tap water -- but with consumers still clamoring for bottled beverages, water companies are trying to find ways to make their products more eco-friendly. Just Water uses bottles made from "green" plant-derived plastics, while other companies offer water in cardboard or easy-to-recycle aluminum packaging.

The Coca-Cola Company, which uses about 300 billion liters of water a year - a quantity so big it's as if every person on earth donated 40 liters of the shared resource of water to its operations -  announced Monday that it reached a goal it set a decade ago: To "replenish" or restore the equivalent quantity of all the water it uses in a year in its global operations to produce, bottle and sell Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid orange juice and hundreds of other beverages.

BP, Shell, and other global oil and gas companies created OGCI Climate Investments, a 10-year, $1 billion dollar investment fund to "accelerate the development of innovative technologies that, once commercialized, have the potential to reduce GHG emissions on a significant scale." The combined operations of the OGCI member companies account for more than one-fifth of global oil and gas production and more than 10% of the global energy supply.

One is an eyesore and a health hazard, the other one is plain dirty. So what do you get when you combine processed scrap tires with diesel fuel? In what might be a case of two wrongs making a right, Australian startup Green Distillation Technologies (GDT) has shown that it is possible to get a cleaner blend of fuel by combining oil derived from old tires with diesel.

If you don't like lifeless hair, dandruff on your shoulders and plastics in your ocean, you can tackle all three in the shower. Procter & Gamble announced Thursday that its Head & Shoulders shampoo bottles will be recyclable and made of up to 25 percent "beach plastics," from trash removed from beaches, oceans, rivers and other waterways.

North Carolina's Proximity Hotel is the first US hotel to receive the Green Building Council's LEED Platinum status, due in part to elevators that generate power and other features that help the hotel use 40% less energy than comparable competitors. "The only ambition was, let's sincerely consider sustainable practices with each of our decisions," said Dennis Quaintance, CEO of Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels.

Companies including SABMiller, Dow, Novozymes, and many others have begun to align their corporate responsibility targets with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since the United Nations (UN) launched them in September. Indeed, aligning corporate strategy with the SDGs demonstrates the relevancy of social and environmental efforts, and private sector contributions are essential if we hope to achieve the 17 ambitious targets by 2030.

The Natural Capital Coalition launched the Natural Capital Protocol, a framework for harmonizing natural capital valuation across business sectors. The framework was developed over the last two years with input from more than 450 organizations and has been piloted by companies including The Coca-Cola Company, Dow Chemical, Nestlé, and others.

Greenpeace ranked the world's 30 largest cosmetic and personal care brands according to the strength of their commitments to eliminate microbeads from their products. Companies among the top-3 included Beiersdorf (joint first), Colgate-Palmolive (joint first), L Brands (joint first), Henkel (joint first), Clarins (joint second), Unilever (joint second), Reckitt Benckiser (joint third), L'Oréal Groupe (joint third), and others.

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.

Apple seems to be embedding its renewable energy commitments into its corporate structure. The company recently created a new wholly-owned subsidiary known as Apple Energy LLC and filed an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which regulates power companies, to be able to sell electricity and other power grid services to non-utility customers. The move is a strong sign that Apple will not only fulfill its plans to operate on 100 percent renewable energy through net-metering, but plans to generate and sell renewable energy back to the grid.

BSR and Forum for the Future launched the Net Positive Project, a coalition to clearly define what it means to be net positive and build a framework on how to scope, measure, and communicate net positive outcomes. Founding company members include Dell, The Dow Chemical Company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Kimberly-Clark, and others.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously voted to outlaw a host of commonly used foam products, in a move hailed as the nation's most extensive such ban. The ban applies to polystyrene food packaging, packing peanuts, to-go containers, coffee cups and pool toys, among other things. For most products, the ban will take effect Jan. 1, 2017.

Offshore wind has the potential to become cost-competitive with coal and gas in Europe by 2025, according to a letter released by General Electric, E.ON, Siemens and eight other energy firms. "This commitment is only possible with a stable, long-term market for renewables in Europe. If the offshore industry is to realize its cost reduction goals, a strong pipeline of projects is needed," they wrote.

Global oil demand will continue to grow into the 2040s even as electrical vehicle fleets expand and the low-carbon energy transition gains traction around the world, BP revealed in its annual Energy Outlook, an industry benchmark report forecasting long-term trends and informs the company's internal strategy. The predictions come as other oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell prepare for demand to peak by the early 2030s and countries make the shift to cleaner forms of energy.

Bacardi's 42Below Vodka brand's circular economy initiative - the project collects used lemons, martini olives and other fruit waste from bars, turns it into liquid soap and sends it back to the bars for free - has diverted 400 kilograms of fruit waste from landfills since it launched in December 2016.