Sustainability

Wichita, Kan. – September 29, 2026 -- Landscape architecture firm Hoerr Schaudt has completed a $25 million civic playscape at Exploration Place in Wichita, Kansas, featuring what is believed to be the first aviation-themed playground of its scale in the world and one of the largest educational water play environments in the United States.

Adventure Playscape spans 10 themed environments built into a renaturalized riverfront landscape

As master planner and design lead, Hoerr Schaudt organized the site as a continuous riverfront campus of paths, gardens and native plantings rather than a collection of standalone attractions. The project incorporates more than 40,000 plants emphasizing native Kansas species and grasses, 500 tons of Kansas limestone, and 250 new trees alongside preserved existing trees. City water consumption at Exploration Place is expected to decline through revised irrigation design and stormwater management.

Shanghai – September 29, 2026 -- Envision Energy has secured a spot on Fortune's 2026 Change the World list for the third time, recognized for its Mission Gobi initiative pairing AI computing infrastructure with renewable energy in desert regions.

Fortune honors Envision among 50 global companies tackling social and environmental challenges

The 2026 list includes Alphabet, Anthropic and CATL among other honorees. Envision's selection centers on Mission Gobi's approach to converging AI and green energy, positioning abundant renewable resources as infrastructure for next-generation computing.

Mission Gobi targets 5GW of green AI computing capacity by 2030

Launched in June 2026, the initiative aims to build green AI computing capacity across desert and arid regions worldwide, drawing on wind and solar resources in areas historically viewed as energy-constrained.

Shenzhen, China – September 29, 2026 -- i2Cool has expanded its passive radiative cooling fabric line with two electricity-free products, i2Umbrella Fabric-Hyber and i2Tarpaulin, that lower surface temperatures without power or refrigerants.

New umbrella fabric cuts ambient temperature by 5.2°C without electricity

i2Umbrella Fabric-Hyber, engineered for umbrellas, patio shades and outdoor canopies, achieves solar reflectivity of up to 76% and mid-infrared emissivity of up to 96%. In controlled outdoor testing, the fabric produced internal temperatures 5.2°C cooler than unshaded areas and 2.4°C cooler than conventional silver-coated sun-protection fabrics. The material also blocks 99% of UV radiation and offers full blackout capability with high water repellency.

Singapore – September 29, 2026 -- MagPro, operating as Nanjing CIPU Technology Co., Ltd., has launched the AeroLev 1850, a 1.85 MW-class air-cooled magnetic-bearing chiller designed to cut water use in AI data centers built in arid, high-ambient regions.

Platform eliminates cooling towers to remove water dependency

AeroLev 1850 uses a cooling-tower-free, oil-free magnetic-levitation architecture paired with intelligent controls, removing evaporative cooling water as an operational constraint for facilities in water-stressed markets. The chiller is rated to operate at ambient temperatures up to 45°C.

Hubei – September 28, 2026 -- Hubei Nature New Material Sanitary Appliance Co., Ltd. (NAITRON) has integrated PLC-based digital controls with its patented thermosetting molding technology (TMT) to manufacture granite composite kitchen sinks, targeting more consistent quality and higher-volume output for OEM and ODM clients worldwide.

Digital controls cut reliance on manual production steps

The company's molding system uses automated material dosing and an independent intelligent temperature management system, reducing labor costs and human error across the production line. NAITRON's TMT technology distributes particles evenly across both sink surfaces and molds each unit through a single compression process, eliminating joints or spliced sections that could cause deformation or cracking.

Jupiter, Fla. – September 28, 2026 -- Educational television series Advancements with Ted Danson will air an episode featuring Ace Green Recycling, examining how battery-material recovery could reshape the global electrification supply chain.

Episode features Ace Green Recycling CEO alongside industry executives

Ace Green Recycling CEO Nishchay Chadha appears in the segment alongside industry expert Paul Owens and Linus P. Lu, Managing Director of ACME. The discussion covers challenges facing the battery industry, environmental considerations tied to lithium batteries, and the case for reclaiming materials from existing battery stock.

Lakewood, Calif. – September 28, 2026 -- The City Councils of Artesia, Burbank and Lakewood have voted to approve Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) home improvement financing through Home Run Financing (HRF), bringing the total number of participating California jurisdictions to more than 360.

Three Los Angeles County cities join 39 others already offering HRF's PACE program

Artesia, Burbank and Lakewood follow Hawthorne, Calabasas and Lawndale, which approved the program last fall, expanding PACE access across Los Angeles County. Los Angeles was an early adopter of the financing model.

Paris – September 28, 2026 -- ISO and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have launched ISO/UNDP 53001, the world's first International Standard providing organizations with a requirements-based management system to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into strategy, governance and operations.

Standard debuts at ISO Annual Meeting to close implementation gap on SDGs

The standard was unveiled on the opening day of the ISO Annual Meeting in Paris, marking a shift from voluntary SDG commitments to a structured, auditable framework. ISO/UNDP 53001 gives organizations tools to identify priorities, set objectives, embed them into existing processes and measure performance over time, offering a consistent basis to demonstrate compliance and strengthen accountability.

Rome – September 27, 2026 -- Yili Group presented a China-based whole-value-chain dairy symbiosis model at the Food and Agriculture Organization's inaugural Global Conference for Actions on One Health in Agrifood Systems, detailing how the company restored 55,000 mu (3,667 hectares) of degraded grassland and helped 5,600,000 herders in Inner Mongolia raise incomes over more than a decade.

Yili restores 3,667 hectares of degraded grassland in Inner Mongolia

In Ar Horqin Banner, Yili Group Vice President XU Ke said the company applied a grass-livestock integration approach, planting deep-rooted alfalfa to stabilize soil and rehabilitate land that had suffered persistent degradation. The restored grassland now supplies forage while supporting broader ecosystem recovery, creating what Yili describes as a self-reinforcing cycle between land, cattle and dairy production.

NEW YORK – September 26, 2026 -- China Southern Airlines marked its 70th anniversary with a Times Square display, coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival, as the Guangzhou-based carrier reported a fleet of 972 aircraft and 174 million passengers carried in 2025.

Carrier operates 972-aircraft fleet spanning Boeing and Airbus widebodies

As of the end of 2025, China Southern's fleet included Boeing 787 and 777 aircraft, Airbus A350 and A330 models, alongside domestically produced C909 and C919 jets. The airline's network now spans 177 countries and more than 1,000 destinations worldwide.