This archive collects stories about businesses — from startups and local enterprises to multinational corporations — taking meaningful action on social, environmental, and economic challenges. These reports highlight moments when commerce and accountability intersect in constructive ways.
The stores would run on 100 per cent renewable energy, ensure waste was reduced by donating unsold food to local banks and use state-of-the-art technology to ensure that annual water consumption is reduced by 30 per cent.
Japan’s Marubeni Corp said it would no longer start new coal-fired power plant projects and will halve its net coal power generating capacity of about 3 gigawatts (GW) by 2030.
Carlsberg’s snap pack shows how rethinking a single everyday product can remove a genuinely harmful material from the environment at scale. The adhesive holds cans together through shipping and refrigeration, then releases cleanly — and because it bonds directly to aluminium, it recycles right alongside the can with no extra step for consumers. That adds up to more than 1,200 tonnes of plastic eliminated annually from one company’s packaging alone. Aluminium production still carries its own carbon costs, so this isn’t a complete solution — but it’s a concrete, verifiable step that other brewers and regulators could build on.
ChargePoint, one of the world’s largest charging station networks for electric vehicles, is targeting a near fifty-fold increase in its global network of loading spots by the middle of next decade.
Tesco, Network Rail, and Anglian Water join new coalition that will today set out plans to replace 18,000 diesel vans with electric models by 2028.
After 85 years of production, Lego has announced plans to make new pieces from plant-based plastic instead
Starbucks says it will eliminate plastic straws from its stores globally by 2020. The company becomes the largest food and beverage company to do so as calls to cut waste globally grow louder.
Solar panel recycling is finally catching up to solar power’s rapid growth, and France is showing the world how it’s done. A new facility in Rousset recovers glass, silicon, copper, and silver from aging panels — materials that can feed directly into making new ones, closing the loop on clean energy hardware. IRENA projects global PV waste could exceed five million tonnes by 2050, making infrastructure like this urgently needed. The plant currently handles crystalline silicon panels only, leaving thin-film recycling unsolved at industrial scale. Veolia hopes Rousset becomes a global template.
Renault will invest more than €1bn into four plants in France to increase its electric car production in the country.
Wind XII consists of 591 MW of new wind capacity in Iowa and has propelled the company to be the first investor-owned electric utility in the U.S. to generate renewable energy equal to 100% of its customers usage each year.
