The Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners (CLP) — with Founding Partners CVS Health, Target and Walmart, and joined by Kroger and Walgreens — is forming the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag.  Conservation International and Ocean Conservancy join as Environmental Advisory Partners to provide critical perspective on environmental impacts and solutions throughout the initiative, and IDEO, a global design firm, joins as an Innovation Partner. Collectively, Consortium Partners have committed more than $15 million to launch the multiyear Beyond the Bag Initiative. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Multistate Research Committee, known as W4170, completed a scientific rebuttal to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report issued in November 2018 titled “EPA unable to assess the impact of unregulated pollutants in land-applied biosolids on human health and the environment.”

Space to Grow is a Chicago-based initiative working with many of the city’s low-income communities of color to transform underutilized public schoolyards into “inspired playgrounds for students and vital outdoor places for the whole neighborhood to get together and reconnect with nature.” The green schoolyards replace expanses of asphalt with landscaping that absorbs rainwater, helping to address neighborhood flooding issues. They can incorporate school gardens, such as at Grissom Elementary School where each spring, students assist in planting vegetables in the edible learning garden.