UPS released its annual Sustainability Report announcing that while the total number of packages UPS shipped in 2012 increased, the company reduced its total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to the carrier's annual sustainability report.

In the developed world, electricity is cheap and as available as the nearest outlet. But in off-the-grid Africa, energy poverty is endemic. With national grid expansion lagging well behind growth in demand, increasingly Africans are looking not to centralized, fossil fuel-based solutions, but to the sun.

Kenco, a third-party logistics services provider, has developed a set of dashboards to measure companies' sustainability efforts in their distribution, transportation and supply-chain activities.

United Airlines is launching a Sustainable Supply Chain (SSC) initiative in an effort to better understand the environmental performance of its suppliers and deepen relationships with its key supply chain partners.

Unilever United States and Canada announced that all 26 of its manufacturing and non-manufacturing headquarter facilities are now zero waste to landfill (ZLF). Other countries in which Unilever has achieved this milestone reportedly include the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Japan.

Richard Bank and Lisa Harrington, directors of the Sustainable Supply Chain Foundation, bring us up to date on the group's efforts to introduce third-party verification of companies' sustainability programs.