Most big companies have set goals for incremental improvements — 25 percent of this by 2025, 30 percent reduction in that by 2030.

On May 11, 1997, globally acclaimed chess master Garry Kasparov battled IBM’s Big Blue supercomputer in the most widely watched chess match.

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has pledged $10bn (£7.7bn) to help fight climate change.

The 270 million vehicles in the United States are parked over 90 percent of the time.

Starbucks is brewing a goal to become "resource positive" on carbon, water and waste, while eventually moving away from single-use packaging.

Back in 2015, Thai Union had run into choppy waters. The multi-billion dollar seafood giant behind global tinned fish brands John West in the United Kingdom, Chicken of the Sea in the United States and King Oscar in Norway, among many others, had a PR shipwreck in its sights, and needed to shift coordinates swiftly.

When asset management company Rheaply approached Washington University in St. Louis with a plan to make better use of campus equipment and supplies, Cassandra Hage, assistant director in the school’s office of sustainability, was already searching for "a way to circulate surplus property internally and also to connect with nonprofit organizations that might be able to utilize the university’s surplus."

Who would have thought the corporate sustainability profession would arise?

On Jan. 1, the new International Maritime Organization regulation for reducing the sulfur content of marine fuels from 3.5 percent to 0.5 percent will take effect. With the change comes the need for inspections and enforcement to give the new rule "teeth" and force compliance.

Academia has gone green in a big way in recent years, but some doubt whether it will make much difference to the planet.