Impact & Sustainability News From Leading Brands

Diversity & Inclusion

These Women Are Growing Their Businesses — and Their Confidence

Apr 9, 2019 2:10 PM ET

Sandra is one of the participants in Ovante, an interactive digital platform with a vision to help microentrepreneurs build and enhance their business skills, grow their enterprises, and adopt healthy habits for using financial products and services. In 2016, Accion and FedEx launched an initiative to digitize Accion’s award-winning classroom business education program, making the program less expensive to deliver, more flexible, and more easily accessible for a broader audience.

Research, Reports & Publications

ClearBridge Highlights Benefits of Sustainable Investment Approach in Annual Impact Report

Apr 9, 2019 1:50 PM ET

ClearBridge Investments released its annual Impact Report, which details the environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations that have been a crucial part of its investment process for over 30 years.

Events, Media & Communications

CSRHub’s Cynthia Figge Speaking at CSR 5.0

Apr 9, 2019 1:50 PM ET

Skytop Strategies will launch its fifth annual CSR Summit hosted in partnership with Nasdaq at their Entrepreneurial Center on April 17th in San Francisco.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

GM Earns 2019 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence

Apr 9, 2019 1:45 PM ET

General Motors has earned a 2019 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award in Energy Management for continued leadership and superior contributions to ENERGY STAR. This is GM’s eighth recognition for Sustained Excellence. GM’s commitment to reducing energy intensity since 2010 has eliminated 1.5 million tons in carbon emissions, equivalent to the electric use of 260,000 homes for a year.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Frontier Co-op is #FundingHerFuture through Whole Planet Foundation

Apr 9, 2019 1:30 PM ET

The brand has been a proud supporter of Whole Planet Foundation since 2012, donating more than $460,000 to alleviate global poverty through microcredit and renewing their membership in the $100,000 Fund in 2019.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Delos Listed Among Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards

Apr 9, 2019 1:15 PM ET

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Consumers Energy Receives National Recognition as ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year, Saves Customers $2 Billion on Bills

Apr 9, 2019 1:10 PM ET

Consumers Energy is being honored for the seventh time in eight years with the ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award for energy efficiency programs that have saved Michigan homes and businesses over $2 billion. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hands out Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Awards to organizations that are leaders in reducing energy waste. The awards are the highest level of recognition from the EPA.

Supply Chain & the Circular Economy

The Five Ws of Supply Chains: Who, What, Where, When and Why Corporations Should Care

Apr 9, 2019 1:00 PM ET

Not a month goes by without a media campaign linking the supply chain of a well-known brand with unsavory labor practices or environmental mismanagement. Such exposés can devalue brands and reduce well-meaning corporate sustainability initiatives to hypocrisy. Beyond financial and reputational risks, a corporation that doesn’t know its supply chain can be caught flat-footed when the regions it sources from are rocked by political and environmental upheaval.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

California Bill to Ban Paper Receipts Promotes Paper Myths

Apr 9, 2019 12:20 PM ET

Are paper receipts going the way of plastic straws? Just say no.

Proposed legislation, California bill AB 161, dubbed “Skip the Slip,” would require retailers to generate electronic receipts unless customers request paper receipts. Find out why Domtar is saying when it comes to legislation banning paper receipts, skip the myths before you skip the slips.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Motivation: Playing for a Winning Team

Apr 9, 2019 12:10 PM ET

As Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” This is motivation at its core. Of course, actually putting this statement into play is easier said than done. It’s an art, not a science, and it can be demanding…even daunting for some. But as challenging as it may be, since you can actually do very little by yourself, sustaining your team’s motivation is the most important ingredient for success.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

SC Johnson Asia Debuts on 2019 Best Multinational Workplace List

Apr 9, 2019 11:50 AM ET

Today, SC Johnson announces that it has been recognized as a Best Multinational Workplace in Asia by Great Place to Work®. This is the first time the company’s Asia region has been recognized as a Best Workplace. SC Johnson Asia ranked No. 22 on the 2019 list of top places to work in the region.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Black & Veatch’s Leading-Edge Platform Gives Managers Instant Access to Workers’ Credentials at Job Sites, Proactively Enhancing Safety

Apr 9, 2019 11:20 AM ET

For Black & Veatch safety managers at job sites, keeping tabs on whether employees and contractors had the proper training, certification and licenses for the work required thumbing through inches-thick binders of the crew’s credentials. While helping ensure compliance with safety requirements, little about the logs were quick or efficient, considering that hundreds of people could be on a job site.

Environment

Practitioner Spotlight--Kylle Barrieau

Apr 9, 2019 11:05 AM ET

Antea Group spotlights Kylle Barrieau, a Health and Safety Project Manager based in in Denver, Colorado.

Health & Healthcare

Cisco GPS Challenge Highlights | Social Entrepreneur Neopenda Improves Newborn Health in Low-Resource Settings

Apr 9, 2019 11:05 AM ET

Neopenda makes lightweight, low-power wearable monitors that monitor newborn vitals, with the aim of improving newborn health in low-resource settings. The medical device company entered and won the 2016 Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge Prize at the Rice Business Plan Competition.

Cisco's competitions help today's innovators become tomorrow's Global Problem Solvers. Learn more about Cisco's annual Global Problem Solver Challenge

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

MetLife Named 2019 Energy Star® Partner of the Year

Apr 9, 2019 11:00 AM ET

MetLife, Inc.received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) 2019 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award for its commitment to energy efficiency, including ENERGY STAR certifications for over 22.3 million square feet of real estate across MetLife’s corporate office network and the portfolio managed by MetLife’s institutional asset management platform, MetLife Investment Management (MIM).

Diversity & Inclusion

Harnessing the Talent of Veterans

Apr 9, 2019 10:20 AM ET

Responsible Production & Consumption

Technology Can Help Us End the Scourge of Modern Slavery. Here's How

Apr 9, 2019 10:00 AM ET

Modern slavery: it’s a strange term.

The word 'modern' generally has positive connotations. It’s up-to-date. Recent. Fresh. Cutting-edge.

Juxtapose that with the word 'slavery'. A most outdated concept. Captivity. Bondage. Oppression and repression. In the 21st century, slavery is surely something that only crazed individuals or dictators could possibly countenance.

Responsible Production & Consumption

ScottsMiracle-Gro Recycles 5 Billion Pounds of Green Waste Annually

Apr 9, 2019 10:00 AM ET

ScottsMiracle-Gro is relentless in our effort to find a product solution that is a win for the environment, consumers and business. Green waste recycling is an example of one solution, offering the opportunity to divert waste from landfills by incorporating it into beneficial new soil products.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Why Good Standards  -  Both ESG and Financial  - Matter

Apr 9, 2019 9:45 AM ET

Why sustainability reporting matters, to investors & others - and the need to work together to further increase corporate transparency more broadly. Tim Mohin of GRI refutes ‘greenwashing’ claims by Hans Hoogervorst.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Behind Aflac’s Partnership with Country Music and Its Famous Duck

Apr 9, 2019 9:00 AM ET

Aflac is contributing $50,000 to Musicians On Call through ACM Lifting Lives to help develop and fund music-related therapy and education programs.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Scaling Your Volunteer Program for Greater Impact

Apr 9, 2019 8:15 AM ET

What started as a one-day event in seven cities quickly spread to 170 cities, engaging 7,000 employees and supporting 300 nonprofits. How? Amanda Lenaghan, Senior Program Manager of Schwab Community Services, gives us the inside scoop and reveals how one event can catalyze year-round Goodness!

Events, Media & Communications

Circular Economy Webinar – Complimentary

Apr 9, 2019 6:00 AM ET

With increasing pressure on natural and man-made resources, innovative companies are taking a lifecycle assessment approach and tackling circularity from as early as product development, with the goal of reaping the reputational and commercial benefits.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Sharing Our Skills To Strengthen Communities

Apr 8, 2019 6:25 PM ET

Bristol-Myers Squibb loves that its employees are committed to giving back to causes they care about. That’s why the company not only encourages them to share their skills to strengthen the communities where it does business, but the company gives them paid time for volunteering through the Skills 2 Give program.

Environment

Republic Services Celebrates Opening of “Next-Gen” Recycling Center in Plano, Texas

Apr 8, 2019 4:40 PM ET

Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG) today celebrated the opening of its new “Next-Gen” recycling facility and learning center in Plano, Texas. The 77,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility serves more than 510,000 residents and 2,500 commercial customers throughout the Metroplex – including Plano, Richardson and other neighboring cities.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Fraudulent Ecuadorian Judgment Is Unenforceable Against Chevron’s Canadian Subsidiary

Apr 8, 2019 3:00 PM ET

The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected a request to review a decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario that a $9.5 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron Corporation cannot be enforced against Chevron Canada Limited, an indirect subsidiary. The Court of Appeal for Ontario’s decision, which is now final, dismissed all claims against Chevron Canada Limited, holding that it is a separate entity from Chevron Corporation and that its shares and assets cannot be seized by those seeking to enforce the corrupt Ecuadorian judgment. The Ecuadorian judgment itself has already been found by U.S. courts and an international tribunal in The Hague to have been obtained through fraud, bribery and corruption.