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Ecolab announced plans to offset 100% of its electricity use at Minnesota corporate and research, development, and engineering campuses through a SunEdison program supporting community solar gardens. The program will use shared solar panel sites with grid-connected subscribers to ensure clean electricity is generated for use in the local grid.

As 2014 comes to a close and we launch into the new year with new ambitions challenged by changing operating realities, we share our most important lessons of the past year for the sustainable business community. The implications extend far beyond, of course.

As 2014 ends and 2015 begins, we asked members of the GreenBiz Executive Network, our member-based, peer-to-peer learning forum for sustainability professionals, to look ahead and share what they think will be exciting in the new year.

EU leaders have agreed to a legally binding commitment to reduce the region's greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2030 from 1990 levels. The EU also committed to increase energy efficiency and the share of energy generated from renewables. "We managed to reach a fair decision. It sets Europe on an ambitious yet cost-effective energy path," said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

Renewables are expected to grow at a faster rate than previously thought and could account for 15% of global generation by 2035, according to BP. The report says wind, biofuels and other renewables are expected grow 6.6% annually. Renewables currently account for 3% of the world's energy mix, but that figure could climb to 9% within two decades. "The rate at which renewables gain share from 2020 to 2035 matches oil's gain over the 15 years of 1908-23," BP said.

Monsanto announced plans to achieve carbon neutrality across its operations by 2021. The company will focus its efforts on seed production, crop protection, sharing data, and increasing the adoption of best practices.

London, Amsterdam and Copenhagen have announced they will work together to design a project that will improve the capture of plastics. City officials from the three capitals will share information and experiences on the development and delivery of circular economy action plans. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation recently estimated plastic packaging waste at $80-120 billion annually. 

As national parks face issues with unmanaged waste during the government shutdown, Keep America Beautiful, the largest community improvement organization in the United States, and Nestlé Waters North America, one of the leading beverage companies in North America, announced today that they are teaming up to help mobilize affiliate organizations and volunteers across the country to clean up these shared public spaces.

Supply chain data gaps have inspired numerous industry-led initiatives dedicated to massive supply chain data-gathering and sharing projects, such as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), and it has inspired dozens of cloud services specializing in traceability, ranging from EcoVadis to SourceMap. And barely one month into 2018, several of these tools are attaining new levels of maturity and transparency.

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.

The World Wildlife Fund has published a new report, Eating for 2 Degrees - New and Updated Livewell Plates, which outlines how simple steps, such as reducing red meat consumption, could help to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. The report shares the minimal dietary changes needed to meet the Paris Agreement commitment to keep global warming below 2°C.

The European Union on Wednesday finalised new climate rules after months of talks, targeting a total energy saving of 32.5 percent and an uplift in the share of renewable energy to 32 percent by 2030.

"Trend Report: The Future of Sustainable Fashion" (H&M Foundation and Accenture) identifies five megatrends driving sustainable innovation in the fashion industry based on an analysis of 3,000 applications submitted for the H&M Foundation's 2017 Global Change Award: the sharing economy, digitalization, biodesign, re-selling and re-design, and innovative recycling.

Beauty brands Coty, L'Oreal, Groupe Clarins and Groupe Rocher have partnered on an initiative to increase sustainability in the beauty supply chain. The Responsible Beauty Initiative will be overseen by supply chain sustainability ratings agency EcoVadis and will encourage businesses to enhance and share sustainable practices.

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

Ecodesk launched a monitoring tool for businesses to track conflict minerals in supply chain. They want it to be an eary warning system for non-financial factors in supply chain, providing an understanding of potential problems

Mondelēz International released a sustainable palm oil action plan that requires its suppliers to achieve full traceability by the end of 2015. The policy also requires suppliers to publish their sustainable sourcing practices and implementation timelines.

The recycling industry is wasteful and ineffectual, and it will prove neither economically nor environmentally sustainable, writes John Tierney. You'd have to recycle 100,000 plastic bottles to offset the emissions from a single business-class transatlantic flight, and you probably wouldn't turn a profit in the process, Tierney notes. "How can you build a sustainable city with a strategy that can't even sustain itself?" he asks.