Global Sustainability News

Companies often point to investors as a reason why they’re not doing more on sustainability. “We’d like to do more … but mainstream investors just don’t care about it,” is the common refrain according to a survey by Accenture on CEO attitudes. That’s starting to change. At a recent Wall Street meeting of 100 investor members of the $10 trillion Investors Network on Climate Risk sustainability leadership was the buzz.

More companies are using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs to talk about sustainability than ever before. Social Media Sustainability Index puts GE, IBM, Sony and Levi in the top ten.

Reform of environmental institutions is needed so countries can achieve sustainable development, the President of the General Assembly Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser said today, and stressed that States must prepare and contribute to this reform ahead of the major United Nations Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20) in June.

Connie Hedegaard has made the following statement: "Today the United Nations Global Sustainability Panel launched its report. The world must decide now what to do with it: either take it as another report for another shelf or take it as a serious wake-up call and act.

Climate change induced drought and water stress is increasing tree mortality in Canada's boreal forests, particularly in western Canada, resulting in a reduction in biomass which reduces it's capacity as a carbon sink. As tree mortality increases, there is reduced capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, resulting in a feedback loop where conditions become warmer and drier increasing the stress on the boreal forest ecosystem and ability to absorb carbon dioxide that humans keep on pumping into the atmosphere at increasing rates.

The heads of the General Assembly and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) met today to discuss preparations for the UN Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20), which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June.

The eruption of some of the largest volcanoes on the planet could be predicted decades before the event, research suggests.

A UN high-level panel on sustainability that includes Kevin Rudd has urged the world to dramatically change the way it does business amid growing inequality, environmental problems and ''teetering economies''.

A multi-institution partnership focused on educating the public about climate change in this area formally launched its website Tuesday.

Sustainability information should be integrated within the reporting cycle, two new reports suggest.

As the United States seeks to reinvigorate its job market and move past economic recession, MIT News examines manufacturing’s role in the country’s economic future through this series on work at the Institute around manufacturing. Study finds manufacturers leading the drive to make sustainability a mainstream — and profitable — business practice.

The earth beneath our feet plays an important role in carbon storage – a key factor in climate change – and new research shows that in times of drought some types of soil perform better than others.

Picture this: a terrible drought forces you to abandon your meager plot of farmland, so you migrate to a city where the jobs are, only to end up living in a slum regularly submerged by floods.