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Mounting ocean health problems -- which are threatening the primary food source for more than 1 billion people -- can be fixed, but only with public and private sectors working together to a much greater extent, according to a World Bank blue ribbon panel.

Fazenda da Toca, a private enterprise in São Paulo, is demonstrating the viability of large scale organic farming and agroforestry, including on land with highly degraded soils. Toca could effectively end the myth that agroforestry is not viable at a large scale, that it's too expensive and too labor intensive to be attractive to the private sector.

The Obama administration is aiming to start changing that. Last week, the President - fresh off of announcing a $4 billion renewable energy fund with private investment partners - has unveiled a set of initiatives to bring increased access to solar energy and solar jobs.   The "Increase Solar Access for All Americans" plan involves private sector investment of $520 million and partnerships with Citigroup, GRID Alternatives, SunEdison and half a dozen other companies as well as several states and cities.

When it comes to the private sector's efforts to curb climate change, the rubber hit the road at New York Climate Week. Companies and their nonprofit partners announced numerous milestones and hosted discussions throughout the city to translate lofty goals into action. Meanwhile, new initiatives were launched to deepen collaboration among the private sector, governments and civil society.

When it comes to the private sector's efforts to curb climate change, the rubber hit the road at New York Climate Week. Companies and their nonprofit partners announced numerous milestones and hosted discussions throughout the city to translate lofty goals into action. Meanwhile, new initiatives were launched to deepen collaboration among the private sector, governments and civil society.

In the largest study of its kind, we pored over more than 1,600 companies' disclosures to CDP on physical climate change impacts, the financial implications of these impacts and what companies were doing to manage them. The disclosures we considered included many of the world's largest corporations, covering 69 percent of global market capitalization. The findings were fascinating, unsettling and inspiring.

NIKE, Inc. has announced a new strategic partnership with private equity firm Apollo Global Management, LLC, aimed at building a transparent and ethical apparel supply chain in the Americas.

The International Finance Corporation issued a $152 million bond to support private sector development and prevent deforestation in developing countries. The bond gives investors the option of getting repaid in either cash or a carbon-credit coupon - a move to bolster carbon-credit markets.

ust 18 months after its launch, the Science Based Targets initiative announced that 200 companies have committed to set emissions reduction targets consistent with the global effort to keep temperatures well below the 2-degree threshold. In the past year, the initiative has seen a growth rate of over 2 companies per week committing to set science-based targets, far exceeding the project's timeline and signaling that climate action has gained tremendous momentum in the private sector.

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 Rockefeller Foundation will collaborate with the USDA, EPA, and 10 private sector and non-profit organizations to create "Further With Food: Center for Food Loss and Waste Solutions," an online information exchange that aims to provide best practices for preventing, recovering, and recycling food loss and waste. The website will officially launch later this month (January 2017).

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 World Cocoa Foundation launched a public-private partnership to help build resilience for adaption to climate change in the global cocoa supply chain.

The Minnesota Sustainable Growth Coalition is a business-led public-private partnership harnessing the collective expertise of over 25 companies, including 3M, Aveda, Dow Water, Ecolab, General Mills, the Great Plains Institute, and Target, to advance the next frontier of corporate sustainability - the circular economy - here in the U.S. Environmental Initiative, a local nonprofit organization, is convening and facilitating the coalition

A partnership of leading international public and private organizations launched the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard at the Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) 2016 Summit today in Copenhagen. The FLW Standard is the first-ever set of global definitions and reporting requirements for companies, countries and others to consistently and credibly measure, report on and manage food loss and waste. The standard comes as a growing number of governments, companies and other entities are making commitments to reduce food loss and waste.

New research reveals burgeoning private sector involvement in watershed protection and restoration.

Boston-based startup Cambrian Innovation has come up with water-cleaning technology that uses microbes to turn dirty water into clean energy. Cambrian has federal and private equity funding, including $365,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency. "It's where we will go in the future, where waste is a resource and we don't just want to get rid of it, we want to get energy out of it," said April Richards of the EPA's small-business innovation-research program

The first item on the long list of issues to be addressed at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week: Climate change. On Tuesday President Barack Obama will address a group of world leaders at the U.N. Climate Summit, a one-day meeting hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and open to leaders of all 193 U.N. member states, though not all will attend, plus members of the private sector.

"Water is the ultimate shared resource," according to WWF's Lindsay Bass, and collaborative solutions to its depletion are crucial. WWF is working with companies to manage their water use through its Water Risk Filter tool and its strategic alliances with the private sector. I spoke with Bass about the opportunities for companies to improve their water management and become "positive actors" in shared watersheds. 

I:CO launched its first ever I:CO City initiative with the city of San Francisco earlier this year. The launch creates a public, private and nonprofit infrastructure to make it convenient and rewarding for residents and businesses to recycle textile related items. In alignment with San Francisco's goal of zero waste by 2020, I:CO will serve as the lead textile collection and processing partner to divert waste from landfill and give it new life.