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Repsol's environmental projects worldwide are run in keeping with its vision to create value, as much for shareholders and employees as for the stakeholders in the communities where they operate. Repsol “understands that its main function in society is to satisfy energy needs in those countries where it operates and to do so in an efficient, sustainable and safe manner.” The energy market is highly competitive and Repsol's initiatives and programs enable it to keep its license to operate, innovate and grow.

KPMG describes itself as a global network of professional services firms providing audit, tax and advisory services, with over 123,000 professionals working together to deliver value in 145 countries around the world. So what does KPMG have to do with rare wildlife in Botswana? In fact, KPMG South Africa worked with the United Nations Development Programme and the government of Botswana to develop an endangered species national policy, implementation strategy and action plan.

An innovative project developed in 2006 provided Rio Tinto's aluminium business, Rio Tinto Alcan, with the opportunity to explore offsets as part of a broader climate change strategy. The Minding the Carbon Store project has saved approximately 12,000 hectares of native vegetation from being cleared and generated around one million tons of fully verified greenhouse gas abatement (carbon credits) through avoided deforestation.

Intensive agriculture had turned Spain's 325-hectare Tamón Valley in Asturias into an area with low biological diversity dominated by two huge monocultures: fields and eucalyptus plantations. In 1990 DuPont started a greenfield project in the Valley so as to both increase local biodiversity and save the company money.

Gaz de France's subsidiary, GRTgaz, takes biodiversity into account in all of its activities. Specifically, the company is implementing biodiversity corridors above its underground pipes transporting natural gas, helping to connect and maintain biodiversity areas in Ile-de-France. Thanks to these efforts, GRTgaz and local authorities are consolidating the knowledge of biodiversity corridor implementation and adding environmental value to the land that is crossed by gas pipelines.

Petro-Canada's Fort Hills Oil Sands mining operation is expected to mine more than four billion barrels of bitumen over the next three to four decades, with rates of up to 280,000 barrels of synthetic crude oil per day. In order to address the obvious environmental concerns surrounding the project, Petro-Canada is committed to sustaining the environmental integrity of the area, leaving as small an environmental footprint as possible and providing offsets to compensate for permanently impacted areas.

Operating in biodiversity-sensitive regions in Portugal, EDP has a vested interest in demonstrating the overall positive impact of its activities in the country, not least because the company's strategy includes the reinforcement of electricity generation through hydropower. In 2007 EDP founded a biodiversity conservation fund of 2.5 million Euros. The fund demonstrates EDP's capacity and willingness to implement its far-reaching biodiversity policy through improving scientific knowledge.

Mobile technology can play an important role in enabling and advocating sustainable choices. Close to one billion people use Nokia devices everyday. The company is using its mobile technology in different ways to advocate for sustainable behavior on the part of its customers. These new products and services are driven by new demand and changing consumer preferences, effectively impacting the company's bottom line.

GDF Suez subsidiary Electrabel has outfit a cost-effective pilot plant for Volvo in Ghent, Belgium with the necessary renewables technologies to reduce their net carbon dioxide emissions to zero and reduce the amount of electricity they use while increasing production by nearly one-third. The pilot plant uses hydroelectric electricity from the grid, a wood-burning heater to meet basic needs and an oil-based bio-heater for extra needs in winter and summer, three windmills and 150 photovoltaic panels to meet their daily needs in electricity and heating, and even sells spare electricity to local customers.

Sometimes a company must work hard to show regulators that its own environmental solutions really are the best. The international paper company Sappi has a mill in Ngodwana, South Africa, that produces market bleached pulp and unbleached pulp for the onsite manufacture of kraft linerboard; the mill also has a plant for converting ground wood to newsprint.