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The Better Buildings Challenge says businesses that have participated in its initiative have reduced energy use 2% annually for a total savings of $1.3 billion. The goal is to make buildings 20% more efficient within 10 years. In total, 34,000 buildings and facilities have been part of the effort.

Environmentalists would prefer that everyone drank tap water -- but with consumers still clamoring for bottled beverages, water companies are trying to find ways to make their products more eco-friendly. Just Water uses bottles made from "green" plant-derived plastics, while other companies offer water in cardboard or easy-to-recycle aluminum packaging.

South Korea has been using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and a 'pay-as-you-waste' system to help cut back on food waste. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the Mayor's Zero Waste Challenge as part of the city's plan to send zero waste to landfill by 2030. Thirty-one businesses, including Disney, Anheuser-Busch, Citi Field, Etsy, Whole Foods, and more, have committed to divert at least 50 percent of their waste from landfill and incineration.

Microbeads are bad news, but fortunately most of us know that by now. There has been growing resistance to the miniscule pieces of plastic, added to personal care products for their ability to exfoliate skin, or sometimes just to look pretty in a see-through bottle. These microbeads, however, wreak environmental havoc as soon as they're washed down the drain. The outcome is described here by campaign group 'Beat the Microbead':

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.

We've all heard of the troubling mass extinction of animal life, so it may come as a surprise to hear that seeds are in even deeper trouble. Since the turn of the century, 93% of US seed varieties have gone extinct and with them the diversity of our meals.  As clearly shown in the infographic (left) published by National Geographic's John Tomanio, nature's tastiest gifts have dramatically disappeared across the past century. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (the FAO), 75% of the world's food is now generated from only 12 plants and five animal species.

Net zero energy (NZE) buildings-responsible for the production of as much (or more) clean energy as they use annually-have been gaining global momentum. In our newly released Insight Brief, RMI presents an innovative business model for developing net zero energy or ultra-low energy districts in a way that creates significant business value. Net zero energy business models are financially attractive to investors because the large capital investments in solar PV, district heating and cooling, and energy efficiency are repaid over time on utility bills, generating a steady return that benefits from enhanced credit because of the utility-customer relationship.

Mexico's pine forests are under threat from avocado farms, with producers expanding their orchards to meet burgeoning demand. The water-intensive orchards and increasing use of agricultural chemicals pose a threat to surrounding ecosystem, experts say.

Lens Technology has agreed to use 100% renewables to produce all of its products it manufacturers for Apple in China, according to the companies. The company has already signed a long-term power purchase agreement that will supply 100% of its electricity needs by 2018.

The governments of the East African Community hoping to ban imports of secondhand clothes. The logic is that by stopping the trade of used garments, the apparel industry will be revitalized, create jobs and exports, and bolster their economies. What impact would this ban have on the donating Western countries? If we could no longer offload our unwanted discarded clothing onto the poor, what would we do with those clothes?

Washington DC enacted a law committing the district to 50% renewable energy by 2032. In addition, the bill lays out a program to cut electricity bills in half for about 100,000 district residents by 2032 through the use of renewables.

General Motors completed a storm water management infrastructure expansion at its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant, which is expected to save the company nearly $2 million annually and cut operational water intensity. The company estimates the cost savings will surpass the total project investment in about 1 year.

PepsiCo achieved a 26% reduction in operational water use per unit of production against a 2006 baseline in 2015, surpassing its 2015 target. The company's water conservation efforts have led to more than $80 million in cost savings since 2011.

Turn off your air conditioner and stay cool in your shirt instead. That's the idea behind a new plastic-wrap-like material that Stanford University scientists say could be made into "cool" clothing, the use of which could slash emissions and energy consumption in buildings. If woven into fabric, the wearable cloth could keep humans cool on the hottest of days, eliminating the need to adjust the thermostat or crank up a fan. That could make a dent on a major source of U.S. greenhouse gases, the researchers say.

PepsiCo's Frito-Lay snacks facility in Casa Grande, Arizona, treats and recycles about 648,000 gallons per day of process water from the potato chip and snack manufacturing process for rinse and wash water and for landscape irrigation.

General Motors announced plans to make engine covers, coats for the homeless, and air filters out of the 2 million discarded water bottles it has collected from Flint, Michigan residents. The project is an extension of its ongoing "Do Your Part" recycling initiative, which converts discarded water bottles into fleece.

EUROPEN and 35 other associations representing major consumer goods brands, packaging producers, material producers and extended producer responsibility organizations are calling for a long-term, ambitious EU policy framework that enables and facilitates sustainable resource use from a full life-cycle perspective, incentivizes economies of scale and takes into account value chains at all levels, each with their different functional needs, supply and demand realities.

Obama (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) President Barack Obama unveiled a multimillion-dollar plan Wednesday that would help Western states cut carbon emissions and deal with climate change. The plan would ramp up renewables in Southern California, make a $230 million investment in stormwater management and provide up to $29 million for a pair of geothermal projects in Nevada and Utah. The Hill (8/31)

It's been almost 10 years since the Coca-Cola Company (PDF) vowed to "safely return to communities and nature an amount of water equal to what we use in our finished beverages and their production," with a deadline of 2020 for doing so. To get there, it teamed up with a broad array of NGOs and government aid agencies, who established clear rules for "replenishing" the aquifers and waterways that make up a watershed, and in 2015 the company announced it not only had reached its target five years early, but even surpassed it by putting 15 percent more water into the system than it took out. This tiny pack, however, is dwarfed by a massive herd of corporates that have made similar promises without offering any indication of how they'll deliver or whether they're making progress - and it's not just a water problem.

Communities on the frontlines of fossil fuel development are taking a stand against dangerous fossil fuel projects. Take a look at the big fight in the small town of Kalama, Washington. The Chinese government is planning to build the world's largest methanol refinery to convert fracked natural gas to liquid methanol for export to China to make plastics. From a greenhouse gas perspective, this fight is a big deal. The methanol refinery alone would use more natural gas than all industry in Washington combined. Flip it around: If we win this one battle and stop the methanol refinery, we stop the equivalent of doubling industrial natural gas usage in Washington State. While the gas industry tries to spin natural gas as clean, new science shows just the opposite. The bulk of natural gas is methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Methane leakage from gas wells and pipelines led scientists to conclude that fracked gas can be as bad coal for our climate. And it gets worse. Gas production in North America relies heavily on fracking, a process famous for polluting air and water, endangering the health of nearby residents.