VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a leading innovator in enterprise software, has announced the achievement of key milestones in its journey to drive positive global impact across people, products and the planet. At the opening of the new VMware Discovery Center in Palo Alto, CEO Pat Gelsinger announced the company has achieved carbon neutrality in global operations two years ahead of the company’s scheduled 2020 goal, and a partnership with the City of Palo Alto to develop a proof-of-concept for a community microgrid.

Sappi’s shared service center in South Portland Maine has implemented a program that collects the office’s organic solid waste on-site, adding a compost container to complement the existing single-stream recycling and landfill waste containers.

Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, together with Parliamentary Secretary Paul Lefebvre, announced this week that the Government of Canada plans to invest $5 million to help position Goldcorp’s Borden Project as a mine of the future — mining ore in a more environmentally sustainable way.

Essity has joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastic Economy global commitment, “A line in the sand”. Essity is therefore committed to working toward 100% recyclability of the company’s packaging by 2025.

Are you ready to shop, eat and celebrate with the small businesses in your neighborhood this holiday season? Today, American Express (NYSE:AXP) revealed its lineup of community programs for the ninth annual Small Business Saturday, taking place nationwide on November 24. Small Business Saturday, founded by American Express in 2010, is held each year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to encourage people to shop at independently-owned businesses online and at storefronts across the country.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced the recipients of its 2018 Leadership Awards, an annual recognition of the outstanding individuals and organizations at the forefront of the green building movement. George Bandy Jr., Mohawk Industries vice president of sustainability and commercial marketing, will join five other distinguished honorees, including global apparel retailer NIKE, for the USGBC Leadership Awards Reception on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, in Chicago. Individuals and organizations representing diverse expertise from across the green building industry will be celebrated in tandem with the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo.

AEG’s LA Kings and Blue Shield of California teamed up to host a Halloween Party at the Los Angeles Ronald McDonald House on Tuesday, October 30. Throughout the afternoon, volunteers from the Kings and Blue Shield of California – including LA Kings center Nate Thompson and his wife Sydney – prepared and distributed gift bags, decorated cookies with guests, led Halloween-themed arts and crafts and played a lively game of ball hockey.

Nestlé has partnered with Tembo Education to deliver customised, nutrition-based curriculums to families across Kenya, through SMS and WhatsApp messages. The aim is to help families provide their children with the best possible nutritional start in life by delivering information, tools and tips that could tackle malnutrition and potentially save lives.

The initiative, launched through Nestlé’s open innovation platform - HENRi@Nestlé, forms part of Nestlé’s ambition to improve nutritional levels across the East and Southern Africa region (ESAR). According to joint assessments conducted by Kenya’s County Departments and UNICEF last year, nearly 73,000 children are severely malnourished in Kenya alone.

General Motors' Toledo Transmission plant was recently recognized for excellence in environmental stewardship by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This year, the plant was awarded the Platinum Level – the highest-level award from Ohio EPA’s Encouraging Environmental Excellence Program (E3) – making General Motors one of five organizations to receive this recognition this year.

Smithfield Foods, Inc. is the first food company to participate in a new program with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE) to restore key prairie habitat for monarch butterflies, as described in this video. Their efforts are helping bring back the iconic insect, which has experienced a 95 percent population decline since the 1980s and could be listed as a threatened species in June 2019. However, the monarch is currently undergoing what is anticipated to be the largest migration in 10 years.