Month: March 2023

Originally published on U.S. Bank company blog

When Anita Colvin took a job as a part-time teller at a U.S. Bank branch in the greater Portland, Oregon, area, she had no idea it would lead to a career in financial services.

“I was a total accidental banker,” Colvin said. “My plan was to take a year off school and work the part-time teller job while I figured out what I wanted to do with my life, and here I am 25 years later.”

Colvin spent more than 12 years in branch banking, earning a series of promotions and working her way up to a district manager role, then joined the business banking group before she saw an opportunity on the equipment finance team in 2016.

Colvin initially served as director of sales for the equipment finance team’s small-ticket group, which generally supports customers with transactions below $1 million. In early 2021, she became the head of U.S. Bank Equipment Finance’s manufacturing vendor services and the first woman general manager in that sales organization, serving clients across the United States.

As its name implies, manufacturing vendor services provides financing for manufacturers in metal-cutting, plastics, woodworking, glass, stone and other manufacturing industries to purchase or upgrade equipment. The U.S. Bank team works with equipment manufacturers to provide financing to their industrial customers in a fashion similar to auto manufacturers providing financing to consumers.

“I’m always of the mindset that great leaders ask great questions, and my team would certainly tell you I ask a lot of them.”

– Anita Colvin

Colvin wasn’t an expert on the ins and outs of manufacturing when she accepted this leadership position.

“When I took this role, I knew enough about manufacturing to be dangerous, and I still continue to learn every day,” she said. “In my sales organization, we have folks who have been in this space for many years and are experts because they’re working on transactions every day. I’m always of the mindset that great leaders ask great questions, and my team would certainly tell you I ask a lot of them.”

Colvin takes pride in being the first woman to serve in her role.

Traditionally, there has not been a large representation of women in senior leadership positions in the equipment finance industry, especially within the sales organizations, she said.

“There has been a big focus in the industry to change that,” Colvin said. “The workforce is becoming more diverse, which is exciting.”

Colvin is active in diversity efforts, serving as an advocate for women in several professional organizations. She serves as the treasurer on the Women in Manufacturing Oregon Chapter Board, an organization focused on supporting, promoting and inspiring women in the manufacturing industry. She is also a member of the U.S. Bank Women’s Business Resource Group and an active mentor in both the internship and MentorConnect programs at U.S. Bank.    

“I’m absolutely trying to help other women follow my path,” she said. “Creating a diverse team is a critical piece of moving forward. When we all think alike, we limit our long-term growth.”

While the industry may be traditionally male-dominated, Colvin said she hasn’t faced a great deal of bias.

“People have been extremely open and welcoming, giving me the grace to ask questions and learn,” she said. “I’ve been so blessed to have great mentors and sponsors at the bank who advocated for me.”

The people Anita interacts with are what she likes most about the job.

“Whether it’s working with my team or working with our clients or customers, it’s really about building mutually beneficial relationships,” she said. “I just love watching people succeed.”

Originally published on VentureBeat

This article is part of a VB special issue. Read the full series here: The quest for Nirvana: Applying AI at scale.

By Sharon Goldman

For Aflac, which provides supplemental insurance to more than 50 million people worldwide (and is well-known for its duck mascot), delivering AI at scale across the organization has become a top priority since the pandemic.

Scaling the AI platform

 Now, Aflac is working to scale its claims automation platform to other types of claims. 

 “The benefits that the business case has proven are improved customer ease, reducing our pain points through the journey, and increasing our touchless claims, which was a benefit to our internal workforce as well as our claimants,” Anderson said.

 “Streamlining with a rules-based AI reduces error rates and frees up our resources so they can focus on more critical claims where people may actually need to hear a voice on the other end of the phone, maybe dealing with more severe health-related issues where that personal touch is needed.”

Continue reading the full article here.

PARIS and NEW YORK, March 24, 2023 /3BL Media/ – EcoVadis, the leading provider of business sustainability ratings, today announces the addition of Carbon Heatmap into its Carbon Action Module solution, which provides a simple entry point into a supplier decarbonization journey. Unveiled today at the EcoVadis Sustain 2023 conference, Carbon Heatmap is ideal for companies who want an intelligent carbon emissions risk mapping tool to quickly and easily identify carbon hotspots across their trading partners.

Identifying carbon hotspots is a necessary first step into a supplier decarbonization journey as noted by key industry frameworks such as the WBCSD PACT initiative, and World Resources Institute’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol. But research shows companies are struggling to accelerate progress towards emission-reductions goals due to lack of supply chain visibility. Using best-in-class carbon hotspot  mapping analysis, Carbon Heatmap provides a comprehensive carbon emissions risk calculation across a company’s value chain and prioritizes “hot spots” for decarbonization in a matter of hours to days. With Carbon Heatmap, companies can identify the highest potential areas for GHG performance improvement and develop actionable carbon emissions reductions strategies. 

“Given the urgency of the climate crisis, companies are seeking to reduce their carbon emissions and create a more sustainable business model that impacts not just their bottom line, but also benefits both the planet and society,” said Julia Salant, general solutions manager, carbon at EcoVadis. “Carbon Heatmap is a game-changer to help organizations work towards their sustainability goals. Companies can now take a more strategic and data-driven approach to make the most significant impact in reducing emissions and driving supply chain decarbonization.”

Carbon Heatmap is a cost-effective solution for companies that want to make progress on their sustainability efforts without committing significant resources upfront. The solution combines EcoVadis’ unique repository of GHG emissions data based on 14,000-plus reporting organizations across the world. It also pulls from robust public databases along with an organization’s specific spend and criticality data. The methodology is continuously updated based on the latest industry research, standards and literature review.

Benefits and key features of Carbon Heatmap include:

Profile an unlimited number of suppliers, including by spend and criticality data.Carbon emissions risk calculation on a scale of 1-6 for each supplier to uncover the level of their risk and the potential to reduce those emissionsMapping of overall carbon emissions risk by country, industry, emissions source and more.Customized recommendations that allow organizations to request action towards decarbonization and carbon emissions risk mitigation.Reduced investment of time and money required for a full scope 3 mapping conducted by consultants or carbon accounting companies.

A current challenge identified to carbon hotspot mapping has been obtaining reliable matching of spend categories to supplier activity, which can lead to inconsistent results. EcoVadis’ matching capabilities rely on three-years of IQ Plus technology with 1 million-plus companies mapped. This provides a foundation for companies across all phases of their supply chain decarbonization journey to take immediate action and engage their risky suppliers:

Just getting started: Sustainability and procurement teams identify that suppliers are going to play an important role in meeting their organization’s decarbonization goals, but they don’t yet understand the full extent of their scope 3 emissions.Already on the journey: Companies who have started to engage their suppliers and measure their scope 3 emissions, but they need to scale and automate their programs.Leader: Organizations who have best-in-class sustainability and procurement collaboration in place but want to amplify the effectiveness and scalability of their supplier decarbonization programs.

For more information about how organizations can use Carbon Heatmap to prioritize suppliers for engagement on decarbonization, please visit www.ecovadis.com/solutions/carbon. 

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About EcoVadis

EcoVadis is a purpose-driven company whose mission is to provide the world’s most trusted business sustainability ratings. Businesses of all sizes rely on EcoVadis’ expert intelligence and evidence-based ratings to monitor and improve the sustainability performance of their business and trading partners. Its actionable scorecards, benchmarks, carbon action tools, and insights guide an improvement journey for environmental, social and ethical practices across 200 industry categories and 175 countries. Industry leaders such as Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal, Unilever, LVMH, Bridgestone, BASF and JPMorgan are among the 100,000 businesses that collaborate with EcoVadis to drive resilience, sustainable growth and positive impact worldwide. Learn more on ecovadis.com, Twitter or LinkedIn.

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617-969-9192, ecovadis@corporateink.com

In this episode of ESG Talk, David Kanarek, vice president and managing counsel at American Express, joins Workiva’s Mark Mellen and Steve Soter to discuss the SEC’s climate disclosure proposal. Mark and Steve predict what will make it into the final ruling while David shares how his finance and sustainability teams are preparing for the new regulation.

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Download the full PNC Annual Community Benefits Plan Progress Report here. 

As a national main street bank, we recognize that our success is directly proportional to the success of those we serve. Launched Jan. 1, 2022, PNC’s Community Benefits Plan pledges to provide $88 billion in loans, investments and other financial support to bolster economic opportunity for low- and moderate-income (LMI) individuals, communities and people of color.

The one-year report (see documents to view full report) provides an overview of PNC’s first year (Jan. 2022-Jan. 2023) of performance, approach and progress in supporting affordable homeownership, small business, neighborhood revitalization and charitable giving. By leveraging PNC’s national scale, we’re driving patient capital into local communities and building a more inclusive financial system. One year into its four-year Plan, PNC has deployed $35.1* billion to bring this commitment to life.

“In our first year under the plan, PNC delivered more than $35.1 billion*–that’s transformational lending and investing that is expanding access to affordable housing, creating generational wealth, advancing small business and minority entrepreneurs, and supporting community development and revitalization,” said Richard Bynum, chief corporate responsibility officer for PNC. “I’m proud of the very real impact we are making in communities across our footprint.”

Key Highlights 
Supporting Home Lending and Affordable Homeownership: Building on our efforts to drive meaningful homeownership growth, affordability and wealth creation in the communities where our customers live, work and play, PNC is investing in down-payment and closing cost assistance as well as other home-buying resources to advance home ownership and to reduce the wealth gap in low to moderate income (LMI) and majority-minority census tracts.

Expanded Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses: Consistent with PNC’s efforts to reduce barriers to banking and increase access to credit, we have deepened our commitment to small business by collaborating enterprise-wide to help deliver financial solutions that position LMI, minority-owned and micro (less than $1 million in annual revenues) businesses for effective growth, development, and sustainability.

Lending and Investing in Impactful Community Development Initiatives: Investments in affordable rental housing, workforce development, and economic revitalization in LMI neighborhoods and communities of color continues to be a priority for PNC as we continue the work to move all forward financially.

Purpose-Driven Philanthropy: PNC’s commitment to building stronger communities goes beyond loans and investments. Through our national main street bank model, PNC employees deliver time, talent and financial resources to local community organizations and nonprofits dedicated to engaging and empowering people and communities in need.

Closing Gaps in Community Wealth With Clear Solutions: Many communities lack access to traditional banking services that often are the catalyst for financial stability and community wealth-building. PNC has continued to make significant strides in delivering responsible retail banking products to help build a more inclusive financial services system.

Download the full PNC Annual Community Benefits Plan Progress Report here.