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The industry group Sustainable Apparel Coalition has opened use of its Higg Index suite of tools for measuring and evaluating supply chain impact to non-member small and medium-sized (SME) brands and retailers. SMEs may now take advantage of a special licence for full access to the Higg Index. The coalition, which has over 180 apparel, footwear and home textile company members, expects that increasing the number of SMEs participating in the Index will bolster reporting and impact a wider spectrum of the supply chain.

A zero waste program for the plastics industry is expected to result in about $200,000 in new revenue for its first participant. Following the launch of its zero waste program earlier this year, SPI: The Plastics Trade Association has recognized its first Zero Net Waste recognized company. Thermoplastic provider The Minco Group achieved the designation after diverting 88 percent of its total manufacturing waste from landfill. The company also projects a revenue increase of about $20,000 for 2017 from its recycling efforts.

Plastic Soup Foundation (PSF), a Dutch nonprofit, and New York-based Parley for the Oceans announced Tuesday a partnership to tackle the issue of microfiber pollution and to create a global alliance of companies, governments, NGOs and scientists. Microfibers - tiny, often synthetic threads shed from laundry, industrial clothing manufacturing and fishing nets - have been found in alarming numbers in recent studies of microplastic pollution.

The New York State Public Service Commission has approved a $7.6 billion clean-energy subsidy for the Ginna, FitzPatrick and Nine Mile Point 1 and 2 nuclear power plants as part of the state's move to more sustainable energy. Environmental groups protested the grants, saying the production and transport of nuclear fuel release a great deal of carbon into the air.

Conservationists got a mixed bag of news following an international group overseeing the world's species protection initiatives meeting this weekend. On the positive side, officials decided to officially take the giant panda off of the endangered species list, citing steady successes in preserving the bears' natural habitats. But though this is certainly a small victory, pandas are far from out of the woods when it comes to their species' long-term survival.

Just a day after a group of cross-party MPs called on the UK government to ban microbeads, Greenpeace released a report outlining the science on the impact of microplastics, including microbeads, on oceans and seafood. The non-profit is also urging the UK government to ban microbeads, "both due to the damage they cause to marine life and as a precautionary measure against the risk of human consumption."

the Council of Canadians, one of Canada's most respected social advocacy organizations, did the unthinkable: It called for a boycott of Nestlé Water. The group accused the long-embattled water bottling giant of exploiting its access to Canadian aquifers. In Ontario and British Columbia, the company pays as little as $2.25 per 1 million liters while residents struggle to find safe water supplies.

The latest in water contaminates in this trend is a group of chemicals known as Perfluorinated Alkyl Substances, or PFASs (also known as Perfluoro Compounds or PFCs). Originally developed to help repel stains and improve the effectiveness of firefighting chemicals, these substances have leached into groundwater near factories, military bases and other sites where they have been used heavily. Several Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) solutions are available for treatment of PFCs in groundwater. One of the most cost-effective of these options for PFAS removal comes from coconuts: AquaCarb CX enhanced coconut shell GAC. It combines the benefits of an activated carbon with the high micropore structure of coconut shell, with faster kinetics comparable to bituminous coal.

Seattle - Today, Stand.earth, the environmental advocacy group leading the campaign to persuade Starbucks to make a recyclable paper cup, released a satirical video by Erika Share, former Senior Editor at The Onion and Anthony Easton, former managing editor of ClickHole.

Ending food waste is a key concern across the Western world, with new initiatives cropping up almost every day. Now, a group of British companies and universities have won access to a £340 million EU innovation program aimed at changing the way we eat, grow and distribute food. The new project, called EIT Food, has ambitious aims to halve food waste in Europe within a decade and reduce diet-related illness diet by 2030. It has received €400 million (£340m) of EU research funding, matched by €1.2 billion (£1 billion) of funding from industry and other sources over seven years.

Seafood company Thai Union Group will ensure 100% of its tuna is sustainably sourced and plans to reach at least 75% sustainability by 2020. The company will invest $90 million in efforts to increase their supply of sustainable tuna and open 11 Fishery Improvement Projects.

H&M, the second-largest clothing retailer in the world, is working with German textile recycler SOEX Group on a system where previously used fibers would make up the majority of the material they use in clothing manufacturing. H&M's head of sustainability, Anna Gedda, says the company has collected 34,000 pounds of waste since the program began.

Greenpeace ranked the world's 30 largest cosmetic and personal care brands according to the strength of their commitments to eliminate microbeads from their products. Companies among the top-3 included Beiersdorf (joint first), Colgate-Palmolive (joint first), L Brands (joint first), Henkel (joint first), Clarins (joint second), Unilever (joint second), Reckitt Benckiser (joint third), L'Oréal Groupe (joint third), and others.

A group of 20 organizations including Audi, DuPont and Yale University are joining forces to spur the development and rollout of eco-friendly fuels. The Below50 initiative focuses on scaling up fuels associated with an emissions reduction of at least 50% relative to gasoline.

The Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge, a group of the world's biggest palm oil companies committed to building an industry free of deforestation and labour exploitation, has disbanded less than two years after it was launched.

Poultry company Perdue Foods became the target of animal welfare organizations after an undercover investigation by Mercy For Animals (MFA) revealed illegal animal abuse at two of the company's contract farms. Almost 182,000 people signed a petition urging Perdue to adopt better animal welfare standards. After negotiations with MFA and other groups, Perdue announced new animal welfare policies this week. And animal welfare organizations are praising the company's new policies. MFA described it as the "most comprehensive animal welfare policy ever adopted by a major chicken producer." Perdue is one of only four companies that control most of the chicken industry.

The Consumer Goods Forum, UNEP, and the World Resources Institute were among a group of organizations to launch the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard-a set of global definitions and reporting requirements that enable companies and countries to measure food waste, identify its origin, and implement measures to reduce it.

Marks & Spencer, Nestlé UK and Ireland, and Unilever were among a group of more than 25 stakeholders in the food and beverage industry to sign on to resource efficiency charity WRAP's Courtauld Commitment 2025. The Commitment aims to reduce food and drink waste by 20%, cut the GHG intensity of food and drink consumed in the UK by 20%, and reduce the impact of water use in the supply chain.

Over 125 cosmetics and personal care products from 14 brands such as Beautycounter, Rejuva MInerals, and MyChelle Dermaceuticals have earned the Environmental Working Group (EWG)'s new verification. The EWG VERIFIED™ program aims to help customers quickly and easily identify products that meet strict ingredient standards and are "produced with the best manufacturing practices."

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has suspended its certification for Malaysian palm oil producer IOI Group amid concerns that the company has failed to live up to its obligation to tackle deforestation. The decision has already had a big impact on IOI, which has lost business with Unilever, Kellogg and Mars. "If IOI wishes to regain its customers, it must take immediate and significant action," says Greenpeace Indonesia campaigner Annisa Rahmawati.