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Socially conscious fashion brand Eileen Fisher and Canadian environmental NGO Canopy - with the help of Quiksilver, prAna, Patagonia and lululemon athletica and 14 progressive designers - have announced a joint campaign designed to bolster protection of ancient forest ecosystems and raise awareness about the fashion industry's role in endangering them.

The days of conventional concrete and carbon-intensive building materials are waning. Along with promising advancements such as concrete made from biofuel waste, carbonate rock made from captured CO2 emissions, and a smart gypsum board that can help regulate room temperatures, three recent innovations in material development illustrate the intensifying search for more sustainable materials - from city streets to cement production plants

Every year, the world produces more than two billion tons of waste - enough to fill a fleet of trash trucks to circle the world 24 times, according to sustainability project the World Counts. The World Bank estimates the yearly global cost of dealing with waste is more than $200 billion and predicts annual waste will exceed 11 million tons per day by 2100 if current trends continue.  But where does it all go? Whether it's an island built as a landfill or the outskirts of historic monuments, the world's waste is piling up with no end in sight. The following images offer an acute reminder of the seriousness of waste management and the desperate need to address it. It's simply not sustainable.

Walt Disney Company today announced its intention to prohibit cigarette-smoking depictions in films it produces with youth ratings. The company is the first major Hollywood studio to do so, following pressure from a coalition of investors

The North Face may have just started a new trend in sustainable apparel: locally grown. Taking a cue from the local food movement, the outdoor apparel company developed an all-cotton hoodie that was grown, designed, cut and sewn within 150 miles of its corporate headquarters in California.

"Non-GMO" is one of the fastest-growing label trends on U.S. food packages, with sales of such items growing 28% last year to about $3 billion, according to market-research firm Nielsen. In a poll of nearly 1,200 U.S. consumers for The Wall Street Journal, Nielsen found that 61% of consumers had heard of GMOs and nearly half of those people said they avoid eating them. The biggest reason was because it "doesn't sound like something I should eat."

Finally, the fashion industry realizes we cannot continue this trend in a world where the rising population will have to devote more land to food - or even energy. We cannot continue to grow cotton like mad, nor can we endlessly spin fossil fuels into polyester or other synthetic fabrics. The road toward more sustainable fibers will be a long one with plenty of failures and misses, but it is one we need to take. That is, at least, absent a total rethink of how many clothes we really need in our closets - a discussion the large global clothing chains want to avoid.

Rocky Mountain Institute's Amory Lovins comments on the instability of oil prices and explains why efficiency and renewables are cheaper, cleaner, more reliable options. 

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.

France is moving forward with a "Positive Energy" initiative to add solar panels to 621 miles of road. The panels are glued onto the roadway and can handle the weight of six-axle vehicles. This stretch of road could collect enough energy for 5 million people. A Dutch company has already used solar panels on 328 feet of road in Holland.

The interactive report, produced in partnership with Trucost, features: our ninth annual State of Green Business report, This year's report continues our tradition of taking the pulse of corporate progress in sustainability, in the United States and around the world.  * The top 10 trends for 2016 * Video interviews with key sustainability leaders * 30+ metrics assessing the environmental performance and progress of nearly 2,000 companies

This month, General Electric announced that it is developing a desalination technology that freezes seawater to separate salt crystals from water, at a 20 percent lower cost compared to conventional thermal evaporation approaches. Meanwhile, Veolia and Masdar unveiled a new renewable energy-powered pilot facility that also reduces the costs of desalination.

Clean energy has become a driving force in the US marketplace as costs have declined and major companies have unveiled investments in wind and other renewables, writes Chris Brown, Vestas' president of sales and service operations in the US and Canada. Wind, in particular, can provide the nation with a winning combination of affordable yet reliable electricity. "Whatever the courts rule on the CPP, there's no turning back or stopping this economic trend. Clean energy makes good sense for business, good sense for consumers, and good sense for the country," he writes.

Supplier collaboration and sustainability can drive innovation and growth in top supply chains, but only 43 percent of suppliers feel fully empowered to collaborate with their partners, says new research from 3M. Surveying 237 suppliers across the U.S., the report uncovers insight on the most urgent trends, opportunities and challenges facing suppliers today.

Indonesia has reported a second straight year of declining deforestation, and credited more stringent land management policies for the trend. However, the government's insistence on counting pulpwood plantations as reforested areas has once again sparked controversy over how the very concept of a forest should be defined.

The big question for 2018 is whether last year's troubling trends for environment and development - rising global carbon emissions, multiple billion-dollar natural disasters, U.S. President Donald Trump's abandonment of climate action - will continue or turn in a more positive direction. As WRI President and CEO Andrew Steer noted during the Stories to Watch event in Washington on January 10, 2018, developments across several key topics will determine the answer.

"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.

Paris-based Kering, which owns luxury brands Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen, among many others, is working on a 10-year sustainability plan that includes specific green standards for its supply chains. "When you are in the luxury sector, you have a responsibility because you set the trends," said Marie-Claire Daveu, Kering's chief sustainability officer.

The following are five trends we expect to unfold during 2018. Yes, you could argue we're playing it safe - like the typical horoscope or fortune teller, these predictions overall are fairly broad. Nevertheless, expect to see many headlines focused on these topics in the coming year, here on 3p and elsewhere.