Volunteers from Xylem Watermark spent their Saturday building a water tower for the Ayra Deep School in the Greater Noida region of Delhi, India. The school has 750 students, but no access to clean water. Changing that, with Xylem’s help, more than 1,000 students and community members now have access to clean water, allowing students to focus more on their education. While at Ayra Deep, Xylem employees also played games of “Germ Tag” and taught students about hygiene and water-health, including the spreading of germs and the importance of hand washing. Xylem is committed to continuing to transform communities by building AquaTowers through its partnership with Planet Water Foundation.

When a company asks employees to volunteer, there is a tendency to lean heavily on community impact as a benefit. Impact is certainly a benefit to the community, and a desired result. Yet, there are plenty of benefits to the individual volunteer that CSR practitioners can leverage to engage employees more effectively in volunteerism. One of the most significant benefits is the effect volunteering has on personal health and well-being.

A growing number of consumers want to know that the energy they are using comes from green resources. Even if they aren’t able to invest in solar panels on their property, or there’s a local ordinance against wind power generators in residential areas, surveys show that many residents are willing to pay a premium to help develop better access to renewable energy.

Costa Cruises, AISM (Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association) and the Costa Crociere Foundation present the results of a joint project aimed at making vacations increasingly accessible to people with impaired mobility. For the first time in the world in the cruise sector, guests with disabilities will be able to participate in group shore excursions, at no extra cost, with accessibility verified by AISM, in accordance with the most advanced international good practices.

Hammers pounded, saws cut, cranes lifted trusses, and St. Joseph County, Indiana, residents like Anneliese Bennett literally built a new life for themselves in Mishawaka, Indiana. The future Habitat for Humanity homeowner built her house alongside a group of 1,773 Habitat for Humanity volunteers ­­— led by former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter. Visit Wells Fargo Stories to watch the video.

Aaron Horowitz, CEO of Sproutel and inventor of the My Special Aflac Duck, discusses his passion for helping children with serious illnesses.

The collision of principle and policy in current affairs has just ratcheted up several notches in intensity. The reason? The latest round of tariffs on Chinese goods imported into the U.S. that takes direct aim at profits at a number of the largest multinationals. After losing the lobbying battle to stave off this latest round, these companies are going public with their protests, hoping to encourage a rollback by taking a collective stand against a policy that hits their bottom line.

NEW YORK – The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and electric and gas utilities Con Edison and National Grid have announced a Request for Proposal (RFP) that will begin the process of evaluating different pathways that New York City can pursue to effectively reach its goal of achieving 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions over 2005 levels by 2050, while maintaining safe, affordable, and reliable delivery of energy.

As world leaders came together in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week, it is more important than ever that this convening yields significant action and partnership between business, governments and NGOs. Society is counting on those with leadership responsibility to take action on the big issues facing our global community— including climate change, poverty, obesity, water stress and damage to the world’s ecosystems.

In 2017, American Apparel launched a capsule collection of hoodies, t-shirts and bags in collaboration with Pencils of Promise (POP) to provide support for teachers and fund the construction of new schools in Guatemala, Ghana and Laos, contributing U.S. $220,000. POP is a US-based not-for-profit organization that works to increase access to education and raise global awareness of child illiteracy as there are 250 million children worldwide who lack basic reading, writing and math skills.