Brian Spaen

Microsoft is joining the likes of other major tech corporations and have made a pledge to cut three-fourths of their carbon emissions by 2030. They'll accomplish this feat by pursuing more renewable energy sources and working further with cloud technology.

Many people make the mistake of tossing natural Christmas trees away because they're biodegradable -- it actually harms that process in landfills. There are easy ways to recycle these trees, even for those that have opted for the artificial variety.

Elon Musk delivered a $50 million promise to South Australia by installing a battery backup solution to their renewable energy infrastructure within 100 days. The new facility will keep the power on should systems fail like they did a year ago.

The news comes just weeks after the completion of the South Australia project, and it could be just one of many energy storage solutions to come.

Proterra's new electric bus, the Catalyst E2 has broken the world record for electric vehicle range at 1,101.2 miles. It beat out the record set by a German vehicle back in 2011, and shows how close we are to EVs delivering huge range results.

The Taiwanese EPA is going to ban all single-use plastic from stores and restaurants by 2030. The process begins with removing free items in the coming years and they'll add a surcharge five years ahead of banning the product altogether.

Toyota is still working on hydrogen fuel cells for their vehicles, but they believe that solid state batteries will be mass marketed in vehicles by 2022. This new kind of battery would provide more range, higher efficiency, and safer driving.

To cut down on emissions from public transportation, London is going to be using coffee oil from used grounds into a biofuel blend. This provides a way to eliminate environmentally-toxic coffee grounds from landfills and existing buses don't need to be altered.

AES and Siemens are teaming up their technology platforms to create Fluence Energy, an independent energy storage startup that will battle Tesla in the industry. 

A traditional electric vehicle with solar panels has been officially unveiled by a German startup. They'll be offering test drives with a Sion prototype throughout Europe and are currently accepting preorders worldwide for a delivery date in 2019.

With over 6,000 Superchargers in the wild, Tesla is still hoping to reach their guidance of 10,000 stalls by the end of the year. Their current pace won't hit the mark, but there's a chance they could if production continues to improve.

Toyota is attempting to clean up hydrogen production with a power plant that is 100 percent renewable. It'll generate water, electricity, and hydrogen from methane gas that emits from dairy cattle waste.

Queensland and New South Wales  are seeing record amounts of rooftop installations and solar farms being created. The sudden increase is likely due to the country's recent hot temperatures.

Scotland is one of the leading countries in the United Kingdom when it comes to generating renewable energy. An extraordinary month of May with high winds and sunny skies saw them fulfill their electricity needs for a third of the month.

One year ago, Google announced it would hit a goal to run its data centers and offices off 100-percent renewable energy by the end of 2017. After adding three more wind farms in the US, the company has officially reached its mark .

"Unpackt" is Singapore's first zero-waste grocery store that features no plastic packaging and customers will use containers that they can bring or buy to store products. The process aims to cut back on a significant plastic waste problem in the country.

Indian Railways, the fourth largest rail network in the world, is looking to add solar panels and battery packs to 250 different trains. They'll be testing out the technology first in an effort to add five gigawatts of solar power.

Could Europe be running on fully electric vehicles in less than 20 years from now? That's what ING, a Dutch bank, predicts in a detailed report on the trends of battery costs coming down. It also reveals some issues that their economy could run into.

Tesla had a head start on their 100-day bet to have a large-scale battery facility finished at one of South Australia's biggest wind farms. Production already began at a gigafactory in Nevada and according to  Musk, should be done in a few months.

Cox Energia of Spain is planning to supply the Chilean power grid with 140 gigawatt-hours of solar-generated energy. The company is expected to add a large-scale battery backup solution to keep the power going.

Renewable energy growth from solar and wind projects in Britain has broken over a dozen records in 2017 alone. This includes amounts of energy generation over one day for each source and over 40 hours where coal generation wasn't needed to meet demands.

On Sunday, a Toronto festival fed 5,000 people with a free Thanksgiving meal during the holiday weekend. This was all done with food that otherwise would have been thrown out by not meeting supermarket standards.

Beyond Meat's new Beyond Burger has exploded in popularity over the past year, and now it's expanding to restaurants. After a trial run at TGI Fridays in select Boston locations, it's ready to roll out nationwide in early 2018.

BP is doing a trial run Tesla's battery storage for wind farms after seeing their wild success in Australia. The pilot project in South Dakota is going to be on a far smaller scale, but could be rolled out to other wind farms in the future.

Niantic, Mission Blue, and a number of NGOs are teaming up to organize one of the biggest cleanup efforts in a 48-hour period. On Earth Day, Pokemon Go users are asked to group together and pick up trash at various sites around the world.

A German startup is setting up a beta test of a peer-to-peer network solution in California. This gives people that own a home charging system the ability to open a station themselves.

Costa Rica's new president, Carlos Alvarado, plans to eliminate the country's carbon footprint by banning fossil fuels by 2021. While the timeline seems unrealistic, the country is close to fully running on renewable energy, but they have to fix their transportation infrastructure.

The first orders of Tesla's Solar Roof have been installed and are looking as awesome as promised. One of the homes that has received them is Elon Musk himself, sharing the photos and also updating shareholders on sales expectations.

Mosa Meat is the latest startup that's preparing to launch clean meat in the next few years. After closing a round of investments from US companies, they'll be looking to scale up production of their premium beef to high-end restaurants.

HP and Thread have teamed up to eliminate the hazards of kids collecting plastic from landfills in Haiti. They're giving education scholarships, training adults to help in their collection efforts, and are converting plastics into ink cartridges.

Facebook is teaming up with Tradewind Energy to create the second-biggest wind farm in Nebraska for its new data center near Omaha. It'll provide 320 total megawatts of capacity and is expected to fully power the new facility while providing electricity for over 90,000 homes.

Tesla seeks to outdo its successful South Australian battery project by submitting a bid to a utility company in the US for what will be the biggest battery backup facility in the world.

Toyota is investing $2.8 billion into a new company called "Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development" in Tokyo, Japan. They're looking to increase software development of autonomous vehicles and will bring in various high-level engineers around the world.

Tesla is currently in talks with the Shanghai Municipal Government to bring a Gigafactory into China. The company released a statement after rumors increased this week and denied any deals being made.

Nearly six months after Microsoft launched its "AI for Earth" program that provided grants and free access to artificial intelligence technology, the company is going to add an additional $50 million in investments over the next five years.

A new startup in California, Thor Trucks, is preparing to create an electric semi that targets the short-haul market. The ET-One will feature a range of 300 miles while hauling up to 80,000 pounds, and it will focus on customization features.

The potential for a half-hour shuttle between major cities in an underground tunnel is fascinating, but Elon Musk is still hoping to fix traffic issues even further. He demonstrated a prototype lift that would send personal vehicles down into these tunnels.

A few months after France set goals to end sales of traditional vehicles by 2040, the government has presented a bill that will ban oil and gas production by the same target year. It continues the aggressive renewable push by the European country.

Operation Warm is creating 15,000 coats created from recycled plastic bottles by the time autumn begins. Called "The Green Guardian," these will all be delivered to kids in need across North America by the upcoming fall season.

The fossil fuel industry is looking for ways to stick around in the coming years and an increase in plastic production could have the biggest demand for oil.

Oregon State University has been looking into an integrated sensor for wind turbines to help out birds and wind farm owners. It can easily assess damage and what kind of birds are involved in any impacts, as well as attempt to steer birds out of the area.

Two alcohol companies behind popular brands like Johnnie Walker, Guinness, and Jameson Irish Whiskey are eliminating plastic straws and stirrers entirely. They won't be used in their offices, at events, or in future advertisements.

Virgin Hyperloop One mapped out 10 routes around the world that their underground transportation system could thrive, and Colorado is taking the next steps forward. The state's DOT will study how the project pans out in the first year.

Coal India, the world's biggest coal-producing company, will have to shut down nearly 40 mines by next spring as they will no longer be profitable. The move comes at a time when renewable energy is getting much more affordable in India.

The startup hopes to lower animal slaughter and greenhouse emissions by cultivating animal cells to create meat products.

The initial testing grounds for the Boring Company and SpaceX will be expanding by two miles. A second phase has been approved by Hawthorne and Elon Musk hopes this gets the ball rolling on networking other places in the Los Angeles area.

Solar panels already have a lot of efficiency issues when it comes to converting sunlight into electricity. It's even worse when atmospheric particulate matter is blocking that sun either when it's airborne or collecting on the panels itself.

France is the next ambitious country that is planning to eliminate all vehicles with internal combustion engines by 2040. While there are skeptics that would like more information, some car manufacturers are surprisingly fine with the potential moves.

For the last five years, "Power Africa" has been the push toward investing into energy growth for the second most-populous continent. Launching a revised campaign in March, they're looking to enhance the infrastructure in various countries and to receive more investments from US companies.

Vestas, a company that creates wind turbines for renewable energy projects, is going to be adding battery facilities to help them be more efficient. They're turning to companies like Tesla to make it happen for 10 upcoming projects.

Tesla's backup battery system in South Australia has been nothing short of impressive since being turned on in December. Not only has it been able to keep the power grid stabilized, but it's been a tremendous moneymaker during high peak times.

Apple's nearing their goal of producing all of their energy from renewable sources, and they'll be able to achieve it as they continue to push their supply chains in the same direction. Most of them are located in China, who has recently pushed these alternative sources.

Aqua-Aston Hospitality, who hosts over 40 different hotels in Hawaii, is promoting sunscreen without oxybenzone to help keep our coral reefs safe. 

Even used toilet paper can be recycled and transformed into something else. A Dutch treatment plant is sifting through sewage to collect nearly 900 pounds of cellulose daily, and that can be transformed into an asphalt mixture.

France's government will be looking at budget proposals that will offer low-income families further benefits in switching to cleaner vehicles and improving the insulation of their housing. They will also be increasing the carbon emission tax for those that hold onto old vehicles.

Negative power rates occur when too much energy is generated by renewable sources and in order to keep the grid stable, consumers are paid to use it.

The Boring Company is looking to extend their underground tunnel to 6.5 miles, heading to West Los Angeles in California and providing a "proof of concept." 

Solar energy is an ideal solution to help fix Africa's power struggles, but high technology costs for the area remain a downfall. Mastercard hopes to extend a solar company's "pay-as-you-go" plan by utilizing their QR codes.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces that New Zealand will no longer be issuing oil exploration permits in their territory. The move comes after a decrease in oil production and push back from activist groups concerned about climate change.

Joining tech giants that have committed to 100 percent renewable energy, Lyft will be investing millions into various sustainable projects to make all of their rides carbon neutral. 

India has made great strides to limit coal mining in their future, but one technology they won't be pursuing is self-driving vehicles. The announcement on Tuesday was met with criticism, but the country's urban areas could make autonomy tricky.

Tesla's new Model 3 is getting lots of attention after its recent release, but a Consumer Reports review of the 2018 Chevy Bolt shows it's a very attractive option. Not only is it priced similar to the base product of Model 3, but it has more range than the Model S.

New goals include meeting all work safety conditions in the supply chain and removing harmful chemicals in their products.

Hyperloop One received more funding than they expected from investors in September, showing how much interest there is in underground transportation. It'll require more after estimated costs of construction, but the future looks promising.

Henderson Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site, highlights how polluted the Pacific Ocean has become. Millions of pounds of plastic waste has been found on the uninhabited land. Objects include plastic toys, cosmetic items, and more.

Tesla's battery facility in South Australia is supposed to back up the Hornsdale Wind Farm, but it kicked into action when a coal-fired power plant over 600 miles away was struggling.

Over the next few months, Elon Musk and The Boring Company will be putting the finishing touches on their trial-run tunnel, offering free rides under their SpaceX headquarters. Their goal is to provide evidence that these efforts can fix congested traffic above ground.

After AT&T Park in San Francisco was awarded MLB's Green Glove for nine consecutive seasons, the Seattle Mariners and Safeco Field became the second franchise to receive it. They improved their recycling efforts by 90 percent with compostable waste and an urban garden.

Audi's first entry into the electric vehicle market will feature solar panels. While they won't be able to charge the battery just yet, it'll provide more range by powering devices like the air conditioning and seat heaters.

Penzance is the first community in the United Kingdom to receive a "Plastic Free Coastline" certification from Surfers Against Sewage. They've eliminated or replaced single-use plastics with eco-friendly alternatives.

Two months after being released for United States households, Zero Mass Water demonstrates how their device that can generate drinking water out of thin air is able to fix some of the issues in water distribution at CES 2018.

Our love affair with chocolate is wreaking havoc on the environment. But our buying choices can help turn that around.

Solar import tariffs hasn't slowed down development of clean energy in the United States. In fact, according to the latest RECAI report from EY, they're only second to China as far as an attractive location to invest in sustainable power products.

At 13, Angad Daryani was creating low-cost 3D printers and workshops for people in India. He's now attempting to create a solution for developing countries to get rid of dangerous air pollution in their urban areas.

A new award at CES 2018 highlights startups that are using the latest technology to battle climate change. Solar-powered vehicle Lightyear One, an EV "that charges itself," received acclaim in an industry that's been long skeptical of the tech.

South Australia's blackout issues have been blamed on wind farms not being prepared for the wild events causing them. Tesla's world-record battery storage facility should help defeat the blackouts, and it could pave the way for the state to rely a lot on green energy.

Margot Krasojevic Architecture has created a new home that enforces its grip on Earth as hurricanes make impact. It's able to dig a hole into an artificial island while maintaining its structure, and it also purifies floodwater to helps restore damaged land.

An Amsterdam design studio has been able to create public benches from 110 pounds of plastic waste. Grounded-up material is turned into a twisting bench that can fit 2-4 people, has the ability to rock, and is fully customizable.

Shipping containers have found another sustainable use: university buildings. Copying its "Insta House" design, MB Architecture has provided Bard College in New York with a media lab that can open up and be used for other needs.

The UK's National Grid announced that no London power stations used coal for energy production for a span of 55 hours from late Monday into early Thursday morning. It beats the old record of just over 40 hours from last October, and wind power levels continue to impress.

After buying a record number of renewable energy contracts a few years ago, those sources are now active and Google is putting as much clean power into the grid as it uses. Three gigawatts of capacity, most of it through wind generation, is the most by any corporation on the company's level.

With Model 3's production rate expected to hits tens of thousands next year, Tesla is planning to build their Supercharger infrastructure at a rapid pace. Musk believes that the company will triple their stall total by the end of 2018.

Saudi Arabia and its crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, have massive goals for renewable energy. After announcing a major metropolis that would fully run on renewable energy, they are looking to collaborate with SoftBank to create a solar project with a capacity of 200 gigawatts.

A large amount of milk distributors in the United Kingdom are seeing an increase in glass bottle sales in the first part of 2018. The trend is likely due to rising awareness in plastic waste, and carbon emissions are decreased if companies follow the right procedures.

In five years, every option from Mercedes-Benz will feature a hybrid or fully electric version of their model in a recent announcement from Daimler. In order to prepare for lower profits from EV sales, they'll also be saving $4.8 billion in planning and development.

This is a huge step forward in solving China's air pollution problem.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced last week that New York was going to add 26 large-scale renewable energy projects over the next five years. 

ChargePoint has already received $82 million earlier this year to expand their network in Europe. They've now received an additional $43 million by Siemens, a supplier that's invested in the charging network since 2010.

After securing a deal to create a massive battery backup facility in South Australia, Tesla is the company pegged in a submission by Deepwater Wind to build an offshore wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts.

Peter Vesterbacka helped create the Angry Birds phenomenon that's spawned multiple sequels, shows, and a Hollywood movie. He now wants to expand by creating an underground tunnel that would connect major cities.

Australia is looking at various ways to store solar generated power. A new solar thermal power plant is going online in 2020 at Port Augusta, which is much more efficient than its photovoltaic companion. Will it take over the battery market?

Two years ago, Nevada passed legislation making it tough for the solar industry by limiting credits for those that sent green energy back to the grid. That prompted companies like SolarCity to move out, but a new bill reels them back in.

Adidas is going to exclusively use recycled plastics for their products by 2024, similar to the athletic wear they sell through a collaboration with Parley. 41 percent of polyester they use in their upcoming lineup next year will be recycled.

Ireland will be passing their Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill, which is heading to an upper chamber, around September. This forces them to sell off companies they're linked to and hope to get on track to meet their Paris Agreement goals.

Sweden's aggressive target of generating over 40 terawatt-hours of renewable energy by 2030 could be reached nearly a decade early. A massive amount of wind power projects could hit a snag in market value with subsidies, but SWEA could push to close those up by the end of the year.

Cado is the world's first ice cream created with a creamy avocado base. There's no dairy or nuts added, no artificial ingredients come along with the various flavors they offer, and the product is completely organic.

Dairy farms have seen a regression in profits with less people consuming milk, cheese, and yogurt. However, excess production doesn't have to be wasted, and a non-profit in Philadelphia has created a program that helps the farmers and the hungry.

Belize has saved the second-biggest coral reef in the world, which provides food and  economical benefits to the Central American country. After passing legislation to ban oil exploration, UNESCO has taken it off their endangered list.

A sixth-grader in Massachusetts has begun developing a robot that's able to detect microplastics in our ocean after wanting to make a difference at the Boston Harbor. Her ultimate goal is to create a way to also pick up trash and cut costs in the process.

Beluga whales are heading from China to a new home on an Icelandic island that brings them closer to a natural habitat. Multiple organizations are not only providing them a better home, but are hoping that other entertainment parks follow in their footsteps.