Stephen, an autistic boy from southern Alberta, started collecting items for children in need in 2006 when he was six. Since then, Stephen’s Backpacks has delivered more than 18,000 backpacks.
In November, GM GREEN students from Southeast Michigan attended a Student Congress. Organized by the Clinton River Watershed Council, a nonprofit advocacy group and GM GREEN partner, the event gave students an opportunity to share their environmental investigations with peers from other areas within the watershed and to think about the positive impact they can have on their local environment.
Several years ago, I visited the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Northern Kenya. Lewa’s owner’s goal is to set an example of how wildlife can be even more valuable as a source of tourism than for sale on the black-market, providing a model throughout Africa. I was there to assess potential branding opportunities. Virgin Air had committed to a corridor for migrating elephants. Lewa hoped there were others.
On December 12, the COP21 climate summit in Paris culminated in an historic agreement that was unanimously adopted by 195 nations. The agreement was the result of two weeks of intense negotiations between almost every country on the planet. Years of effort from government, business and civil society fueled the momentum for a substantive and strong international accord. Having successfully achieved that goal, the hard work now begins.
With the population growing and the climate changing, our food, agriculture and health systems are facing increasing strain. To do something about this, Mars, Incorporated co-founded the Innovation Institute for Food and Health earlier this year with the University of California, Davis. On December 2 and 3, the Institute hosted the two-day Solution Summit—a series of events in California to explore ways to address these challenges.