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Business leaders from the global non-profit initiative The B Team issued a call to action urging world leaders to formally commit to a global goal of net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. The B Team leaders include Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Group), Dr. Mo Ibrahim (Celtel), Guilherme Leal (Natura), François-Henri Pinault (Kering), Paul Polman (Unilever), and Ratan Tata (Tata Group).

Consumers often are left unaware of the use and destination of their recyclables. Although many are donated, much of the material is sold to for-profit companies for resale around the globe. The lack of transparency has led to misunderstanding among consumers, communities and retailers. This push toward greater transparency is yet another reason to embrace The Reuse Movement.

Environmental health non-profit Environmental Working Group launched a verification standard to help consumers identify personal care products and cosmetics that avoid the use of toxic and potentially harmful chemicals.

Wastewater treatment and renewable energy production can be costly endeavors. However, if valuable chemicals could be extracted from wastewater, or if algae could more easily be used to turn carbon dioxide from the air into biofuel, companies could profitably pursue such projects. Researchers from Arizona State University (ASU) and the Chinese Academy of Science & Technology are working to make this possible.

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.

Leveraging biomimicry's unique approach to research and design can lead to sustainable, profitable technologies that mitigate risk and reduce costs. 

Stand For Trees, a collaboration led by non-profit CodeREDD, is running a first-of-its kind consumer campaign that enables everyone - as opposed to just companies - to purchase verified carbon offsets. What's most remarkable about this is the unprecedented success of the main engagement tool the campaign is relying on - a video by social media celebrity Prince Ea, entitled Dear Future Generations: Sorry. It broke the record for most viral environmental campaign to date with more than 20 million views in its first 24 hours and over 50 million views in the first week. There could hardly be a better example of mainstreaming an important sustainability message. 

TiE Silicon Valley, a not for profit organization dedicated to "fostering entrepreneurship in the Bay Area and globally," has announced an upcoming hackathon event focused on tackling three real-world issues within the "smart city" space: smart parking, waste disposal management and water access management. The event will begin in January 2016 and will last for two weeks. Winners will be invited to attend TiECon 2016, TiE's largest annual conference, and will also have an opportunity to win prizes and publicity.

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. 

Unilever has worked hard to be a sustainable, environmentally conscious business, but whether the $170 billion conglomerate can turn that into profits in today's competitive market remains to be seen, according to this analysis. "Too many companies are running their business into the ground, I would argue, by being myopically short-term focused on the shareholder," said CEO Paul Polman.

The EU's Plastics Strategy aims to cut out non-recyclable plastics by 2030, while cutting down on single-use plastics and restricting microplastics, all by establishing a new circular economy around the material. The strategy lays out a few key steps to achieve this. The first is to introduce new rules on packaging that improve their recyclability and increase the demand for recycled plastics, thereby making recycling profitable for businesses.

Non-profit Fashion Revolution has released the 2017 Fashion Transparency Index, which rates the supply chain practices and social and environmental impact of 100 global fashion and apparel brands and retailers. The Index gave the highest ratings to H&M, Inditex, and Levi Strauss & Co.

Ok, THIS is cool! Ecosia works in much the same way as its major competitors (Google, Bing, etc.), but rather than keep any income from advertising and sponsored links, the site donates around 80 percent to charities involved in the replanting of trees in Brazilian rainforests, such as the Nature Conservancy.

Tyson Foods Inc. has announced that sustainability will play a key role in the company's strategy as it moves into fiscal 2018; the company expects sustainability will be one element that will help the company reach an expected sales growth of about 6% next year.