Philanthropy

The holidays might look a little different in the Florida Panhandle this year. In June, a wildfire gutted 800 acres in Franklin County, and then in October, Hurricane Michael brought devastation back – even more so for neighboring counties Bay and Gulf.

Arrow Electronics received the 2018 Sustainability Collaborative Opportunity Award from MetLife, an award that goes to a supplier who presented unique, innovative and impactful opportunities to strengthen and support MetLife’s overall sustainability program.

Medtronic has been named to the JUST 100: America’s Best Corporate Citizens list for 2018. Compiled by Forbes and JUST Capital, the list is composed of the nation’s top 100 publicly traded companies that scored highest on a set of criteria measuring areas such as diversity and inclusion, product quality, environmental impact, and philanthropy.

As the year draws to a close, Cone evaluated 365 days’ worth of Purpose-driven campaigns to bring you the top 10 trends of 2018. Join us as we count down through what trended in 2018, the implications for businesses and what’s on the horizon for 2019.

The U.S. wastes edible food at an alarming rate. Each year, about 72 billion pounds of otherwise consumable foodstuffs never make it onto store shelves, according to estimates from Feeding America, a large hunger-relief group. Annually, that amounts to roughly 40 percent of all food in the US, the group said. Those figures don’t include the volumes of food that spoil either at rest or in transit. Nor does it cover the mountains of scraps thrown away every day by hotels, restaurants, consumers and the like.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) and Scholarship America announced they are accepting applications for the 2019 Wells Fargo Veterans Scholarship and Wells Fargo Veterans Emergency Grant Programs. In 2016, Wells Fargo committed $2 million over a four-year period to fund the programs and assist veterans and spouses of veterans with disabilities succeed in getting the education they need for careers they choose.

Local impact happens when community-based tree planting organizations create projects that involve citizens, schools, churches, and government. This is the work of the nearly 130 members of the Alliance for Community Trees program. These passionate nonprofit organizations are the boots on the ground — a grassroots network united in its purpose of improving communities and towns across the country with trees.

Trees play a vital role in our communities. So when natural disasters strike, the loss of trees is much more than meets the eye. The Community Tree Recovery program was created out of the great need for trees in the wake of natural disasters. Through this program, residents who lost trees in major disasters caused by wildfires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and insects can receive free trees to plant in their yards. This work is critical for re-establishing neighborhood trees…as well as a sense of community.

Our forests are a treasured legacy providing the very necessities of life itself — clean air, healthy drinking water, a tolerable climate, and so much more. But these majestic lands are threatened by insects, disease, and devastating wildfires.

I feel very fortunate to have served on the Arbor Day Foundation’s board of trustees for nine years now. Stepping into my new role as board chair has given me the opportunity to reflect on the last decade and the great change I have witnessed at the Foundation through the years.