EC Environmental Policy

A new product could help people in remote, parched places gain easy access to clean drinking water. The Warka Water, a 30-foot-tall tower shaped like a vase, uses a straw mesh and a nylon net to capture airborne humidity in the form of dew, which it then collects for human use. The device can reportedly gather more than 25 gallons of potable water in a single day, even in desert conditions

Based on the Wikipedia model, MIT started Climate CoLab, a collaborative online community centred around a series of annual contests that seek out promising ideas for fighting climate change. P

London/Rotterdam, 9 April 2014. Unilever announced today that all its factories across Europe have joined those in North America in achieving zero non-hazardous waste to landfill. With similar achievements in countries from Argentina to Indonesia, it means more than three-quarters of the company's global factory network no longer sends such waste to landfill, up from 20% just three years ago.

Avon will phase out the antibacterial chemical triclosan from all of its products. Triclosan has been identified as a potential hormone disruptor

Atmospheric carbon levels have reached 402 parts per million, the highest level in about 800,000 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. "Humans have caused carbon dioxide concentrations to rise 120 ppm since preindustrial times, with over 90% of that in the past century alone," said James Butler, director of NOAA's Global Monitoring Division

ITDP assessed the developments using its new TOD Standard, a policy guide that evaluates real estate developments using eight key elements to integrating sustainable transport, land use planning and sustainable urban design.

According to a new survey by EcoATM, 57 percent of American device owners have idle cell phones in their homes, yet only 22 percent state they have previously recycled cell phones they no longer use.

Consumer products giant Proctor & Gamble has become the latest company to cave into pressure from Greenpeace, revealing new goals to eliminate deforestation from its entire palm oil supply chain by 2020.

By teaming up with The Nature Conservancy, this leading agricultural company has helped to mitigate deforestation in Brazil

Starting this month, the big box giant aims to drive down the price of organic food nationwide with its new in-house line of 100 or so products in exclusive partnership with Wild Oats, a pioneering health brand of the 1980s. Walmart's new Wild Oats organic products - including kitchen cupboard staples like olive oil and black beans - will cost about 25 percent less than those sold by competitors, based on price comparisons of 26 national brands.

Green cleaning products company Ecover will launch an algae-based laundry detergent in Europe later this year. The product eliminates the need for palm oil, a common ingredient in traditional detergents.

The UN Environment Program and other partners launched the Sustainable Public Procurement Program, a project to redirect public spending towards goods and services with environmental and social benefits. The initiative is part of the UN's 10-Year Framework of Programs on Sustainable Consumption and Production.

Today, the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) and the Well Building Institute (IWBI) announced a new partnership that strives to make health and wellness a more fundamental building block of green building design.

Home improvement retailer Lowe's Home Centers will pay $18.1 million to settle claims that more than 100 of its stores in California illegally dumped hazardous waste in landfills.

BMW, Ford, GM, Honda and 10 other leading automakers have agreed a set of expectations for suppliers, relating to the environment, working conditions, human rights and business ethics.

Green is upping its fashion game. In the latest move linking the young and chic to sustainability, the world's two largest fashion brands -- H&M and Zara -- have agreed to partner with nonprofit Canopy, backing its "Fashion Loved By Forest" campaign, an effort to rid rayon and viscose clothing of all traces of ancient and endangered forests.

Some of the Internet's biggest names are making impressive strides to reduce the carbon footprint of the cloud, says Greenpeace. Yet as the world's appetite for data expands, Twitter and Amazon Web Services are bringing up the rear.

There is increasing recognition among both travel professionals and consumers of the importance of responsible travel and "strong evidence" that responsible travel is good for the economic bottom line, according to analysis by Center for Responsible Travel.

TripAdvisor is extending its GreenLeaders program, which highlights hotels and B&Bs engaging in environmentally friendly practices, into 19 new markets.

It may be hard for chocolate makers to guarantee that their entire supply comes from a sustainable source by the 2020 target many of them have set, according to a sustainable sourcing auditing firm has told Confectionery News.