ESG News from Leading Brands

Environment

Sharing the Knowledge From Mỹ Lợi Climate-smart Village in Việt Nam

Jun 18, 2018 9:35 AM ET

Farmers, agricultural extension officers and local leaders from Quảng Bình Province, Việt Nam came to Mỹ Lợi Village to learn about climate-smart agriculture during a one-day roving workshop, 23 April. They will share the knowledge they gained with other extension officers and farmers in the province to encourage wider adoption of climate-smart agriculture. Mỹ Lợi is one of three villages in the country taking part in a project of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, managed by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Việt Nam.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Family Destinations to Visit for More Than Just the Sights

Jun 18, 2018 9:05 AM ET

It isn’t always easy for parents traveling with children to find food options that cater to everyone’s taste at popular destinations. Sodexo, a food services and facilities management company committed to improving Quality of Life, employs chefs at major museums and attractions across the country who have created new and innovative food experiences for parents and children alike by offering classic choices with a twist.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Xylem Watermark & Project 24: Lvea, Cambodia

Jun 18, 2018 9:00 AM ET

Lvea is a rural village remotely situated to the southeast of Kampong Speu Province in Cambodia, approximately 62 km from the closest provincial town. More than half of the local population lives below the poverty line and without access to clean water or health care services.

Sustainable Development Goals

How Far We’ve Come: Energy in Africa, 20 Years Later

Jun 18, 2018 9:00 AM ET

Tetra Tech’s work with Power Africa is proof of concept. We support four distribution companies in Nigeria that had high losses, low collections, a proliferation of illegal connections, and aging infrastructure. We partnered with the companies to develop turnaround plans and implement reforms. Today losses are down, revenue is up, and management is stronger and more effective. Above all, more cash is flowing through the energy sector value chain.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Arbor Day Foundation Announces Expanded Partnership With Denver Mattress to Plant in the Mississippi River Valley

Jun 18, 2018 9:00 AM ET

The Arbor Day Foundation announced an expanded partnership with Denver Mattress to plant at least 10,000 trees in the Mississippi River Valley. Through the partnership, the Arbor Day Foundation will plant one tree per Aspen Collection Mattress sold. Aspen, by Denver Mattress, is thoughtfully designed in Colorado and committed to sustainability.

Research, Reports & Publications

Ivanhoé Cambridge Releases Second Combined Report and Affirms Its Sustainability Vision for 2020

Jun 18, 2018 9:00 AM ET

Ivanhoé Cambridge develops and invests in high-quality real estate properties, projects and companies that are shaping the urban fabric in dynamic cities around the world. It does so responsibly, with a long-term view to generate optimal, risk-adjusted returns. Ivanhoé Cambridge is committed to creating living spaces that foster the well-being of people and communities, while reducing its environmental footprint.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

The $35 Billion Chocolate Giant Mars Was Once Notoriously Private. Here's Why the Company Is Now Speaking Out.

Jun 18, 2018 9:00 AM ET

"For most of our history, in fact ... for 99% of our history, we've chosen not to be in the public eye and we've really wanted our brands to engage consumers. And yet times have changed," Mars chairman Stephen Badger said.

"Consumers do want to know more about not only the brands that they're buying, but the company that is behind them," Badger, who is also the great-grandson of the company's founder, Franklin Mars, said.

Badger is right. A recent study by Label Insight, which surveyed 2,000 consumers, found that 94% of respondents would be more loyal to a brand if it offered complete transparency.

Supply Chain & the Circular Economy

Three Ways Business Leaders Can Advance Human Rights

Jun 15, 2018 7:15 PM ET

Mars alone cannot solve human rights challenges. It takes a team effort. That is why we’re committed to joining with other stakeholders. And, it is why economic investments aren’t the only ones we’re making in Thailand. In keeping with our conviction that what we do today can make the world a better place tomorrow, we are taking steps to understand the relevant human rights issues in our fish supply chain and, where relevant, to play a proactive and collaborative role in addressing them.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Meet the Maces: One Family’s Extraordinary Adoption Journey

Jun 15, 2018 4:20 PM ET

It’s easy to look at the Mace family and see something extraordinary. A same-sex couple who has adopted five children from the foster care system, all while devoutly serving the United States military and bearing the strain of multiple re-assignments. From background checks, court sessions, disclosure meetings and more, Christopher and Brian Mace have gone to extraordinary lengths to create a forever family for their five children: Eira, Kota, Steven, Dallyn and Kinley.

Energy

AT&T Expands Its Renewable Energy Program With NextEra Energy Resources

Jun 15, 2018 4:00 PM ET

To celebrate today’s Global Wind Day, AT&T is expanding its renewable energy program with NextEra Energy Resources. Together, AT&T and subsidiaries of NextEra Energy Resources will help to deliver clean energy, create jobs, boost the local economy and support a low-carbon economy.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Pernod Ricard Creates Lasting Impact in U.S. Cities During Annual Responsib’ALL Day

Jun 15, 2018 3:30 PM ET

Pernod Ricard USA, a leading premium spirits and wine company, recently collaborated with Keep America Beautiful and for Pernod Ricard USA's eighth annual Responsib’ALL Day. One day each year, Pernod Ricard USA employees celebrate Responsib’ALL Day by collectively investing volunteer hours in their home communities to show their commitment and contribution to society and to demonstrate “good times from a good place.”

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Coca-Cola Partners With Gen Z and Millennials to Make an Impact on Issues That Matter Most

Jun 15, 2018 3:30 PM ET

Recently, the world witnessed the power and determination of Gen Z after they inspired over 1.2 million people in over 450 rallies in the U.S. (not to mention countless rallies worldwide) to march for gun control. Despite their young age, this generation is concerned about the state of our world, and 94 percent feel that companies should step up to address social and environmental issues. Now, one brand is harnessing this empowered group’s engagement to advocate for a variety of issues that matter most to them.

Energy

National Grid Releases Northeast 80x50 Pathway

Jun 15, 2018 2:00 PM ET

National Grid, one of the nation’s largest investor-owned utilities, today released the “Northeast 80x50 Pathway,” a blueprint for drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 (“80x50”). The Pathway is the first of its kind in the Northeast.

Education

Duke Energy Foundation Boosts South Carolina Students, Teachers and Workforce Through $660,000 in Grants

Jun 15, 2018 12:30 PM ET

Duke Energy has been powering South Carolina for more than a century, and continues to empower the minds of its students and the workforce of the future by investing in innovative education programs and initiatives. Emphasizing the importance of workforce development, literacy and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Duke Energy recently awarded more than $660,000 in grants to 16 programs across the Palmetto State.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Tyson Foods Donates $151,000, Truckload of Protein to Food Finders Food Bank

Jun 15, 2018 12:15 PM ET

Tyson Foods announced today a $151,000 donation to Food Finders Food Bank to help fund a mobile food pantry and leverage access to federal funding for food programs. The company also donated a truckload of protein totaling 29,640 pounds, the equivalent of 118,560 servings.

With the purchase of a refrigerated box truck, the food bank’s mobile pantry will be able to increase the number of annual meals provided to the surrounding Logansport area. The grant will also help subsidize first-year costs on a SNAP Outreach Coordinator who will enroll residents in federal feeding programs.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

How Las Vegas Sands is Fighting the Homelessness Problem in Southern Nevada

Jun 15, 2018 12:05 PM ET

On any given night, nearly 6,500 people are homeless in Southern Nevada, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Nevada ranks eighth in the nation for the rate of homeless persons – the smallest region among the metropolitan areas ranking in the top 10 for homelessness. Of that population, more than 60 percent of all homeless people in Nevada are unsheltered, living on the streets in encampments, cars, or other places not meant for human habitation. Las Vegas/Clark County ranks fifth among large metropolitan areas with the highest rates of unsheltered homeless.

Social Impact & Volunteering

Providing Meals and Comfort to Ronald McDonald House Families

Jun 15, 2018 12:00 PM ET

Throughout the fall and winter, Astellas sponsored a total of 62 Changing Tomorrow Day volunteer events for field-based employees across the United States to unite and support families staying at Ronald McDonald Houses (RMH) to be near their hospitalized children. Many of the volunteers cooked meals from scratch to provide comfort and nutrition to the patients’ families, while other teams helped clean the houses to meet the needs of each RMH chapter.

Environment

What Kenya Needs to Do to Take Advantage of Its Rainfall

Jun 15, 2018 11:35 AM ET

For the past month Kenya has had torrential rainfall. This followed devastating droughts in parts of the country. The Conversation Africa’s Moina Spooner asked Maimbo Malesu how the country can make better use of the rains.

Environment

PepsiCo Digs Deep in Agriculture and Water

Jun 15, 2018 10:50 AM ET

PepsiCo is, at heart, an agricultural company and a company whose products are consumed when communities come together. We cherish this role and are committed to being part of the solution when challenges arise. For agricultural communities this can mean facing difficult realities from 100 year floods and droughts now happening every other year, to the rising average age of farmers, to increasing soil loss and water pollution. At PepsiCo, we fully realize that our future is tied to the future of our farmers and communities and we are working together to confront shared challenges head on and make tomorrow brighter and better.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

eBay for Charity Partners with GLAAD to Celebrate Pride Month & the LGBTQ Community

Jun 15, 2018 10:40 AM ET

eBay for Charity, a platform that easily connects buyers and sellers with the causes they care about, announced its partnership with GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy group, to launch a campaign in celebration of Pride Month this June.

Diversity & Inclusion

Empowering Women One Course at a Time

Jun 15, 2018 10:35 AM ET

Events, Media & Communications

Celebrating Fathers as Life-saving Sources of Support

Jun 15, 2018 10:15 AM ET

As an obstetrician, my job is to focus on moms and babies. But one of my favorite parts of childbirth is the look on a new dad’s face at the precise moment he sees his baby for the first time. The physical connection between moms and babies begins sooner and more gradually than it does for dads. Moms feel their babies growing and wriggling months before they get to actually see them. For dads, the first physical connection is visual. Fatherhood goes from being abstract to very real in an instant. And that look is everything.

Research, Reports & Publications

The Best of Booz Allen: Top 5 Stories of Transformation and Impact

Jun 15, 2018 10:00 AM ET

Today, Booz Allen Hamilton launched its 2018 Impact Report. This year’s theme demonstrates the firm’s commitment to the art and science of transformation—the journeys Booz Allen embarks on that inspire its people to flex their creative muscles, collaborate to solve problems, and defy the status quo.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Get Your Reporting Journey Started With the GRI Standards

Jun 15, 2018 10:00 AM ET

Introducing the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, the first global standards for sustainability reporting. This animation is a great way to learn more about the standards, which will replace the GRI G4 Guidelines on the 1st July 2018.

Events, Media & Communications

Join 3BL Media and General Mills for Free "Business Aligns with SDGs" Webinar June 19

Jun 15, 2018 9:55 AM ET