The Guardian

A hummingbird hawk-moth, mountain lion cub and stranded pygmy whales are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Sustainability can bring benefits to everybody – including company execs with their eyes on the bottom line

Warren Buffett said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” It has been more than two decades now since a 1996 issue of Life magazine depicted a Pakistani boy sewing a Nike soccer ball, reportedly for six cents per hour. After the story, the company lost more than half its market capitalisation in just one year – it took Nike six years of demonstrated social responsibility to recuperate. Even today Nike is – fairly or unfairly – ranked low on lists of ethical companies. It has survived financially, but the reputation of the brand may never recover.

Environmental reputations can be just as hard to rebuild. NGOs like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund believe in the potential fragility of the environment, and they see the potential fragility of companies’ brands as a means of pressuring them to change.

Union tells Senate inquiry more than 90% of staff working with threatened species say Australia’s performance is poor

The Australian government is failing to meet its domestic and international obligations to protect threatened species and existing environment laws are inadequate, according to public servants working on endangered wildlife.

The admissions are contained in a damning submission by the Community and Public Sector Union to a Senate inquiry investigating Australia’s high rate of fauna extinctions.

Industry makes biggest commitment yet to ending its use of throwaway plastic bottles

Global soft drink companies have made their biggest commitment yet to eliminating the use of throwaway plastic bottles, in an action plan presented to parliament.

In a report sponsored by the likes of Danone, Suntory and Nestlé, the companies give unequivocal backing to a government-implemented deposit and return scheme. Their ambition is for zero plastic packaging to be sent to landfill or escape into the natural environment by 2030, and for packaging to be made entirely from recycled or renewable materials or both.

Something ‘fundamentally wrong’ in rural landscape, scientists say, with numbers thought to have fallen 80% since 1950s

A “perfect storm” of intensive farming and rising badger populations has left most of the countryside in England and Wales devoid of hedgehogs, according to the first systematic national survey.

The research used footprints left by hedgehogs in special tunnels to reveal that they were living at just 20% of the 261 sites surveyed. Hedgehogs, which topped a vote in 2013 to nominate a national species for Britain, were significantly less common where badgers were more numerous. Badgers eat hedgehogs and also compete for the beetles and worms the prickly animals consume.

Growers welcome move but 2,500 visas for pickers is not enough to plug labour gap

The government has announced a new temporary work visa for agricultural workers in response to a two-year campaign by farmers to plug the gap in the labour force opened up by Brexit.

While welcomed by farmers, it has also been immediately criticised because it is limited to 2,500 people a year, barely touching the needs of British summer fruit and vegetable growers who point out that horticulture employs 60,000 workers a year, mostly from eastern Europe.

“To have any effect in terms of supporting our successful industry, (a desire much-stated in the release) around 10,000 are needed now – not 2,500 – this number will have little effect on the current shortages UK farms are facing as we speak. The proposal represents a 4% increase in a shrinking workforce, said Nick Marston chairman of British Summer Fruits.

The world’s largest offshore windfarm has opened off the Cumbrian coast. Walney Extension covers 145 sq km of the Irish Sea and has a capacity of 659 megawatts, enough energy to power 590,000 homes

• World’s largest offshore windfarm opens off Cumbrian coast

Walney Extension will power 590,000 homes amid fears Brexit could stifle growth

The world’s biggest offshore windfarm has officially opened in the Irish Sea, amid warnings that Brexit could increase costs for future projects.

Walney Extension, off the Cumbrian coast, spans an area the size of 20,000 football pitches and has a capacity of 659 megawatts, enough to power the equivalent of 590,000 homes.

All 18 nations at Pacific Islands Forum commit to urgent action, calling for the US to return to Paris agreement

Climate change is the single greatest security threat to the Pacific, and all countries must meet their commitments under the Paris climate agreement, the 18 countries of the Pacific Islands Forum said on Wednesday.

The first assertion of the strongly worded Boe Declaration says all Pacific nations, including Australia, “reaffirm that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific, and our commitment to progress the implementation of the Paris agreement.

Wherever in the world you are, we’d like to hear your stories and see your pictures if you are participating this weekend

Tens of thousands of people around the world will mobilise over the weekend of 8-9 September under the banner of Rise for Climate, a grassroots movement seeking a fossil fuel free world.

More than 600 events are planned in at least 80 countries, with one of the key aims to challenge the decision-makers attending the Global Climate Summit in California on 12 September to escalate decarbonisation efforts and targets.

The inaugural Earth Photo exhibition presents 50 stunning images and films that document the Earth in all its diversity, from remote tribes to our changing climate

• Earth Photo is free and runs at the Royal Geographical Society in London until 21 September.
  

Turkey’s Iztuzu beach is witnessing a major construction boom. It has also been the egg-laying ground for sea turtles which have been coming ashore for centuries. Due to campaigners’ conservation work and the establishment of a rescue centre, the number of nests on the beach has more than doubled

Palau’s climate change coordinator says Australia provides aid to region but on world stage undermines attempts to halt global warming

Australia’s relationship with the Pacific region on the issue of climate change has been described as “dysfunctional” and “abusive” – providing aid to the region to deal with the effects of global warming but undermining attempts to halt its progress, according to a climate change representative for the Pacific nation of Palau.

Xavier Matsutaro, the national climate change coordinator for Palau, a small nation in the north-west Pacific, said Australia’s relationship with the Pacific was “dysfunctional”, adding that Australia was also responsible for diluting the strength of previous regional declarations on climate change.

The O-Wind Turbine captures wind from any direction and, unlike traditional turbines, could be effective in cities

A ‘spinning’ turbine which can capture wind travelling in any direction and could transform how consumers generate electricity has won its two student designers a prestigious James Dyson award.

Nicolas Orellana, 36, and Yaseen Noorani, 24, both MSc students at Lancaster University, have created the O-Wind Turbine which – in a technological first – takes advantage of both horizontal and vertical winds without requiring steering.

60% of the bonnethead shark’s diet is made up of seagrass, which they happily graze upon as well as eating fish, crabs, snails and shrimp

It is one of the most radical rebrandings in history: contrary to their bloodthirsty image, some sharks are not irrepressible meat eaters, but are happy to munch on vegetation too.

According to US researchers, one of the most common sharks in the world, a relative of the hammerhead which patrols the shores of the Americas, is the first variety of shark to be outed as a bona fide omnivore.

Internal watchdog found the agency has no approved procedures to determine how much security the administrator needed

The millions of dollars spent on a round-the-clock security detail for the scandal-laden former head of the US Environmental Protection Agency were not justified, according to the findings of an internal watchdog.

Scott Pruitt’s transition team asked for a 24/7 security team for him when he was appointed as head of the EPA by Donald Trump, even pulling agents from criminal investigations to guard him, in a move that dramatically escalated the cost for the taxpayer and broke with the protocol followed by his predecessors.

Labor says it would use a grant agreement clause to force the return of any unspent funds

Labor has warned the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to prepare to return a $443.8m grant in the event of change of government.

Rockfall a growing risk as high temperatures thaw ground at higher altitudes

France will impose a daily cap of 214 climbers on Mont Blanc next year, one of several measures taken to limit overcrowding on one of Europe’s highest peaks.

“It’s a tough decision but a very good one, because Mont Blanc is a climb unlike any other. You have to be prepared,” said Jean-Marc Peillex, mayor of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, the Alpine town where the most popular route to the top of the mountain begins.

Most extinctions were caused by deforestation in South America, a new study of endangered birds shows

Spix’s macaw, a brilliant blue species of Brazilian parrot that starred in the children’s animation Rio, has become extinct this century, according to a new assessment of endangered birds.

The macaw is one of eight species, including the poo-uli, the Pernambuco pygmy-owl and the cryptic treehunter, that can be added to the growing list of confirmed or highly likely extinctions, according to a new statistical analysis by BirdLife International.

Exclusive: organic fresh produce and dairy are now worth a record £2.2bn a year

Supermarket sales of organic food and drink in the UK have risen by 4% this year, new figures reveal, marking seven consecutive years of growth.

Despite an exceptionally cold winter and a hot, dry summer which have played havoc with crops, organic fresh produce and dairy sales remain the main drivers fuelling growth of the overall market, now worth a record £2.2bn.