To achieve environmental goals like cutting emissions, reducing water use and encouraging energy efficiencies, many companies have developed creative, viable methods to get the job done.

The Environmental Defense Fund highlights many of those actions in its new report, Innovations Review 2009: Green Advances for a New Economy, released as part of the Fortune Brainstorm: Green conference.

The innovations highlighted in the report were chosen base on four criteria: environmental benefits, business benefits, ability to be replicated and creativity. The report lists 15 actions, some of which are being implemented by multiple companies, including Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, Google and Wal-Mart.

Innovations include commercial and residential energy efficiency efforts, low-carbon meals, environmental-related compensation, fertilizer reduction and supply chain transparency.

REI, for example, was able to reduce the energy use at its Boulder, Co., store by 25 percent after completing an extensive retrofit that included solar water heating, skylights and efficient plumbing. According to the EDF, if all retail and mall buildings in the US made the same cut, it would reduce annual energy use by about 255 trillion BTUs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 47 million metric tons and save $5.3 billion a year in energy costs.

On the residential front, Midwest Energy runs a financing plan for its How$mart program to encourage customers to make efficiency upgrades, and homes participating in the program are seeing an average 25 percent reduction in energy use. Zocalo Community Development in Colorado is also encouraging smarter energy use by offering homebuyers lower interest rates on mortgages for condominiums that come with solar panels.

Bon Appétit Management Company is looking to reduce emissions a different way, with its Low-Carbon Diet, now in place in 400 corporate and university cafeterias. Through the Diet, Bon Appétit aims to reduce its emissions by 25 percent. The program includes sourcing all fruits, vegetables, meat and water within North America; helping customers make "low carbon" food choices; reducing food waste; and finding uses for used frying oil and compostable materials.

Intel, Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo have all started tying employee compensation to company environmental goals. While Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo have only implemented programs for senior executive compensation, Intel looks at what every employee has done to assist the company's environmental goals during individual performance reviews.

Acequia, Hydropoint and PureSense have produced advanced computer systems that monitor weather and soil conditions in real time, helping companies reduce the amount of water used for crop irrigation and commercial landscaping by 15-40 percent.

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