Month: March 2023

EUGENE, Ore., March 20, 2023 /3BL Media/ — St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County (SVdP) has received a $150,000 grant from KeyBank to support its Shed-ucation initiative, an innovative new program spearheaded by SVdP in collaboration with Lane Workforce Partnership and the Lane Educational Service District (ESD). Through this program, students in Career Technical Education (CTE) courses at rural public high schools throughout Lane County will build outdoor sheds for installation at several mobile-home parks operated by SVdP. This program presents a triple bottom line, benefitting students seeking hands-on experience, mobile home parks seeking impactful facilities upgrades, and local labor pools seeking workers with skills in building and construction.

The funds gifted by KeyBank will be used to offset the costs of materials, transportation and labor associated with the construction and delivery of new sheds and the demolition and removal of existing sheds. During the program, students will obtain practical experience in tasks related to constructing a small but complex structure and learn foundational skills for well-paying careers in the construction industry. Simultaneously, low-income families will gain new, high-quality sheds where they can securely store items such as landscaping equipment, bicycles or other bulky items unsuitable for storage inside their homes. 

“We are impressed with the ingenuity inherent in this project, the many positive outcomes it will foster and its potential to serve as a working model for schools, nonprofits and communities across the state and region,” said Josh Lyons, KeyBank’s Market President for Oregon and S.W. Washington and Commercial Banking leader. “We appreciate the practical, hands-on skills it will teach to our promising youth in preparing them for successful careers, as well as the assistance the finished products will provide to SVdP’s clients. It’s a win-win for the community as a whole.”

“This partnership is unique in that it serves low-income people in our mobile-home parks and it provides realistic job training for young people — primarily those at rural schools, where students are rarely provided this kind of opportunity,” said SVdP Executive Director Terry McDonald. “We are thrilled to be able to come together with our partners in this project, thanks to KeyBank, as we all work toward building a better community one shed at a time.”

About St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County
Incorporated in 1955 in Eugene, Oregon, SVdP today is the largest nonprofit human-services agency in Lane County and one of the leading affordable-housing developers in the state. SVdP owns and operates more than 1,600 units of permanent affordable housing for low-income residents and helps more than 35,000 individuals annually through an array of services forming a social safety net; this includes sheltering 500-600 unhoused people every night. SVdP operates a network of 13 St. Vinnie’s retail-thrift stores and one used-car lot; an extensive online book sales program; the first and still the largest mattress-recycling enterprise in the nation (DR3 Recyling); and other waste-based recycling and manufacturing enterprises — all designed to create sustainable jobs and revenue to support SVdP’s charitable efforts. For more information, visit www.svdp.us.

About KeyBank
KeyCorp’s roots trace nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $190 billion at December 31, 2022. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications, and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com. KeyBank is Member FDIC. 

In the near future, clean hydrogen, or hydrogen produced with very low or zero carbon emissions, could be one of the most viable replacements for fossil fuels. By 2050, it could cut 7 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, about 20% of human-generated CO2 emissions. In addition, it could help with net-zero transitions for steel, petrochemical, and fertilizer manufacturing, plus the heavy-duty trucking, aviation, railroad, and shipping industries.

However, the expense of producing green hydrogen, more than $5 per kilogram, is hindering widespread adoption. The Wilmington, Del.–based chemistry company Chemours is helping change that.

In October 2022, Chemours dedicated $200 million to expand its offering of Nafion™, a membrane material at the center of water electrolyzers. This membrane material enables green hydrogen energy production, energy storage in flow batteries, and hydrogen conversion to power fuel cell vehicles.

Chemours also partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense, the University of Delaware, Plug Power, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to advance research to slash green hydrogen costs to $1 per kilogram by 2032.

“Materials science is at the heart of amazing things happening in the world, from climate and clean energy technology to advanced electronics, all of which allow for a more sustainable future,” says Chemours president and CEO Mark Newman.

Beyond these developments, the company is stepping up research and development for fluoropolymers and fluoroelastomers, such as Teflon™ and Viton™, used for weatherproofing wind turbines, solar panel wiring insulation, and lithium-ion batteries to improve the materials’ efficiencies in cold temperatures. Then there’s the $80 million initiative to expand Opteon™, its low global warming potential refrigerant line used for chilling food and pharmaceuticals and for cooling buildings and automobiles. Similarly, advances with its titanium dioxide pigment, Ti-Pure™, are supporting reduced material usage, improved energy efficiency, and circularity across applications—from paint and plastics to solar panels and building materials.

For its own 2050 net-zero commitment, Chemours pledged a 60% greenhouse gas reduction by 2030 and is seeking SBTi approval on science-based targets for its Scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon emissions. The company, which logged $6.3 billion in sales for 2021, has committed to generating 50% or more of its revenue from products that contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Chemours is less than three percentage points away from that revenue goal, and Newman believes these developments will push it over the line. “A society that embraces science and innovation is a society that is equipped to meet any challenge,” says Newman. “That’s why at Chemours, we believe in our collective ability to create a better world through the power of our chemistry.”

View original content here.