ESG News from Leading Brands

Social Impact & Volunteering

4 Ways to Help Employees Grasp the Impact of Volunteering

Mar 30, 2017 7:25 AM ET

If you have employees who volunteer either time or money to a worthy cause your business supports, you may find that they don’t always realize how much good their service is actually doing.

Americans give a lot to charitable causes. Nationwide, workplaces raise more than $4 billion from workplace giving. Millennials — the roughly 20- to 35-year-old demographic — not only give to nonprofits actively, but like to give consistently. In fact, 87% of Millennials donated money to worthy causes in 2013.

Research, Reports & Publications

CLP Publishes Its 15th Sustainability Report: Powering the Changing World Today for a Better Tomorrow

Mar 30, 2017 5:00 AM ET

CLP, one of the largest investor-operators of power assets in the Asia-Pacific region, has published its 2016 Sustainability Report showing a detailed picture of its performance on how it manages financial and other capitals to create value for its stakeholders over the long term.

Health & Healthcare

VSP Global and U.S. Conference of Mayors Partner for Second Year to Provide Access to Eye Care to Communities in Need

Mar 29, 2017 6:25 PM ET

San Francisco resident Mounir Ebdellaoi has depended on his glasses to see since age 14. Ebdellaoi lives in one of the city’s most distressed neighborhoods and was recently mugged and his eyewear was destroyed in the altercation.

Events, Media & Communications

Booz Allen Brings Industry Leaders to DC for Machine Intelligence Summit

Mar 29, 2017 6:10 PM ET

Imagine if doctors were able to identify patients with pancreatic cancer—before those patients had a diagnosis—just by examining their Internet search queries. A team of scientists recently used advanced data analytics and Machine Intelligence to do just that.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Points of Light Civic Accelerator Launches Spring 2017 Class

Mar 29, 2017 5:30 PM ET

ATLANTA, March 28, 2017 – The Points of Light Civic Accelerator, with founding partners the PwC Charitable Foundation Inc. and Starbucks Foundation, and CapitalOne Investing for Good, Vodafone Americas Foundation, U.S. Small Business Administration, Dentons, Singing for Change, and hotel sponsor Hilton Worldwide, kicks off the Spring 2017 accelerator program with ventures working to increase economic mobility across the country.

Environment

Goldcorp’s EcoTails Technology Challenges Mining’s Historical Relationship with H2O

Mar 29, 2017 5:00 PM ET

It’s no secret that mining is a water-intensive process, and the use and protection of water - a precious resource - has come under increasing scrutiny. Growing Innovation is a core value at Goldcorp that we apply to all areas of our business. Innovation in water technology is no exception and we are looking to play a leadership role in our industry to advance solutions for water conservation.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Top Youth Volunteers of 2017 Honored Nationwide

Mar 29, 2017 5:00 PM ET

Some created programs for children with disabilities. Many worked to provide food to peers in need who go without subsidized school meals over the weekend. A few worked to raise awareness about the danger of distracted driving.

Environment

Green Mountain Energy Sun Club Partners with Evelyn’s Park to Establish Community Space as Sustainable Leader

Mar 29, 2017 4:30 PM ET

Evelyn’s Park, a new five-acre community green space in Bellaire, Texas, is set to become one of the most sustainable parks in the nation with a $313,500 grant from the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Amway Facebook LIVE Video: Addressing Childhood Malnutrition in Southern Africa

Mar 29, 2017 3:15 PM ET

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), seven million children under the age of 5 die each year from preventable causes. Malnutrition is the underlying cause of 45 percent of these deaths.

Diversity & Inclusion

Bechtel Executive Honored with Prestigious Black Women in Business Award

Mar 29, 2017 3:05 PM ET

Bechtel, a global leader in engineering, procurement, and construction, today announced that Charlene Wheeless, principal vice president for Global Corporate Affairs, has been honored as one of the “25 Influential Black Women in Business” by The Network Journal, New York's leading Black professional and small-business magazine.

Energy

Smart Grid and Microgrids—the Hard Solution for Asia’s At-Risk Megacities

Mar 29, 2017 3:00 PM ET

Disaster recovery remains a driving force for Asia, which experiences more natural disasters than any other region in the world. Floods, earthquakes and cyclones continue to wreak havoc—killing people, wiping out homes and livelihoods, and leaving economies in distress. However, there may be a solution that will help mitigate loss going forward—making small investments in the power grid today by embracing emerging smart grid and microgrid solutions will save these ever-expanding cities’ resources while critically improving disaster resilience and recovery of life in times of human tragedy.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

The UPS Foundation Commits $14.1 Million To Humanitarian Relief & Community Safety

Mar 29, 2017 2:30 PM ET

From imbedding its logistics experts with the United Nation’s agencies to vaccine tracking programs to drones delivering medical supplies, The UPS Foundation, the philanthropic arm of UPS (NYSE: UPS), is taking on global humanitarian relief and community safety in a big way. This year, The UPS Foundation will award $14.1 million in grant funding and in-kind support to advance humanitarian relief and community safety initiatives around the world.

Environment

From Michael Bloomberg: Fighting Climate Change Despite Trump Rollbacks

Mar 29, 2017 2:00 PM ET

“Trump Using Detroit as Stage for Loosening Obama’s Fuel Economy Standards” repeated a fallacy that has become conventional wisdom. The article cited experts who claimed that policy rollbacks by the Trump administration “would make it impossible for the United States to meet Mr. Obama’s commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement” on climate change.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Three Ways to Take Your Impact Further | Taproot Foundation's Advisory Services Spring Newsletter

Mar 29, 2017 2:00 PM ET

It's a common misconception that the bigger and more complex a pro bono initiative is, the higher the impact will be for nonprofits, your employees, and the company itself. In fact, the biggest determinant of a program's impact is not its scale or complexity but the quality of the match between employees' expertise and nonprofits' needs.

Health & Healthcare

Delos™ VIDEO | Exploring the Great Indoors

Mar 29, 2017 1:20 PM ET

On average, Americans spend over 90% of their time indoors, meaning that these spaces can have a profound effect on human health and well-being. Delos is transforming our homes, offices, schools and other indoor environments through technology, design and innovative solutions that nurture and promote human health and well-being.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Voya Financial Announces First-Quarter 2017 Grant Recipients

Mar 29, 2017 1:05 PM ET

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), today announced the nonprofit organizations selected to receive grants in the first quarter of 2017 through Voya Foundation, the company's charitable giving arm. Voya Foundation invests in programming to help foster healthy, sustainable communities and supports local and national nonprofits with missions that advance children’s education and financial resilience.

Events, Media & Communications

Sustainable Brands Announces Full Conference Program for SB’17 Detroit

Mar 29, 2017 1:00 PM ET

Sustainable Brands® recently announced full program details for SB’17 Detroit, running May 22-25 at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. The conference will convene more than 2,000 senior executives, top brand strategists and leading sustainability practitioners to discover how brands can position themselves for success against a backdrop of changing societal needs.

Diversity & Inclusion

We Are Family: FCA US Women’s Group Inspires the Next Generation

Mar 29, 2017 12:45 PM ET

More than 150 daughters of FCA US employees converged on the Company’s Auburn Hills, Michigan, headquarters on March 28 to participate in a half-day program designed to help young women discover their strengths, interests and to prepare them to pursue a range of possible career paths.

Environment

Top Five Circular Economy Trends for Business

Mar 29, 2017 12:45 PM ET

Waste is a resource. That simple sentence is the driving force behind one of the fastest growing economic trends in recent history—the circular economy. But how can businesses take full advantage of the circular economy to benefit their business and the environment?

Green Infrastructure

Mohawk Group Video | Light Lab: Sustainable Design Through Community Partnership

Mar 29, 2017 12:35 PM ET

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Announcing Our 2017 Inventor’s Challenge Winners

Mar 29, 2017 12:35 PM ET

For the past several months, AT&T has been collaborating with Imagination Foundation on our second-annual Inventor’s Challenge – bringing together young people from around the world to create innovative, imaginative and often totally viable solutions that solve problems in their schools and communities. This year, we saw entries from nearly 10,000 kids and teens from pre-k to high school, with ideas that ranged from a 3D-printed soap dispenser to spring-loaded “sky shoes” to help anyone reach great heights.

Diversity & Inclusion

Millennials Have Already Changed the Workplace. Here’s How.

Mar 29, 2017 12:20 PM ET

For many years now, we’ve been making conjectures about the impact millennials could have on the workforce as more of them begin their careers. The majority of millennials—those born between about 1980 and the mid-1990s—are now of working age. Their impact on the workplace isn’t just conjecture anymore: It’s here.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Prudential Recognized as One of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute for Third Consecutive Year

Mar 29, 2017 11:10 AM ET

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU) has been named a 2017 World’s Most Ethical Company® by the Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

CSR: How Fortune 500 Companies Measure Up

Mar 29, 2017 11:10 AM ET

It is well documented that CSR practices are both an emerging and rapidly expanding set of standards for 21st century corporations. As $30 to $40 trillion shifts hands from the current generation to the upcoming millennials over the next few decades, there are markedly different standards that companies must uphold to gain traction in the evolving investor and consumer market.

Social Impact & Volunteering

2,000 Dow Volunteers and New Technology set the Stage for 2017 Partnership with Habitat for Humanity

Mar 29, 2017 11:00 AM ET

This year, The Dow Chemical Company and Habitat for Humanity enter their 35th year of partnership and will add new technologies to help make communities healthier and homes more sustainable for families in need of decent and affordable housing.