At The Hollywood Reporter's 25th annual Women in Entertainment breakfast on December 7, veteran writer and showrunner Ryan Murphy received the magazine's inaugural Equity in Entertainment award for his work with Half, a foundation he launched in February with an aim to hire 50% female directors to work on all his television shows. Murphy, who has created series across 21CF businesses such as Glee, American Horror Story, Scream Queens, and American Crime Story, addressed the ways the entertainment industry has excluded minority voices for so long and what steps he has actively taken to make change.
Novartis announced today the launch of an innovative technology-based healthcare program called SMS for Life 2.0 in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The program aims to increase the availability of essential medicines and improve care for patients across the region by using simple, available, and affordable technology. SMS for Life 2.0 is a joint public-private partnership led by Novartis and supported by its partners, the Kaduna State Ministry of Health and Vodacom.
The investment community -- especially fiduciaries -- continues to have a flow of more "green" products being made available from a growing number of issuers and their intermediaries; these include "green bonds." Charting this trend, a team of Barclays managers and researchers issued a report as part of the "Barclays Impact Series." Their findings: ESG investing can have a positive effect on portfolios for institutional and individual investors. There are small-but-steady performance benefits and no evidence of a negative impact for such investing.
Earlier this year, our client U.S. Bank launched the Community Possible Relay complete with a mobile baton, or what became known as the Big Blue Bus. The goal was to promote volunteerism and inspire 153,000 volunteers both inside and outside the bank. This represents 1,000 volunteers for each year the bank has been in business!
Outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland recently celebrated the close of the ninth consecutive harvest season of its Victory Garden, a plot of fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers outside the company’s Stratham, New Hampshire headquarters. Each year, a dedicated group of Timberland employee volunteers manage and cultivate the 1,000 square foot area of raised garden beds.