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.

For decades, the main argument against climate action has been economic: Even if the climate is changing, the argument went, addressing it at the scale needed would force companies, cities and institutions into bankruptcy. In short, it would tank the economy.

When I used to behave like an entitled teenager, my mother always used to say, "You’ve only one mouth but you’ve got two ears." It used to drive me crazy. But as with most things, she was right.

Stories are everything — in corporate sustainability as in life. Facts and numbers help explain the world as it is, but narratives give it meaning.

In 2015, United Nations member states, together with civil society and business, came together to prepare a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all by 2030.