How can humanity say goodbye to the seemingly intractable fluoride? A study analyzing breast milk from 110 mothers in Shanghai found samples contaminated with two fluoride compounds at alarm levels. According to current US health advisory standards, such high levels in drinking water would classify it as unsafe. Even so, experts still recommend breastfeeding, as the benefits outweigh the risks. For over 50 years, the West produced these two compounds for its own use and globally. After their toxicity became known, companies voluntarily ceased production, and these compounds gradually disappeared from consumer products. However, their production has shifted from the West to countries lacking environmental protection. In these countries, fluoride plants continue to release these substances into rivers, land, and oceans. Today, China not only continues to produce these substances but is also considered the world's largest emitter of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and the sole producer of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). PFOA and PFOS are the most well-known members of the perfluorinated and polyfluorinated compounds (PFAS) family. These high-fluorine compounds have a wide range of applications because their carbon-fluorine bonds hardly break under natural conditions. When these carbon-fluorine bonds are linked together, they can form a waterproof and oil-resistant coating on clothing, carpets, and kitchenware, which will not decompose or fade even when exposed to water, extreme temperatures, or prolonged exposure to sunlight. This property can also be used to produce robust fire-resistant products that can withstand extreme temperatures.

Where is the supply chain for the clothes you wear? Four years ago, a garment factory building collapsed in Bangladesh, killing 1,138 people and revealing to the world that the fast fashion clothes you wear are actually produced there. Four years later, have the production environments of these brands improved? A recent survey by the British NGO Fashion Revolution found that the Fashion Transparency Index of the world's top 100 fashion brands is below 50. Familiar brands like MK, Giorgio Armani, PRADA, Chanel, Dior, and Forever 21 scored below 10, meaning their origins are unclear and their supply chains are completely opaque. Only a handful have a transparency score above 40. For example, Gap discloses its production locations, listing Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam on its website. H&M's website also lists many of its production locations as being from third-world countries. These four brands, including H&M, have begun to adjust their practices. Besides improving working conditions and wages, the green labels on their clothes indicate that they are recycled clothing, made from recycled materials such as plastic bottles. The tragic collapse of the RANAPlaza garment factory building in Bangladesh on April 24, 2013, which killed as many as 1,138 people, shocked the world. At the time, international calls arose for companies to improve working conditions in garment factories and increase supply chain transparency. However, four years later, the situation remains largely unchanged. —Reuters reporter Voss

Italy has become the first country to complete a study on the environmental footprint of a suit. Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) is a methodology developed by the European Union to assess, calculate, and certify the environmental impact of a product or service throughout its lifecycle. Because the textile industry's production chain typically encompasses multiple manufacturing processes and is conducted in numerous different countries globally, understanding the environmental impact of a textile product is an urgent challenge. Eurojersey, a major vertically integrated textile manufacturer in the EU, has taken the lead in conducting a study on the environmental footprint of a suit 100% manufactured in Italy. Eurojersey selected its most renowned knitwear products and collaborated with the well-known Italian yarn brand Radici Group and the ready-to-wear brand Herno on this PEF project, aiming to gain a deeper understanding and obtain certification from an impartial third-party organization regarding the environmental impact of each stage of a men's suit jacket's production. Eurojersey's environmental impact assessment for this suit jacket PEF project focused on eight key aspects: Level 1 energy consumption, climate change impact, ozone layer depletion, acidification, carcinogenicity, ecotoxicity, soil depletion, and water scarcity. The final environmental impact assessment found that each kilogram of suit jacket emits 11.35 kg of CO2e, consumes 309 liters of water, and causes 10.7 kg of CO2 emissions.

Coca-Cola Becomes First Fortune 500 Company to Replenish All Water Used Globally The Coca-Cola Company and its global bottling partners (The Coca-Cola Systems) announced today that they have achieved their goal of replenishing, or "repaying," the amount of water used in their products sold worldwide. With this achievement, Coca-Cola becomes the first Fortune 500 company to publicly claim to have achieved such a significant water replenishment target. The Coca-Cola Systems also announced progress on its water efficiency targets. In 2015, the Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners improved their water efficiency by 2.5% compared to 2014, and by a cumulative 27% since 2004. According to a global water use assessment project verified by LimnoTech and Deloitte in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in 2015, the Coca-Cola System returned approximately 191.9 billion liters of water (equivalent to 115% of Coca-Cola's beverage water usage last year) to nature and communities through its Community Water Project. Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, stated, "This achievement represents a moment of pride for Coca-Cola and its partners. This goal, which began as a vision in 2007, has now been achieved, and we plan to maintain this global milestone as our business grows. Now, [the text abruptly ends here]."

The allure of new phones has faded; consumers hope to extend their phone lifespan. Many Apple fans eagerly await the release of the iPhone 7, and to seize market share, Samsung also launched the Galaxy Note 7 on August 2nd, less than a year after its last new phone release. Greenpeace conducted a survey in July and August this year in seven regions: Taiwan, the United States, Russia, Mexico, Germany, China, and South Korea, regarding mobile phone usage. The survey found that Taiwanese respondents owned an average of 5.41 phones per person, second only to Russia's 5.55. Due to the rapid pace of new phone releases by various brands and the increasingly shorter lifespan of phones, even respondents in Germany, who owned the fewest phones, averaged 3.22. In this Greenpeace survey, respondents' phone ownership included both active and idle phones; unused phones were mostly due to being broken or old. A survey shows that while over a third of respondents still buy new phones primarily for their new features or functionalities, over half believe that brands release too many new phones each year. However, only 46% of respondents in Taiwan agree with this view. Li Zhian, Global IT Project Director, stated, "From the moment mobile phones are manufactured, they not only consume vast amounts of rare natural resources but also generate various chemical pollution problems. Ultimately, when they are discarded, they become electronic waste that is impossible to completely eliminate." According to a 2014 United Nations University report, as much as 3 million metric tons of electronic waste originate from small IT companies.

P&G Launches World's First Beach Plastic Shampoo Bottle. International consumer goods group P&G recently announced that it will begin mass production of shampoo bottles made with 25% post-consumer recycled (PCR) beach plastic, a groundbreaking achievement in the global shampoo industry. This environmentally conscious project is a collaboration with TerraCycle, a leading EU recycling organization. The first batch of these beach plastic bottles will be used this summer in Helen Scentos products sold in Carrefour supermarkets in France, followed by all P&G shampoo brands sold in the EU. P&G expects to produce 500 million shampoo bottles containing 25% PCR beach plastic annually by the end of 2018 – approximately 90% of the group's annual sales of major shampoo brands in the EU. Virginie Helias, P&G's Global Vice President of Sustainability, shared the group's circular economy innovation initiatives at the World Economic Forum, stating that P&G is a company that "takes action" rather than "talks." P&G launched its circular economy initiative starting with its world's largest-selling shampoo brand, adding significant amounts of PCR plastics to fulfill its circular economy commitments. Simultaneously, consumers worldwide can learn about the product's impact on the planet's sustainability without changing their consumption habits and can choose more sustainable products. P&G's 2020

ZDHC Adds Southeast Asian Partners: The Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC), a non-governmental international organization comprised of 21 major global apparel and footwear brands and retailers, has for the first time added six Southeast Asian companies from Thailand and Sri Lanka as value chain affiliates. These affiliates will provide textile and apparel manufacturers with services related to product detoxification. In addition to the Italian leather industry certification body ICEC and the internationally renowned testing and certification organization TUV SUD joining as ZDHC value chain affiliates, the Fiber and Textile Chemistry Technology Group of the Industrial Technology Research Institute and the International Association for Environmentally Friendly Textiles (OEKO-TEX) have also become partners. Companies and organizations that sign on as ZDHC partners must commit to promoting sustainable chemicals in the textile and footwear industry and utilize their expertise to assist in the development of ZDHC standards, tools, guidelines, and training. With the addition of these companies and organizations, ZDHC's partner network has increased to 56, double the number in 2015. The expansion of partners to Southeast Asia further demonstrates the global textile and footwear supply chain's emphasis on product detoxification. Frank Michel, Executive Director of ZDHC, stated that using a single standard or tool is insufficient to drive the industry towards sustainable development; the joint efforts of the entire supply chain are necessary to achieve the goal of sustainable industry development.

A new CDP report highlights sustainable supply chains as the future trend. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) released its 2017 Supply Chain Report, analyzing information obtained from over 8,200 suppliers across 89 multinational corporations with a combined $2.7 trillion in purchasing spending. The report, titled "Harnessing the power of purchasing for a sustainable future," analyzes the impact of these spending sprees and expenditures. These international giants include brands such as BMW, Dell, Coca-Cola, Lego, L’Oreal, Microsoft, and Walmart, spanning various industries. Information disclosed by these suppliers regarding their environmental carbon reduction performance shows that in 2016, these companies collectively reduced carbon emissions by 430 million tons, exceeding even France's total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Effectively understanding and quantifying the potential impacts, risks, and opportunities of climate change is an indispensable cornerstone for building sustainable supply chains and helps companies prioritize, plan, and guide their collaborations with suppliers. The number of businesses participating in the supplier report grew by 20% in 2016, indicating that more and more companies are prioritizing their suppliers' environmental management and quantifiable performance. After evaluating over 3,300 companies, 2

WEF 2017 Global Risks: Current Challenges to Sustainability The 2017 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks Report has been released, once again outlining the factors influencing the global environment, economy, and society, and explaining the interconnected global risks—all essential considerations for sustainable development—reminding businesses to actively practice social responsibility now. Environment: More Efforts Needed to Combat Climate Change Of all risks, environmental risks are the most pressing. These risks will persist for a long time, but we must take immediate action to address them. In this report, environmental risks are both the most impactful and the most likely, including extreme weather, large-scale natural disasters, and climate change. Climate change is one of the three major trends affecting global development in the next decade, continuing to rank highly in both likelihood and impact, even surpassing nuclear weapons and pandemics. Addressing climate change relies on international cooperation, such as the Paris Agreement and COP22, or other actions for the global environment of the oceans and atmosphere. While 2016 saw progress, the pace was still not fast enough. Socioeconomic Issues: Social Welfare Systems Face Challenges. The social and economic issues that continued to escalate in 2017 included worsening income inequality and polarization across ethnic, religious, and cultural groups. These factors impacted the political situation in 2016 and continued to intensify risks in 2017.

Walmart's $250 Billion Investment in Sustainable American Manufacturing for the Textile Industry: In 2014, Walmart, the leading U.S. retailer, established the "Walmart U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund" in conjunction with the Walmart Foundation and the National Conference of Mayors. The fund aims to develop advanced manufacturing for consumer goods in the United States, making American-made consumer products more competitive. This fund is also part of Walmart's previous commitment to invest $250 billion in U.S. manufacturing by 2023. According to estimates by the Boston Consulting Group, Walmart's American manufacturing initiative is expected to revitalize 1 billion domestic jobs. The Walmart U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund primarily allocates funds to industry research centers and university research institutes that apply for funding. For example, Walmart previously funded Cornell University to develop technologies that recycle post-consumer textiles to create new products, saving energy and water resources in consumer goods manufacturing processes. This year, Walmart's Innovation Fund allocated $3 million to six research and academic units to develop solutions for overcoming two major domestic manufacturing bottlenecks in the home textiles and apparel industries: – Reducing the cost of manufacturing in apparel and home textiles.

P&G Launches Preservative Tracking Website for Consumers International consumer goods group P&G recently launched a website providing information on the safety ingredients of its products, including a preservative tracking network. Consumers can search for product information by category or type of preservative. The website currently offers information on preservatives found in categories such as baby wipes, skin care products, clothing and household cleaning products, air fresheners, and dental care products. The website also lists the five preservatives of greatest concern to consumers and provides related safety information: – Formaldehyde-releasing preservatives; – Isothiazolinones; – Parabens; – Triclosan; and – Triclocarban. P&G stated that the group is committed to providing consumers with transparent product information to help them make informed purchasing decisions. P&G has listed over 140 fragrance ingredients on its website that have been discontinued in its product lines, and will gradually phase out the addition of aniline trichlorocarbonate to its products by the end of 2017.