ESG News from Leading Brands

Keep up with the latest environmental, social and governance news from companies embracing the triple bottom line, shared via 3BL's distribution platform.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Hormel Foods Partners with Operation Gratitude to Send 52,000 Letters to Troops

Hormel Foods Corporation announced that it has partnered with Operation Gratitude and set a goal to send 52,000 letters of thanks to active duty service members overseas.

Through its sponsorship with the Super Bowl Host Committee, Hormel Foods is using its activation space at Super Bowl LIVE presented by Verizon to have attendees write letters of appreciation to deployed troops. The thank you letters will accompany 52,000 care packages sent to active duty service members by Operation Gratitude.

Supply Chain & the Circular Economy

REACH DII (Drive Innovation Insights) Conference Decrypts Today's Innovative B2B Practices and Reveals the Trends of Tomorrow

Traceability in the procurement stage of manufacturing process is being critically and thoroughly examined by companies as the requirement to be environmentally compliant is taking center stage.

Education

Embracing Chaos: Disruption as a Catalyst for Change

Disruption – disaster or opportunity? The 2008 global recession was a milestone, profoundly affecting every aspect of the economy, with repercussions extending to the present. The military term “VUCA” sums up the situation: “volatile, uncertain, complicated, and ambiguous.” Sodexo was no exception; it was clear that we needed to reassess, innovate, and deliver new service solutions to help our clients cope with the new reality.

Diversity & Inclusion

IFF Launches Employee-powered Diversity & Inclusion Vision, Mission; IFF CEO joins CEO Action Pledge

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) (Euronext Paris:IFF), a leading innovator of sensory experiences that move the world, has announced its new diversity and inclusion (D&I) vision and mission. Created by an empowered global employee resource group (ERG), the Company’s statements reflect the values and priorities of both the employee base, as well as its leadership. Simultaneously, IFF CEO and Chairman Andreas Fibig has signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ pledge, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace.

Sustainable Development Goals

Ten New Markets Earmarked as Opportunities to Boost Lagging Sustainable Development Goals

According to a new Global Opportunity Report from DNV GL, Sustainia and the United Nations Global Compact, renewed efforts are required to ensure four of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals do not miss their 2030 targets. The Global Goals addressed in the report are Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities, Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13: Climate Action and Goal 14: Life Below Water.

Environment

Rush2Recycle Plans to Recover More Than 40 Tons of Stadium Waste

Aramark is teaming with the NFL and PepsiCo, along with U.S. Bank Stadium partners, for a landmark sustainability project at Super Bowl LII – Rush2Recycle -- aimed to recover more than 90% -- more than 40 tons -- of stadium waste on game day. The project is part of the NFL’s initiative to reduce the environmental impact of Super Bowl LII activities and leave a “green” legacy throughout the area.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

KeyBank Provides $3 Million in Financing for Ammon Affordable Housing Property

KeyBank Community Development Lending & Investment (CDLI) has provided a $3 million construction loan with 9% LIHTC financing for the acquisition and rehabilitation of Peterson Park, an existing 39-unit USDA Rural Development affordable housing property, located in Ammon, ID, that will add one additional unit upon renovation. The property is comprised of five, two-story buildings, with units reserved for tenants earning between 30-60% area median income (AMI). The project will benefit from a Rental Assistance Contract for all 40 units.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Essity Ranked One of the World's 100 Most Sustainable Companies

The ranking is based on publicly disclosed data from 2016 based on up to 17 key performance indicators (KPIs) covering environmental, social and governance relative to company peers. A total of 5,994 publicly listed companies with gross revenue of minimum USD 1 billion have been analyzed, encompassing all sectors and industries. The global 100 companies come from 22 countries, where Essity is one of five Swedish companies on the list.

Education

Do You Know a Young Problem Solver? The AT&T and Imagination.org Inventor's Challenge Is Back

Every year, we see new inventions that solve problems and entertain. 2017 brought us a smartphone with face recognition, an electric vehicle for the masses and a stress-relieving toy everyone from your 5-year-old to your grandmother was obsessed with, seemingly overnight.

Social Impact & Volunteering

In the World: Teaching Tech Skills to Refugees

Gabriel Abebrese and Gunnar Schoenig both volunteer with the charity App Camps, which gives young people, including refugees, the skills to start a career in tech. The two Barclaycard employees tell us about the satisfaction they get from helping the young people grow in skills and confidence – and how some are already earning money from their ideas.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Why Data Privacy Day Is Every Day: A Q&A With Our Top Privacy Experts

In recognition of International Data Privacy Day, which celebrated its 20th anniversary yesterday, we invited four Alliance Data and its businesses’ privacy subject matter experts to share some thoughts about why data privacy is so central to the company’s values and obligations, as well as some of the changing trends around privacy.

Health & Healthcare

Five Food Trends for 2018

Rainbow bagels, unicorn food and milkshakes as big as a person’s head are so yesterday. What will be on plates over the next 12 months? As 2018 arrives, culinary leaders at Sodexo, the leader in Quality of Life Services, have named their food trends for the year. Kevin Cecilio, Sodexo’s senior director, culinary innovations, believes these five trends will be on the table over the next 12 months.

Green Infrastructure

A Sustainable Solution for Food Waste: Transforming Waste Products Into Energy in Michigan

With food waste from local manufacturing threatening to overwhelm available waste treatment capacity in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the City has begun a project to convert that waste to energy. Tetra Tech is leading the design phase of a $38-million waste-to-energy biodigester as part of the city’s goal of using 100-percent renewable energy to power city buildings by 2025. Biodigesters combine organic waste with microorganisms in air-tight tanks, creating a biogas that produces energy to power and heat buildings.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Five Social Impact Trends That Inspire Us

For purpose-driven companies, these are interesting times. We have always believed that our mission at Salesforce is to improve the state of the world. In fact, studies show that purpose is a number one driver behind business success. Brand perception, consumer loyalty, employee retention and stakeholder optimism are all tied to how a company actson its purpose.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Brown-Forman Earns Top Marks in 2018 Corporate Equality Index

Brown-Forman Corporation received a perfect score of 100 percent on the 2018 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Brown-Forman joins the ranks of 609 major U.S. businesses which also earned top marks this year. This is the eighth consecutive year Brown-Forman has received a perfect score.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

EDIE Sustainability Awards 2018

Last week the team went to the EDIE Sustainability Awards 2018. We were proud to be a finalist for the employee engagement and behavioural change category for our Sustainable September campaign. Unfortunately we lost out to Virgin Atlantic Airways (Congratulations to them!) but we are still very proud of the recognition and excited to continue in our progress towards our 2025 Sustainability goals as a corporation! Sharene Katsoulas, Isabel Gonzalez Jungblut, Jenny Wassenaar

Energy

March for Science: Why Carbon Offsets are Good Science

Science has been around since the beginning of human civilization. It was the engine behind Aristotle’s ambitious effort to fly and even earlier than that, it helped the Babylonians fashion an understanding of time and their universe.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Brown-Forman Named in WSJ Management Top 250 List

Brown-Forman Corporation was named one of the best-managed U.S. companies in the first-ever list of well-run businesses by the Drucker Institute, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Brown-Forman ranked 37 out of 250, scoring five stars (out of five) for employee engagement and four stars (out of five) for customer satisfaction, innovation, social responsibility, and financial strength.

Media & Communications

Big Year, 2018 – Tipping Points for Developments in Corporate Sustainability & Sustainable Investing…

Volume & Velocity. Those may well be the key characteristics of developments in corporate sustainability and in sustainable investing in the year 2018.

Education

Learning by Doing: Promoting Financial Knowledge in Chile

Recent research from Chile’s National Institute for Youth, shows that many Chilean youth from ages 15 to 29 struggle with excessive debt. Four percent of Peruvians between the ages of 15 and 19 years old carry debt; and this amount increases as they get older, of those between the ages of 20 and 24, 36% carry debt; and 55% of Peruvians aged 25 to 29 years old carry debt.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Arrow Electronics Employees Support Food Bank in Neu-Isenburg

Employees from the Arrow Electronics office in Neu-Isenburg, Germany recently volunteered their time at local food bank Speisekammer. For several weeks, Arrow employees helped food bank staff transport, unpack and dispense food to the low-income families who utilize Speisekammer’s services.

Innovation & Technology

Five Digital Trends Shaping the Future of Mining

Goldcorp’s #DisruptMining event in March will generate new ideas for innovative technologies that could fundamentally transform the mining sector. With asset productivity as a major issue facing the mining industry today, companies are looking to digital technology to reduce costs, drive productivity and enhance financial performance.

Environment

Rebecca Leber on the Dawn of Solar Protectionism

This week on Sea Change Radio we dig deeper into one of those recent headlines, and see how bad the news actually is. The decision to impose a 30% tariff on solar panels and solar cells coming from overseas is a move that leaves most renewable energy advocates apoplectic.

Innovation & Technology

How Data Is Transforming Decision-Making Around EHS&S Management

David Williams, Director of Environment and Sustainability with Teva Pharmaceuticals, describes how access to sophisticated data analytics tools are transforming the EHS& sustainability management profession.

Environment

CSR Reporting Leads to Better Performance

In this Q&A, we talk to the Senior Sustainability Specialist at The Mosaic Company, who told us concrete examples of how sustainability reporting leads to better performance.

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