Smarter infrastructure, with data at its core, will play a crucial role in overcoming varied threats to our water supply. This year's Strategic Directions: Water Report finds that from precise reads of consumption rates and customer engagement to improved leak detection and climate change planning, a new culture of data science can extend our supply to drive sustainability and resilience.

Sustainable Brands® kicks off SB’19 Detroit, its largest community gathering of global brand and sustainability leaders dedicated to advancing social and environmental innovation today at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. Nearly 2,000 business executives from 35+ countries are attending the conference and Innovation Expo.

Supporting local communities around the world is one of the core areas through which CNH Industrial (NYSE: CNHI /MI: CNHI) approaches Sustainability, a field in which it is recognized as a global leader in its industry. One example of this approach is the TechPro2 technical youth training program, which first launched globally within CNH Industrial in 2011. It fosters the professional and social development of young people by providing them with advanced technical training to give them the skills and tools they will need for a bright future.

At P&G, we have a responsibility to make the world better through our products, and through the positive impact we can have in the communities where we live and work worldwide. This week, we’ll share more about how we’re fulfilling that responsibility at Sustainable Brands (SB) Detroit, with presentations from a range of P&G leaders, a Closed Loop Home immersive experience in the Exhibit Hall, and more.

Each month, we will take you behind the scenes to introduce you to the teams that are dedicated to empowering the world’s poorest people to become entrepreneurs. You will meet Field Officers, volunteers, and Whole Planet Foundation staff. Through their stories you will get a glimpse into a day on the job—whether it is in Austin, Texas or Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

On April 22, 140 Timberland employees, business partners, consumers and members of the media spent a memorable Earth Day planting and watering trees in China’s Horqin Desert. I was privileged to pull on my yellow boots alongside these heroes, to step outside, work together, and make it better in this extremely remote area of Inner Mongolia that has a significant environmental impact on the surrounding region.

We first started encouraging associates to garden on company property at our Marysville, Ohio world headquarters in 1943 in support of the World War II Victory Garden movement. During that time, Americans were encouraged to grow their own food supply, and we offered associates land on which to grow edible gardens. Flash forward 75 years. Today, our corporate gardens have flourished into 77 raised beds with over 3,000 square feet of growing space. More than 250 associates plant and tend the gardens each growing season.

For over 10 years, FedEx has donated shipping valued at more than $15 million to FIRST competitions around the world.

Private companies have a vested interest in maintaining and improving the health of the ocean, according to a new report published by the United Nations Global Compact and developed in consultation with 300 representatives of business, civil society and academia. A healthy marine environment is not only necessary for many companies’ long-term operations, but it can offer significant business opportunities too.