ESG News from Leading Brands

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

EarthChoice Ambassadors - Better Employees. Stronger Communities

May 2, 2019 11:35 AM ET

EarthChoice Ambassadors (ECAs) are Domtar employees who volunteer their time and energy to promote sustainable practices that focus on our customers, employees, company and community. By identifying and sharing innovative manufacturing methods, educating and encouraging sustainable habits, and leading by example, ECAs embody our sustainability message throughout the organization.

Social Impact & Volunteering

When Policy Gets Personal: Postmates Takes a Stand for Immigrants' Rights

May 2, 2019 11:00 AM ET

While celebrating the country’s storied history of embracing “the diversity cultivated through immigration,” he noted that upholding these values is more than just the right thing to do. For companies like Postmates, it’s also good business. “We choose not to discriminate [against] individuals based on where they are from,” Lehmann wrote, “and it has suited us well as we have been able to hire and employ the most talented people from around the world.”

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

PayPal Celebrates the Big Impact of Small Loans During Small Business Month

May 2, 2019 11:00 AM ET

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Thinking Like the Consumer: Kimberly-Clark Leverages Brand Insights to Elevate Compliance Programs

May 2, 2019 10:50 AM ET

Great brands like Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, and Kotex take deep consumer insights and apply them to every aspect of a product’s design, packaging, and marketing. It’s a continuous cycle that repeats itself in order for these essential brands to stand out with consumers.

Recently, Kimberly-Clark and its global compliance team decided to borrow a few pages out of its brand playbooks and apply them to its core product – the Code of Conduct. Like most large companies, Kimberly-Clark maintains a significant number of policies, procedures, and instructions to guide daily business decisions for its 41,000 employees around the world.

Innovation & Technology

A Closer Look at MilliporeSigma's Greener Solvent, Cyrene™

May 2, 2019 10:45 AM ET

In response to the need for solvents to meet stricter regulation requirements for employee safety and environmental sustainability, MilliporeSigma introduced Cyrene™—a sustainable dipolar aprotic solvent, produced in two steps from a renewable cellulose source. Learn more about how MilliporeSigma is taking giant steps toward smaller footprints.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Teaching Job Skills to Rural Alaskan Teens

May 2, 2019 10:00 AM ET

Nome is one of the last signs of city life in Alaska before everything becomes rural. Alaska Natives have lived in remote communities throughout the Bering Straits region for at least 10,000 years, sustaining themselves with a subsistence lifestyle of Arctic and sub-Arctic animals and plants. But those same communities, with an average population of 425, lack the resources to train young Alaskans with the job and life skills they need to keep their communities strong. Go to Wells Fargo Stories to watch the video: https://stories.wf.com/teaching-job-skills-rural-alaskan-teens

Events, Media & Communications

Companies Laying Groundwork for Global Circular Economy

May 2, 2019 10:00 AM ET

Key Updates on the Progress toward Circular Business Models at SB’19 Detroit, June 3-6. A growing number of companies across multiple industries are finding business opportunities in eliminating waste from their operations and keeping products and materials in use. Finding new life for existing products, implementing extended producer responsibility initiatives and redesigning products to virtually eliminate waste from the onset are giving innovative companies the edge.

Innovation & Technology

CLP Strives to Harness the Power of Technology

May 1, 2019 8:45 PM ET

The CLP Group has shared in its new Sustainability Report how it embraces the opportunities inherent within the digital revolution, and continually refreshes its operations, products, and services to capture the latest in innovation, efficiency, and customer convenience.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Be Your Best: Our Keys to a Safer, Healthier and Happier Schneider Electric

May 1, 2019 5:20 PM ET

At Schneider, safety is everyone’s responsibility. Nurturing a safe, clean and orderly work environment is both our collective responsibility and a function of every Schneider employee, partner, and affiliate. Our story encompasses generations of people who have transformed our company, and the world, for almost two centuries. Today, our heritage has empowered us to innovate at every level, enabling us to become leaders in digital transformation.

Environment

John Stoehr: Let’s Impeach the President

May 1, 2019 5:00 PM ET

We have our hands full at Sea Change Radio just trying to cover important stories relating to the environment and social justice. But we also recognize that what’s happening in the broader political landscape has a profound ripple effect on environmental and social policies.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Nickelodeon Interns Help Bring Burbank High Student’s Mural Design to Life

May 1, 2019 4:30 PM ET

Our Spring 2019 NICKterns headed down to Burbank High School to partner with local high school student Ana Cristina Varela to bring her vision of a mural to life. Ana is a star BHS animation student and a product of our animation mentorship program.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Sacramento Homeownership to Get $6 Million Boost

May 1, 2019 4:30 PM ET

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), NeighborWorks® America and its local network member, NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center Sacramento Region, today announced an additional $6 million donation by Wells Fargo to boost homeownership through the NeighborhoodLIFT® program for Sacramento County and the city of West Sacramento. This effort to create approximately 225 local homeowners follows the success of the 2012 NeighborhoodLIFT program for Sacramento that included a $7 million philanthropic investment by Wells Fargo and created 329 homeowners.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Bloomberg Expands Eligibility for 2020 Gender-Equality Index to Include Nearly 6,000 Companies Across 84 Countries

May 1, 2019 4:20 PM ET

The submission period for the 2020 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) opened today to more public companies around the world than ever before. Now in its third year, the GEI recognizes companies that are committed to transparency in gender reporting and offer best-in-class policies and practices in support of women in the workforce.

Education

FIRST® and Strategic Partners Team Up to Introduce Robotics to Underserved Students

May 1, 2019 1:50 PM ET

Companies like Bechtel have their own challenges with creating diverse teams, and that’s why working as a collective ecosystem is so important in reaching students and building the workforce of the future. Our focus is to expand our reach and partner with sponsors like Bechtel, Apple, Arconic Foundation, Qualcomm Incorporated, Bosch, Caterpillar, Cisco, Cognizant, The Dow Chemical Company, GitHub, John Deere, USA Toyota Foundation, and others keenly focused on introducing K-12 students to STEM fields.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Sappi North America Opens 2019 ‘Ideas That Matter' Call for Entries

May 1, 2019 1:25 PM ET

Sappi North America, Inc., a leading producer and supplier of diversified paper and packaging products, today announced the call for entries for its 2019 Ideas that Matter grant program, inviting designers to show the world how print can play an important role in changing lives for the better. This year, the company celebrates the 20th anniversary of the program, which Sappi established to support designers who apply their creative talents to benefit causes that address significant issues facing our society.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Los Angeles Convention Center Unveils Largest Public Art & Civic Project in the United States by Portraits of Hope

May 1, 2019 1:00 PM ET

The Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC), owned by the City of Los Angeles and managed by AEG Facilities, recently revealed a massive, hand-painted mural created by Portraits of Hope, titled Shaping LA. The mural, spanning the length of four football fields, and accompanying artwork will be displayed for approximately six months on the LACC’s South Hall facing the 110 freeway and on the ground level of the facility in and around the West Hall parking garage and walkway facing STAPLES Center.

Research, Reports & Publications

Study: White Oak Pastures Beef Reduces Atmospheric Carbon

May 1, 2019 1:00 PM ET

Will Harris is many things to many people. To chefs and foodies, he is a legendary farmer producing some of the world’s best pasture-raised meats infused with the terroir of South Georgia. To athletes, body-hackers, and health-conscious consumers, he is the owner of White Oak Pastures, which ships humanely-raised, non-GMO, grassfed proteins to their doorsteps. To the communities surrounding Bluffton, Georgia, he is one of the last good ole’ boys and the largest private employer in the county. To his colleagues in agriculture, he’s a renegade and an inspiration. But Will Harris’ legacy might turn out to be something else entirely. He may be remembered as the cattleman who figured out how to enlist cows in future generations’ struggle to reverse climate change.

Events, Media & Communications

Cybersecurity Grand Challenges – Setting the Stage for a Secure Future

May 1, 2019 12:20 PM ET

n coordination with the Joint Services Academy, Booz Allen sponsored workshops in February and April 2019, with the collective ingenuity of the cybersecurity community. The workshops, which included experts from industry, government, and academia, focused on identifying, scoping and setting a path forward regarding the “Grand Challenges” that are anticipated to impact cybersecurity over the next 10 years. Insights from these working sessions served as a precursor to the Joint Services Academy Cybersecurity Summit, held at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, April 17-18, 2019.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Nearly 18,000 Bloomberg Customers Are Using ESG Data

May 1, 2019 12:20 PM ET

Financial markets are demanding greater transparency around ESG issues. Bloomberg empowers financial decision-makers by providing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data on 11,500+ companies.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Why Employee Volunteer Recognition is Important

May 1, 2019 12:10 PM ET

If your employee volunteer program is perceived as important, it goes a long way to making the employee feel important. Employee volunteering can have far-reaching individual, workplace, and community impact – it can do a lot. It’s also asking a lot. So, it’s important that companies see this, and recognize it appropriately. The big question is – how?

Education

Here’s What Lockheed Martin Is Doing to Bring in More Young Engineers

May 1, 2019 12:00 PM ET

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Record Number of Dresses Collected for Comerica Bank’s Detroit Prom Dress Drive

May 1, 2019 12:00 PM ET

With more than 2,000 dresses collected, Comerica Bank’s Detroit Prom Dress Drive distributed a record total to Hope Closet. To further support Hope Closet and its community outreach, Comerica presented a $5,000 donation to Hope Closet President Whitney Drake.

Environment

Ecocentricity Blog: Revisiting Maria

May 1, 2019 11:00 AM ET

Though the storm blew over a year and a half ago, Maria has not left the island. I’m not sure she ever will.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

SC Johnson Turkey Named Best Workplace for Third Consecutive Year

May 1, 2019 11:00 AM ET

SC Johnson Turkey has been recognized as one of the Best Workplaces in Turkey by Great Place to Work® for the third consecutive year. The Turkey organization earned the No. 3 spot among mid-sized companies on the annual Best Workplace list of companies in Turkey with 50-250 employees.

Environment

Duke Energy Reaches $10 Million Commitment to Support Waterways in the Carolinas

May 1, 2019 10:30 AM ET

Twelve organizations spanning 43 counties in North Carolina and South Carolina will receive $940,000 in new grants from Duke Energy’s Water Resources Fund to support environmental and wildlife programs.