Environment

For the last four years, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful has been proud to team up with Gwinnett County’s Department of Water Resources to raise awareness about the important role that wetlands play, as well as to motivate the community to act as stewards to local wetlands.

PNC’s recently released 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report outlines the ways that the company is meeting its commitments to its stakeholders – including employees, customers, shareholders and communities. Now, with the launch of its quarterly CSR newsletter, PNC is able to provide more up-to-the-moment information on the progress it’s making against those commitments.

Consumers Energy and DTE Energy today said they are accelerating plans to produce cleaner energy in Michigan, targeting at least a 50 percent Clean Energy Goal by 2030– achieved through a combination of investments in at least 25 percent renewable energy, and the remaining through energy efficiency.

In northern food-insecure communities, students from the University of Ottawa are manufacturing commercial grade hydroponic systems housed in shipping containers enabling communities to grow their own food locally.

Ryerson University students partnered with a local school in Pisac, Peru to implement a horticultural education program designed to generate a sustainable revenue stream for the school.

STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, announced the publication of its 2018 Sustainability Report. The report contains highlights of ST’s sustainability performance in 2017 and presents new ambitions and goals for 2025. It describes in detail how ST addresses sustainability challenges and opportunities and how the Company contributes to nine of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In a recent interview with Ethical Corporation, the Director of Governance Affairs at UN Environment, Jorge Laguna-Celis, explained that engaging with the private sector has been part of UNEP’s “modus-operandi” since the SDGs were signed in 2015. According to Laguna-Celis, “the vision of our executive director Erik Solheim is very simple. In every division, every staff member, in every project he or she is working on, has to devote resources to engaging with the private sector.”

Every year, 9 million tons of plastic waste ends up in the world’s oceans and could remain in marine environments for more than 450 years. This escalating problem deserves our attention, and today National Geographic is kicking off a multiyear initiative to reduce the impact of single-use plastics on our oceans. The comprehensive plan of action called “Planet or Plastic?” launches today and is tied to the June issue of National Geographic magazine, which is available online now and will hit newsstands on May 29.

Expansion of agriculture is one of the main drivers of global deforestation and loss of habitat. Like many other countries in the world, Uganda has experienced severe deforestation, with forest cover declining by nearly 60 percent from about 5 million hectares in 1990 to just under 2 million in 2015.