Month: March 2023

STAMFORD, Conn., March 7, 2023 /3BL Media/ – United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI), the world’s largest equipment rental company, announced it was included on the Wall Street Journal Management Top 250 list, developed by the Drucker Institute, which recognizes companies for “doing the right things well.” The Management Top 250 ranking measures corporate effectiveness by examining performance in five areas: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility and financial strength.

The Management Top 250 is one of the most prestigious ranking efforts dedicated to measuring corporate effectiveness. The Drucker Institute, a unit of Claremont Graduate University, developed its holistic Top 250 company ranking based on the principles of its founder, Peter F. Drucker. To determine the final rankings, the Drucker Institute evaluated 902 publicly traded companies and analyzed 34 data inputs provided by 14 third-party sources.

“This honor reflects the Work United™ focus by all of our employees at United Rentals and I couldn’t be more proud,” said Matt Flannery, Chief Executive Officer at United Rentals. “We are committed to advancing our service, safety and sustainability goals, while providing long-term value for our stakeholders.”

Over the last year, United Rentals has received numerous accolades, including the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, America’s Most JUST Companies and America’s Most Responsible Companies 2023, as well as long-standing recognition as a Gold Military Friendly Employer. Information on career opportunities can be found on the United Rentals Careers website.

About United Rentals

United Rentals, Inc. is the largest equipment rental company in the world. The company has an integrated network of 1,462 rental locations in North America, 13 in Europe, 27 in Australia and 19 in New Zealand. In North America, the company operates in 49 states and every Canadian province. The company’s approximately 24,600 employees serve construction and industrial customers, utilities, municipalities, homeowners and others. The company offers approximately 4,600 classes of equipment for rent with a total original cost of $19.61 billion. United Rentals is a member of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the Barron’s 400 Index and the Russell 3000 Index® and is headquartered in Stamford, Conn. Additional information about United Rentals is available at unitedrentals.com.

Ted Grace
Chief Financial Officer
O: (203) 618-7122
C: (203) 399-8951
tgrace@ur.com

Source: United Rentals, Inc.

Originally published in Southern Company’s 2021 Corporate Responsibility Executive Summary Report

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) are essential aspects for our company. At Southern Company, Our Values foster a diverse, inclusive, equitable and innovative culture so that employees can execute our business strategy with agility and accountability. Our Moving to Equity work reflects our committment to DE&I in our workforce and our communities. Our community efforts include partnerships with diverse suppliers and philanthropic investments in historically underrepresented and marginalized communities.

We have refocused our efforts toward a more holistic goal of diversity, equity and inclusionEnergy justice has been added as a focus area in our Moving to Equity initiativeSouthern Company is committed to supplier diversity that reflects the diversity of our customer base and energizes our success

Spotlight: Moving to Equity 

Following events in 2020 highlighting racial injustice in our society, we adopted Moving to Equity as our framework to demonstrate a collective commitment to our work. Subsequently, we published a 2021 Moving to Equity report updating stakeholders on progress in our commitment areas.

Key efforts and commitments include: 

Talent: committing to a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace to better serve our customers and communities; increasing and improving outreach, recruitment, hiring and retention of diverse groups at all levels of the workforce; ensuring equity in leadership development programs; and seeking diverse candidate slates for all positions, including management roles.Culture: promoting an actively anti-racist culture to ensure that all groups, especially historically underrepresented and marginalized groups, are wellrepresented, included and fairly treated within all levels of the organization, and that everyone feels welcomed, valued and respected.Community: committing $225 million over five years to advance racial equity and social justice in our communities with a focus on criminal justice, economic empowerment, the advancement of educational equality and energy justice.Political Engagement: advocating for racial equity through our political engagement, policy positions and ongoing public dialogues.Suppliers: aiming to increase our minority business enterprise spend to 20% and total diverse spend to 30% by 2025, and committing to developing and doing business with more Black-owned businesses in our industry and communities.

We provide updates on our progress through our Boldly Forward website and an annual Moving to Equity report.

Commitment to Undertake a Racial Equity Audit 

Southern Company has committed to undertake a racial equity audit, conducted by a third party in 2023, in response to feedback from key stakeholders. The audit will focus on Southern Company’s implementation of initiatives to support racial equity and inclusivity within our workforce and the communities we serve, as set forth in our Moving to Equity commitment framework. As part of the process, we will engage key stakeholders including employees and civic organizations relevant to the audit. We anticipate publishing a report based on the audit at the end of 2023.

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Jeremy Fresz’s Suncor roots run deep and his connection to the community is hereditary. He inherited a love for volunteering from his grandparents who have been volunteering in Fort McMurray since the 1960s. He works at our Base Plant site like his grandfather did, and he’s one of many Suncor employees who care for their communities. 

Collectively, Suncor employees volunteered over 100,000 hours, and, together with Suncor and the Suncor Energy Foundation, donated more than $6.36 million to communities across North America in 2022.

“My grandpa was employee number 184 at Base Plant,” shares Jeremy, a senior asset management advisor at Suncor’s Base Plant in northern Alberta. “He started in January 1967 when Suncor first began commercially producing crude oil, but what I’m really proud of is how he and my grandma threw themselves into the community as soon as they moved to Fort McMurray.”

Jeremy’s grandparents spent a lot of time at the rink taking on various volunteer roles with their kids’ hockey teams. When they retired, they shifted their focus to support the senior community in Fort McMurray and played a significant role in building the Seniors Activity Centre for the Golden Years Society, which promotes wellness and fellowship through activities for seniors in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

Like his grandparents, Jeremy is engaged in his community, but this hasn’t always been the case. “When my kids were young, I shared with my grandma how hard it was to make time for volunteering,” recalls Jeremy. “She looked at me and said, ‘well, you know, we did all that when we had kids. It’s just what you do.’ It gave me the kick I needed to make time and start doing more.”

Today, Jeremy is an active volunteer with his kids’ basketball teams, his church and at Suncor planning volunteer and fundraising activities throughout the year. By tracking his volunteer time in Suncor’s employee giving program, SunCares, he earns volunteer reward dollars to donate to organizations important to him and his family, including the Golden Years Society.

Jeremy isn’t alone in his passion for community—last year, Suncor employees tracked 105,125 volunteer hours in SunCares, a significant increase from the 80,000 volunteer hours tracked throughout 2021. Over the last three years, the pandemic changed the way employees volunteered and highlighted the different ways employees cared for their communities. To continue supporting employees, SunCares expanded its volunteer rewards eligibility to include acts of caring for neighbours, friends and colleagues. As pandemic restrictions began to lift last year, so did the concerns around meeting and volunteering in person.

“People are excited to get together and do things,” says Jeremy. “We’ve had great turnout at events we’ve planned, and even on days when the weather is miserable there are lineups of folks at barbecues.”

These changes were seen across Suncor too. In 2022, employees participated in more than 80 fundraising and volunteer activities. The majority of these events were organized by regional Suncor employee volunteer networks and included activities like game-show style fundraisers, delivering food and gift packages to seniors over the winter holidays, and painting over graffiti at a local park. Other fundraising activities included the Ride to Conquer Cancer, where a Suncor team of Alberta cyclists raised over $161,000 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation, and Movember, where Suncor employees across the company raised over $34,000 for men’s health.

In 2021, Suncor welcomed Syncrude to the family when it assumed operatorship. Last year, Syncrude and its employees donated more than $1.7 million to the United Way in Fort McMurray, United Way of the Alberta Capital Region and the United Way of Calgary and Area, as well as $339,000 to community organizations through the Syncrude Good Neighbours Program.

Visit Suncor.com to learn more about Suncor’s community investment efforts.

Inogen Alliance is proud to announce that we will be an official sponsor of the upcoming eighth annual AWS Global Water Stewardship Forum with Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS). The forum runs from 16-17 May in Edinburgh, Scotland. As an Alliance, we are representing our global presence at this event with five Associates including Antea Group USA, Antea Brasil, Chola MS Risk Services Limited (CMSRS) in India, denkstatt in Austria, and HPC Italia with our global water working group leader Beatrice Bizzaro.

According to Alliance for Water Stewardship website, “The AWS Global Water Stewardship Forum is one of the key events in which our community of members, implementers, and stakeholders share knowledge and learning on the evolution of water stewardship practice and forge new directions through dialogue and partnerships. Held annually in Edinburgh, Scotland, since 2016, it has become the must-attend event for the international water stewardship community.”

Interactive in-person sessions will discuss three cross-cutting topics across the two-day event:

Water Stewardship in ActionUniversal Themes AWS System

“Inogen Alliance has been supporting clients all over the world in undergoing a transformation that, for the first time, is leading to a holistic approach when dealing with water management. We truly believe in working hand in hand with clients to reach ever more ambitious targets. Water efficiency and water quality are a great starting point, but the commitment to water stewardship principles is a further steppingstone to developing an integrated and more meaningful system towards a more sustainable future, without leaving anyone behind,” Beatrice Bizzaro, HPC Italy, Inogen Alliance global water working group leader.

This is a unique opportunity to exchange your water stewardship experiences with industry leaders and build connections with members of the wider AWS community. The event has already sold out, but if you didn’t manage to get a ticket, you can join the AWS waitlist. Or watch for more content and themes to come from our global team that will be attending.

Inogen Alliance is a global network made up of dozens of independent local businesses and over 5,000 consultants around the world who can help make your project a success. Our Associates collaborate closely to serve multinational corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, and we share knowledge and industry experience to provide the highest quality service to our clients. If you want to learn more about how you can work with Inogen Alliance, you can explore our Associates or Contact Us. Watch for more News & Blog updates here and follow us on LinkedIn.

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2023 /3BL Media/ – As a girls’ rights organization, Plan International USA believes when girls lead the way, they can change the world. In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, Plan is partnering with brands and government stakeholders so that girls can take over positions of leadership, ensuring the voices of these young women and girls are heard in the critical conversations on gender equality.

“Girls and young women are leaders today,” Plan International USA’s President & CEO Shanna Marzilli said. “Giving girls, in all their diversity, not just a seat at the table, but a respected and heard position is necessary to building a world where women can thrive in all aspects of leadership.”

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Plan partnered with Bank of Montreal, UNIQLO and Vertex to host Takeovers, where our youth leaders, ranging from ages 16-22, step into executive positions for a day. Plan Youth Advisory Board member Rose became chief administrative officer and general counsel of Fast Retailing USA, Inc, the parent company to UNIQLO. During her Takeover experience, Rose leveraged her experiences leading diversity and inclusion recruitment for Plan’s youth programs to provide recommendations for UNIQLO’s women’s networking group. The Takeover was an extension of UNIQLO’s global partnership with Plan International as part of the brand’s PEACE FOR ALL project.

“We loved welcoming Rose to UNIQLO for International Women’s Day, sharing an inside look to our stores and headquarters, and the many talented women leading the way here,” Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel of Fast Retailing USA Serena Peck said. “Rose’s insights as a youth advocate provided an incredibly valuable perspective that will help us continue to grow and elevate women’s voices. We’re happy to have deepened our work with Plan International USA in our shared vision for a better world for all.”

At Bank of Montreal, Plan youth advocate Ava stepped into the role of Chief Communications and Social Impact Officer Kimberly Goode. Along other BMO executives, Ava took the stage at a culmination event for Black History Month where she shared her experiences.

“BMO is a long-term sponsor of Plan International in the U.S. and Canada, partnering to create opportunities to build confidence in young women and provide exposure to those actively working to create zero barriers to inclusion,” Chief Communications and Social Impact Officer at BMO Kimberley Goode said. “Watching Ava step into my seat gave me such confidence in the impact the next generation will have. They are ready to live their purpose and boldly grow the good in business and life as future leaders.”

In addition to Takeovers, Luna Silvana Abadía, a Youth Advisory Board member at Plan, will be a U.S. delegate for the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women. CSW67 will examine the role technology plays in achieving gender equality. Silvana Abadía will represent the views of girls all over the world through the results of Plan’s State of the World’s Girls report, which highlights the effects of online gender-based violence.

“As an activist and young person, I use social media every day,” Silvana Abadía said. “We desperately need policies that address long-term harassment like the kind I faced for two years. I will use my position at CSW67 to encourage leaders to work with young people to understand their experiences and set greater corporate accountability and human rights standards.”

Silvana Abadía will join Cailin Crockett, senior advisor for the White House Gender Council, Varina Winder, senior advisor for the Secretary of State Office of Global Women’s Issues, and Jamille Bigio, senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment at USAID, on a virtual panel discussing the U.S. government’s commitment to ending online gender-based violence on March 24. The event, hosted by Plan, is titled ‘Will the White House, State and USAID combat online gender-based violence?’

Join Plan as we celebrate girls and women this March 8 and every other day of the year. Learn more and register for the March 24 panel event by visiting: www.planusa.org/iwd.

For more information or interviews, please contact: 
Maria Holsopple 
Director, Corporate Communications 
Email: maria.holsopple@planusa.org

Mobile: 540.383.3628

About Plan International USA 
Powered by supporters, Plan International USA partners with adolescent girls, young women and children around the world to overcome oppression and gender inequality, providing the support and resources that are unique to their needs and the needs of their communities, ensuring they achieve their full potential with dignity, opportunity and safety. Founded in 1937, Plan is an independent development and humanitarian organization that is active in more than 80 countries.

For more information, and to learn about our commitment to safeguarding, please visit www.PlanUSA.org.