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MetLife Named one of the Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion

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SOURCE:MetLife Inc.

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NEW YORK, July 9, 2018 /3BL Media/ – MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET) today announced it has been named to the 2018 Disability Equality Index®“Best Places to Work” by the United States Business Leadership Network (USBLN) and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). This is the second time MetLife has been recognized for its efforts to ensure an inclusive workplace for people with disabilities.

The Disability Equality Index (DEI®) is based on an annual national survey that scores businesses on their disability inclusion policies and practices. The Index is a joint initiative of the AAPD and USBLN and was designed by a diverse group of business leaders, policy experts and disability advocates. The DEI measures key performance indicators across organizational culture, leadership, accessibility, employment, community engagement, support services and supplier diversity.

“Employees with diverse abilities bring varied perspectives to the workplace and strengthen MetLife’s ability to meet the needs of our customers,” said Meredith Ryan-Reid, senior vice president, Group Benefits, and executive sponsor of MetLife Diverse Abilities, an employee network that champions disability inclusion and awareness. “We are proud to be recognized by the Disability Equality Index for our commitment to create an inclusive workplace for all employees.”

MetLife is committed to creating an inclusive work environment where employees with different abilities contribute to business success. Among the company’s policies and programs, MetLife offers an employee resource group, MetLife DiverseAbilities (MDA), to help raise awareness among MetLife’s associates, customers and communities, and to empower employees who are differently abled. MDA promotes a culture where employees are encouraged to reach their full potential and are recognized for their unique abilities, experiences and talents.

Additional resources and programs for employees with disabilities and their families include:

  • Panel discussions and in-person speakers on disability-focused issues
  • Health and wellness advocates that assist with program information
  • Disability accommodations across our facilities
  • Restroom access, automatic doors and dedicated parking                                                                                                            

For more information on MetLife’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, visit www.metlife.com/about-us/global-diversity-inclusion/our-workplace/

About MetLife

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates (“MetLife”), is one of the world’s leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers navigate their changing world. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 countries and holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.

Contacts:        

Jon Richter

jrichter@metlife.com

212-578-5370

Tweet me:MetLife has been recognized a second time for its efforts to ensure an inclusive workplace for people with disabilities @MetLife http://bit.ly/2J6rZZB #CSR

KEYWORDS: inclusive workplaces for people with disabilities, MetLife, csr


Smithfield Foods Earns National Honors for Sustainability Achievements

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Solid Waste Reduction, Innovative Packaging, and Food Waste Recovery Projects Earn Industry Recognition, Highlight Smithfield’s Leadership in Manufacturing Practices

SOURCE:Smithfield Foods

DESCRIPTION:

SMITHFIELD, Va., July 9, 2018 /3BL Media/ — Smithfield Foods, Inc. is pleased to announce that ProFood World selected its Salt Lake City, Utah; Kinston, North Carolina; and Middlesboro, Kentucky, facilities as winners of the 2018 Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Awards (SEMA). The annual awards program honors companies for exceptional sustainability achievements in food, beverage, and consumer products manufacturing.

“At Smithfield, some of our most innovative and impactful sustainability projects begin with the teams at our facilities,” said Bill Gill, assistant vice president of sustainability for Smithfield Foods. “These award-winning facilities are just a few examples of how our on-the-ground teams are reducing our environmental footprint while producing products consumers love. We are excited to receive these awards, which show that we are delivering on our promise to produce ‘Good food. Responsibly.â’”

Smithfield’s facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, was honored for its plastic wrap savings project. With a minor investment in equipment upgrades, the facility prevented 16,800 pounds of solid waste from going to landfills and saved almost $16,000 in one year. A meat recovery project at the company’s Kinston, North Carolina, facility earned an award for its ability to save a significant amount of usable product from becoming waste that would otherwise be shipped off for rendering. By reducing the thickness of packaging around ham steaks, Smithfield’s Middlesboro, Kentucky facility now uses 23 percent less packaging–saving more than $170,000.

“Smithfield earned three of the nine awards presented at this year’s Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Awards program,” said Joyce Fassl, editor-in-chief of ProFood World magazine and program director for ProFood Live. “Smithfield continues to lead the industry in sustainability efforts, having won more Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Awards than any other food or beverage company in the competition’s history.”

The 2018 winners were honored at the ProFood Live conference in June in Chicago, Illinois. The annual event is a one-day gathering for industry leaders to address solutions in manufacturing, automation, and sustainability.

About Smithfield Foods
Smithfield Foods is a $15 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield®, Eckrich®, Nathan’s Famous®, Farmland®, Armour®, Farmer John®, Kretschmar®, John Morrell®, Cook’s®, Gwaltney®, Carando®, Margherita®, Curly’s®, Healthy Ones®, Morliny®, Krakus® and Berlinki®. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.

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Contact:

Diana Souder

Smithfield Foods, Inc.

(757) 357-1675

dsouder@smithfield.com

Tweet me:.@SmithfieldFoods Earns National Honors for #Sustainability Achievements http://bit.ly/2m2VlyE receiving the 2018 Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Award (SEMA) from @ProFoodWorld

KEYWORDS: sustainability awards, Smithfield Foods, 2018 Sustainability Excellence in Manufacturing Award

What Can Sustainability Reporting Learn From the Evolution of Digital Music?

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by Alyson Slater

SOURCE:GRI

DESCRIPTION:

GRI has introduced its first ever Digital Reporting Tool. It’s a first step in an exciting new direction toward making sustainability data available and accessible in digital format. As we drive innovative formats in corporate sustainability reporting beyond PDFs, what can we learn from the path the music industry took as they evolved from vinyl to CDs to digital streaming? 
 
Sustainability reporting is now common practice among five thousand of the world’s largest companies, and a substatial amount of these companies are reporting in line with the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards . Despite widespread availability of standardized sustainability reports, the information inside them is thought to be under-utilized by companies themselves and their stakeholders. One reason could be that sustainability disclosures are generally presented in PDF or HTML based reports. This means stakeholders can only view information on a report-by-report basis which can hinder comparison between peers, trend analysis or other interaction that could help leverage reporting as a driver of meaningful change towards sustainability. With increasing demand for sustainability information, and the growing concerns from companies about reporting burden and use of their data by third parties, the move to digital reporting is essential and urgent. 
 
The rip 
 
If vinyl record albums could be likened to hard copy sustainability reports, then Compact Disc’s (CDs) could be likened to PDF reports.  Is anyone out there old enough to remember when we had to rip our CDs on to our computers to ‘digitize’ our music collection? It was incredibly liberating! We could mix and match songs and create unique playlists. But it was a labor of love. We had to figure out the software needed, enter each disc into the machine, wait for the extraction process to happen – keeping our eye on that slowly moving progress bar - and then spend uncountable hours curating playlists. 
 
How many hundreds of millions of people spent countless hours doing this, each extracting millions of files from thousands of CDs and then spending hundreds of hours compiling playlists that only they could use, taking up trillions of megabytes of disc space on home computers?
 
This is where I think we are today in the sustainability reporting data space. 
 
There are literally thousands of data seekers diving – not into CDs – but into the format of choice for sustainability reports – PDFs – trying to extract data either via artificial intelligence (i.e., machine learning algorithms) or natural intelligence (i.e., using student volunteers or people sitting in data centers who don’t necessarily have sustainability expertise). 
 
The good news is that sustainability data is being liberated from the tens of thousands of PDF reports issued over the past two decades. We can now mix and match disclosure level data, line up the reported results from multiple companies of interest and glean some insights. Just like music fans, sustainability data users can access the full PDF report of a company (akin to listening to the whole album by one artist) or they can now access just the specific information points they are interested in, and slice and dice this data any way they like (akin to choosing individual songs and creating unique playlists). 
 
The bad news is that this practice is possibly even more laborious than ripping CDs. The time and costs are high, as can be the level of error. Automated data extraction or human interpretation of masses of sustainability reports is costly.  On the upside, there are some great commercial products on the market, but on the downside these are mainly proprietary and not available to wider stakeholder groups such as consumers, civil society, academics, journalists, employees, students and the general public – to whom the original sustainability reports were meant to serve.  In terms of accuracy, in the worst-case scenario, this sort of data extraction can result in the wrong information being entered into the wrong field, or information being missed entirely. 
 
Companies that issue PDF reports can find themselves in one of two extreme situations: Either they have not been able to double check or ‘approve’ data for accuracy that has been extracted from their PDFs and is then drawn in to databases for comparison which typically results in some sort of ranking or performance judgement. Or they are over-burdened by requests from those seeking to get their specific data in the form of questionnaires to fill out or double check pre-populated data.
 
The flow
 
Let’s fast forward to the state of digital music today. An amazing thing has happened. In less than a decade the CD has become extinct, as has the need for downloading files and curating playlists with the advent of streaming music, and playlist sharing. Market efficiencies have been realized on so many levels, and the value for listeners, artists and commercial service providers has all gone up.
 
Advancements in technology have certainly played a role in enabling this, but technology was not the make it or break it issue. What was?
  • Changing behavior and practice:  Music fans had to become comfortable with accessing music differently – not via a physical object they could own like a CD, but via a general subscription to “the cloud”. And artists had to become comfortable with selling their albums in non-traditional ways with non-traditional partners. For some fans and artists this was easy, but others are resistant. 
  • Changing the commercial business model: This is all possible because of a massive disruption in the market. Old players innovated or died out, new players took leading roles, and the business model behind the music industry has been dramatically changed all so that we can access music anytime, anywhere, from any device. 
Can you imagine a future where we can access sustainability data anytime, anywhere and from any device? Companies could publish standardized disclosures to databases accessible to both commercial and non-commercial users. Users would have the peace of mind that the data is the official self-reported and approved information from the company as intended. Those in the data space today would not have to invest so heavily in extracting or gathering the data but could focus on its analysis and use – which is where the world’s sharpest minds should be if reporting is going to drive change toward sustainable development.
    
The technology is here, and it will continue to support the shift to digital reporting. Much harder to tackle will be changing behavior and practice for reporting companies and their stakeholders, as well as defining a new business model to support the flow of sustainability information into the market for commercial and non-commercial users alike. Just like the music industry, we don’t yet know which formats, business models, and products are ultimately going to have wide spread value and adoption. 
 
In order to find answers and help forge this path, GRI is convening a Corporate Leadership Group on Digital Reporting in September 2018 to tackle some of these big picture questions around digitization and sustainability.  These 20 leading companies will tackle issues ranging from sustainability data management, artificial intelligence, privacy, taxonomies, and more. Get in touch with us to find out more about GRI’s digital programs and get involved. 

Tweet me:With its Digital Reporting Tool @GRI_Secretariat takes a step toward #digital #sustainability data. What can we learn from the music industry - evolving from vinyl to online streaming - when driving innovation in #sustyreporting beyond PDFs? http://bit.ly/2zmQIcx

KEYWORDS: GRI, global reporting initiative, GRI Standards, Digital Reporting, Corporate Responsibility

CA Technologies Releases Latest Sustainability Report

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With 50 Percent Reduction in Footprint Since 2006, Report Highlights Progress in Environmental Stewardship and Overall Societal Impact

SOURCE:ReportAlert

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NEW YORK, July 09, 2018 – CA Technologies (NASDAQ:CA) today announced the release of its latest Sustainability Report, as further evidence of the company’s long-term commitment to operational efficiency. The company has reduced its carbon footprint by approximately 50 percent since first taking part in the initiative in 2006.

The report underscores the company’s continued evolution of corporate responsibility, from environmental stewardship to broader societal impact. It also demonstrates how CA’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) progress is linked to its business and positively benefits customers, employees and communities around the world.

“At CA, we concentrate not only on what is essential to our business success, but also on what works for our people, our communities and our shared natural environment,” said Erica Christensen, vice president, Corporate Social Responsibility, CA Technologies. “We support core issues that must be addressed in order for our society to thrive in the years to come, including climate change; industry trust and security; and skills for the future workforce. This latest Sustainability Report explores these themes, while providing a look at our most recent accomplishments.”

This report, which covers the 2017 calendar year, was drafted in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Standards at the Core level and incorporates the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact. it includes independent external assurance of CA’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Highlights include:

  • Environmental Progress: In 2017, CA reported a total of 47,841 metric tons of GHG emissions, approximately 50 percent lower than in 2006. The 50 percent reduction — or 47,347 metric tons — is equivalent to taking 10,139 passenger vehicles off the road for one year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. CA is committed to achieving its next GHG reduction target of 40 percent by 2030, based off a 2015 baseline.

  • Trust and Security: CA offers identity and access management solutions that empower its customers to take a proactive approach to enterprise security. In 2017, CA bolstered its security capabilities with the addition of Veracode to its suite of solutions. It enables developers to run a dynamic security scan for a deployed Web application to track release content from planning to production.  

  • CSR Initiatives: CA has expanded its focus on advancing STEM learning through partnerships and programs with organizations including 100Kin10, AnitaB.org, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Citizen Schools, Code.org, DonorsChoose.org, Girls Who Code, NPower and PENCIL.

  • UN Sustainable Development Goals: CA has embedded the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into its sustainability strategy to help accelerate progress.

  • Skills for the Future Workforce: CA recently announced its goal to reach 50,000 under-18 students in Europe by 2020 to inspire them to consider future careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM fields), and to help address the chronic skills gap. The company is also a founding partner of the World Economic Forum’s IT Industry Skills Initiative, an effort committed to reskilling one million people with resources and training opportunities on the SkillSET portal by January 2021.

  • Employee Engagement: CA has implemented a global New Parent Leave policy that offers all employees a minimum of 12 weeks paid leave during the first 12 months following the birth or adoption of a child. This new benefit enhances CA's overall offering for families worldwide and strengthens its commitment to creating an inclusive culture that promotes gender parity. CA also supports all working parents with a range of benefits and programs that center around work/life balance, flexibility and opportunity.

  • Inclusion and Diversity: In 2017, CA expanded its Unconscious Bias training to in-person workshops and CA CEO Mike Gregoire signed the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion™ pledge.

  • Customer Solutions. CA’s Modern Software Factory is where agility, automation, insights and security work together to power a company’s digital transformation in the application economy. This philosophy has sustainability built in —  from the efficiency gained and time and resources saved through automation to the stability and security CA is providing to the digital economy to help enable business continuity.

CA Technologies works to maximize opportunities for its customers’ IT operations by providing an efficient platform that limits resource use and products that strive for sustainability in all respects. CA aims to ensure that its products reduce impact by making efficient use of physical resources, like materials and energy, throughout their life cycles.

About CA Technologies
CA Technologies (NASDAQ:CA) creates software that fuels transformation for companies and enables them to seize the opportunities of the application economy. Software is at the heart of every business in every industry. From planning, to development, to management and security, CA is working with companies worldwide to change the way we live, transact, and communicate - across mobile, private and public cloud, distributed and mainframe environments. Learn more at www.ca.com.

Media Contact
Caitlin Valtierra
WE Communications for CA Technologies
Phone: (212) 551-4858

Read the Report

Tweet me:.@CAinc has reduced its carbon footprint approximately 50% since 2006. Learn more about CA Technologies long-term commitment to operational efficiency via @reportalert http://bit.ly/2KUOTF3 #ClimateAction #Sustainability

KEYWORDS: CA Technologies, ReportAlert, carbon footprint, NASDAQ:CA

 

Kansas City, Mo. Homeownership to Get Boost With $5.7 Million NeighborhoodLIFT Program

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Program offers homebuyer education plus $15,000 down payment assistance grants; special parameters for veterans, military, teachers, first responders

SOURCE:Wells Fargo & Company

DESCRIPTION:

KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 9, 2018 /3BL Media/ – Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), NeighborWorks® America and its network member, Westside Housing Organization, today announced the NeighborhoodLIFT® program will expand to the Kansas City, Mo., area with a $5.7 million commitment by Wells Fargo to boost homeownership in the counties of Cass, Clay and Jackson.

“On behalf of my constituents in the 5th District of Missouri, we commend Wells Fargo, NeighborWorks America, Westside Housing and Beyond Housing for working together to bring this innovative program forward,” said Congressman Emanuel Cleaver. “NeighborhoodLIFT will put hundreds of our residents on the path to homeownership.”

The event in Kansas City is Wells Fargo’s 61st LIFT program launch conducted in collaboration with NeighborWorks America and its network members through NeighborhoodLIFT and other LIFT programs. The 2018 NeighborhoodLIFT program for the Kansas City area follows the 2014 Kansas City NeighborhoodLIFT program that created 308 homeowners by offering homebuyer education plus $15,000 down payment assistance grants as a result of a $6.3 million commitment by Wells Fargo.

“NeighborhoodLIFT has proven to be a catalyst to put homeownership within reach for our community’s families, veterans, teachers and first responders,” Kansas City Mayor Sly James said. “We welcome this innovative effort that will provide our residents with access to even more affordable housing options in our community.”

Registration open for free event in Kansas City July 27–28

Interested homebuyers may register now to attend the free Wells Fargo NeighborhoodLIFT event July 27 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and July 28 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Kansas City Convention Center, 301 W. 13th St., Kansas City, Mo. 64105. Walk-ins are also available while the $15,000 grants are available for reservation. To learn more about the eligibility requirements and documents needed to apply for a down payment assistance grant, visit www.wellsfargo.com/lift. Participating homebuyers can obtain mortgage financing from any participating lender. Westside Housing will determine eligibility and Beyond Housing will administer the down payment assistance grants.

“The NeighborhoodLIFT program is another example of our commitment to Kansas Ci ty,” said Kirk Kellner, Wells Fargo region bank president for Missouri. “The effort will contribute to strengthening communities by helping hardworking families and individuals get on the path to achieve successful and sustainable homeownership.”

To be eligible, annual incomes must not exceed 80 percent of the local area median income, which is about $64,000 for up to a family of four in Kansas City, Mo. In addition, there are special parameters for veterans and service members, teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians who may earn up to 100 percent of the local area median income, which is about $80,000, to reserve $17,500 down payment assistance grants within eligibility requirements. Approved homebuyers will have up to 60 days to finalize a contract to purchase a home in Cass, Clay or Jackson counties.

“This innovative public-private collaboration will create more than 300 homeowners,” said John Santner, regional vice president, Midwest region, NeighborWorks America. “The required homebuyer education classes provided by certified professionals better prepare NeighborhoodLIFT homebuyers to achieve their goal of sustainable homeownership.”

To reserve the full grant amount, participants buying a primary residence with the NeighborhoodLIFT program must commit to live in the home for five years.

“We are ready to assist Kansas City-area families and provide homebuyer education and down payment assistance to help them achieve successful and sustainable homeownership,” said Gloria Ortiz-Fisher, executive director of Westside Housing Organization. “The NeighborhoodLIFT program offers an affordable and achievable way to realize homeownership goals.”

Since February 2012, LIFT programs have helped create nearly 18,000 homeowners in 60 communities. A video about the NeighborhoodLIFT program is posted on Wells Fargo Stories.

About Westside Housing Organization, Beyond Housingand NeighborWorks America

Westside Housing Organization and Beyond Housing are chartered members of NeighborWorks America, a national organization that creates opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and strengthen their communities. NeighborWorks America supports a network of more than 245 nonprofits, located in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Visit www.westsidehousing.org, www.beyondhousing.org or www.neighborworks.org to learn more. 

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through 8,200 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 42 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune’s 2018 rankings of America’s largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.

Tweet me:#KansasCity, Mo. #homeownership to get a boost with $5.7 million #NeighborhoodLIFT program from @WellsFargo, @neighborworks and @WestsideHousin1 http://bit.ly/2KC56CC

Contact Info:

Julie Fogerson
Wells Fargo
+1 (208) 519-3351
Julie.M.Fogerson@wellsfargo.com
@JulieFogersonWF

Stacie Bendixen
Wells Fargo
+1 (515) 398-7157
Stacie.A.Bendixen@wellsfargo.com
@SBendixenWF

KEYWORDS: homeownership, Housing, Kansas City, homebuyer education, Down Payment Assistance, NYSE:WFC, Wells Fargo & Company

Costa 4GoodFood Project Wins the Seatrade Award for Corporate Social Responsibility

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SOURCE:Carnival Corporation & plc

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July 9, 2018 /3BL Media/ - The international jury of Seatrade has awarded the Costa 4GOODFOOD initiative with the prestigious Seatrade Award for the Corporate Social Responsibility category. This proves the international relevance of the programme designed to highlight the importance and the value of food and to minimize food waste through the direct engagement of guests and crew. For more than thirty years, the Seatrade Award honours results and innovations that lead the future of the cruise industry, recognizing the excellence of the international maritime industry.

The awards ceremony took place in London on the 29th of June at the presence of the guest of honor KitackLim, general secretary of the International Maritime Organisation. With 4GOODFOOD Costa has built and rapidly implemented a model so far never experimented, applicable on other ships and in different contexts of the cruise’s one as well.

With this award, acknowledged Best Practice for the industry, Costa reconfirms its pioneer role and of leader of responsible innovation.

Tweet me:.@CarnivalPLC Costa 4GoodFood Project Wins the Seatrade Award for the Corporate Social Responsibility http://bit.ly/2uhaTTb

Contact Info:

Claire West
+1 (214) 208-3718
claire@ldwwgroup.com

KEYWORDS: Food Waste, Food Waste Management, Food Waste Reduction, seatrade award, 4GOODFOOD, 4GOODFOOD project, Best Practice, responsible innovation, NYSE:CCL, Corporate Responsibility, Carnival Corporation & plc

Medtronic and the Red Cross of Mexico

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Partnership provides timely, advanced care to critically ill patients in Tijuana

SOURCE:Medtronic

DESCRIPTION:

The border region between the United States and Mexico is home to an underserved patient population, with very low rates of insurance.1 In Tijuana, where more than 1.6 million people live, the Red Cross fields 98 percent of the area’s 911 emergency calls. Approximately 3,000 of those calls, annually, are related to brain and heart disease. To better serve these patients, Medtronic and the Red Cross of Mexico — Tijuana delegation — recently opened a new state-of-the-art catheterization (cath) lab and introduced advanced cardiac care protocol, Alerta Cardíaca (Cardiac Alert).

Cardiac Alert protocol begins treating the patients the moment they dial 911. The emergency call activates a multidisciplinary team that transmits an EKG to a cardiologist’s cell phone, so when the patient arrives at the Red Cross cath lab, there is already a diagnosis and course of action determined. Thirteen ambulances are now equipped with Cardiac Alert, and 120 paramedics and 13 staff members are trained in the protocol.

Dr. Andrés Smith Favela, president of the board of the Red Cross Tijuana, says the goal is to reduce the time it takes to diagnose a patient to one hour — the international standard. “This is a breakthrough, not just for Mexico but for all Latin American countries,” said Smith. “This project will start to grow in other institutions like the Red Cross.”

The new cath lab space can also be used to treat patients experiencing peripheral vascular disease, diabetic foot, venous insufficiency, and mesenteric ischemia. The Mexican Red Cross in Tijuana expects to treat more than 1,000 patients per year and eventually build a thrombectomy center of excellence.

According to John McCarthy, Medtronic vice president of Integrated Health Solutions Americas region, the partnership between the Red Cross and Medtronic provides access to high-quality care at an affordable cost. “Medtronic is in a very good position to help the Red Cross achieve its goals, by investing in the infrastructure and bringing added expertise in the delivery of care,” says McCarthy.

Medtronic Integrated Health Solutions is committed to expanding these kinds of partnerships globally, providing innovative solutions that can lead to more sustainable healthcare models.

1 Anaya, Gabriel.“Effect of the US-Mexico border region in cardiovascular mortality: ecological time trend analysis of Mexican border and non-border municipalities from 1998 to 2012” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5420111/#CR3

Tweet me:Partnership between Medtronic and the Red Cross of Mexico provides timely, advanced care to critically ill patients in Tijuana. #ExpandingGlobalHealthAccess http://www.medtronic.com/us-en/about/news/ihs-red-cross-mexico.html

KEYWORDS: global access, Collaboration/Partnerships, Medtronic, red cross of mexico, NYSE:MDT

  

Eighth-Graders Take Hands-On Approach to Fighting Air Pollution

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Edison International partners with the Garvey School District to create a clean energy future for local communities

SOURCE:Edison International

DESCRIPTION:

Jamie Lei and Kenneth Nosaka, air quality measurement tools in hand, were surprised by the readings inside a local fast food restaurant during lunch hour. The numbers were even worse than those taken from a nearby freeway overpass.

“I was not expecting that,” Nosaka said.

Lei, Nosaka and other team members are not your typical researchers. These are eighth-grade students from Garvey Intermediate Campus in Rosemead, which sits in an air pollution “hot spot.” Recently, science teacher Michael Naka led his class through “CLEAR in Schools,” part of an innovative “Community Learning Enhances Air Resources” program developed and managed by the nonprofit Coalition for Clean Air.

“This is not just book learning, this is something they’ll remember for a long time,” Naka said, noting the importance of his students learning how air pollution disproportionately affects their communities, and how they can get involved in finding solutions. “Their lives will change because of what they learned, about their contribution to air pollution and what they can do about it.”

Student Isaias Martinez agrees. “In the beginning, I wasn’t too excited to study air pollution, but the program really opened a lot of students’ eyes, including mine,” he said. “I think the people in our neighborhood are affected by air pollution, but they really aren’t aware how it affects their health.”

Since the program launched three years ago, “CLEAR in Schools” has trained 10 teachers in the curriculum. More than 400 students at four Southern California middle and high schools have completed the coursework, which includes several hands-on exercises and a live video conference with two scientists about primary and secondary air pollutants.

Edison International, parent company of Southern California Edison, recently awarded a grant to the coalition to implement “CLEAR in Schools” in the Garvey School District.

“Edison invests in STEM (science, technology, engineering or math) education programs like ‘CLEAR in Schools’ to help students — especially those from underserved communities — become tomorrow’s scientists and engineers,” said Lisa Woon, SCE’s principal manager of Corporate Philanthropy. “Grants like these are an investment in creating a clean energy future for Southern California.”

Naka’s class was provided with devices that measure particulate matter in real time, and can be linked to an online network via a mobile phone app. Users upload the data they capture to a web site, which shares real-time information about local air quality conditions — like a Waze for air pollution.

The teams then presented their findings to Dr. Joseph Lyou, president and CEO of the Coalition for Clean Air,  Garvey School District Superintendent Anita Chu and board member Henry Lo.

“I see talented scientists in the making, using real science, working on real issues,” said Chu.

Motivated by what he saw, Lyou raised the issue of particulate matter emissions from restaurant charbroilers the next day at a board meeting of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. As a result, the board prioritized the reconsideration of existing regulations.

“It gave me a good feeling to know that we were finding solutions to help the community,” said Martinez.

See Edison's 2017 Sustainability Report

Tweet me:.@EdisonIntl partners with Garvey School District, CA to create a #cleanenergy future for local communities http://bit.ly/2NBtGRW #STEM #airquality #pollution

KEYWORDS: Edison International, Southern California Edison, CLEAR in Schools, Air Quality

    


IWBI Launches Global Network of Concept Advisories

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SOURCE:International WELL Building Institute

DESCRIPTION:

NEW YORK, July 9, 2018 /3BL Media/ – The International WELL Building InstituteTM (IWBITM) today announced the formation of a network of global concept advisories to explore, better understand and, ultimately, more accurately quantify the impact of specific health intents captured in the 10 WELL concepts – Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Materials, Sound, Mind and Community. 

“This is a giant step forward for IWBI, broadening and deepening our understanding of how our buildings affect people across these concepts, which the evidence tells us have significant impact on how we feel, how healthy we are and how we can thrive,” said IWBI Chairman and CEO Rick Fedrizzi.

“Our successful launch last month of WELL v2TM, the next version of the WELL Building StandardTM, was another step in the continuous evolution of WELL,” he said. “These concept advisories will propel the movement, advancing both the impact and importance of healthy building in the process.”

Each WELL concept advisory includes a collection of professionals, practitioners and experts, each serving a one-year term. WELL concept advisors will number more than 100 individuals, span 20 countries and represent WELL advocates not just from global market centers like New York, London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, Addis Ababa and Sydney, but a number of smaller municipalities in between. They cover a broad array of technical, scientific and medical fields.

“As an organization, IWBI continues to raise the bar for buildings designed with the health of people at the forefront,” Fedrizzi added. “The formation of these WELL concept advisories is a validation of how far we’ve traveled as an organization, but more importantly they represent an investment in the future of WELL and its ability to transform our buildings and communities to improve human health.”

About the International WELL Building Institute
The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is leading the global movement to transform our buildings and communities in ways that help people thrive. The WELL v2 pilot is a recently launched version of its popular WELL Building Standard (WELL), which will continue to be offered to the market, along with the WELL Community Standard pilot, a district scale rating system that sets a new global benchmark for healthy communities. WELL is focused exclusively on the ways that buildings and communities, and everything in them, can improve our comfort, drive better choices, and generally enhance, not compromise, our health and wellness. IWBI convenes and mobilizes the wellness real estate community through management of the WELL AP credential, the pursuit of applicable research, the development of educational resources, and advocacy for policies that promote health and wellness everywhere.  For more information about IWBI and WELL, please visit us here.

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ADDENDA

WELL Air & Thermal Comfort Concept Advisory
The Air & Thermal Comfort concepts in WELL aim to ensure high levels of indoor air quality across a building’s lifetime through strategies that include source elimination or reduction, active and passive building design and operation tactics and human behavior interventions, while at the same time promoting human productivity and ensuring a maximum level of thermal comfort among all building users through improved HVAC system design and control, while meeting individual thermal preferences. Concept advisory members include: 

Tim Beuker, WELL AP, Indoor Environmental Consultant, BBA Indoor Environmental Consultancy (Netherlands); Sandra Dedesko, Sustainability Consultant, RWDI (Canada); Ihab Elzeyadi, Professor, University of Oregon (Eugene, Ore.); Anjanette Green, LEED AP, USGBC IAQ WG, LFA, LBC Auditor, LPC Assessor, Declare 3PV, RESET Air AP & Senior Fellow, Fitwel Ambassador, Director, Standards Development, RESET, GIGA (U.S./China); Dusan Licina, Assistant Professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (Switzerland); Jiannan Luo, CEng MCIBSE, WELL AP, LEED AP (BD+C) and BREEAM International Assessor, Senior Environmental Design Analyst, Foster + Partners (United Kingdom); Jovan Pantelic, Assistant Professional Researcher, University of California Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.); Badri Patel, EIT, BEAP, LEED AP (BD+C), WELL AP, VRF Product Specialist, Johnson Controls (Canada); Clare Parry, Director, Grun Consulting (Australia); Christopher Schaffner, PE, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, President, The Green Engineer, Inc. (Concord, Mass.); Stefano Schiavon, PhD, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.); Pawel Wargocki, PhD, Member ASHRAE, Member ISIAQ, Secretary Academy of Indoor Air Sciences, Associate Professor, Technical University of Denmark. Nathan Stodola is the IWBI Air & Thermal Comfort concept staff lead.

WELL Water Concept Advisory
The Water concept in WELL covers all aspects of the quality, distribution and control of water in a building. It includes features that address the availability and contaminant thresholds of drinking water, as well as features targeting the management of water to avoid damage to building materials and environmental conditions. Concept advisory members include:

Andy Dengel, Environment Director, BRE (United Kingdom); Yujiao Jiang, Indoor Environmental Consultant, PureLiving Indoor Environmental Solutions Co., Ltd. (China); Tanya Lubner, PhD, Director of Professional Certification & Training, Water Quality Association (Naperville, Ill.); Vivek Rao, Researcher, University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.); Molly M. Scanlon, PhD, FAIA, FACHA, Director of Research & Innovation, Phigenics (Tucson, Ariz.); Neeta Sharma, Consultant (Former Managing Director, Plumbing Codes and Standards India Private Limited) (New Delhi, India); Ruchi Sneha, WELL AP, LEED GA, Technical Specialist, Green Business Certification Institute India (India); Joel Stout, Vice President, Thornton Tomasetti (San Francisco, Calif.); Nancy Sutley, Chief Sustainability Officer, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (Los Angeles, Calif.); Simon Turner, CEO, Healthy Buildings International, Inc. (Lake Forest, Calif.); Carlos Vidal, Facility Manager, International Facility Management Association Research member [IFMA Spain chapter] (Barcelona, Spain). Nathan Stodola is the IWBI Water concept staff lead.

WELL Nourishment Concept Advisory
The Nourishment concept in WELL requires nutritional transparency, the availability of fruits and vegetables and encourages the creation of food environments where the healthiest choice is the easiest choice. Concept advisory members include:

Dr. Angeline Achariya, CEO, Food Innovation Centre, Monash University (Australia); Deanne Brandstetter, MBA, RDN, CDN, FAND, VP, Nutrition & Wellness, Compass Group (New York, N.Y.); Adam Brumberg, Deputy Director, Cornell University Food and Brand Lab (Ithaca, N.Y.); Sara Roberts, CEO & Founder, Healthy Nibbles (United Kingdom); Gwen Schantz, Founding Partner, Brooklyn Grange (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Kate Spina, Consultant Chef & Nutritionist, Food Rascal (Australia); Laurie Whitsel, PhD, Vice President for Policy Research and Translation, American Heart Association (Washington, D.C.); Toni Gocke Wyre, ASID, WELL AP, LEED AP, Associate AIA, Senior Associate, Registered Interior Designer, Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects (Little Rock, Ark.). Anja Mikic is the IWBI Nourishment concept staff lead.

WELL Light Concept Advisory
The Light concept in WELL aims to create lighting environments that are optimal for visual, mental and biological health. Concept advisory members include:

Francesco Anselmo, Associate, IoT, Interaction and Lighting, Arup (United Kingdom); Stephen Cannon Brookes, Lighting Designer at Cannon-Brookes Lighting Design & Faculty at University College London (United Kingdom); Nancy Clanton, CEO, Clanton & Associates Lighting Design & Engineering (Boulder, Colo.); Kenneth Douglas, Principal, HLB Lighting  Design (New York, N.Y.); Gena Glickman, Faculty in the Center for Circadian Biology at University of California San Diego (San Diego, Calif.); Chad Groshart, Associate Director, Atelier Ten (New Haven, Conn.); Michael Herf, President, f.lux software LLC (Los Angeles, Calif.); Glenn Heinmiller, FIALD, LC, LEED AP, Principal, Lam Partners (Cambridge, Mass.); Yi Chun Huang, General Manager, Environmental Market Solutions Inc. (China); John Martin, Public Policy Consultant, International Association of Lighting Designers (Chicago, Ill.); Brent Protzman, Director of Building Science, Lutron (Easton, Penn.); Meg Smith, IES, LEED AP, WELL AP, IOT applications Signify Research (Cambridge, Mass.); Robert Soler, VP of Research and Technology, BIOS (Carlsbad, Calif.); Michael Royer, Senior Engineer, Advanced Lighting Team, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Portland, Ore.); Andy Taylor, Technical Manager, Light Culture (Australia); Paolo Di Trapani, CEO & Founder, CoeLux, and Professor, University of Insubria (Italy). Gayathri Unnikrishnan is the IWBI Light concept staff lead.

WELL Movement Concept Advisory
The Movement concept in WELL promotes movement, physical activity and active living and discourages sedentary behaviors through environmental design strategies, programs and policies. Concept advisory members include:

Tom Bosna, General Manager, Pinnacle Health Group (Melbourne, Australia); Jeri Brittin, Director of Research, HDR (Omaha, Neb.); Joe Celentano, Principal, Studio Leader (Athletics + Community), VMDO (Charlottesville, Va.); Susan Chung, Director of Research and Knowledge Management, ASID (Washington, D.C.); Kristen Day, Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Administration, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University (New York, N.Y.); Lynn Herrmann, Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University, Department of Public Health and Health Education (DeKalb, Ill.); Jeff Hochberg, MS, FAWHP, WELL AP, WELL Faculty, Manager, Wellness Analytics, Quest Diagnostics Blueprint for Wellness (Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla.); Linda Miller, President, Certified Ergonomist and Occupational Therapist, EWI Works (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada); James Nash, Director, Cycling Score (London, United Kingdom); Mindy Pierce, Director Benefits & Well-being/LifeWork Strategies, Adventist HealthCare (Gaithersburg, Md.); Peter Stair, Senior Sustainability Manager, KEO International (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada). Vienna McLeod is the IWBI Movement concept staff lead.

WELL Materials Concept Advisory
The Materials concept in WELL aims to reduce human exposure to hazardous building material ingredients through the restriction or elimination of compounds or products known to be toxic and the promotion of safer replacements. Compounds known to be hazardous to the health of occupational workers and/or known to bioaccumulate or aggregate in the environment are also restricted and, in some instances, not permitted. Concept advisory members include:

Michelle Amt, Director of Sustainability, VMDO (Charlottesville, Va.); Tracy Backus, WELL Faculty, WELL AP, LEED AP ID+C, Director, Sustainable Programs, Teknion (Washington, D.C.); Henning Bloech, Founder, Sustaineer Consulting (Germany); Eva-Lena Carlén-Johansson, Manager Sustainability Programs, Skanska AB (Sweden); David Green, Manager Applied Sustainability, BASF (Cleveland, Ohio); Robin Guenther, FAIA, LEED Fellow, Perkins + Will (New York, N.Y.); Jean Hansen, FIIDA, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, CID, EDAC, AAHID, Sustainable Principal, Senior Professional Associate, HDR (San Francisco, Calif.); John Mlade, Senior Project Manager, Sustainable & Healthy Environments, Wight & Company (Darien/Chicago, Ill.); Joel Ann Todd, Consultant (Cabin John, Md.); Troy Virgo, Director of Sustainability and Product Stewardship, Shaw Industries, Inc. (Dalton, Ga.); Raefer Wallis, CEO and Founder, GIGA: RESET Standard / ORIGIN Hub (Canada/China). Oriah Abera, VP Standard Development, is the IWBI Materials concept staff lead.

WELL Sound Concept Advisory
The Sound concept in WELL aims to bolster health and well-being through the identification and mitigation of acoustical comfort parameters that shape human experiences in the built environment. Concept advisory members include:

Sean Browne, Principal Scientist, Armstrong World Industries (Lancaster, Penn.); Ric Doedens, Director, Strategic Relations, K.R. Moeller Associate (Canada); Klas Hagberg, PhD and Senior Technical Director, WSP (Canada); Jack Harvie-Clark, Director, Apex Acoustics Ltd. (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK); Kimteri Kim, Principal Consultant, Intertek (New York, N.Y.); Dr. Eoin King, Associate Professor, University of Hartford (West Hartford, Conn.); Siu-Kit "Eddie" Lau, Senior Lecturer, National University of Singapore (Singapore); John Longman, President, Longman Lindsay (New York, N.Y.); John LoVerde, FASA, Director of Architectural Acoustics, Veneklasen Associates, President, Paul S. Veneklasen Research Foundation (Santa Monica, Calif.); Erik Miller-Klein, Partner, A3 Acoustical Consultants (Seattle, Wash.); Andrew Parkin, Partner and Global Head of Acoustics, Cundall (Birmingham, UK); Chris Pollock, Associate Principal, Arup (New York, N.Y.); Amanda Robinson, Co-CEO, Marshall Day Acoustics (Melbourne, Australia); Andrew Schmidt, Senior Researcher, Acoustics, USG (Chicago, Ill.). Ethan Bourdeau is the IWBI Sound concept staff lead.

WELL Mind Concept Advisory
The Mind concept in WELL promotes mental health through policy, program and design strategies that seek to address the diverse factors that influence cognitive and emotional well-being. Concept advisory members include:

Heidi Dening, Founder and CEO, Workable Wellness (Australia); Nicola De Pisapia, Founder, Neocogita, and Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento (Italy); Randy W. Fiser, Hon. FASID, Chief Executive Officer, American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) (Washington, D.C.); Tara Healey, Program Director, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care’s Mind the Moment Mindfulness Program (Wellesley, Mass.); Oliver Heath, Architectural and Interior Designer specialising in Biophilic Design, Oliver Heath Design Ltd. (Brighton, United Kingdom); Judith Heerwagen, Affiliate Faculty Member in Architecture, University of Washington (Seattle, Wash.); Lida Lewis, WELL AP, WELL Faculty, IIDA, LEED AP ID+C, Fitwel Ambassador (Washington, D.C.); María Isabel Martínez Castro, Well-Being Manager, IS-WELL Company (Madrid, Spain); Carolyn Rickard-Brideau, AIA, WELL AP (provisional), Corporate President, Little (Washington, D.C.); Hessam Sadatsafavi, Data Action Team Lead, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Virginia Health System (Chancellorsville, Va.); Tyrone Yang, AIA, PhD, WELL AP, Architect/Adjunct Professor of Architecture, Yang Architects, LLC (Boston, Mass.). Emily Winer is the IWBI Mind concept staff lead.

WELL Community Concept Advisory
The Community concept in WELL aims to support access to essential healthcare, workplace health promotion and accommodations for new parents while establishing an inclusive, integrated community through social equity, civic engagement and accessible design. Concept advisory members include:

Jamie Anderson, Senior Sustainability Consultant, BuroHappold Engineering (Manchester, UK); Christine Bruckner, PhD, FAIA, Director and WELL Global Lead, M Moser Associates (Hong Kong, China); Jeni Cross, Director of Research, Institute for the Built Environment, Colorado State University (Fort Collins, Colo.); Evan Davidge, Founder, The Wellbeing Leader, Ltd. (Swansea, United Kingdom); Jay Dee Dearness, Senior Associate, Wellness and Sustainability, XBÜRO (Brisbane, Australia); Ted Eytan, MD, MS, MPH (Washington, D.C.); Susan Kaplan, President, BuildingWrx (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Marlene Kosinski, FNP, COHN-S, WELL AP, Associate Director, Health & Wellness and Ergonomics, Genentech (San Francisco, Calif.); Victoria Lanteigne, Director, Strategic Partnerships, FOX Architects (Washington, D.C.); Jeff Schlegelmilch, Deputy Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Earth Institute (New York, N.Y.); James Stawniczy, Senior Consultant – Wellness, HOK (New York, N.Y.); Gerda Stelpstra, Senior Consultant Workplace Strategy, Cushman & Wakefield (Amsterdam, Netherlands); Zdravko Trivic, Assistant Professor, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore (Singapore); Lauren Zullo, Director of Sustainability, Jonathan Rose Companies (New York, N.Y.). Rose Winer is the IWBI Community concept staff lead.

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Press Contacts:
IWBI
Callie Stanton
646.654.3438
cstanton@nikecomm.com

Tweet me:Leading experts on #IWBI's new network of global concept advisories to advise on impact of 10 WELL concepts on human #health http://bit.ly/2znWcUd @WELLcertified #WELLBuildingStandard

KEYWORDS: International Well Building Institute (IWBI), community, WELL Building Standard

Multi-Sector Partnerships - The Key to a Brighter Future?

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SOURCE:Realized Worth

DESCRIPTION:

Blackrock CEO Larry Fink wrote a letter last year that shook the business world. Fink, CEO of one of the most influential investment management companies in the world, urged CEOs around the world to take responsibility and action for their company’s social impact.  

"Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose," Fink wrote. "To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society. Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate."

Both public and private companies should serve a social purpose. But can they, should they, be expected to do this on their own? Social impact does not exist in a vacuum. If we’re to overcome ongoing socio-economic and political crises, it’s going to take a unified approach. A brighter future for humanity is going to require collaboration – between individuals, and between sectors.

According to the State of the Sector Research, “41% of charities surveyed expect to be partnering more with private sector organizations over the next three years.” Overcoming conflicting agendas, aligning goals, and clearing barriers to effectively partner with nonprofits, academia and government provides companies with, “time, talent, personal networks, creative thinking, public support, and all the other forms of social capital that often seem scanty yet are really abundant, waiting to be uncovered and mobilized,” noted Jennifer McCrea and Jeffrey Walker in their book, The Generosity Network. (Thanks for the recommendation Michael Bzdak, Global Director of Employee Engagement in the office of Global Community Impact at Johnson & Johnson. Michael was one of our favorite speakers at the recent Charities@Work conference held in New York.)

MULTI-SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS IN THE WILD: HOW IT LOOKS ON THE GROUND

Realized Worth recently had the pleasure of visiting our friends at Concord Hospitality. As part of their 10th annual Share Day, in partnership with Feed the Children, associates gathered to build backpacks for 600 kids as part of Feed the Children’s Homeless Education and Literacy Program (H.E.L.P). For this event, Feed the Children worked with local Canadian nonprofit partners such as Speroway in Burlington, Good Shepherd in Hamilton, Hope House in Guelph and Food for Life in Burlington.

Feed the Children’s H.E.L.P. program supports homeless families who struggle with access to adequate educational supports for their children, and helps homeless youth who struggle to gain continuous access to education. This program has helped more than a million children in North America attend and succeed at school.

In this one event, Concord Hospitality and their partners contributed time and energy toward lessening the negative impact of multiple societal issues, including poverty, homelessness and education. These issues fold up into the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) developed by the UNDP, and are agreed upon by 193 member states to be achieved by 2030.It’s also events like these that show how companies can engage their employees to take part in achieving the goals through volunteerism. Which is where IMPACT 2030 comes in.

WHAT IS IMPACT 2030 AND WHY SHOULD COMPANIES JOIN?

Led by the private sector, in partnership with the UN, IMPACT2030 is a privately-led initiative in collaboration with academia, noble houses, nonprofit organizations and government to impact the 17 SDGs by 2030. This will be achieved by leveraging the human capital of corporate volunteers, by forming action teams in a multi-sector approach. For example, IMPACT2030 partners Telefonica, CaixaBank and SAP formed an action team in Madrid, Spain to support social entities that favored employability. Over a period of 15 days, 12 employee volunteers contributed their knowledge, experience and time to four Foundations, focusing on SDG #8 which seeks to promote decent work and economic growth. On September 5-7, 2018, IMPACT2030 partners and stakeholders will gather at the UN for the biennial Global Summit where action teams like this will share their achievements and challenges, while continuing to foster new partnerships to affect the Global Goals.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. According to Jeffery Walker, “over the last 10 years, more and more cause-based collaborations like IMPACT2030 have been coming together and have achieved remarkable success.” Here are some noteworthy examples from Jeffery Walker:

  • “In the last seven years, a global collective focused on malaria has reduced the number of deaths per year from 900,000 to 400,000—and the goal of zero deaths is now within sight.”
  • “In the last four years, a consortium of organizations dedicated to preventing the passage of the AIDS virus from mothers to children has cut transmissions from 350,000 to 200,000, and the rate continues to plummet.”
  • “In the last two years, Target Zero, a collaborative effort aimed at ending the euthanasia of all safe, adoptable shelter animals nationwide, has cut the kill rate from as high as 64 percent annually to nearly zero in some cities through a hands-on mentorship model, where proven leaders teach local leaders evidence-based best practices.”

PARTNERSHIPS ARE HARD: HOW CAN DIFFERENT SECTORS PARTNER SUCCESSFULLY?

Although there are many examples of successful multi-sector partnerships, often strong, sustainable partnerships are difficult to develop and maintain. Needs are not aligned, different languages are spoken (figuratively and literally), resources are unbalanced and we still adhere to the model of creating value for, rather than with society.  How do we move past this and develop effective, powerful and balanced partnerships that benefit all stakeholders?

NPC’s recently published article on, “Building More Impactful Corporate-Charity Partnerships,” outlines 4 steps to achieving an impactful partnership - view them here. 

Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET), developed their Principles of Partnership. This amazing resource dives in to the 8 steps you can follow to build successful partnerships. It provides step by step guidance and downloadable resources and materials. Partnership experts can help to guide and facilitate your new relationships, but there is also an abundance of research at your fingertips to get you started.  

WHY DOES VOLUNTEERING MATTER?

When companies provide opportunities for employees to volunteer, not once a year, but over and over again, employees are often brought into situations where they interact with people who may not belong to their typical “in-group.” Volunteering asks employees to challenge their assumptions about the world and about themselves – their preconceived notions of what it means to be “equal,” to be part of the same community. It is through these sensemaking experiences that people begin to truly listen to the stories of others. Volunteering can start to help people understand, accept and honor differences. Our empathy circles are expanded. The issues affecting others start to belong to everyone ­– it's no longer us vs. them. It’s just “us.” When we gather the right players, align our missions and work together towards a common goal, this is where real change for a brighter future begins.

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Love this article? There's more where this came from on the Realized Worth blog!

Realized Worth is a global CSR consultancy that specializes in employee volunteer training, volunteer program design, and employee engagement. Call us at 1-855-926-4678 to discuss partnership opportunities for your company, or shoot us an email. You can also reach out to us on Facebook and Twitter.

Tweet me:How do we move past the challenges of building #partnerships to develop effective, powerful and balanced partnerships that benefit all stakeholders? Learn more on Realized Worth's latest blog https://bit.ly/2zmgygL #collaboration @impact2030 @charitiesatwork @sabviva

KEYWORDS: collaboration, multi-sectoral partnerships, impact2030, Realized Worth

How We’re Working to Meet the Needs of People Living and Aging With HIV

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SOURCE:Gilead Sciences

DESCRIPTION:

In the past two decades, incredible progress has been made in the fight against HIV in the United States. Through a steady stream of innovation, more people living with HIV are leading longer, healthier lives. But the work is far from over. According to the CDC, as of 2014, 45 percent of people living with HIV in the U.S. are now 50 years old or older, and by 2020 that percentage is estimated to reach 70 percent. This aging population faces a unique set of challenges that we at Gilead are working to address.

In keeping with our vision to provide continued support for people with HIV, we convened our first advisory board meeting last month with several key partners who are essential to addressing the unmet needs of those aging with HIV. These included healthcare providers, researchers and community advocates from AIDS Project LATPAN, the University of PittsburghBoston UniversityACRIAUniversity of California, San DiegoHTW CampaignSAGE and HIV Vaccine Trials Network. Over two days, we worked closely with this team of experts to define the scope of the issue, identify the challenges it poses, and create a list of potential solutions that can offer much-needed support to those living with HIV as they age.

A recurring theme of our discussion was that no solutions can likely be achieved without first addressing the collective challenges that exist within both the healthcare system and the general community that are intrinsically merged together. That’s why we will seek to partner with a range of organizations—from healthcare clinics to advocacy groups—to collaborate in new innovative ways.

For instance, one approach we identified is to address the persistent stigma that many people living with HIV—including those who are aging—still face. The stigma isn’t just around having HIV—it’s also tied to other factors such as sexual orientation, the presence of co-morbidities associated with HIV and aging, and even just aging itself. Those who face stigma may also face additional struggles such as isolation and loneliness, which in turn can contribute to mental health issues like depression and substance use. The “perfect storm” of these challenges can make it difficult to coordinate quality care. As a result, many providers and organizations may not have the education or resources necessary to holistically address the needs of those living and aging with HIV.

We discussed a variety of possible strategic approaches to reducing loneliness and stigma while implementing more creative solutions to improve the overall quality of life for patients. For example, there is a need for greater emphasis on home-based care and expanded opportunities for connection—such as entertainment and socializing activities, substance use programs, and workforce training. We also talked about several novel networking solutions to reduce isolation—ranging from social lunches and intergenerational dinners to technological approaches.

To help promote better care, healthcare providers and community-based organizations should strive to continue building coalitions that can provide services designed specifically for the unique needs of people living and aging with HIV. One approach can be connecting infectious disease physicians, pharmacists and other providers with specialists in geriatric care. It’s also crucial to bring together organizations that run complementary programs for aging individuals living with HIV, while also supporting newer organizations that want to make it their primary mission to serve and support people living and aging with HIV. We intend to issue a Request for Proposals to organizations interested in being a part of such solutions.

Thanks to the improvements in medicine and care approaches, HIV no longer has to be a death sentence. Our challenge now is to help those affected by HIV continue to live the healthiest life possible as they age. I’m energized by the commitment and combined creativity and insights that our team of advisors is bringing to the table, and feel optimistic about the opportunity we have to improve the lives of so many. 

Tweet me:Learn more about how @GileadSciences is working to meet the needs of people living and aging with #HIV http://bit.ly/2L3yLkr

KEYWORDS: aids/hiv, AIDS, HIV, Gilead, cdc, Project LA, TPAN, University of Pittsburgh, Boston University, ACRIA, UCSD, HTW Campaign, SAGE, HIV Vaccine Trials Network, NYSE:GILD

Human Rights Risks From New Clean Tech – Complimentary Briefing

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SOURCE:Ethical Corporation

DESCRIPTION:

Global supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, leading to a growing risk of Human Rights abuses. These mounting complications mean that even businesses in ‘clean’ sectors such as renewable energy producers and electric car manufacturers are facing questions around the human rights risks and challenges in their supply chains.

In Ethical Corporation’s latest briefing, we look at how the expansion of clean technology may be threatened by the existence of human rights issues within extended supply chains including; land dispossession, intimidation, killings and displacement.

Click here to access your complimentary copy

Some of the key issues include:

  • Failure to safeguard indigenous rights in countries such as Mexico where authorities lack the resources to defend rights and indigenous people are poor and lack education
     
  • Lack of commitment to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) policies
     
  • Challenges when sourcing raw materials which are essential to the manufacturing process as they are often mined in a highly damaging manner to both the environment and local communities
     
  • Overshadowing of underlying issues by ‘clean-image’ as the renewability and competitiveness of clean technologies threaten to suppress the concerns of local communities
     
  • Feature case study on what Siemens are doing to tackle human rights risks deep in their supply chain in the wake of their controversial involvement in wind energy projects in the Western Sahara.

Click here to access your complimentary copy

Media Contact:
Candy Telani Anton
Global Project Director 
+44 (0) 207 375 7162

Tweet me:.@Ethical_Corp's latest briefing looks at how the expansion of #cleantechnology may be threatened by the existence of #humanrights issues within extended #supplychains http://bit.ly/2m5Uu0a

KEYWORDS: Human Rights, Ethical Corporation, clean technology

Duke Energy Provides Major Boost to Solar in North Carolina as New Programs Roll Out

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SOURCE:Duke Energy

SUMMARY:

  • Company plans to distribute $62 million in solar rebates to customers over the next five years
  • Duke Energy also seeking 680 megawatts of new renewable energy capacity in the Carolinas

DESCRIPTION:

CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 10, 2018 /3BL Media/ -- Two major Duke Energy solar energy programs are rolling out this month in North Carolina, making solar more abundant and affordable for customers.

"Duke Energy's solar rebates and the competitive bidding program have been highly anticipated and will drive further solar-related investment, job creation and economic development for North Carolina," said David Fountain, Duke Energy's North Carolina president. "They reflect many of the positive aspects of the Competitive Energy Solutions for North Carolina legislation and will provide financial benefits to residential and commercial customers."

The two programs hit milestones this week:

  • Solar Rebates – Applications are being accepted now from customers interested in Duke Energy's five-year, $62 million solar rebate program. The program is expected to more than double the number of private solar energy customers in North Carolina over the next five years. Customers wishing to apply should visit duke-energy.com/NCSolarRebates.
  • Competitive Bidding RFP – Duke Energy is looking to add 680 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy in the Carolinas to increase its diverse energy mix. Today, it filed a request for proposal (RFP) for companies to build future large-scale solar or other renewable facilities in the Duke Energy territories of North Carolina and South Carolina. At peak output, 680 MW of solar capacity can power more than 100,000 homes.

"North Carolina has been able to achieve leadership in the use of solar energy, second only to California, spurred by a variety of programs that have helped to reduce the cost of installing solar systems," said Peter M. Schwarz, professor of economics and associate at the Energy Production and Infrastructure Center (EPIC), UNC Charlotte. "The new programs that Duke Energy is now introducing will continue to spur the growth of solar energy, contributing to economic development while helping to protect the environment."  

Solar Rebates Program
Under the rebate program, residential customers will be eligible for a rebate of 60 cents per watt for solar energy systems 10 kilowatts (kW) or less. For example, a typical rooftop array of 8 kW would be eligible for a $4,800 rebate. Installed systems 10 kW or greater would be eligible for a maximum rebate of $6,000.

Nonresidential customers would be eligible for 50 cents per watt. Nonprofit customers (such as churches and schools) would be eligible for an enhanced rebate of 75 cents per watt for systems 100 kW or less. Installed systems 100 kW or greater would be eligible for a maximum rebate of $50,000 for nonresidential customers, or $75,000 for nonprofit customers.

Customers will also have a solar leasing option. Instead of owning the system, customers can lease solar panels from another company. Much like leasing a car, a third-party leasing agency owns the system while the customer has a contract to use the output of the solar panels.

The rebates are divided into maximum annual allotments of 20 MW and are on a first-come, first-served basis – depending on when the customer application is submitted. More program details can be found at duke-energy.com/NCSolarRebates.

The program is similar to a successful one in South Carolina that passed the $50 million mark in customer rebates earlier this year. The program was also part of a collaborative piece of energy legislation – Act 236 – signed into law in 2014.

Competitive Bidding Program
Under North Carolina's competitive bidding provision, Duke Energy will solicit bids for projects totaling 680 MW of new renewable energy capacity. The bids can come from any company, including Duke Energy, and can be in the form of a power purchase agreement (PPA), utility self-developed facilities or asset acquisitions. Proposals must be for a single facility between 1 and 80 MW and capable of being placed in service prior to Jan. 1, 2021.

An independent administrator will manage the bidding process and help select the most cost-effective bids.

"The competitive bidding process will lead to better prices for solar energy for our customers," added Fountain. "It will also improve geographic distribution of projects around the Carolinas which promotes reliability."

Duke Energy already has more than 2,500 MW of solar capacity connected to its grid, which includes those owned by Duke Energy and those owned and operated by other companies. Overall, North Carolina is the No. 2 state in the nation for solar power capacity.

Bids for new projects are due Sept. 11. Details on the RFP can be found on the independent administrator's website at https://decprerfp2018.accionpower.com/.

Duke Energy is one of the nation's leading renewable energy companies. The company operates more than 20 wind facilities and 60 solar facilities in about 20 states around the nation.

About Duke Energy
Duke Energy is a Fortune 125 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com

The Duke Energy News Center serves as a multimedia resource for journalists and features news releases, helpful links, photos and videos. Hosted by Duke Energy, illumination is an online destination for stories about people, innovations, and community and environmental topics. It also offers glimpses into the past and insights into the future of energy.

Follow Duke Energy on TwitterLinkedInInstagram and Facebook.

Media Contact: 
Randy Wheeless
Office: 704.382.8379
24-Hour: 800.559.3853
Email: Randy.Wheeless@duke-energy.com 
Twitter: @DE_RandyW

Tweet me:.@DukeEnergy plans to distribute $62 million in #solar rebates to NC customers over the next five years http://bit.ly/2u8eqUN #renewableenergy #sustainability

KEYWORDS: Duke Energy, North Carolina, solar rebates

The JetBlue Foundation and Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) to Introduce Nearly 200 Students to Careers in Aviation

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SOURCE:JetBlue Airways

SUMMARY:

-- OBAP and The JetBlue Foundation to Host Hands-On Aviation Career Education (ACE) Academy Initiatives in JetBlue’s Six Focus Cities --

-- As Part of the Ongoing #100x35JetBlue Recovery Efforts in the Caribbean, JetBlue and OBAP to Bring the Program to San Juan, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands --

DESCRIPTION:

NEW YORK, July 10, 2018 /3BL Media/ – JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU) today announced a collaborative initiative between the JetBlue Foundation and the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) to introduce aviation careers to students traditionally under-represented in the field. This summer both organizations are working together to increase awareness of aviation-related careers through hands-on learning for minority students and girls, ages 14-18. Students will learn directly from pilots and other aviation professionals at JetBlue’s airports, hangars and flight training centers in Boston; Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Long Beach/Los Angeles; New York; Orlando, Fla.; San Juan, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

OBAP has facilitated the Aviation Career Education (ACE Academy) program for several years. With the help of a grant from the JetBlue Foundation, OBAP is able to bring the program to additional cities this year, introducing even more students to careers above and below the wing and in the airline’s support centers. Nearly 200 students across JetBlue’s six focus cities and the U.S. Virgin Islands will be introduced to aviation. JetBlue pilots volunteer their time to coordinate these initiatives. In fact, many of the pilot coordinators and advisors were once students in ACE Academy initiatives and credit the program as the spark that ignited their interest in aviation.

“Many students are often discouraged from even dreaming about careers in the cockpit,” said Eric Poole, assistant chief pilot, JetBlue and director of the JetBlue Foundation/OBAP ACE Academy initiative. “The key is access. OBAP and the JetBlue Foundation are working hard to increase access by introducing aviation to students, starting with a strong STEM base, as early as possible. We’re trying to add diversity to the future talent pipeline.”

The JetBlue Foundation is a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education-focused entity which furthers JetBlue’s efforts to place aviation top-of-mind as a career choice for students, and OBAP is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the encouragement and advancement of minorities in all aviation and aerospace careers. The JetBlue Foundation and OBAP are both committed to developing the next generation of aviators and doing their part to help diversify the aviation field.

Why Is This Important?

According to the FAA's Aeronautical Center, opportunities for careers such as commercial pilots are slated to increase over the next few years. Overall employment of airline and commercial pilots is projected to grow four percent between 2016 and 2026. Statistics like these are why the JetBlue Foundation was founded, to ensure the future of JetBlue’s and the industry’s talent pipeline.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, currently 93 percent of aircraft pilots and flight engineers are white, and African-Americans only make up three percent of airline pilots yet account for 13 percent of the U.S. population.  Additionally, only seven percent of U.S. pilots are women, per Women in Aviation International and FAA's Civil Airmen Statistics. The JetBlue Foundation’s mission is to introduce students from traditionally underserved communities to STEM and aviation and help increase these numbers.

“We are excited to have the sponsorship of JetBlue and the JetBlue Foundation,” said Carl Osborne, National ACE Program Director, OBAP. “The collaboration with JetBlue in the Caribbean is significant. The San Juan ACE Academy is being held at Inter-American University School of Aeronautics where students will be exposed to the college environment throughout the week. Over the years there's been several ACE students who have matriculated to university here. In addition to the JetBlue Gateway program at Inter-American, OBAP’s ACE Academy is a natural pipeline to exposure and careers in aerospace and aviation. We are thrilled for the growth of this program.”

The JetBlue Foundation/OBAP ACE Academy schedule includes:

  • New York,  July 9 – 13, 2018
  • Orlando, Fla., July 9 – 13, 2018
  • Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,  July 9 – 11, 2018
  • San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 9 – 13, 2018
  • St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, July 9– 13, 2018
  • Boston, July 23 – 26, 2018
  • Long Beach/Los Angeles, July 23-26, 2018

Each ACE Academy includes a curriculum complete with:

  • Presentations by aviation pioneers such as those from the Tuskegee Airman Experience, and aviation professionals from a wide range of industry careers and airlines
  • Special field trips with hands-on flight training from pilots and aviation professionals, certified FAA Flight Instructors and more
  • A program completely run by pilots and other volunteers

Admission is offered to high school students, ages 14-18 years old, who have an interest in learning about aviation. Applicants are competitively ranked based on cumulative GPA and an essay portion.

#100x35JetBlue – Caribbean Commitment:

As part of JetBlue’s ongoing commitment to the Caribbean following last year’s devastating hurricanes, the JetBlue Foundation will also host programs in San Juan, Puerto Rico and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, bringing awareness and access to viable career options to the region. JetBlue’s long-term 100x35JetBlue initiatives continued most recently with a pledge from the JetBlue Foundation to provide $100,000 worth of grants to STEM education programs in Puerto Rico. These grants will help further the airline’s efforts to invest in the island’s future. The JetBlue Foundation is currently accepting letters of interest and grant proposals through July 15, 2018. For more information, interested organizations can visit jetbluefoundation.org/grants. Grant recipients in Puerto Rico will be announced in fall 2018.

JetBlue is a long-standing partner and supports several OBAP initiatives. Later this summer, JetBlue will serve as a sponsor of the Pioneers Breakfast and Recruiting Fair being held at OBAP’s 42nd Annual Convention & Career Expo in Houston, TX. For more information on OBAP, visitOBAP.org.

Beyond just grants, the JetBlue Foundation provides in-kind support, mentoring, internships and much more to make a difference for the next generation of aviators, engineers, dispatchers, schedulers, aircraft mechanics and pilots. Over the past five years, the Foundation has built ongoing relationships with nearly 40 aviation and STEM-focused programs and provided more than $750,000 in grants to help these programs take off and soar.

The JetBlue Foundation is currently accepting applications for the next round of grants. For grant criteria or to submit an application, go to jetbluefoundation.org. Visit the site for more information, to see how previous recipients have utilized their grants, examples of JetBlue Foundation partnerships in flight and other STEM-related news.

ABOUT JETBLUE

JetBlue is New York's Hometown Airline®, and a leading carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando, and San Juan. JetBlue carries more than 40 million customers a year to 102 cities in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average of 1,000 daily flights. For more information please visit www.jetblue.com.

About The JetBlue Foundation

The JetBlue Foundation, founded in 2013, is independent from JetBlue and has a separate Board of Directors and an Advisory Committee both made up of JetBlue crewmembers from across the airline. To learn more about the JetBlue Foundation, visit jetbluefoundation.org.

ABOUT OBAP

Founded in 1976, the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the encouragement and advancement of minorities in all aviation and aerospace careers. OBAP members encourage diversity in the industry by supporting aspiring aviation professionals through mentoring, scholarships, training and youth-focused education programs through Project Aerospace.

Tweet me:The @JetBlue Foundation and the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals are working together to make #aviation careers accessible through hands-on learning initiative for minority students and girls http://bit.ly/2znIDUY #STEM

Contact Info:

JetBlue Corporate Communications
+1 (718) 709-3089
corpcomm@jetblue.com

KEYWORDS: NASDAQ:JBLU, Jetblue, JetBlue Foundation, Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, OBAP, ACE Academy, Aviation careers

Pioneering the Use of Closed-Loop Recycled Gold in Our Products

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Dell expands its closed-loop recycling program from plastics to now include precious metals, keeping these valuable materials out of landfills and in the economy.

SOURCE:Dell

DESCRIPTION:

The world’s middle class is projected to grow from today’s population of more than 3 billion to over 5 billion by 2030. While moving families out of poverty is a boon to their health and prosperity, increased demand for consumer goods threatens to strain our world’s natural resources.

That’s why Dell is finding new ways to move toward a circular economic model. A circular economy keeps materials in use for as long as possible — maximizing their value and reducing waste — in contrast to the “take, make and dispose” cycle of the traditional linear economy. As we design our products, packaging and operational processes, we continually look for opportunities to use recovered materials instead of raw materials. Going a step further, we also look for opportunities to “close the loop” by recycling materials from end-of-life electronics into new Dell products.

In FY18, Dell became the first PC manufacturer to use recycled gold from e-waste in its products. We debuted this in the Dell Latitude™ 5285 2-in-1 at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2018, and these units will be shipping to customers in the second quarter of FY19. We are exploring options to expand the use of closed-loop gold in other parts of our portfolio.

Gold is the latest addition to our portfolio of reclaimed, recycled-content and closed-loop materials used in Dell products. We have used recycled-content plastic in various displays and OptiPlex desktops since 2008, and in 2014 we pioneered the use of closed-loop plasticsfrom our e-waste recycling streams. In FY18, we also launched production of a closed-loop polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (PC/ABS) in an EMC storage product. In addition to these materials, we have incorporated reclaimed carbon fiber from the aerospace industry, repurposing it into select laptop designs. These efforts all support our 2020 Legacy of Good goal to use 100 million pounds of recycled-content plastic and other sustainable materials in our products.

We chose to work with gold because tiny gold electronic components add up to a surprisingly big impact. In the U.S. alone, consumers throw away $60 million in gold and silver annually by not recycling their phones. This treasure trove is even larger when considering that global e-waste recycling rates are still at about 15 percent. What’s more, the gold recycling process we use in our supply chain does 99 percent less environmental damage than virgin mining operations.

Electronics recycling: Worth its weight in gold

That is one of the reasons we are also keen to encourage more technology recycling. After we harvest our recycling stream for electronics that can be refurbished or stripped for parts, we “mine” the remaining e-waste for gold the same way we mine for closed-loop plastics. At present, these materials are collected from Dell’s North American recycling streams through our commercial Asset Resale and Recycling Services program and through our Dell Reconnect partnership with Goodwill, which enables consumers to take their used computers and electronics to more than 2,000 U.S. Goodwill locations for recycling.

Additionally, we partnered with actress, activist and entrepreneur Nikki Reed to raise awareness of the importance of recycling old technology. To help demonstrate why these materials should be kept in the economy rather than sent to landfills, Nikki and her company, BaYou with Love, developed the Circular Collection, a jewelry line made from a portion of the gold recovered from Dell’s recycling program.

This story shares one example of how Dell is committed to driving human progress by putting our technology and expertise to work where it can do the most good for people and the planet.

Explore more at legacyofgood.dell.com.

Tweet me:Read how @Dell pioneered the #closedloop #recycling program of gold from their products https://dell.to/2NhQEh2 #supplychain #circulareconomy

KEYWORDS: closed-loop recycling, Dell, zero landfill, Legacy of Good


Arrow Electronics Launches 2018 Innovation in Technology Awards

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SOURCE:Arrow Electronics

DESCRIPTION:

Arrow Electronics presented eighth grader Emma Ruccio from Connecticut with its Innovation in Electronics Award at the National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo (NICEE), a first-of-its kind forum where student inventors showcase their critical thinking skills and compete for prizes and recognition.

The award is the first in a series of Innovation in Technology awards launched by Arrow to honor the world’s brightest innovators and emerging technologies, transforming ideas into real and influential achievements that will help people and the communities in which Arrow works.  

Ruccio, who was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11, was recognized for her scoliosis diagnostics tool, Got Your Back 2.0. The invention uses infrared images and processing to provide easy at-home monitoring of spine curvature, reducing costly office visits and harmful radiation exposure.

Of the 99,000-plus students who participated in qualifying programs across the nation, Ruccio was one of the top 500 selected to participate at NICEE, hosted at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.

NICEE is a program of The STEMIE Coalition that was founded to elevate K-12 invention and entrepreneurship education in schools across the United States.

“The Expo is just the beginning for these young inventors,” said Nick Briere, co-founder of The STEMIE Coalition. “Recognition from a company like Arrow provides this next generation of innovators with credibility and will inspire them to continue moving forward. We can’t wait to see what they will do next.”

This is the second year Arrow presented the Innovation in Electronics Award to honor a young inventor demonstrating the most innovative application of electronic concepts, designs and components in their invention.

About STEMIE

STEMIE is a new education framework that elevates youth invention and entrepreneurship education to a core part of K-12 education. STEMIE stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math linked to Invention and Entrepreneurship (STEM+I+E) and maps essential unstructured problem-solving teaching activities to core STEM curricula and standards. The STEMIE framework also allows for the stand-alone teaching of invention and entrepreneurship outside of STEM – enabling all kids to learn life-long critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The STEMIE Coalition plans to bring Invention and Entrepreneurship education to 10 million students annually in all 50 states plus DC within five years.

For more information visit www.stemie.org.

About Arrow Electronics

Arrow Electronics guides innovation forward for over 150,000 of the world’s leading manufacturers of technology used in homes, business and daily life. With 2017 sales of $26.6 billion, Arrow aggregates electronics and enterprise computing solutions for customers and suppliers in industrial and commercial markets. The company maintains a network of more than 345 locations serving over 80 countries. Learn more at FiveYearsOut.com.

Tweet me:Eighth grader Emma Ruccio of CT wins 2018 @ArrowGlobal Innovation in Electronics Award at the National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo. http://bit.ly/2KVxajL @STEMIECoalition

KEYWORDS: Arrow Electronics, National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo (NICEE), 2018 Innovation in Technology Awards

 

How Booz Allen Interns Are Improving Federal Disaster Response with Blockchain and Other Technologies

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SOURCE:Booz Allen Hamilton

DESCRIPTION:

Flashlight? First aid kit? Water? Check. When disaster strikes, federal disaster response agencies encourage us to be prepared with these and other basic emergency supplies. However, there’s much more to emergency preparedness than meets the eye. Before, during, and after a hurricane, tornado, flood, or wildfire, federal agencies must be able to quickly and effectively respond to, and communicate with, those in harm’s way.

Three teams of Booz Allen Hamilton’s Summer Games interns are doing their part to help federal agencies bolster emergency preparedness. They’re building innovative solutions using blockchain, mesh network technologies, and data science to improve disaster relief efforts.

Learn more about the teams’ work in their own words:

Optimizing the Federal Disaster Relief Supply Chain with Blockchain

“We’re developing a blockchain-based software solution to help federal agencies more rapidly deliver lifesaving supplies—such as water, food, and blankets—during a disaster,” says Malik Nelson of the Washington, DC-based Summer Games team. “Our goal is to eliminate process inefficiencies that can severely hamper supply chain logistics. Our application connects disaster relief agencies and private-sector supply companies. We’re applying system diagrams, web development, and site wire framing to supply chain optimization. The resulting prototype creates a transparent disaster response marketplace, where federal agencies and industry partners come together to effectively deliver critical supplies.”

Boosting Emergency Communications with Off-the-Grid Messaging

“Before cell phones, people used ham radio to quickly talk to each other and send messages over long distances. We’re turning back the clock and creating a mesh network app to facilitate communication between Android phones that have lost connection to both cell towers and wireless Internet,” says Kusal De Alwis, one of four interns on the Annapolis Junction, Maryland-based Summer Games team. “With our app, messages can pass from phone to phone without ever pinging a cell tower. Disaster relief agencies can use this tech to send disaster warnings or emergency information to phones within range far more quickly than currently possible—saving lives. In addition, there’s no need to transport special personnel or equipment to the area. Instead, agencies can use the cell phones that people already carry with them.”

Assessing Flood Risk with Data Science and Crowdsourcing Techniques

“Applying data science and analytics techniques, we’re creating an application for flood risk assessment. Residents of coastal communities can use it to estimate their personal and property risk due to major storms,” says Bridgette Soucy of the Norfolk, Virginia-based Summer Games team. “Using light detection and ranging (LIDAR) data, we determined first-floor home elevations and created housing models for the app. Combining LIDAR and data from other agencies gives users an idea of what areas are expected to flood and when. And adding up-to-the-minute crowdsourced data offers live updates of flooded streets and unsafe areas. In the event of hurricanes and other major storms, our app improves emergency preparedness—helping people understand potential flood risks, and real-time evacuation orders.”

Learn more about how Booz Allen’s Summer Games interns are empowered to change the world.

Tweet me:Learn how @BoozAllen #interns are improving Federal Disaster Response with #blockchain and other #tech http://bit.ly/2NEHafK

KEYWORDS: Booz Allen, Interns, summer games, blockchain, Federal Disaster Response

  

PRI and Ceres Expand Sustainable Forest Initiative to Include Dialogue with Companies in the Soy Value Chain

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SOURCE:Ceres

DESCRIPTION:

The PRI and sustainability nonprofit organization Ceres today announced that their collaborative effort to address tropical deforestation, the Investor Initiative for Sustainable Forests, has expanded to include engagement with companies exposed to deforestation risks linked to soy production in South America. 

The Initiative will support and coordinate investor’s engagement with companies to eliminate deforestation from their soybean supply chains within South America.

“Soybean production is a leading driver of deforestation in Brazil, posing reputational and market risks to companies that source from suppliers engaged in forest destruction,” said Julie Nash, director of food at Ceres.  “This deforestation releases greenhouse gas emissions, displaces indigenous communities and contributes to the decline of healthy ecosystems, particularly in the biodiverse Brazilian Cerrado region.”

Soybean production has more than doubled worldwide over the past 20 years, becoming a $115 billion market. It is the second largest soft commodity driver of tropical deforestation and now more than one million square kilometres globally are dedicated towards growing soybeans. 

“While agriculture and soybean production contribute significantly to economic development and the livelihoods of farmers in the countries where it is grown, there is now a growing understanding of the environmental and social issues associated with unsustainable soybean production,” said Danielle Carreira, Senior Manager Environmental Issues at PRI.  “Institutional investors are increasingly looking to understand how deforestation associated with soft-commodity production can pose material risks to their investee companies”.

While the Soy Moratorium in Brazil and other factors have helped to reduce deforestation in the Amazon, the Brazilian Cerrado, a biome not covered by the Moratorium, and where 47 percent of soy is grown, is expected to become a material business risk. Estimates predict another one-third of the grasslands could be converted by 2050 under business as usual.

In late 2017, PRI and Ceres launched the Investor Initiative for Sustainable Forests, focusing initially on sustainable cattle. This investor working group comprised of 32 investors, representing approximately US $6.3 trillion in assets under management, engages companies in a range of sectors to eliminate deforestation from their cattle supply chains. Dialogue is currently underway with several companies.

The financial support for this partnership is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation as part of a conservation and financial markets collaboration among Ceres, World Wildlife Fund and World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

For more information, contact:

Joy Frascinella
Head of PR
Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
44 (0) 20 3714 3143
Joy.frascinella@unpri.org

Meg Wilcox
Ceres
+1 617-247-0700 X155 
Wilcox@ceres.org

About Ceres
Ceres is a sustainability nonprofit organization leading the most influential investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy. For more information, visit www.ceres.org or follow on Twitter @CeresNews

About the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
The PRI is the world's leading proponent of responsible investment. It works to understand the investment implications of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and to support its international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions. The PRI acts in the long-term interests of its signatories, of the financial markets and economies in which they operate and ultimately of the environment and society as a whole. Visit the PRI website for more details:  www.unpri.org

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KEYWORDS: Sustainable Forest Initiative, soy value chain, reputational and market risks, South America, soy production, Tropical Deforestation, material risks, Investor Initiative for Sustainable Forests, CERES

Sappi Sees Growth Opportunities to Meet Prosperity Goals

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SOURCE:Sappi North America

DESCRIPTION:

Meet or Exceed 12% RONOA 

Return on net operating assets (RONOA) is a core measure of financial sustainability that measures how effectively we use our asset base to generate profit.

In 2017 Sappi North America achieved a 4.7 percent RONOA, down only slightly from the prior year due to very challenging conditions in graphics and release markets. Disciplined cost management and strong performance in our dissolving wood pulp helped to offset the impact of these headwinds.

Looking ahead, Sappi North America will be completing several signifi cant investments in 2018, including Somerset’s new wood yard ($25M) and rebuild of Paper Machine 1 for packaging ($165M), as well as a new Paper Machine 12 headbox ($6M) at Cloquet which will improve product quality.

These investments create the platform for increased profi tability and growth in 2018 and beyond.

Read more from Sappi North America's 2017 Sustainability Report here: http://bit.ly/Sappi-SR17.

Tweet me:What does RONOA mean for @SappiNA? Learn more about how the company measures #prosperity in their 2017 #sustainabilityreport: http://bit.ly/Sappi-SR17

KEYWORDS: Sappi, paper, RONOA, assets, operations, manufacturing, prosperity, pulp, WOOD FIBER, growth, opportunity, JSE:SAP

CVS Health Recognized as a "Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion"

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Company receives perfect score on the 2018 Disability Equality Index

SOURCE:CVS Health

DESCRIPTION:

WOONSOCKET, R.I., July 10, 2018 /3BL Media/ - In recognition of the company's commitment to prioritizing the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in the workplace, CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) today announced it has been named a "Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion" on the annual Disability Equality Index (DEI). The company received a perfect score of 100 for the second year in a row.

"At CVS Health, we are focused on breaking down the employment barriers that individuals with disabilities face. We believe our colleagues and customers, of all abilities, are what help our company and the communities we serve grow and thrive," said Lisa Bisaccia, EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer, CVS Health. "We are proud to be recognized for our efforts on the Disability Equality Index for the second year in a row."

CVS Health is committed to helping individuals with disabilities find meaningful employment. In November 2017, the company announced a new partnership with the National Consortium of State Operated Comprehensive Rehabilitation Centers to help train Americans with disabilities with the life and job skills necessary to work at a CVS Pharmacy location or in another retail environment.

Kaylee Merrick, a graduate of the program, now works for CVS Pharmacy in Northern Virginia. "CVS has open arms to everyone and they have a lot of patience, too. I love seeing and interacting with my regular customers. Working at CVS has been an amazing experience," she said.

The DEI is a joint initiative between the American Association of People with Disabilities and the US Business Leadership Network, jointly designed by disability advocates and business leaders as the nation's most trusted comprehensive benchmarking tool for disability inclusion. The Index measures key performance indicators across organizational culture, leadership, accessibility, employment, community engagement, support services and supplier diversity.

This recognition is the latest in a series of third-party acknowledgments for CVS Health's commitment to supporting a diverse and inclusive workplace, including: FORTUNE'S Most Admired Companies; Corporate Responsibility Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens; Human Rights Campaign's Top Places to Work for LGBT Equality; Points of Light's The Civic 50, Military Times Best for Vets; the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index; and DiversityInc's Top 50 Companies for Diversity.

To learn more about CVS Health's commitment to fostering a diverse workforce and inclusive workplace, please visit https://cvshealth.com/about/diversity.

To see a full list of the companies recognized on the 2018 Disability Equality Index, please visit https://disabilityequalityindex.org/top_companies.

About CVS Health
CVS Health is a pharmacy innovation company helping people on their path to better health. Through its more than 9,800 retail locations, more than 1,100 walk-in medical clinics, a leading pharmacy benefits manager with approximately 94 million plan members, a dedicated senior pharmacy care business serving more than one million patients per year, expanding specialty pharmacy services, and a leading stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, the company enables people, businesses and communities to manage health in more affordable and effective ways. This unique integrated model increases access to quality care, delivers better health outcomes and lowers overall health care costs. Find more information about how CVS Health is shaping the future of health at https://www.cvshealth.com.

KEYWORDS: NYSE:CVS, CVS Health, 2018 Disability Equality Index, DEI

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