Yesterday Kimberly-Clark Professional announced a new awards program aimed to recognize and reward companies that have made a comprehensive corporate commitment to surface hygiene in the workplace as well as to the education of its employees in the importance of office hygiene. The announcement was made at the 2011 Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International Conference in Washington, D.C.

The L’Oréal Group set the goal of reducing CO2 emissions at its industrial sites by 50% between 2005 and 2015. This is a part of its sustainable development policy. Due to an innovative technical solution designed and implemented by EDF Optimal Solutions, the Active Cosmetics Production (ACP) factory in Vichy is now making this goal a reality. Yesterday the implementation of the new equipment took place in Vichy.

Greenpeace, which has recently launched a campaign against Mattel (and Barbie, who turned to be a serial killer), now is targeting another manufacturing giant—the Volkswagen Group (unfortunately, the ‘Think Blue.’ philosophy didn’t save the largest carmaker in Europe from disgrace). The environmental activists are turning VW’s battery against it: the much loved ‘The Force’ Superbowl commercial (which got Gold Lion in ‘Film’ at 2011 Cannes Lions) featuring ‘little Dart Vader’ inspired a parody video, launched by Greenpeace to raise awareness of the automaker’s lobbying against cuts to carbon emissions—and drive the manufacturer to greener standards.

Genuine green advertising is not commercials promoting eco-friendly goods—to have a legitimate right to be called ‘green,’ the message should be placed in the medium made of natural elements, literally. This notion underlies Coca-Cola’s idea to construct a plant billboard in Philippines—the project was developed in collaboration with WWF, which have partnered with the soft drink giant on climate protection and water conservation in the country. Earlier this year, Coca-Cola unveiled an orange-powered Energie Naturelle advertising stand for its Tropicana brand in France, and now it has created a billboard using CO2 absorbing plants.