Impact & Sustainability News From Leading Brands

Environment

infocafés: US Supports Cocoa Farmers From El Salvador Through Technical Assistance

Apr 23, 2018 5:30 PM ET

The US Department of State launched a call for proposals to allow micro enterprises or small cooperatives dedicated to cocoa farming to apply to the Power to Grow Challenge, which will provide the awardees with up to $43,000 to promote their business solution. The initiative is promoted by State Department’s La Red de Innovación e Impacto and with the collaboration of World Environment Center (WEC), Le Groupe-Conseil Baastel Itée (Baastel), and RioSlum Studio.

Environment

infocafés: EE.UU. apoyará con asesoría a productores de cacao en El Salvador

Apr 23, 2018 5:30 PM ET

El Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos abrió la convocatoria para que microempresas o pequeñas cooperativas dedicadas al cultivo de cacao puedan inscribirse en el concurso El Poder de Crecer, el cual premiará a los ganadores con acceso a asesoría por un capital de hasta $43,000 para promover una solución de negocios.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Scotiabank Donates $1 Million to the CHU Sainte-Justine Ahead of Banque Scotia 21k de Montréal Race Weekend

Apr 23, 2018 5:00 PM ET

As thousands of runners prepared to take part at the 16th annual Banque Scotia 21k de Montréal, one of Quebec's most important road races and fundraising runs, Scotiabank announced its $1 million donation to Montreal's Sainte-Justine University Hospital Centre.

Education

TransCanada Community Scholarships: Creating Value for Community and Business

Apr 23, 2018 4:30 PM ET

In 2017, TransCanada launched a scholarship program for students living near the company's geographical footprint. The initiative is TransCanada's first, internally-administered scholarship program, and was created with the specific intention to reduce barriers to education for communities while also creating value for the business.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Behind the Wheel: Making An Impact In The Community

Apr 23, 2018 3:40 PM ET

Sometimes it’s the small projects that make the biggest impact. In this episode, employees from the Racine plant, Wisconsin, U.S.A. volunteer to work on an initiative dedicated to food poverty awareness: the harvest of fresh produce from the Hunger Task Force Farm in the town of Franklin, Wisconsin which is then delivered to food pantries and homeless shelters.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Forever, No Matter What

Apr 23, 2018 3:05 PM ET

This month's guest blog is about stepping out of your comfort zone in order to be the forever family a young teen deserves. “At that moment, I knew I would be the one human who would be there for her – no matter what. I knew I wanted to hear her call me “mom.” I wanted to help her pick out her prom dress, to teach her to drive, to watch her walk across the graduation stage. Someday, I may be the mother of a bride and the grandmother to her children. No matter what, I will always be her mom.”

Environment

HFAB Spotlight: Medxcel (Ascension Health)

Apr 23, 2018 3:05 PM ET

Learn about Medxcel’s (Ascension Health) sustainability and recycling efforts in a profile of its Environmental Stewardship Manager, Lois Sechrist.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Wells Fargo, NextEra Energy Join to Boost Clean Energy in California, Indiana, Nebraska

Apr 23, 2018 2:30 PM ET

Following Wells Fargo’s (NYSE: WFC) $200-billion low-carbon commitment announced last week, its Renewable Energy and Environmental Finance unit today announced the completion of $70 million in tax-equity funding for the Pacific Plains wind projects, including facilities in Indiana, Nebraska, and California.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

How PayPal is Doing Well by Doing Good

Apr 23, 2018 2:20 PM ET

In a time when technology has transformed people’s lives in so many ways, financial services is one area where the full potential of the Internet era has yet to be realized. We’ve been hearing for decades about how the decline of cash and the rise of the digital economy will revolutionize financial services and usher in more convenient, accessible and affordable transactions. But so far, the traditional financial order remains firmly in place. While change is underway, the way most people move and manage their money hasn’t changed much since credit cards appeared on the scene 50 years ago. And there’s still plenty of friction in the system.

Environment

The Disney Conservation Fund Awards 2018 Conservation Grants

Apr 23, 2018 1:45 PM ET

The Disney Conservation Fund (DCF) is providing grants totaling more than $8 million to support the work of 80 nonprofit organizations this year, The Walt Disney Company announced today. The grants are part of Disney’s “Reverse the Decline” initiative, which pairs the company’s philanthropic dollars with professional expertise from Disney’s Animals, Science, and Environment team and other employees to maximize the impact of conservation efforts to protect wildlife and wild places. Including these new grants, DCF has awarded more than $70 million to date to support conservation efforts around the world.

Environment

Goldenvoice’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival Phases Out Single-use Plastic Straws in Favor of Biodegradable Paper Straws

Apr 23, 2018 1:40 PM ET

Goldenvoice’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival has phased out single-use plastic straws, making it the first festival in the world to align with Lonely Whale’s ‘For A Strawless Ocean,’ an open-source guide to reduce plastic pollution. According to Lonely Whale, across the United States, nearly 500 million plastic straws are used and tossed each day, amounting to approximately 12 million pounds of plastic waste year.

Environment

Preserving Critical Resources

Apr 23, 2018 1:30 PM ET

This Earth Day, we asked Coulter Wood, a senior staff engineer at Hormel Foods who is responsible for the company’s energy management, to share some of his favorite tips — things people can do in their own lives to help preserve the Earth’s resources. Check out his thoughts and learn more about Coulter and his role at the company below!

Green Infrastructure

“Green” Building Certifications on the Rise in Major International Markets

Apr 23, 2018 1:15 PM ET

Major metropolitan office markets across the globe are seeing a significant increase in the adoption of “green” building certification programs, according to the inaugural International Green Building Adoption Index (IGBAI) – a study by CBRE and Maastricht University (Netherlands). The study reports that 18.6 percent of space in 10 markets across Australia, Canada and Europe is now certified “green” versus just 6.4 percent in 2007.

Environment

JetBlue Offsets Over 2 Billion Pounds of CO2 Emissions with Carbonfund.org Foundation

Apr 23, 2018 1:00 PM ET

JetBlue is helping to preserve nearly 500,000 acres of Brazilian Rainforest. Often called the Lungs of the Planet, the project is preserving land that is host to rare and highly endangered eco systems, which support over 30,000 types of plants, and wildlife, including howler monkeys, fresh water dolphins and scarlet macaws. The projects help local communities too, making forest preservation economically viable.

Environment

Guest Blog: Drawdown Celebrates One Year Since Publication; Heads, Hearts and Hands Keep Moving it Forward

Apr 23, 2018 12:45 PM ET

Katharine Wilkinson, Senior Writer for Drawdown, joins us as this week's guest blogger. April 18th marked the one-year anniversary of the publication of Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, and pull for the book’s message only continues to grow. It is a great joy to be something of an itinerant preacher these days—roaming from town to town, conference to campus to company, sharing this blueprint of possibility.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

HP Inc. Named First Technology Company in California to Achieve TRUE Zero Waste Certification

Apr 23, 2018 12:45 PM ET

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Smithfield Foods Donates More Than 40,000 Pounds of Protein to FeedMore

Apr 23, 2018 12:30 PM ET

In celebration of the spring TOYOTA OWNERS 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup race, Smithfield Foods, Inc., and Kroger joined forces at Richmond Raceway over the weekend to donate more than 40,000 pounds of protein to FeedMore, Central Virginia’s core hunger-relief organization. Assisting with the donation was Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Smithfield’s contribution is part of the company’s 2018 Helping Hungry Homes® tour. Now in the program’s 10th year, Helping Hungry Homes® is Smithfield’s signature hunger-relief initiative focused on alleviating hunger and helping Americans become more food secure.

Social Impact & Volunteering

More Than One Million Volunteers Have Improved Communities Around the World on Comcast Cares Day

Apr 23, 2018 12:15 PM ET

Today, we reached an historic milestone on Comcast Cares Day – more than one million volunteers have joined in service to improve their communities around the world since 2001. Comcast NBCUniversal employees and their families, friends, and community partners participated in the 17th annual Comcast Cares Day, the nation’s largest single-day corporate volunteer effort and a powerful representation of the company’s year-round commitment to community service. What started with 6,100 volunteers in 2001 in one city has now grown to more than 100,000 volunteers this year at over 1,000 sites in about 20 countries.

Diversity & Inclusion

Female Workforces Can Revolutionize Latin American Business

Apr 23, 2018 12:15 PM ET

Embracing gender equality in the workforce has benefits for retention, supply chains, and other benefits accoridng to case studies by the World Economic Forum.

Environment

For #EarthDay, We’re Spotlighting Our Packaging Priorities

Apr 23, 2018 11:00 AM ET

At Mars, we know quality packaging lets us deliver the products you and your pets love in a safe and sustainable way. Among its many benefits, packaging helps preserve the life of our products, whether they’re on the grocery shelf or in your cupboard.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Scotiabank to Award $1.5M to Start-ups in Latest Business Plan Contest

Apr 23, 2018 11:00 AM ET

Social Impact & Volunteering

Arrow Electronics Employees Participate in Earth Day Park Cleanup

Apr 23, 2018 10:55 AM ET

In honor of Earth Day, Arrow Electronics’ Corporate Social Responsibility Team organized a volunteer event with Denver Parks and Recreation near the company’s global headquarter campus. Arrow employees mulched trees, removed debris, weeded and painted.

Energy

Michael Bloomberg Takes on the Coal Industry

Apr 23, 2018 10:55 AM ET

On Monday afternoon, Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman and former three-term Mayor of New York City, escaped to a deserted ballroom at the Grand Hyatt, in midtown Manhattan, to talk about climate change. Moments earlier, he had announced to attendees of the Bloomberg New Energy Finance summit that his philanthropic organization was partnering with the Canadian and British governments to expedite the global eradication of coal mining. His two new partners—Catherine McKenna, Canada’s minister of environment and climate change, and Claire Perry, the United Kingdom’s minister of state for energy and clean growth—came along for the discussion.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Are Chinese enterprises going global responsibly?

Apr 23, 2018 10:30 AM ET

China is now the second largest investing country in the world, with it's outward foreign direct investment (FDI) rising 44 percent to $183 billion in 2016, according to the World Investment Report 2017 published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. China’s latest official statistics show that by the end of 2016, around 24,400 domestic investors had established some 37,200 FDI enterprises in 190 countries and regions.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Bacardi Named One of the World’s Most Reputable Companies for Sixth Year in a Row

Apr 23, 2018 10:30 AM ET

Family-owned Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, has once again been named among the most reputable companies in the world, as part of the annual Global RepTrak® 100 list compiled by the Reputation Institute (RI) and published in Forbes. Ranked at #89, this is the sixth consecutive time Bacardi has made the annual global list.

Based on more than 230,000 individual ratings collected in the first quarter of 2018, the annual survey is the largest corporate reputation study of its kind, and provides comparative rankings, demographic trends, and unique insights into the dynamics behind reputational impact.