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Unilever launched Me to We-an initiative that enables consumers to collectively facilitate clean water provision in developing communities through their everyday purchases, in partnership with Walgreens. Customers can contribute to the cause by purchasing select Unilever TRESemmé, Suave or Caress products at their local Walgreens through September 30, 2015.

In this Yale Environment 360 video, we present the first of a two-part e360 series, "Wasted," on the vexing global problem of food waste. Filmmaker Karim Chrobog visits two cities - Washington, D.C., and Seoul, South Korea - to examine why so much food goes to waste and what can be done about it. Washington, and the U.S. as a whole, has taken only minor steps to reduce this enormous waste and its related human and environmental costs. By contrast, Seoul has adopted innovative programs to minimize the amount of food that ends up going to landfills to rot. 

a campaign called Behind the Brands, led by Oxfam International, an advocacy organization dedicated to fighting poverty, is trying to make the inner workings of the 10 biggest food companies in the world more visible. Oxfam's goal is to nudge them by scoring them on a scale of 1 to 10 on a whole host of fronts, from worker rights to climate change.

Unilever partnered with the World Resources Institute (WRI) to expand access to the Global Forest Watch Commodities platform, which enables companies to monitor changes in forest cover associated with their supply chains. Unilever and its suppliers will begin using the platform and working with WRI to improve it.

Kellogg is planning to require its suppliers to curb their greenhouse emissions as part of a broader push to reduce the company's environmental impact. The company also announced new plans to expand its net-zero deforestation pledge to include crops such as soy and sugarcane

China's state planning agency has ordered the city of Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong to draw up plans to reduce coal consumption in a bid to improve air quality, according to a policy document released on Wednesday.

The industry has resisted pressure for years from environmental groups to warn investors of the risks that stricter limits on carbon emissions could have on their businesses, although that appears to be changing. Energy experts said prosecutors may decide to investigate companies that chose to fund or join organizations that questioned climate science or policies designed to address the problem, such as the Global Climate Coalition and the American Legislative Exchange Council, to see if discrepancies exist between the companies' public and private statements.

The Christmas gifts have been delivered, and Secret Santa is done. Now, the work begins for Optoro, a start-up company that aims to reduce the financial and environmental costs of another great holiday tradition: returns. Little known to shoppers, however, is that a majority of returned items never make it back to retailers' shelves. Instead, the items wind their way through liquidators, wholesalers and resellers, many of the purchases ending up in landfills. According to some estimates, as much as two million tons of returned items - most of it undamaged merchandise - are thrown away each year, enough to fill over 200,000 garbage trucks.

Palm Oil Free Certification programme launches in UK and Australia A new certification programme has launched to validate consumer products that make no use of palm oil, which has been blamed for fuelling deforestation in Asia. Set up by a group of women experts, the Palm Oil Free Certification Accreditation Programme (POFCAP) is now in operation in Australia and the UK following approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, IP Australia, and IPO UK. Fourteen other nations have applied to introduce the label. Australia-based eco cleaning products company Clean Conscience is the first to carry the label, and the group is working with a host of other companies on certification. Despite improvements to tackle deforestation, POFCAP said "only 17% of all palm oil used can be classed as 'non-conflict'". The scheme is based on extensive research and trusted methods to trace all potential palm oil and palm oil derivative ingredients of a product back to their source. (Business Green)

"Sell by," "Use by," "Display until" and "Best before" food labels intended to inform consumers about food quality and safety frequently come under fire for their lack of clarity and confusing terminology that contributes significantly to the colossal food waste problem - one that costs families up to $29 billion annually in the United States alone. However, little concrete action has been taken to address the problem. Now, the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) - a network of 400 of the biggest consumer goods companies across 70 countries - along with Champions 12.3 has approved a Call to Action to standardize food date labels worldwide by 2020.

The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute is now offering its Cradle to Cradle Certified Catalyst Program free of charge. The program helps product developers, designers, and manufacturers better understand and implement the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Program within their organization.

China has sent 60,000 soldiers to plant trees. China plans to grow 6.66 million hectares of new forest this year, having already created 33.8 million hectares (338,000 square kilometres) of forest in the past five years, says Zhang Jianlong, head of the State Forestry Administration, in a report from Reuters. The country wants to increase the area of land covered by woodlands from 21.7% in 2016 to 23% by 2020, according to China Daily.

The global volume of e-waste generated is expected to reach 93.5 million tons in 2016 from 41.5 million tons in 2011 at a compound annual growth rate of 17.6 percent from 2011 to 2016, according to a new report from Marketsandmarkets.

The French Government passed legislation to cut the country's energy consumption 50% by 2050, reduce nuclear power production to 50% of the energy mix, and increase renewable energy to 32% of total energy consumption by 2030. The law also requires the country to reduce its carbon emissions 40% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

The 17 Global Goals (also known as the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs) launched late last month by the United Nations (UN) aim to achieve three main objectives in the next 15 years: end extreme poverty; fight inequality and injustice; and tackle climate change. Since the launch, various companies and leaders have pledged to do their part to achieve the goals; now, the latest push is to build worldwide public awareness of the goals through various efforts to "tell everyone" (#TellEveryone), including support from scores of celebrities:

Fast-food giant McDonald's today is announcing new standards for the chicken supplied to its 14,000 U.S. restaurants. While the company isn't going antibiotic-free, McDonald's plans within two years to sell only chicken "raised without antibiotics that are important to human medicine," according to a statement provided to GreenBiz.

Taking plastics recycling to a whole new level, Procter & Gamble (P&G) has pioneered a new technology that restores used polypropylene plastic (PP) to 'virgin-like' quality. Developed in P&G labs, the patented technology is being licensed to PureCycle to deploy in a new recycling plant in Lawrence County, Ohio and will allow consumers to purchase more products made from recycled plastic.

As the Arctic melts, oil companies are moving in to drill for more oil. Next year, the Norwegian owned oil company Statoil will drill further north than ever - unless we stop them. An unprecedented case was filed this morning that could do just that. This case is about holding back the oil industry at this final frontier, it is about protecting the beautiful Arctic, and it is about people stepping up to hold governments to account. If we win, millions of barrels of oil could be kept in the ground. We will argue in court that we must take action to keep the Paris climate agreement on track, and we will invoke Norway's constitutional right to a healthy and safe environment for future generations.

Unregulated carbon pollution from aviation is the fastest-growing source of the greenhouse gas emissions driving global climate change. In fact, if the entire aviation sector were a country, it would be one of the top 10 carbon-polluting nations on the planet. The good news is that we now have a process in place to curb international aviation's skyrocketing emissions. For the first time ever, the United Nations' civil aviation body agreed last week to put a cap on the emissions for an international sector rather than a country. International aviation already accounts for over 2% of global carbon emissions. But this number will soar as demand for air travel continues to rises. In 2010, the aviation industry carried 2.4 billion passengers; in 2050, the number is forecast to rise to 16 billion.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The TOp official at the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday the ongoing legal fight over regulating carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants won't delay the nation's accelerating shift TO cleaner sources of energy. EPA AdministraTOr Gina McCarthy spoke at Climate Action 2016, a conference in WashingTOn on efforts TO curb global warming. Seeking TO reassure her international audience, McCarthy said the United States will absolutely meet its obligations TO cut carbon emissions as agreed TO in the landmark climate treaty signed in Paris last December.