The United Nations Global Compact will next week launch a series of events to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the national level.

You see it: The need for corporate philanthropy is skyrocketing. Worthy, urgent causes appear literally overnight. And enterprises like yours are responding in a big way, generating positive impact for a host of beneficiaries via grantmaking, employee donations and volunteer programs.

In his teen years, Kenneth Martinez would often drive home after school, pull into his driveway, and see a familiar sight next door: His elderly neighbor, sitting in the shade of an old tree, waving at him.

One June day in 2014, Beth Robertson-Martin found herself standing on a dirt road dividing two California tomato fields. On one side sat a farm that was nothing more than a 300-acre carpet of dried-out dirt. "It looked like a scene from Mad Max," she remembers. "Everything was dead." On the other side was a 6-foot-tall hedgerow, a tangle of white-blossomed milkweed, sunflowers and elderberry bushes that General Mills had planted alongside the tomatoes to create a habitat for bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

Timo Schmidt-Eisenhart is, since 2013, the president of Timberland for Emea (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). The German executive also worked for another brand of VF Corporation, The North Face, where he was the general manager of the brand for Europe for three years. His career, however, began in the US giant Nike, where he was in charge of different sales executive departments for seven years.

Crestwood Equity Partners LP (NYSE:CEQP) is excited to announce the publication of its inaugural 2018 sustainability report highlighting its MLP industry leading sustainability program. The report, entitled Growing Through Connections, enhances transparency on Crestwood’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and highlights the company’s three-year sustainability strategy as it continues to integrate sustainability into every aspect of the business. The 2018 sustainability report is available at https://esg.crestwoodlp.com.

Mohawk Industries creates quality flooring for homes and businesses around the globe. The company’s roots are firmly planted in American soil, with its brands dating back more than a century. Mohawk’s extraordinary growth over the past three decades results from the talent, integrity and dedication of its people. Yesterday, to honor its employees and celebrate its unique American heritage, Mohawk hosted a special American flag raising ceremony.

Imagine dumping one garbage truck filled with plastic material into the ocean every minute. Now imagine two trucks per minute. Now four. Visualizing this makes my stomach turn, yet each year at least 8 million tonnes (about 1 truck load/minute) of plastics enter our ocean.

National Grid will show their unwavering commitment to inclusion and diversity, and the LGBTQIA community, as a sponsor of WorldPride 2019.

Congratulations to Freeport-McMoRan for being named one of 2019 America's Best Large Employers! The list, by Forbes magazine and Statista, ranked Freeport-McMoRan as No. 2 in Arizona and 143 overall.