potential problems

As each supplier completes a declaration on its sustainability profile, data is automatically connected to a customer dashboard,

enabling businesses to analyze conflict mineral use by geography, industry and by individual smelters at a glance.

Chinese authorities have recently given courts the authority to hand down the death penalty for serious cases of pollution

Public anger over China’s growth-at-all-costs policies has been growing steadily in response to the increasingly polluted air and water

public’s attitudes towards environmental protection found that up to 80 percent believe that environmental protection should be a higher priority than economic development.

repairable electronic waste to be exempt from the international Basel Convention hazardous waste trade control procedures.

developing countries cannot control the junk electronic computers, faxes, printers and TVs flooding into their countries from North America and Europe

digital dump

Recyclers can make money from selling scavenged metal from electronic

equipment,

the process to retrieve usable metals is typically extremely toxic

requiring New Yorkers to separate their food scraps for composting

it is hiring a composting plant to handle 100,000 tons of food scraps a year

Sanitation officials said 150,000 single-family homes

"Most of the activity that actually touches society is happening in the supply chain," says Polman, "and that's why we take responsibility from sustainable sourcing to sustainable living." The company looks to find materials from sustainable sources, but then also looks to encourage sustainable choices on the consumer end.

A similar effort is aims at ending illegal deforestation. Unilever and other companies "made a commitment not to sell anything anymore from illegal deforestation by the year 2020 -- soy, paper, pulp, beef, palm oil. And if a big association representing $3-4 trillion of consumer sales makes that commitment, it sends a very strong signal into the whole value chain," he says