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A sewage recycling system pioneered by Applied CleanTech (ACT) is reducing a Dutch water board's operational costs by around $1 million a year while reducing sludge by up to 30%. ACT's technology is designed to help industrial and agricultural wastewater treatment plants transform wastewater into raw materials for plastics, insulation, pulp and paper, construction, bio-fuels production, nano-cellulose, and other industries.

The U.S. EPA Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification system, released in 2013, removes many bottlenecks that kept ecosystem services from becoming an integral part of corporate decision-making.

Bonaire (pop. 14,500), a small island off the coast of Venezuela, is famous for its beautiful marine reefs, which are visited by 70,000 tourists every year. What many of the tourists don't realize is that the majority of the electricity powering their needs comes from renewable energy. Yet for the residents of Bonaire, the switch from fossil-fueled to renewable energy systems has made a world of difference.

FedEx Ground Package System allegedly violated California's hazardous waste control laws more than 1,500 times, according to a civil complained filed by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

This new scenario modeling system helps planners in Latin America and the Caribbean make more informed infrastructure investments.

China expects to launch a national carbon market in 2016, drawing together regional pilot projects into a single unified marketplace. The new carbon trading system will be the world's biggest emissions market

Royal Caribbean Cruises has announced it will retrofit 19 of its ships with advanced emissions purification (AEP) systems, also known as scrubbers, which will remove more than 97 percent of the sulfur dioxide emissions generated by the ships' diesel engines.

UPS will accelerate the implementation of its ORION routing system to reduce the distance traveled by its drivers by around 100 million miles annually. The routing improvements are projected to reduce fleet CO2 emissions by 100,000 metric tons, fuel consumption by 10 million gallons, and save the company more than $300 million annually when completed in 2016.

Tesla founder Elon Musk has announced a new project that could get millions of people off the grid. Musk's increased interest in the emerging energy storage market has led to plans for a giant lithium-ion battery factory. Home and businesses owners could buy these battery systems for backup power or for managing solar electricity generation and use

New "enhanced geothermal systems" (EGS), however, look set to make geothermal a bigger energy generation contributor-and potentially as controversial as shale. The industry may dislike the comparison, but EGS is geothermal fracking.

Ford will invest $750,000 to install wind sail and solar panel systems at 4 Ford dealerships, in partnership with the Wind Energy Corporation. The 20,000 kW-h of electricity generated annually will

The Kellogg Company is saving $62,000 per year after implementing an energy-efficient commercial cooling system made by Coolerado. The system enabled the facility to reduce energy consumption by 88%.

The World Wildlife Fund and Geostellar launched a new program that enables U.S. employees from 3M (CEF member), Cisco, Kimberly-Clark (CEF member), and the National Geographic Society to purchase discounted home solar PV systems. Employees will reportedly be able to purchase solar power at a 35% discount below average prices in the United States.

InterContinental Hotels Group announced that its 4,700 hotel properties will begin using the IHG Green Engage online sustainability tool to track energy use, GHG emissions, water consumption, and waste management. The company stated that the system has already enabled a portion of their hotels save $73 million in energy costs during 2013.

While 2014 ushered in big breakthroughs in fields from solar energy to smart cities, 2015 will present a crossroads for larger-scale sustainability progress.

Under a new order from the state's Public Service Commission, utility companies will soon be barred from owning "distributed" power systems-that means rooftop solar, small wind turbines, and basically anything else that isn't a big power plant. "By restricting utilities from owning local power generation and other energy resources, customers will benefit from a more competitive market, with utilities working and partnering with other companies and service providers," the commission said in a statement.

Goldman Sachs has committed to investing $150 billion in clean energy technology by 2025. The bank will focus its spending on wind and solar projects as well as energy-efficiency measures. Kyung-Ah Park, Goldman's head of environmental markets, said more renewable projects would be installed this year than traditional systems, even though the economy is still in the early stages of shifting to clean energy

A vacuum distillation system by H2O GmbH has reduced the amount of wastewater produced and saved more than €100,000 ($108,280) annually for thermofin, a German metalworking company.

Corporate sustainability reporting desperately needs to up its game in order to align company-level sustainability performance with the broader systems-level ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and COP21, the UN climate change conference, according to a new report from the UNEP. For example, while 95% of the 108 companies researched in the report disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, only a mere 8% set GHG emissions reduction goals in the context of the science-based target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius - the central goal of COP21.

Bad news: You might be a water hog. Americans use more water per person than anyone else in the world - 27 billion gallons every day. Unfortunately, it is the river systems, lakes and wetlands and the wildlife of those habitats that suffer the most as a result of reckless water consumption. A new campaign by the Center for Biological Diversity and supported by Levi Strauss & Co., "Don't Be a Drip," is trying to call attention to the issue and help people learn how to save water for wildlife.