News from Leading Brands

Keep up with the latest impact news from companies embracing the triple bottom line, shared via 3BL's publishing platform.

Helen Mathis seated on a couch

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement | Verizon

Entrepreneur Expands Her Thriving Tax Firm With Digital Innovation

Helen Mathis taught accounting as a vocational instructor for 30 years before facing a career-defining moment: The school where she worked closed and Mathis knew she needed a new plan

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Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

GRI Focuses on Three Key Areas to Promote Sustainable Development in Emerging Markets

Keeping an eye on the future, GRI’s second annual donors meeting in Amsterdam focused on the challenges and opportunities for sustainable development in emerging markets. In a day-long exchange of experiential knowledge and insights, GRI’s country managers and directors located in Africa, South America and Asia, interacted directly with our government funders from Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (UK) on the potential of reporting as a driver for transparent and sustainable value chains.

Innovation & Technology

Qualcomm Wireless Reach: Celebrating 10 Years and 11 Million Lives Changed

Qualcomm® Wireless Reach™ demonstrates how transformative technologies change people’s lives.

Environment

Biomimicry with Janine Benyus

A 20-minute film featuring Janine Benyus introducing biomimicry and explaining how mimicking nature can solve some of our most pressing problems.

Health & Healthcare

How to Initiate a Local Foodshed Resilience Program

Imagine you are seated on a patio in the Tuscan countryside. The fresh mozzarella coupled with sweet tomatoes, ripe from the warm sun, pairs beautifully with the garlic sourdough bread and crisp local wine. The setting opens the heart and soothes the soul. The vineyard you overlook is in its crucial stage of ripening, that last conversion of acid to sugar, and the company of friends and family couldn’t be better. Why are we drawn to such a scene? What distinguishes the Italian gestalt is that the essential character of the place grows out of community relationships fostered around a shared meal. But we don’t have to go miles across the sea to find this synergy. It can, & in fact, does exist in our own communities if we take the time to recognize and cultivate our foodshed’s infrastructure.

Yum! Brands, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Habit Burger Grill logos

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

KFC South Africa's Add Hope Program Sees Record Donations

KFC’s global Add Hope initiative began in South Africa, and since its inception, the inaugural program has raised over R387 million through KFC contributions and customer donations. Every cent of customers’ R2 donations goes toward feeding children in local communities. With this generosity, the Add Hope program is able to feed over 120,000 South African children nutritious meals every day.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Michael Bloomberg: Automakers, Developing Nations Must Commit to Auto Safety

Many developing countries have lax vehicle safety standards. Around the world, road crashes kill an estimated 1.3 million people each year and injure up to 50 million. There, automakers — including U.S. and European companies — routinely sell cars without many of the basic safety protections that are standard here at home. Often, they are sold without airbags or electronic stability systems, and they are not capable of protecting passengers in crashes above 35 m.p.h. The result: An awful lot of people are being killed in crashes that, in the U.S. and Europe, they would likely survive.

Supply Chain & the Circular Economy

Surprise! What LCA Reveals about the Built Environment and the Circular Economy

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has gained significant traction in the green building sector as a tool for evaluating the environmental performance of building materials and products, especially since USGBC LEED began recognizing LCA-based Environmental Product Declarations. As manufacturers and stakeholders have learned, LCA supports transparency by providing a holistic, systems-oriented perspective on the environmental and human health impacts associated with resource extraction, production, product use, and product disposal or recycling. Moreover, it is an invaluable tool for assessing the benefits and tradeoffs associated with various “design for environment” solutions aimed at building a more circular economy. However, LCA is full of surprises. This article explains why.

Black & Veatch

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

The Customer-Driven World Class Water Utility

Utilities need to chart an integrated path to service excellence, financial resilience and proactive customer engagement to obtain “world-class” standing. As this year’s Black & Veatch Strategic Directions: Water Industry Report indicates, challenges such as aging infrastructure, loss of talented workforce and financial constraints continue to influence business decisions and utility performance.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

2017 Voya Scholars Winner Jenny Lee

Congratulations to Jenny Lee, who is one of five students to receive a $10,000 scholarship from Voya Scholars – a collaborative program launched by Voya Financial, in collaboration with its nonprofit partner, Scholarship America.

Events, Media & Communications

Communicating Well to Build an Engaged Culture of EHS & Sustainability

Drena Howard, Director of Global Retail EHS for The Estee Lauder Cos. explains how communication skills are a key component to effective EHS&S leadership.

Responsible Production & Consumption

Strengthening Food Security in the Developing World

Everyone wants to ensure food is safe, accessible, nutritious, and available for all. At General Mills, that responsibility is at the heart of much of what we do.

3BL logo

Research, Reports & Publications

HP Announces New Social and Environmental Goals With Release of the HP 2016 Sustainability Report

Sustainability serves as a guiding principle for how HP does business, fueling the company’s innovation and growth. It supports HP’s vision of creating technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere.

Research, Reports & Publications

Caterpillar 2016 Sustainability Report | Letter from Caterpillar CEO Jim Umpleby

Caterpillar CEO Jim Umpleby highlights examples of how we’re building better through natural infrastructure, circular economy practices and energy access, as well as our sustainability practices within the company.

TransCanada Logo

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

TransCanada Nationally Recognized for its Commitment to Female Senior Leadership

TransCanada is again part of Corporate Knights' Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada list, announced June 6, scoring with the highest number of women in executive management in the energy sector.

National Grid logo

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

National Grid in Massachusetts Named a Most Energy Efficient Utility in U.S

National Grid, a major energy delivery company that provides service to more than 1.3 million electricity customers in Massachusetts, was today named one of the most energy efficient utilities in America by The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Nominate a World-Changing Company for 2017 Fortune Change the World List

For the third year in a row, Fortune will publish the Change the World List which spotlights the top 50 companies that address major social problems as a core part of their business strategy and innovation activities.

Events, Media & Communications

Jen Welter, First Female Coach in NFL History, Will Speak at MGM Resorts Foundation’s Women’s Leadership Conference

The MGM Resorts Foundation is proud to welcome Jen Welter, the first female coach in the National Football League (NFL), to WLC 2017. This is the 11th year for the non-profit event which will be held at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas, NV Aug. 7 and 8.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Shire Volunteers Give Back to Local Community

Given that there are 30 SeriousFun camps and programs around the world, there are often opportunities for Shire employees to volunteer in their own backyard. Such is the case for Shire office employees in Southern California, where the SeriousFun camp The Painted Turtle is only a 45-minute drive away. On Saturday, May 13, The Painted Turtle hosted Corporate Volunteer Day and twelve Shire employees spent their morning helping to prepare the 174-acre site for the arrival of campers and their families. All SeriousFun Children’s Network camps provide life-changing experiences for children living with serious illnesses, totally free of charge.

Environment

50 Reefs Q&A: Prevention is Better Than a Cure

The 50 Reefs Initiative brings together leading scientists and conservation practitioners from around the world to identify the top 50 coral reefs least vulnerable to climate change that are capable of regenerating in the future. They recently met to discuss their regional expertise and local strategies to inform a global strategy ensuring the survival of reef ecosystems around the world.

Diversity & Inclusion

My Ongoing Journey with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

I’m not exactly the poster child for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Aside from the long, tied-back hair and subtle earring that project a superficial divergence from the norm, I appear to be the mainstream standard for privilege: straight, white, cisgender male from a socioeconomically stable upbringing. The assessment is on point: I am privileged. As such, it may come as a surprise that I am the one writing about DEI. So, before I share my current DEI work at Common Impact, let me share my story.

Responsible Production & Consumption

Ecocentricity Blog: Front 4 - Closed Loop Manufacturing

As Amory Lovins says, “if it exists, it must be possible.” Nutrient cycling exists. That means it must be possible for mankind to create a manufacturing system that works just as well.

Merck & Co., Inc. logo

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

The Ultimate Talent Development Opportunity—Any Way You Look at It!

I know firsthand how a high-impact, developmental program can attract people to a company and make them want to shape a future there. The Merck Fellowship for Global Health does just that. As a former Fellow, a Fellow’s manager and a mentor to Fellows, I have a unique perspective

CSRHub LLC

Environment

Using “Big Data” to Rate Corporate Social Responsibility: One Company’s Approach

“Big Data” is a useful tool for rating corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability performance. We believe that the Big Data system that CSRHub has developed is one answer to dealing with the rise in new ratings systems (it seems there is a new one announced each month) and with the disparities in scores that occur among these different systems.

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Education

Education, Workforce Development in North Carolina Energized by $2.7 Million in Duke Energy Grants

Duke Energy is continuing its commitment to students and the workforce of the future by investing $2.7 million in more than 70 education and training initiatives across North Carolina.

Research, Reports & Publications

Xylem Publishes Its 2016 Sustainability Report: Why We Solve Water

Solving the planet’s water challenges has never been more urgent. A growing population, overtaxed water infrastructure and increasing weather events all highlight the need for sustainable solutions. And solving water – one of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals – is foundational to economic growth, a more equitable distribution of resources and global health.

Latest Campaigns

  1. AEG's Commitment to Social Impact and Volunteerism
    AEG embraces its responsibility to enrich the lives of people in the communities around the world where we do business, and to use business to create...

  2. Southwire Giving Back
    Our neighbors depend on us, just as we depend on them, so we are committed to improving the quality of life in the communities in which we work. At...

  3. Carbon Footprint
    We are accelerating our efforts to help build a low-carbon economy and avert the worst impacts of climate change. Our goal to reduce our GHG emissions...

  4. Environmental Sustainability
    As sustainability leaders, we implement our sustainability strategy across all company activities along the entire value chain, from raw materials to...

  5. Corporate Social Responsibility
    Corporate Social Responsibility

  6. International Paper | HEALTHY & ABUNDANT FORESTS
    Vision 2030 Goal: Lead forest stewardship efforts globally

  7. Sustainability Report
    Our latest Sustainability Report highlights recent accomplishments and progress toward achieving goals in the environmental, social and governance...

  8. Social Impact at Mastercard
    At Mastercard, we’re powering economies and empowering people, building a sustainable economy where everyone prospers.

  9. Kingfisher Around the World
    The SCS Kingfisher certification mark is showing up on an increasing number of products around the world. It differentiates companies that are making...

  10. License to Operate
    Corporate governance, risk management, operational integrity, and regulatory compliance are demanding challenges that companies face in today’s ever...

  11. IWBI | WELL Building Standard
    Our built environment can shape our habits and choices, regulate our sleep-wake cycle, drive us toward healthy and unhealthy choices, and passively...

  12. Leading ESG & Sustainability Stewardship
    The new CNH continues on its longstanding path of excellence in sustainability, which is recognized by the foremost authorities.

  13. Green Mountain Energy Commitment to Sustainability
    At Green Mountain Energy Company, we share our customers’ commitment to the environment and sustainability. We are inspired by the success that we...

  14. KeyBank's Community Investment
    In states where Key has a presence, there are approximately 1.7 million low- to moderate-income (LMI) households. Many LMI individuals don’t have bank...

  15. GoDaddy | Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
    Diverse teams build better products — period. At GoDaddy, we make apps and services that our worldwide community of entrepreneurs can relate to. Our...