PLEASANTON, Calif. -- The grocery retailer is highlighting locally grown fruits and vegetables in its supermarkets, saying that almost a third of its produce sections come from nearby farms.

As California's bottle-recycling bill shows, making recycling convenient and easy provides boons to retailers, states and shoppers, while helping to increase overall recycling rates at the same time.

Rather than talk about climate change, environmentalism, or socially responsible business, it's time for business leaders to talk about efficiency and other real-world ways to move even the most hardheaded organizations toward a sustainable future.

Earth Day is by and large a cheerful, optimistic event, but nestled in amongst the massive pile of pitches and announcements I received since the beginning of March are some that stand out as particularly dumb, off-target or just plain cynical.

Part two of our Earth Day 2009 package looks beyond what companies are doing in offices and on their own campuses to explore the ways they're sharing their efforts with the world at large.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index found 67 percent of small business owners don't believe customers will pay more cash for green products. And although most are adopting at least some green practices, one in three admit the bad economy is impacting plans to become greener companies.

Possibly the most bizarre announcement to cross my inbox in days if not weeks, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has developed an anti-Earth Hour campaign to celebrate humankind's marvelous achievements.

RACINE, Wis. -- The maker of Windex, Shout and multiple other consumer goods has started listing all the ingredients in cleaning products, including what could be in fragrances, on a dedicated ingredient website and on labels.

With the new players and products entering and marketing in the new green economy has come a new wave of claims about greenwashing, or at least public frustration that companies aren't doing enough, aren't telling their stories well, or both.

Anyone working towards sustainability needs to be aware of how the public and different sectors are viewing "green," and make sure that and backlash to "green" doesn't harm truely beneficial work.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A new report from GreenBiz.com looks at the ways companies are successfully reaching their customers with green messages, and in this interview with the authors of the report, we explore some of the strategies and pitfalls in the green economy.

The keys to surviving the economic downturn will be adaptability and an understanding of how markets are changing in surprising ways at unusual speed, requiring heightened communication, such as social media services. Green businesses should look to bio-intensive agriculture as an appropriate metaphor for using these tools effectively.

NORTHBROOK, Ill. -- The venerable product safety testing service is launching an environmental claims verification service, UL Environment Inc. The new unit was created to help companies and the public make sense of green claims and provide manufacturers with transparency and credibility in the marketplace.