AI & Technology

Today at the United Nations, the UN Global Compact unveiled a multi-year strategy to drive business awareness and activity that supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Key elements of the new Making Global Goals Local Business strategy include an annual Leaders Summit, the SDG Pioneers programme, Local Network SDG Action Plans, UN-business partnerships, and impact reporting. The announcement came at the opening of the 2016 UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, a two-day gathering of more than 1,000 leaders from business, finance, civil society, labour, academia, the UN and Government.

In partnership with lead sponsor, Campbell Soup Company, and General Mills, Net Impact is excited to announce the winners of the first-ever Forward Food Competition, a program that gave participants the chance to launch a new sustainable product or service within the food and beverage category. The response was overwhelmingly positive with over 140 applicants tackling a wide range of issues in society— food waste, unsustainable farming and recidivism, to name a few.

Many people living in Pacific nations, like Vanuatu, Indonesia, and the Philippines, struggle to find adequate shelter, a challenge compounded by the elevated risk of structure-destroying cyclones. Meanwhile, miles off their coasts, plastic waste floats in the ocean, contaminating the marine food chain and threatening the world's largest ecosystem.

Five years ago, DuPont commissioned the Economist Intelligence Unit to develop the Global Food Security Index (GFSI). While the Index seeks to answer a simple question – how food secure is a country? – in reality, it presents a clarion call to action for governments, farmers, non-governmental organizations and agricultural companies alike.

According to recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up 47 percent of the total U.S. workforce, but are much less represented in particular science and engineering occupations. They comprise 39 percent of chemists and material scientists, 28 percent of environmental scientists and geoscientists, 16 percent of chemical engineers, and just 12 percent of civil engineers.*

As falling costs for distributed energy resources reduce the barriers to entry, new players like solar and battery storage developers are establishing relationships with utility customers.

If you keep up with Sustainability Thought Leadership, you likely follow Andrea Learned (@AndreaLearned) on Twitter or have read her articles in the Huffington Post.