It's the holiday season again, and that means another big round of toy testing, exposing the dangers that can lurk in the toys, jewelry and clothes made for kids. But within the extreme cases of lead- and PVC-filled toys, the bright spot is that fewer and fewer toys are being found to contain toxic substances.

Safe replacements exist, and many companies are making toys that contain no detectable levels of dangerous substance. It's not just toy companies switching out materials, but companies of all types. Dell is swapping out foam packaging for bamboo-based material, Coca-Cola is adding bioplastic made from sugar cane and molasses to its bottles and Naya has replaced all of the virgin plastic in its water bottles with post-consumer recycled plastic.

Whether it's moving to a new material or ingredient to make products safer, to cut emissions or reduce waste, change is good.

This tool allows companies to develop an initial assessment of where they stand on the use of toxic chemicals in their operations, and discover and implement safer alternatives.

This study finds that a robust climate bill could boost the U.S. economy by about $111 billion by 2020 and create as many as 1.9 million jobs.
 

This conference – the 3rd in a highly successful and well-established series from Environmental Finance Publicaitons – will bring together the key players in the US carbon markets to explore the implications of the proposed federal cap-and-trade system, and the outcomes of the pivotal UN meeting in Copenhagen.