Impact & Sustainability News From Leading Brands

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Medtronic Introduces New Family Leave Policy

Mar 4, 2019 11:10 AM ET

The Medtronic Family Care Leave (FCL) Policy took effect May 1, 2018, for all full-time and part-time employees in the United States. It provides up to six additional weeks of paid time off for employees to care for sick family members or to support family impacted when a spouse, child or parent is called to active military duty. The benefit also covers mothers and fathers bonding with a new child (birth, adoptive or surrogate, and including non-birth parents). Combined with already existing parental benefits, mothers of newborns can now receive up to 14 weeks of paid time off and new fathers can receive up to 8 weeks.

Health & Healthcare

UPS’s Safest Drivers Log Enough Accident-Free Miles For 200 Round Trips To Mars

Mar 4, 2019 11:05 AM ET

UPS is celebrating National Safety Week and our Circle of Honor inductees who have driven 14 billion accident-free miles. Learn more about the 10,364 men and women who have driven 25 years without an avoidable accident.

Environment

Workplace Injuries Are Declining: Here’s How EHS Leaders Can Continue to Gain Momentum

Mar 4, 2019 10:45 AM ET

Continue to gain momentum on declining workplace injuries with strategic and tactical advice from Antea Group.

Media & Communications

Morgan Stanley Research Important Takeaway: Sustainable Investing Approaches Now Clearly Mainstream For Institutional and Retail Asset Owners

Mar 4, 2019 10:30 AM ET

A 2018 survey by Morgan Stanley took the pulse of U.S. asset managers (with in-depth telephone interviews) to determine the level of adoption of sustainable investing approaches by asset managers in the United States.

Environment

General Mills to Advance Regenerative Agriculture Practices on One Million Acres of Farmland by 2030

Mar 4, 2019 10:15 AM ET

General Mills today announced its commitment to advance regenerative agriculture practices on one million acres of farmland by 2030. The Company will partner with organic and conventional farmers, suppliers and trusted farm advisors in key growing regions to drive the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices. A contributor to climate change, it is estimated that the global food system accounts for roughly one-third of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 70 percent of water consumption.

Energy

How Electrical Distribution Networks Can Contribute to a Low-Carbon Future

Mar 4, 2019 10:00 AM ET

Climate change is a rapidly growing global concern. Therefore, new, more stringent regulations to reduce CO2 emissions will be introduced to allow a massive deployment of distributed energy resources, including the incorporation of electric vehicles. Electrical distribution utilities will therefore face problems in managing their networks and will need to adopt new solutions. This paper offers modern strategies for leveraging smart grid and microgrid tools, as well as more environmentally-friendly switchgear, and a circular economy approach, in order to help electrical distribution utilities meet and exceed regulatory targets toward a low-carbon future.

Innovation & Technology

Black & Veatch: With Their Surging Populaces More Technologically Savvy, Cities Must Start Planning Digitally Connected Communities

Mar 4, 2019 9:55 AM ET

Urban centers are growing more congested. Digitalization takes deepening root in the American experience. Connected devices number into the billions, stoking the influence of consumers at the epicenter of this new on-demand, data-driven economy.

Responsible Production & Consumption

A Smart Solution to Wasted Truck Journeys

Mar 4, 2019 9:35 AM ET

Until 2009, double-deck trailers would deliver consignments of 20 tractor cabs built at CNH Industrial’s factory in Croix, north-eastern France, to the New Holland Agriculture plant in Basildon, UK, where the manufacture of tractors is completed. Because the trailers had top decks that were fixed in place and the finished tractors were too tall to fit, they would drive back to Croix empty.

Sustainable Development Goals

Expert Interview with Dr. Catherine Courtney, Marine Environmental Science Expert

Mar 4, 2019 8:00 AM ET

Dr. Catherine (Kitty) Courtney has more than 25 years of international and domestic experience in marine and coastal management, climate change adaptation, and coastal community resilience.

Education

AEG Teams Up with Read to a Child to Host Read Across America Day Celebration at 10th Street Elementary in Los Angeles

Mar 2, 2019 10:00 AM ET

AEG volunteers spent the day visiting the 1st-5th grade students of sister-school Tenth Street Elementary on Friday February 22nd, in honor of Dr. Seuss’s Birthday. The Read Across America Day celebration consisted of volunteers being paired with children in small groups to read, laugh, and connect.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Papyrus-Recycled Paper Greetings Is #FundingHer Future Through Whole Planet Foundation

Mar 2, 2019 8:00 AM ET

In the spirit of #FundHerFuture, the generosity of David and the Papyrus-Recycled Paper Greetings generosity has created 43,000 opportunities for women entrepreneurs and their family members to live a better life through entrepreneurship.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

The UPS Approach to Giving After Disasters

Mar 1, 2019 2:40 PM ET

President of The UPS Foundation Eduardo Martinez shares what UPS has learned from years of responding to disasters and building resilient communities.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

3BL Media Celebrates Our Team on This Employee Appreciation Day

Mar 1, 2019 2:00 PM ET

The first Friday of March marks Employee Appreciation Day, and 3BL Media would like to take this opportunity to celebrate the team who makes this great work happen every day.

Diversity & Inclusion

Connie Lindsey Named a Chicago’s Top Black Woman of Impact 2019

Mar 1, 2019 1:35 PM ET

Social Impact & Volunteering

Activating Successfully Around Black History Month

Mar 1, 2019 12:40 PM ET

Over the years, brands have leveraged Black History Month to create campaigns and activations that celebrate and honor the culture, history and successes of black people.

Education

LA Galaxy Hosts Read Across America Day Celebration at Dignity Health Sports Park

Mar 1, 2019 12:00 PM ET

AEG’s LA Galaxy, alongside Dignity Health Sports Park ASCSC Community Foundation, Los Angeles Chargers and MLS WORKS hosted the third annual Read Across America Celebration at Dignity Health Sports Park yesterday for more than 200 elementary school students as part of a nation-wide celebration of children’s author Dr. Seuss.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

You Don’t Have to Have All the Answers to Be a Parent

Mar 1, 2019 10:00 AM ET

Innovation & Technology

Cellulosic Sugars: The Latest Domtar Innovation

Mar 1, 2019 9:40 AM ET

Wood — the building block of all Domtar products — is composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Cellulose and hemicellulose can be converted into cellulosic sugars. In our ongoing quest to find innovative ways to use every part of every tree we harvest, our R&D teams are looking for ways to turn those cellulosic sugars into a wide range of biomaterials and biochemicals. Cellulosic sugars can be made into a wide range of biomaterials that can help our partners reduce their use of fossil fuels and minimize their carbon footprints.

Environment

Michigan Ross Professor Testifies Before Congress on Climate Change, Says U.S. Infrastructure Is 'In Bad Shape'

Mar 1, 2019 9:35 AM ET

Tom Lyon, professor of business economics and public policy and of environment and sustainability, spoke before the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure this week about ways he believes infrastructure improvement, as well as the free market, can help lessen the impacts of climate change.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Hundreds March in Walk for Warmth

Mar 1, 2019 9:25 AM ET

Hundreds of Consumers Energy employees, family and friends took part in the annual Walk for Warmth in Jackson on Thursday, raising funds to help community members in need with their energy bills. The Jackson event was one of many around the state in which company employees have participated this year.

Diversity & Inclusion

Positive Impact Give Event Professionals the Opportunity to Act on Gender Equality

Mar 1, 2019 8:50 AM ET

Positive Impact’s Girls Creating Campaign exists to inspire girls to be limitless in the creation of their careers. According to a Unicef gender equality report ‘By the time children reach age 10, boys’ worlds often expand while girls’ worlds contract ’and Positive Impact is passionate about using the example of a female full event industry to address this.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

CLP’s ESG Progress Recognised in Hong Kong and Beyond

Mar 1, 2019 8:45 AM ET

CLP Holdings Limited (CLP) has again demonstrated its lead in sustainability management and reporting after winning top honours at the BDO ESG Awards in Hong Kong.

The awards, which recognise Hong Kong-listed companies for positive environmental, social and governance (ESG) impact, attracted entries from more than 60 businesses. CLP topped Hong Kong’s large-cap companies by sweeping the ESG Report of the Year, Best in ESG and Best in Reporting awards in the Large Market Capitalisation category. The contest was organised by BDO, one of the world’s largest accountancy networks, and co-organised by South China Morning Post.

Innovation & Technology

Black & Veatch Wins Innovation Award for Missouri 'Hyperloop' Study

Mar 1, 2019 8:45 AM ET

As part of a coalition exploring a way to transform travel, Black & Veatch embraced the challenge to assess the viability of something seemingly ripped from a sci-fi novel: Zipping people and cargo at hundreds of miles an hour across Missouri – in pods, through a tube. Black & Veatch spent months on that feasibility study – the first examining a “hyperloop” system in the U.S.

Education

Call for Scholarship Applicants: Dave Donley Memorial Scholarship

Mar 1, 2019 8:00 AM ET

The family of former Tetra Tech employee Dave Donley, Jr., has established a memorial scholarship for Canadian post-secondary information technology (IT) and computer studies students. The Dave Donley Memorial Scholarship is accepting applications through April 30, 2019.

Education

Taking a Medical Research Path to Entrepreneurship

Mar 1, 2019 7:30 AM ET

In second grade, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Timothy Day said: “a chemist who would try to cure cancer.” He wasn’t too far off the mark. Two decades later, with biochemistry, microbiology, and neuroscience degrees in hand, Amgen Scholar alumnus Day has started his own company to to develop gene therapies for intestinal and systemic diseases.