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Recycling has become a major industry that reaches far beyond your average curbside pickup program. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2010 employment in green goods and services accounted for 3.1 million jobs in the United States. The green job potential grows exponentially the more communities invest in their own recycling efforts.

There is little debate that the world of corporate sustainability is a fast moving landscape. This is a particular challenge for small and medium-sized companies (the lion-share of SustainServ's client base) who are often left in a quandary of if/how/and when to keep up with it all.

The rising gas prices are forcing everybody to take a second look at how they commute. Now WalkScore is helping people do this. They recently released a report of the most transit-friendly cities in the United States. Cities were graded on how commuter-friendly they are, not just by ranking the quantity of transit available but also how convenient it is to citizens.

Quick charging, also known as fast charging, is widely considered an important gateway to the mass adoption of electric vehicles. The process "fills up" an EV battery up to 80 percent capacity in 15 to 30 minutes, effectively extending the range for all-electric vehicles as long as a string of quick-charging stations are on the way.

When it comes to reducing the environmental impacts of a business, the concept of pollution prevention is one of the most fundamentally important ideas in the sustainability guidebook.

The basic concept is simple: Pollution prevention (P2) aims to reduce or eliminate waste at the source by changing production processes, using non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and reusing materials instead of putting them in the waste stream.

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Greenpeace has long been an ardent crusader for the health of the world’s oceans. They have worked with several companies to improve their sourcing and they also release a guide to ethically sourced tuna.

According to the sixth edition of  Greenpeace’s Carting Away to Oceans report (CATO), only two major retailers have been given a top green rating.

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Subway’s motto is “Eat Fresh,” but now you can keep green while you eat greens.

The world’s largest fast food chain, which surpassed McDonald’s in number of total restaurants early last year, has announced that its salad containers will now be made from 95 percent post consumer recycled materials. The plastic mainly comes from recycled soda and water bottles.

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Barely two months remain before throngs of athletes and spectators crowd into London for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Along with the traditional, frantic last-minute preparations, the host city is also hustling to deliver on its pledge to make these Summer Games the greenest ever.

Earlier this year the Obama Administration launched the ambitious Green Button initiative, designed to help utility companies across the nation coordinate new energy-saving technologies with startups and other innovators.

Green Button calls for the utility sector to standardize its energy data and make it available to consumers in a user-friendly format online. The underlying goal is to ensure that energy consumers have a greater awareness of opportunities to save money.

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First of all, it’s big. Virtually no area of your company is off limits. It often covers a year or more of activity. Some reports are well over 100 pages and packed with information.

Second, it’s hairy. Most CR reports take on complex and controversial issues that don’t have clear-cut solutions undefined dealing with climate change, designing products to be safe and environmentally responsible and protecting human rights in the supply chain, to name just a few.

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