Impact & Sustainability News From Leading Brands

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

You Want the Best + Brightest? Here’s How

Jun 17, 2019 2:05 PM ET

While most leaders agree that investing in corporate philanthropy and employee giving programs are great for a corporate brand, these initiatives have become more important than ever, especially for hiring and retention.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Setting the Standard for Corporate Civic Engagement

Jun 17, 2019 1:00 PM ET

It’s award season for sustainability and corporate responsibility professionals across the globe! Symantec was recently listed on CR Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, named a “Win-Win Company” by JUST Capital, named to Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for the eleventh consecutive year, and included in the 100 U.S. Companies Supporting Healthy Communities and Families. As the manager of Community Relations, I couldn’t be more proud to announce that today Symantec has also been named to The Civic 50 for the fourth consecutive year. The Civic 50 is run by Points of Light, an organization committed to empowering, connecting and engaging individuals and organizations to be a force for social good.

Diversity & Inclusion

Understanding Our Intersectionalities: Embracing Multiple Identities Within the LGBT+ Community

Jun 17, 2019 12:30 PM ET

The LGBT+ community is intersectional, diverse, and ever-evolving, encompassing members with a wide range of other identities, from race and ethnicity to religion and age. For example, a disabled lesbian Muslim woman will belong to multiple cultural groups and may identify with a variety of traditions. She will benefit from all of those different connections and their sense of community, while also potentially facing ableism, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism and sexism.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Duke Energy Earns Perfect Score in 2019 Corporate Equality Index

Jun 17, 2019 12:15 PM ET

Duke Energy received a perfect score of 100 percent in Human Rights Campaign's national benchmarking study that annually ranks companies on LGBT-friendly corporate practices and policies. The perfect score earned Duke Energy the distinction of "Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality."

Diversity & Inclusion

Hallmark Celebrates Pride Month with Artwork

Jun 17, 2019 11:45 AM ET

To celebrate Pride Month, members of Hallmark Employees Reaching Equality (HERE) constructed a multicolored string display to demonstrate Hallmark’s pride in supporting diversity and inclusion. The artwork was displayed at Hallmark headquarters.

Environment

Moving from Reactive to Proactive: Lessons from Three Decades of Incident Management

Jun 17, 2019 11:25 AM ET

Antea Group's incident management solution offers clients support from initial emergency response to transitioning to proactive long-term resolution.

Supply Chain & the Circular Economy

P&G and Tokyo 2020 Create First-Ever Medal Podiums Made Entirely of Recycled Plastic for Upcoming Olympic Games

Jun 17, 2019 11:05 AM ET

The new sustainability project kicks off in Tokyo on 13 June, hot on the heels of Worldwide Environment Day 2019 and the one-year anniversary of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) joining UN Environment’s #CleanSeas, an initiative also supported by P&G. The podiums are set to be unveiled in June 2020.

Supply Chain & the Circular Economy

A Seed to Stalk Future: Financing America’s Grain Economy

Jun 17, 2019 11:05 AM ET

The idea of “nose-to-tail” dining, shorthand for using as much of an animal as possible, has no field-grown counterpart. What about the grains that make up so much of our agricultural production and diet? Where is our “seed to stalk?” In Maine, the craft beer industry is making sure that grain is valued from field to glass to trough.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Inclusive Fintech 50, Global Competition to Elevate Early-Stage Fintechs Driving Financial Inclusion, Announces Winners

Jun 17, 2019 10:15 AM ET

MetLife Foundation and Visa Inc., with global nonprofit Accion and World Bank Group member IFC, announced the winners of the Inclusive Fintech 50, a competition launched in February to help early-stage fintech companies attract capital and resources to benefit the world’s 3 billion financially underserved people.

Diversity & Inclusion

Men’s Role in Workplace Equity: Achieving Our Full Potential

Jun 17, 2019 10:10 AM ET

I always thought I was rather enlightened in my attitudes towards gender equity. Through MARC, I realized that the depth of thinking and self-awareness I needed to make a real difference was simply not there. That doesn’t mean I didn’t “get it,” but rather that what I saw before MARC as my enlightenment and championship was only scratching the surface. I wasn’t getting it wrong; I just wasn’t getting it all.

Education

Comerica Free Prix Day Brings Thousands to Belle Isle

Jun 17, 2019 10:05 AM ET

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Points of Light Announces 2019 Honorees of The Civic 50 at Annual Conference

Jun 17, 2019 10:00 AM ET

Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service announces The Civic 50 honorees of 2019, recognizing them as the most community-minded companies in the United States.

Research, Reports & Publications

Amid Climate Change Worries, the Question: What to do With Too Much Water?

Jun 17, 2019 10:00 AM ET

Water, water everywhere. And with the troubling prospect of more of it in coming years, concerns over climate change and its effects are deepening, from more frequent extreme events in the Midwest to rising sea levels affecting low-lying areas vulnerable to coastal flooding. Aging infrastructure still dominates the discussion, yet a pressing question lingers: How can water utilities and those entrusted to oversee them do more, sometimes with less, to mitigate against mega-storms already proven to outmatch legacy conveyance and storage strategies?

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Future Returns: Invest for Goals Instead of Returns

Jun 17, 2019 9:55 AM ET

Northern Trust has discovered the best way to bring female clients into the investment process is to show how their portfolio can fund their current lifestyle and their goals, instead of talking about how they are going to invest to beat the market.

Health & Healthcare

Battling the Baby Blues: Meet 3 Researchers Whose Innovative Work Is All About Boosting the Mental Health of Moms

Jun 17, 2019 9:30 AM ET

Worldwide, 13% of women who've just given birth experience a mental disorder—most commonly postpartum depression, which can leave new moms with feelings of sadness, hopelessness and emptiness that can last for more than two weeks after delivery. What researchers hypothesize could be to blame: a complex interplay of physical and emotional factors, like fluctuating hormone levels and lack of access to adequate social support.

Supply Chain & the Circular Economy

If You Missed the World Circular Economy Forum 2019 — the Elephant is Still in the Room

Jun 17, 2019 9:30 AM ET

“The World Circular Economy Forum brought together more than 2,000 business leaders, policymakers and experts from around the world to present the best circular economy solutions”, it states on its website. As such, it reflects the current state of affairs and the direction of the international community towards transitioning to a circular economy. There’s really no better place to be if you crave a rich multi-stakeholder perspective on the topic in the short span of two days.

Health & Healthcare

Mobile Solutions to Improve Access to Healthcare

Jun 17, 2019 9:30 AM ET

Health inequality is a growing concern in Canada and the United States.1 Where you live can play a big part, especially for those living in remote communities, but so can employment status, income level, gender and ethnicity. And in turn, there is a link between the state of your health and your finances. The cost of care, the ability to carry a job or to participate in society can have health impacts.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Trust and Partnership in Action

Jun 17, 2019 9:00 AM ET

We recognize the relationship with our neighboring communities has a direct impact on our license to operate. A strong example of this recognition can be found at our Pascagoula Refinery in Mississippi where we implemented a process that reflects our approach to stakeholder engagement. We caught up with Melanie Landsiedel on the community affairs team at the refinery to learn more.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Fifth Third Bank to Offer New, Free Virtual Concierge Service

Jun 17, 2019 9:00 AM ET

Personal demands don’t stop while you’re at work, so Fifth Third Bank is now offering a virtual concierge service to its employees through Best Upon Request.

Energy

NRG Energy: Sustainable Solutions for Customers

Jun 17, 2019 8:10 AM ET

Innovation & Technology

Annual Ideagen Global Innovation 2030 Summit

Jun 14, 2019 8:40 PM ET

Leaders and Luminaries from the world's leading companies, NGO's and Public Sector convened for the Annual Ideagen Global Innovation 2030 Summit at Microsoft Headquarters in Seattle on June 4th, 2019.

Energy

ALLETE Clean Energy's Diamond Spring Wind Project Will Provide Renewable Energy to Large Corporate Customers Including Smithfield Foods and Walmart

Jun 14, 2019 6:00 PM ET

ALLETE Clean Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE (NYSE: ALE), announced today a power sales agreement with Smithfield Foods, Inc. for the remaining output of the Diamond Spring wind site ALLETE Clean Energy will build, own and operate in Oklahoma.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Mohawk Group Honored with NeoCon Accolades Spanning Multiple Flooring Categories and Awards Programs

Jun 14, 2019 4:30 PM ET

Leading commercial flooring manufacturer Mohawk Group earned several awards this week in Chicago at NeoCon covering all major flooring categories, including carpet tile, broadloom, area rugs, resilient tile and resilient sheet. NeoCon is North America’s largest design exposition and conference for commercial interior design professionals, offering ideas and introductions that shape the built environment today and into the future.

Environment

A Better Way for Michigan

Jun 14, 2019 3:05 PM ET

Consumers Energy has a long term vision to create a more sustainable energy future for our state. Our Clean Energy Plan,* developed with a variety of Michigan stakeholders, is a path to reduce carbon emissions by more than 90 percent and end the use of coal as a fuel source for electricity by 2040. But we’re not waiting two decades to do our part for Michigan’s natural resources.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Ten Billion Dollars & Counting: Helping Small Businesses Globally

Jun 14, 2019 2:30 PM ET

For more than 20 years, PayPal has been helping small business owners achieve their dreams. In the beginning, we provided marketplace sellers with a secure way to accept electronic payments from buyers. In 2013, we started pursuing another path: providing our small business owners with much needed access to capital in order to grow. So, in response, we launched PayPal Working Capital as a way to bring our merchants the financing they so desperately needed.