ESG News from Leading Brands

Education

21CF and the Paley Center Screen 'Hidden Figures' for High School Students, Host Panel Discussion on Women in STEM

Dec 13, 2016 7:00 AM ET

Nearly 200 New York City high school students gathered at the Paley Center for Media on December 10 to celebrate Hidden Figures, the highly anticipated feature from 20th Century Fox revealing the untold story of three African American women who played major roles in the Space Race of the 1960s. The students were treated to an exclusive advance screening of the film and heard from members of the cast and crew, as well as female leaders in STEM fields, during a panel discussion about why it's critical that stories like these are told. Hidden Figures opens in select theaters across the U.S. on Christmas Day.

Health & Healthcare

The Bill Barkeley Story

Dec 12, 2016 8:00 PM ET

Diversity & Inclusion

How I Became a Techie: Ignacio Contreras

Dec 12, 2016 6:00 PM ET

“Allow some level of randomness or variability in your career.” — Ignacio Contreras

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

MGM Resorts Named One of the “Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality”; For Fifth Year in a Row Earns Perfect Score for its LGBT Employee Policies and Benefits

Dec 12, 2016 5:45 PM ET

A prominent benchmarking organization has rated MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) as among the nation’s leading companies for workplace equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Recognizes Sodexo as Outstanding Food Recovery Challenge Participant

Dec 12, 2016 5:30 PM ET

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently recognized the accomplishments of 13 organizations and businesses participating in EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge. Sodexo, world leader of Quality of Life services, was recognized for its leadership in reducing food waste through strategic food recovery efforts and its ability to leverage best practices in support of such efforts at its client sites.

Environment

An Historic Achievement – National Grid Customers Are the First in the U.S. to Receive Offshore Wind Power

Dec 12, 2016 4:20 PM ET

Health & Healthcare

Three Quality of Lifehacks to Managing Holiday Season Stress

Dec 12, 2016 4:15 PM ET

Do you find the holidays stressful? It may be dealing with last minute holiday shopping, meeting end-of-year work obligations, or putting up with zany in-laws. It’s no surprise that December has been named National Stress-Free Family Holidays Month. Stress can impact concentration, motivation and productivity. It can also impact health and wellbeing.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

CBRE Named to Victory Media’s 2017 Military Friendly® Employers List

Dec 12, 2016 2:15 PM ET

CBRE Group, Inc. has earned the 2017 Military Friendly® Employer designation by Victory Media, publisher of G.I. Jobs® and Military Spouse. This is the sixth year in a row CBRE has been recognized by Victory Media for its military friendly practices.

Diversity & Inclusion

OUTstanding: Meet the Barclays Pioneers Fighting for LGBT Equality

Dec 12, 2016 2:00 PM ET

Jes Staley, Barclays CEO, is among six employees honoured in a ‘power list’ that celebrates pioneers promoting workplace equality for the LGBT community.

The rankings, compiled by professional diversity network OUTstanding and the Financial Times, are divided into three categories: Leading LGBT Executives, Leading Ally Executives and Future Leaders.

Environment

Ecocentricity Blog: That's a Small Number

Dec 12, 2016 2:00 PM ET

We are completely reliant upon healthy natural systems. Unfortunately, not all natural systems are healthy, and only 3% of annual U.S. charitable giving goes to environmental and animal causes.

Research, Reports & Publications

Cisco’s 2016 CSR Report Highlights Ambitious Long-Term Goals to Positively Impact People, Society and the Planet

Dec 12, 2016 2:00 PM ET

Today, Cisco released its 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, which highlights Cisco’s progress delivering on the company’s CSR mission to accelerate global problem solving to positively impact people, society and the planet.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Using the Influence of Sports to Encourage Learning, Growth and Character Development

Dec 12, 2016 2:00 PM ET

The influence of sports and the platform that athletes and coaches have is tremendous in our society. We are captivated by sports! Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) uses this influence to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and to encourage positive character traits such as integrity, serving, teamwork and excellence.

Events, Media & Communications

Barclays Researchers on "Green Bonds": Small-but-Steady Performance Benefits Possible, With Little Evidence of Negative Impact

Dec 12, 2016 1:45 PM ET

The investment community -- especially fiduciaries -- continues to have a flow of more "green" products being made available from a growing number of issuers and their intermediaries; these include "green bonds." Charting this trend, a team of Barclays managers and researchers issued a report as part of the "Barclays Impact Series." Their findings: ESG investing can have a positive effect on portfolios for institutional and individual investors. There are small-but-steady performance benefits and no evidence of a negative impact for such investing.

Environment

lt All Starts with Healthy Soil

Dec 12, 2016 12:30 PM ET

Tim Smith is among a growing number of innovative farmers who are managing their croplands with practices that promote conservation of land and waters while increasing crop yields. On November 1, 2016, Tim joined experts from The Nature Conservancy, General Mills and the Soil Health Institute at the annual BSR Conference in New York City to launch the reThink Soil initiative.

Environment

COP22: Three Reasons for Optimism

Dec 12, 2016 12:30 PM ET

What I found heartening in this year’s COP experience is the continued resilience of climate negotiators, especially those from developing and small island states as well as the ongoing tenacity of NGOs that work valiantly on mitigation and adaptation efforts around the world. Even more so, I was proud of the business engagement.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

T. Rowe Price Foundation Hosts Capacity Building Workshop Series to Help Nonprofits Become More Effective

Dec 12, 2016 12:00 PM ET

The T. Rowe Price Foundation, in partnership with the Maryland Association of Nonprofits, held a series of five capacity-building workshops during the past several months. The sessions focused on key capacities: leadership, adaptability, management, and technical skills (marketing and communication, fundraising, and development).

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Corporate Foundations: Changing the Game and Driving Social Impact

Dec 12, 2016 11:45 AM ET

Energy

Powering Sustainable Development

Dec 12, 2016 11:45 AM ET

Solar energy provider Nizam Bijli has joined the Business Call to Action (BCtA) with a commitment to reach 1 million off-grid rural beneficiaries in Pakistan with affordable solar energy solutions, access to financial services and health insurance by 2020. In addition, the company commits to support 25,000 micro-entrepreneur distributors (including 2,500 women), and train 500 technical support staff.

Environment

Whirlpool Starts Construction on 3 Wind Turbines

Dec 12, 2016 11:15 AM ET

Whirlpool Corp. started construction today on three wind turbines to help power its Marion, Ohio manufacturing facility.

The three turbines will deliver wind generated power directly to the plant and when fully completed, are expected to provide approximately 19 percent of the total power consumption of the facility, the company said.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Kimberly-Clark Earns Perfect Score on Human Rights Campaign’s 2017 Corporate Equality Index

Dec 12, 2016 11:00 AM ET

Kimberly-Clark today announced it earned a perfect score on Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation's 2017 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Pro Bono Lessons from GSK

Dec 12, 2016 10:15 AM ET

GSK is a renowned leader in the pharmaceutical industry, recently recognized for leading the corporate world toward embracing the ethos of creating shared value. The company sits atop Fortune’s Change the World list of businesses directly confronting society’s biggest challenges. This is a title that does not come solely from good intentions, but rather from proactively using its position in the global community as a force for good.

Events, Media & Communications

8 Ways Wal-Mart and Other Companies Are Giving Back this Holiday Season

Dec 12, 2016 10:05 AM ET

Hanes National Sock Drive Featured in NBCUniversal's "Share the Kindness" Series

Events, Media & Communications

Diageo Gets Shockingly Real with VR

Dec 12, 2016 10:05 AM ET

Humans make more than 30,000 decisions every single day but can brands influence individuals to make the right ones? Now, beer, wine and spirits company, Diageo, is attempting to do just that through a new virtual reality experience called, "Decisions."

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Samsung Awards 255 Schools in National STEAM Contest

Dec 12, 2016 10:00 AM ET

Representing all 50 states and the nation’s capital, 255 public schools have advanced as state finalists in the $2 Million* Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest – a nationwide competition that challenges students to creatively use STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) skills to address real-world issues and make a difference in their local communities.

Energy

Will Green Growth Spell the End of Capitalism?

Dec 12, 2016 9:45 AM ET

Scientists tell us that earth is overshooting its planetary boundaries at a rate far quicker than the average person would believe. This situation becomes rapidly compounded by the significant challenges of population growth, urbanization, unemployment and rising socioeconomic inequality. To complicate things further, the most rapid change is occurring in those parts of the world with the least resources and capacity to manage these effects.