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W Hotels Worldwide, in partnership with Coca-Cola and music artist will.i.am, says it will soon use sheets and bedside chargers made in part with recycled plastic bottles.

W Hotels Worldwide has announced a new partnership with global music artist and entrepreneur will.i.am and Coca-Cola to shake up the hotel industry. The partners wil bring the EKOCYCLE brand to W Hotel rooms around the world by re-making their beds with new bed sheets which are made in part with rPET (polyester partially made using recycled plastic).

A huge swath of the Antarctic ice cap is already crumbling, and preventing the thawing of the ice caps might now be impossible, a major new study suggests. The melting of the area studied alone would raise the world's sea level by nearly four feet, and total thawing could lead to up to a 12-foot surge in sea levels. Still, that probably won't happen for a century or two, since the ice is melting slowly, researchers say

Recycling of plastics - one of the best ways to reduce carbon footprint - offers two major benefits: recycling reduces the amount of oil required to produce more plastic, and also takes material out of landfills.

3M, Cisco, Jackson Family Wines, Kimberly-Clark and other major companies announced new commitments to install solar power as part of a new White House initiative. The Obama administration and local governments also announced a series of new policies to speed the deployment of solar across the nation.

President Obama announced that an additional 15 U.S. cities (19 cities were committed prior to this update) have signed onto the Compact of Mayors-a global platform that helps cities accelerate their sustainability and climate change resiliency efforts. The president set a goal to have at least 100 U.S. cities signed onto the Compact of Mayors by the end of November 2015.

President Obama will issue an Executive Order to cut the Federal Government's GHG emissions by 40% and increase its consumption of electricity from renewable sources by 30% over the next decade, compared to 2008 levels. The plan is projected to save taxpayers up to $18 billion in avoided energy costs.

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

State leaders, delegates, business leaders, and other stakeholders convened in Paris for the U.N. Conference of the Parties (COP 21). Here are a few highlights from the final week: 

For thousands of years, sea level has remained relatively stable and human communities have settled along the planet's coastlines. But now Earth's seas are rising. Globally, sea level has risen about eight inches (20 centimeters) since the beginning of the 20th century and more than two inches (5 centimeters) in the last 20 years alone. All signs suggest that this rise is accelerating.