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Every Fall, college and universities across the country welcome companies on their campuses to provide networking opportunities for students. These events can include career fairs, interviews, and industry specific networking gatherings. One such company is PepsiCo, major user of Conflict Palm Oil and top corporate laggard in Rainforest Action Network's Snack Food 20. "Pepsi's palm oil supply chain is saturated with rainforest destruction, human rights and labor abuses, and species extinction," said Adam Stackable, an Oklahoma student, "I won't work for a company that uses Conflict Palm Oil." Adam and several other students confronted a Pepsi recruiter at Oklahoma State University and delivered a letter urging the company to take action to address the egregious practices in its supply chain.

An estimated 3,300 acres on oat farms that supply oats for Honey Nut Cheerios will soon provide new dedicated, flower-rich habitat for pollinators. General Mills is partnering with the Xerces Society, a pollinator and wildlife conservation organization, to plant wildflowers on the supplier farms. Meanwhile, The Wildlife Habitat Council released a white paper explaining the issue of pollinators' decline and actions corporations can take to help.

The global market for green chemistry is expected to boom from $11 billion in 2015 to about $100 billion by 2020, according to data from the American Sustainable Business Council and the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council. While challenges remain -- notably around building a consensus about what "green" chemistry really means -- consumers are increasingly demanding safer and more sustainable products. "In a nutshell, the green chemistry market is poised for takeoff," writes Libby Bernick. GreenBiz.com (5/6)  

Timberland is a longstanding sustainability leader within the apparel industry. The New Hampshire-based company is a favorite of the outdoorsy crowd, and its shoes are popular not only for their reputation as being sturdy and rugged, but for their enduring status as a fashion statement as well.

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.

Once spurned for having too many calories, avocados have spiked in popularity throughout the U.S. and Canada due to their reputation as a "healthy fat" that also doubles as a superfood. But the growing demand, which has led produce brokers and retailers to look beyond California to Mexico. According to an Associated Press investigation, the high prices that avocados can fetch for consumers has led to the deforestation of Mexico's historic pine forests.

A partnership of 12 organization is set to launch an online hub for information and solutions to reduce food waste, "Further With Food: Center for Food Loss and Waste Solutions," at FurtherWithFood.org. The site is intended to help realize the national goal to halve food waste by 2030, announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in September 2015.

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.

Washington is suing Monsanto over widespread PCBs contamination, the first U.S. state to take such an action. Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, at a press conference in Seattle on Thursday. According to the Associated Press, Washington is seeking damages on several grounds, including product liability for Monsanto's alleged failure to warn about the dangers of PCBs; negligence; and trespass for injuring the state's natural resources.

But the fact is that the blockchain is building some serious credibility within the world's biggest banks and financial services firms - they helped fuel more than $1 billion in investments between 2014 and 2016. That visibility has given both established and emerging companies the confidence to experiment. In mid-October, for example, Walmart announced a collaboration with IBM and Tsinghua University in Beijing focused on using the blockchain as a mechanism for authenticating food sources and keeping tabs on all sorts of related data - including the originating farm, batch numbers, processing plant information, expiration dates and storage temperatures.

A changing climate means less rain and lower water supplies in regions where many people live and much of the planet's food is produced: the mid-latitudes of the Northern and Southern hemispheres, including the U.S. Southwest, southern Europe and parts of the Middle East, southern Africa, Australia and Chile. As WRI-Aqueduct's future scenarios for water supply show, diminished water supplies will be apparent in these areas by 2020 - less than four years away - and are expected to grow worse by 2030 and 2040.

The Natural Capital Coalition launched the Natural Capital Protocol, a framework for harmonizing natural capital valuation across business sectors. The framework was developed over the last two years with input from more than 450 organizations and has been piloted by companies including The Coca-Cola Company, Dow Chemical, Nestlé, and others.

The energy sector accounts for around one-third of global CO2 emissions. Thus, countries' urgent need to combat climate change is strongly related to energy companies' ability to change from 'black' to 'green.' A Danish example is DONG Energy. The company says its cut in CO2 emissions from electricity and heat production accounts for more than half of the Denmark's total CO2 reduction from 2006 to 2014. But how can one single company cut more than half of a country's CO2?

In 1900, an estimated 100,000 tigers roamed free on our planet. Yet within a hundred years, that number plummeted by more than 95 percent - the result of rampant poaching and widespread habitat loss. But it seems the tide may finally be turning for the majestic cat. On Sunday, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced that wild tiger numbers were on the rise for the first time in over a century.

Technology is being developed to reduce water use in dyeing but the use and abuse of water to dye clothing continues

As evidence mounts that excessive use of light is harming wildlife and adversely affecting human health, new initiatives in France and elsewhere are seeking to turn down the lights that flood an ever-growing part of the planet

mounts that excessive use of light is harming wildlife and adversely affecting human health, new initiatives in France and elsewhere are seeking to turn down the lights that flood an ever-growing part of the planet.

According to Green Biz, 14 environmental and social resolutions earned at least 40 percent shareholder support, with requests for sustainability reporting tha tincludes greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency targts gaining over 40%

The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform, a group helping food and drink companies to achieve sustainable production and sourcing of agricultural raw materials whose members include McDonald's Europe and Unilever, has announced the development of its Principles for Sustainable Beef Farming, what it is calling the most complete guidelines developed for beef production to date.

Increasingly common in Europe, municipal "waste-to-energy" incinerators are being touted as a green trash-disposal alternative. But critics contend that these large-scale incinerators tend to discourage recycling and lead to greater waste.

Disney Cruise Line is the most environmentally responsible line, earning an A for sewage treatment and an overall A grade, according to Friends of the Earth's 2013 Cruise Ship Report Card.