What started with a march in 1987 has continued to grow in momentum as individuals ban together to celebrate coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) – or as an ally. National Coming Out Day (Oct. 11), created by the Human Rights Campaign, works to promote a safe world for LGBTQ individuals to live truthfully and openly.

Subaru of America, Inc. has announced the return of its annual Share the Love Event in 2017. This year marks the automaker’s 50th Anniversary in the U.S. and, for the second year in a row, there will be no cap on the total donation from Subaru of America to its Share the Love charitable partners. At the culmination of this year, Subaru hopes to exceed a grand total of $115 million donated since the creation of Share the Love to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the event.

Duke Energy is proud to support the countless water stewards in our communities who are implementing innovative projects that protect our natural resources. In 2014, we established the Water Resources Fund, a $10 million, multiyear commitment to leave a lasting impact on our region’s waterways by expanding nonprofit partnerships and enhancing the environments where families live, play and work.

At PayPal, we believe every person has the right to participate in today’s global economy. Kiva is an international nonprofit that allows people to lend money to low-income entrepreneurs and students in over 80 countries and is an important partner in this mission. A few weeks ago, we launched our Kiva campaign: “Make A Small Loan, Make a Big Impact,” to our employees and customers around the globe to encourage them to make loans to entrepreneurs.

We sincerely thank all employees for their support of Shire’s 2017 Global Day of Service. With your involvement we were able to surpass all of our previous years’ participation rates.

On the face of it, Bill McKibben’s effort through 350.org to have universities divest fossil fuel assets had limited success. Only a handful of institutions pledged to divest and it didn’t affect the stocks of fossil fuel companies. But a new study by Michigan Ross Professor Andy Hoffman and Todd Schifeling of Temple University’s Fox School of Business (and former post-doc with the Erb and Graham Institutes) shows McKibben’s activism might have been successful in another way. Their analysis of media coverage of climate change during the 350.org effort shows that it influenced the public debate.

Zachary Dearing was living with his father on a houseboat in Rockport, Texas, when Hurricane Harvey hit. After his father evacuated to Houston, Zachary sought cover at the Live Oaks Learning Center. Upon his arrival at the city-designated shelter, he found that there was no one in charge to help evacuees or even to distribute supplies. With a team of volunteers, he helped more than 200 shelter occupants make it through the night, and worked with local law enforcement agencies to organize evacuation to Austin.

The Ingersoll Rand crisis response team has now made contact with all Ingersoll Rand employees and all of its contractors in Puerto Rico. While the devastation that Hurricane Maria left in her path has impacted the entire island of Puerto Rico, the resolve and positivity portrayed by the people is amazing.

Today, more than 2 billion people in the world are overweight or obese and 800 million are malnourished. Malnutrition, in every form, presents significant threats to human health.

Children are particularly affected by malnutrition. In 2016, over 41 million under the age of 5 and over 340 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 were overweight or obese. During the last 3 decades the number of overweight children has doubled among 2 to 5 year old children.

This is a crisis in the making, requiring urgent action by stakeholders from all sectors.

The recycling needs of the communities we serve are constantly evolving — and we have to evolve with them. Republic is making consistent, strategic investments in our sorting technologies and infrastructure to ensure that our facilities are capable of meeting the sustainability goals of the communities and businesses we serve.