On May 19th, Viacom talent and employees participated in the annual AIDS Walk New York. AIDS Walk NYC is the largest single-day AIDS fundraising event in the world. Viacom has been a long-standing champion in the fight against HIV/AIDS through its programming, cause marketing initiatives, and support of events like these. This year, more than 50 Viacom employees signed up for the Walk and $20,000 has been raised.

One of the biggest challenges facing today’s workforce is the technical skills gap, partly created by a lack of accessible education opportunities for young professionals. To combat this challenge, Bridgestone and Firestone Complete Auto Care in collaboration with United Way of Summit County and Akron Public Schools (APS) developed the Bridgestone Academy of Applied Engineering and Technology which brought a Firestone Complete Auto Care (FCAC) to East Community Learning Center (CLC) in October 2018.

National Grid is a longtime supporter of developing the workforce of the future. The most recent example of these efforts is working with Northland Workforce Training Center to achieve its remediation targets at its 683 Northland Ave. headquarters and training facility. The training center opened last year in a building located on about 35 acres in an historic manufacturing district on Buffalo’s East Side. Prior to doing so, Northland needed to redevelop the building and nearby streetscape.

Aflac has been a supporter of Beads of Courage, a nonprofit international organization helping children chronicle their unique stories using beads during their cancer treatment. Each one represents a specific treatment that a child received or a milestone crossed throughout their journey. Children recently received new beads, including a My Special Aflac Duck® bead honoring their courage during treatments.

Last fall, 3BL Media honored chef José Andrés as the inaugural Brands Taking Stands Humanitarian Award winner for feeding millions of hungry survivors of devastating hurricanes, earthquakes and other disasters. We all marveled at the efficiency of Andrés’ World Central Kitchen as the nonprofit rapidly erected feeding centers in Puerto Rico, Haiti and Nicaragua to cook and distribute hot, nutritious meals. Fast forward to today, Tupperware announced a partnership to supply durable, multi-use food storage containers and logistical support to provide them at scale when World Central Kitchen responds to disaster.

As a Cruise Director for an expedition travel company in the Arctic and Antarctic, Meghan Kelly often found herself in conversations with locals about the receding coastline. She heard how decreasing sea ice is diminishing traditional hunting grounds, along with the passages between one community and the next in the Arctic. For the families who have been there for generations, surviving means adapting to a warmer climate.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) announced a $5 million grant to Catalyst, a global nonprofit advancing workplace gender equality, in support of expanding the organization’s Men Advocating Real Change (MARC) program, which Chevron adopted in 2016. MARC is focused on engaging and empowering male executives and leaders to consistently model inclusive behaviors, influence more equitable talent management systems and processes, and build effective partnerships across gender.

At VMware, we’re optimistic about the power of technology to help solve big societal problems and are committed to leading responsibly. One of our key focus areas is about changing our relationship with energy. According to the U.N.’s report, as a society we need to shift 70-85 percent of electricity to renewable energy sources by 2050 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Data centers are responsible for two percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions—roughly the same as global air travel.

At Alexion, people with rare and devastating diseases are our inspiration. We know that beginning with their first symptoms through an often long path to diagnosis and treatment, living with a rare disease is a sobering new normal to navigate while managing other life priorities.

Today, 2.3 billion people – or one in three people worldwide - still do not have access to basic sanitation. As a leading company in sanitary ware, LIXIL has incorporated design and technology to solve real consumer needs in all of its bathroom products, but it is also dedicated to improving accessibility to basic sanitation as an opportunity to solve one of the world’s greatest challenges, and to do so sustainably by helping to develop a future market. Establishing Global Sanitation & Hygiene as one of the pillars of its Corporate Responsibility Strategy, LIXIL has been tackling the global sanitation crisis by commercializing solutions such as its innovative and affordable SATO products.