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In our Forest Trends Ecosystem Marketplace report, Supply Change: Tracking Corporate Commitments to Deforestation-free Supply Chains, 2016, we have tracked 579 individual commitments from 366 companies - up from 307 commitments from 243 companies in March of last year - and it shows that, of those 366 companies, most still haven't reported progress on their pledges.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has released its 2016 RSPO Impact Report, which highlights the following accomplishments for 2016: * Increased membership by 29% over the previous year. * Achieved 83 million hectares (10,900 square miles) of certified palm oil producing lands across 14 nations. * 40 RSPO growers have phased out the toxic herbicide paraquat, with another 33 firms saying they are on track to ban the use of this chemical. * Doubled the number of certified independent smallholders. * Closed two-thirds of the labor grievances filed since 2009.

A coalition of investors concerned about the lack of reported progress in mitigating the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing operations have submitted shareholder resolutions targeting organizations that received failing scores in a recently-released report. Read more: Fracturing and drilling companies "owe" investors disclosure - FierceEnergy http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/fracturing-and-drilling-companies-owe-investors-disclosure/2014-02-11#ixzz2tFdqgahc Subscribe at FierceEnergy

After less than two intensive months of campaigning for change in the foodservice industry, The Humane League has proudly announced further progress. Compass Group has announced it will join Aramark and Sodexo, the nation's largest foodservice companies, in making major changes to their animal welfare policies.

Socially conscious fashion brand Eileen Fisher and Canadian environmental NGO Canopy - with the help of Quiksilver, prAna, Patagonia and lululemon athletica and 14 progressive designers - have announced a joint campaign designed to bolster protection of ancient forest ecosystems and raise awareness about the fashion industry's role in endangering them.

President Barack Obama moved Saturday to tighten U.S. rules on sales of ivory from African elephants, aiming to show progress on conservation as he began a trip to the region.

The UK brewing sector says it has met its 2020 carbon emissions target eight years early, is on track to achieve its 2020 target for improved water efficiency and is making significant progress in reducing excess packaging and waste, as detailed in Brewing Green 2013, a new report published by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA).

Many food and agriculture companies have talked up sustainability for years, but the past 12 months ushered in a new sense of urgency and action. Here's my completely subjective list of five notable developments that could signal the shift from conversation to conservation.

Samsung, Sony and Panasonic are among the technology companies still using hazardous chemicals such as polyvinylchloride and brominated flame retardants in their products, according to a report by Greenpeace. While there has been some progress in recent years, the report shows that a number of leading consumer electronics companies are still continuing to use toxic chemicals in smartphones, televisions, tablets, computers and cables.

While 2014 ushered in big breakthroughs in fields from solar energy to smart cities, 2015 will present a crossroads for larger-scale sustainability progress.

In 2014, General Mills reduced its greenhouse gas emissions rate by 23 percent against a 2005 baseline, surpassing its goal to reduce GHG emissions by 20 percent by 2015. The progress is largely due to the use of renewable energy sources at its Yoki facilities.

Our ninth annual report (download PDF), published today and produced in partnership with Trucost, continues our tradition of taking the pulse of corporate progress in sustainability, in the United States and around the world. It looks at both common measures (energy, waste and carbon) and some less-common ones (corporate reporting of natural capital profit or savings, for example, or companies' low-carbon investments) over the past five years.

For the first four years of its existence, the Department of Energy's Better Plants program focused almost exclusively on encouraging industrial manufacturers to reduce energy intensity by an ambitious 25 percent. Many are recording annual average improvements of 2.1 percent, according to the DoE's latest progress report (PDF) issued in September.

The Mission 2020 campaign defines six milestones -in energy, transport, land use, industry, infrastructure and finance - that give governments and industries a clear roadmap to put us on a path towards achieving 1.5 degrees C. In a working paper published today, WRI found progress in some areas, but we'll need faster action in order to achieve the 2020 turning point.

Panera Bread and Chipotle led the fast-food pack by earning A's on the new annual report card from a coalition of public interest groups that annually ranks corporate efforts to remove antibiotics from their poultry, beef and pork supplies. Twelve of the other 25 listed companies also made progress eliminating the drugs, but the report says they need to catch up with the A-listers and pay as much attention to beef and pork as to poultry.

In its 2017 Annual Report, the Chemical Footprint Project - an initiative driving the effective management of chemicals in product supply chains - demonstrates how chemical footprinting is increasingly moving towards the mainstream. The report shares how businesses from across industries stack up against four pillars - management strategy, chemical inventory, footprint measurement and public disclosure and verification - and provides investors and purchasers with data that enables them to benchmark firms on their progress.

PepsiCo announced that 89% of its palm oil has been traced to the mill level-up from 65% in 2015. The company also announced that 16% of its palm oil is now Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) physically certified sustainable.

California Governor Jerry Brown joined forces with Michael Bloomberg to launch America's Pledge, an initiative aimed at tracking and reporting progress made by U.S. states, cities, and businesses on reducing GHG emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

New research on progress towards ending deforestation by 2030 shows funding is woefully short, while indigenous groups say their role as protectors of the forest is under increasing threat. Recent news that the world's tropical forests are now so degraded they have become a source rather than a sink of carbon emissions have injected new urgency into the need to achieve the goals set out in the New York Declaration on Forests four years ago.

AkzoNobel has launched the Human Cities Coalition, a multi-stakeholder group that is dedicated to accelerating progress against UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. The coalition is comprised of more than 150 stakeholders and 20 partners, including Arcadis, Philips, and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.