Month: April 2023

The theme of this year’s Earth Day on April 22 is Invest in Our Planet. It’s the 53rd Earth Day since the inaugural event in 1970 that kicked off the modern environmental movement. Not long after, in the early 1980’s, scientists realized the Earth’s natural sunscreen was thinning dramatically over Antarctica. It spurred a coordinated global effort to reduce and/or replace ozone depleting substances. Today, the hole in the ozone continues to close and it is expected to heal by mid-century.[i]

This success story gives insights into how we can tackle an even more complex threat, climate change. With the ten warmest years on record having all occurred since 2010, including the last nine years (2014-2022) among them,[ii] there is palpable sense of urgency to scale more effective action. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says to avoid the worse impacts of climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions need to be cut in half by 2030[iii] and to “net zero” by 2050.[iv]

Technology continues to play an increasingly important role in transitioning toward a low carbon and sustainable economy. As a leading semiconductor company, a top priority at AMD is designing and delivering leadership products that advance energy efficiency for high performance and adaptive computing. We aim to help others achieve their IT performance needs while reducing IT-related energy, emissions and operating cost. Through innovations in architecture, packaging and software, AMD continues to make strong progress, including powering 75 percent of the top 20 most energy efficient supercomputers (November 2022 Green 500 list).

Another focus area for AMD and the industry is addressing GHG emissions in the manufacturing supply chain. CDP estimates that supply chain emissions are on average 11.4 times higher than operational emissions.[v] AMD works closely with our manufacturing suppliers across a variety of sustainability metrics, including progress toward our 2025 goals for 100 percent of these suppliers to have their own GHG goals and 80 percent to source renewable energy. In 2023, AMD was again honored to be recognized by CDP as a Supplier Engagement Leader (2022, 2021, 2019), an honor reserved for the top 8 percent of CDP survey respondents for actions to help reduce emissions and climate risks in the supply chain.

Collective efforts are increasingly important as our industry mobilizes across the value chain to scale climate solutions. To support these efforts, AMD joined many of our suppliers and customers when we became a founding member of the Semiconductor Climate Consortium late last year. The Consortium convened 70+ companies around the shared purpose to reduce GHG emissions across the electronics value chain. AMD was also selected to be a founding participant in the Responsible Business Alliance’s Senior Environmental Advisory Taskforce. The taskforce shapes the sustainability strategy for the world’s largest industry coalition dedicated to corporate social responsibility in global supply chains.

Meanwhile at AMD, our own workforce and operational presence grew in 2022 following two strategic acquisitions that strengthened our company’s continued opportunities for ongoing technology and product leadership, market diversification and expanded customer partnerships. Yet by increasing renewable energy sourcing and implementing energy conservation projects, we continued to execute toward our public goal to cut AMD global operational GHG absolute emissions in half by 2030 (compared to 2020 base year). 

I look forward to celebrating this Earth Day with countless AMDers around the globe in AMD-sponsored events or individual efforts. Employee activities include participating in our “get-one-give-one tree” program in North America, cleaning up local parks in Canada and Ireland, making seed balls in India for the upcoming monsoon season, and organizing a recycle and donation drive in Malaysia to get clothes and blankets to those in need. It brings me great pride to be a part of it all, including helping to navigate the broader industry pathway to climate protection.

For more information on our environmental sustainability programs and initiatives, please visit: https://www.amd.com/en/corporate-responsibility/environmental-sustainability 
 

Footnotes: 
i https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/12/ozone-layer-hole-update-nasa/

ii https://www.noaa.gov/news/2022-was-worlds-6th-warmest-year-on-record  

iii Slide 9: https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6syr/pdf/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SlideDeck.pdf

vi Page 33: IPCC_AR6_SYR_LongerReport.pdf

v https://www.cdp.net/en/research/global-reports/transparency-to-transformation

Rooted in service and committed to helping build stronger communities, Aramark encourages employees to give back around the world and throughout the year—focusing on developing relationships with nonprofit organizations and community leaders to enrich the neighborhoods where Aramark teams, clients, and customers live and work.

The company’s strategic approach to community service, called Aramark Building Community, centers on three pillars:

How WE CARE for the community and support issues important to the people in them;What WE GIVE through strategic investments and by donating time, knowledge, and resources; andWhat WE DO through employee volunteerism and engagement.

Aramark Building Community Day

Aramark dedicates one day each year to a global day of service called Aramark Building Community Day. On this day, thousands of volunteers from more than a dozen countries dedicate their time, energy, and expertise to conduct service projects in their local neighborhoods.

The 10th annual Aramark Building Community Day will be held April 27, 2023.

Thousands of employee volunteers will participate in projects benefiting 140 community organizations in 13 countries, working with children and families to increase access to healthy food and nutrition education, empower workforce preparedness, and to improve community centers and environments.

Since the day of service began in 2014, Aramark employee volunteers have served more than 1.9 million people in their local neighborhoods.

“Our volunteers see the immediate impact they are making in someone’s life on Aramark Building Community Day, and they are experiencing it standing next to Aramark people they know and others they’ve never met before. It’s powerful,” said Jami Leveen, Vice President, Aramark Community Partnerships. “I am so proud to be a part of something that means so much to so many people.”

Many Aramark employees participate in Aramark Building Community Day every year. Find out what motivates three of these stand-out volunteers to give back in the stories below.

MaryJo McLoughlin

MaryJo McLoughlin, RD, LD, a District Manager with Aramark Student Nutrition, has been at the company nearly 38 years—and has always made giving back part of her mission.

“I started with Aramark in 1985—and started volunteering almost from the beginning,” said McLoughlin. “It wasn’t called Aramark Building Community then, but that’s where our hearts were. Every time we had a client event, we would make sure there was a charitable or volunteer component attached.”

McLoughlin grew up on the south side of Chicago, and much of her volunteering has been focused in areas in and around the city.

“It’s important to me to work with children and adults in communities teaching them about health and wellness,” said McLoughlin, who is a Registered Dietitian and a co-chair for Aramark’s dietitian-led employee resource group NOURISH. “But I can’t tell you how great it is on Aramark Building Community Day, working half the day as a dietitian teaching people about healthy food and grocery shopping and then the other half of the day painting a parking lot!”

Community events in which McLoughlin has participated over the years include teaching nutrition classes at YMCAs and pre-schools; taking high school students grocery shopping and then guiding them through mindfulness exercises; learning how to lay tile; organizing book, clothes, and food drives; volunteering with Wreaths Across America to place wreaths on military members’ graves; giving interviewing guidance for people searching for jobs; devoting time to various school wellness committees in Chicagoland; and packaging food for food banks.

McLoughlin described a time when she knew her volunteer efforts were making a difference.

“Once we were in Humboldt Park doing healthy cooking and nutrition demonstrations, and I saw a woman cowering in the corner and not really participating,” said McLoughlin. “I found out later she left her home because of physical violence and she was standing back because she couldn’t be near a camera. So many people like her desperately need the services those community centers provide.”

In addition to the impact provided in the communities, the collaboration with other Aramark people has been incredibly valuable to McLoughlin.

“ABC Day events expose you to people from several [Aramark] lines of business. You could be there with a hammer in your hand but you learn so much from the conversations happening around you,” she said. “It’s a day unlike any other when you’re totally dedicated to giving back to the community. You do other things in your normal job. This day, your time is spent giving back.”

Adrienne Morris

Adrienne Morris, Human Resources Manager with Aramark Collegiate Hospitality at Mississippi State University (MSU), started leading the onsite dining services team in community service projects shortly after she joined the company in 2014.

“I think our first project was a canned food drive with a nearby church that has a food pantry,” said Morris. “The church said they could never get enough bags prepared for clients and our team went in and prepped 200 bags in an hour.”

MSU is based in Starkville, Mississippi and the Aramark team partners a lot with Starkville Strong, a nonprofit organization that helps people in the community with everything from homelessness to food insecurity.

“There are a lot of different needs in our community,” said Morris. “We donated a grant to Starkville Strong and prepared ‘joy packs’ for the holidays that had food, personal hygiene products, and winter clothing. This year for ABC Day, we’re volunteering at their food pantry. They’re expecting about 300 people from the community.”

When asked what motivates Morris to lead volunteer projects year after year, she reflects on a favorite quote.

“A quote I lean toward is, ‘We rise by lifting others.’ It means as much to me being in HR as it does when I think about serving the community,” said Morris. “When I think about food insecurity, I think people might also be looking for jobs. Volunteering like this helps you understand and address other needs in the community.”

Morris says Aramark Building Community Day sets the tone for the team’s year of volunteering, but that it doesn’t start and end with that day.

They work with community partner Casserole Kitchen that serves hot meals three times a week. The Aramark team at MSU sponsors one of those days every month. They organize blood drives one or two times a year and have made goodie bags to thank first responders for their ongoing efforts.

During last year’s water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, the team partnered with the university and donated bottled water. They’re currently exploring ways to help people being impacted by storms in the area.

“I don’t ever underestimate finding ways to connect Aramark to the community,” said Morris. “Many people don’t realize Aramark is in so many places—and our people are volunteering around the world. Community partners are ‘wowed’ by it. Employees are inspired by it. New students at our university connect to it. We all get busy with work and our lives. Sometimes we have to stop and ask, ‘How else can we make an impact?’”

Carl Mittleman

A leader at Aramark for 26 years, Carl Mittleman, Chief Operating Officer, Aramark International, never hesitates when it comes to giving back during Aramark Building Community Day.

“ABC Day is one time of year when we come together from different lines of business, with different roles and backgrounds, and work to focus on a common goal,” said Mittleman. Whether we’re refurbishing a community center, or working in a neighborhood, or providing healthy meals to people, it’s a very rewarding experience.”

He lives with his family in Denver, so Mittleman’s volunteer projects in that city are near and dear to his heart. This year, he will be in Denver again, working with the Southwest Improvement Council (SWIC), where he had his first Aramark Building Community Day experience.

Mittleman also remembers a fulfilling experience at an Aramark Building Community Day in Boston when he was part of Aramark Sports + Entertainment.

“It was great meeting people I didn’t know,” he said. “We did three different projects throughout Boston that day. To build a bench with somebody from Aramark Healthcare+ and to find out what’s going on is so beneficial. It’s a great chance to connect.”

However, he noted that Aramark Building Community Day is a time when work becomes second and communities come first.

“The personal satisfaction you get from volunteering and working on projects is significant,” he said. “To see the looks on the faces of the people in the community—the kids seeing the gym you just re-painted and the gratitude from the community leaders—it’s all incredible.

“I encourage all my colleagues to get out and volunteer on an Aramark Building Community project. Anyone can give up a few hours of their day to make someone’s life better.”

A Decade of Impact

Since its first project in 2014, ABC Day has engaged nearly 55,000 Aramark employee volunteers and given back to almost 2 million community members. Over the years, volunteers have supported the communities where they live and work by hosting projects, planting community gardens, serving nearly 210,000 meals and collecting more than 161,000 pounds of food.

Since its inception in 2008, Aramark Building Community, the company’s signature philanthropic and volunteer initiative, has invested tens of millions of dollars, engaged more than 70,000 employee volunteers, and impacted more than five million children and families in underserved communities around the world. 

Learn More: Celebrating 10 Years of ABC Day (Mark in Motion)

Originally published by Upworthy

We’ve all been hearing urgent warnings from scientists, government, and corporate leaders on the need to limit the planet’s global temperature warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change.

Several studies, including research from the National Academy of Sciences indicate if we continue on the path we are on, we will likely hit that pivotal moment of global warming in the early 2030s. It’s clear that more needs to be done —and faster—to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and secure a thriving and sustainable economy for everyone.

Broader research is also showing people care more than ever about what companies are doing to address this challenge. In a 2022 global survey from IBM, 51% of respondents said environmental sustainability is more important to them now than it was the year before. And a 2022 Yale survey found that 51% of U.S. business students would even take lower pay to work for a company with better environmental practices — a signal of the topic’s importance.

T-Mobile is an example of a company that has led the wireless industry in these efforts starting with its pledge in 2018 to source 100% of its total electricity usage with renewable energy and being the first in U.S. wireless to set science-based carbon reduction goals and then reach them in 2021. This year, T-Mobile stepped up even more by becoming the first U.S. wireless provider to announce a net-zero target for its entire carbon footprint.

Mike Sievert, T-Mobile’s CEO, is encouraging others to join in on developing bold sustainability commitments because its critical companies lead by example with real action. “We’ve made the decision as a company to move beyond managing risks and begin to take intentional measures — bigger than ever before — that will ensure a sustainable future for us all,” Sievert said in his recent blog. “I’d like to see even more businesses like ours do the same. There is strength in numbers, and more important, there are common practices that we could jointly develop and share.”

These efforts are not just good for the planet, it’s also good business. Independent nonprofit, JUST Capital, recently found that companies like T-Mobile that are recognized on its annual list of America’s Most JUST Companies on average have a 4.5% higher profit margin, 2.4% higher return on equity, and paid 5 times more in dividends than those that didn’t. Environmental sustainability is a significant factor defining whether a company is “JUST.”

With T-Mobile taking bold steps, how will the company reach its net-zero goal?

Upworthy spoke with Brigitta Witt, T-Mobile’s vice president of social impact and sustainability, and she explained the path the company is taking to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.

“We are taking definitive actions and have already made considerable progress by decommissioning old or unneeded network equipment, upgrading to eco-friendly cooling systems and implementing energy-efficient software across about half of our network sites,” Witt told Upworthy. “We’re diversifying our renewable energy investments and transitioning to electricity sources that have lower emissions, while also ramping up investments in community solar projects across the country to help generate clean energy to reduce the use of fossil fuels with solar and wind power.”

The company’s transition to 5G also plays a big role in the road to net-zero. Even though the equipment uses more energy than previous generations, it uses less per bit of data it transmits, making it much more efficient.

“According to Accenture, 5G technologies could help enable up to one-fifth of the carbon reductions required under the U.S. climate change target by 2025,” Witt told Upworthy.

The biggest challenge to T-Mobile’s ambitious climate goals is the emissions generated by its value chain.

“We are working with our suppliers and engaging customers to help reduce their carbon footprints, which in turn helps us reduce our scope 3 emissions,” Witt said. “We will also continue to look at emerging trends, innovative solutions and global landscape evolution as we build out our strategy over the next two decades.”

T-Mobile reinforced its commitment by joining The Climate Pledge, which encourages companies to work together to accelerate climate action across all industries. “It aligns our company with nearly 400 like-minded companies and organizations that believe investing in sustainability is key to long-term success,” Witt said.

In addition to leading the wireless industry and committing to a net-zero goal T-Mobile is also encouraging customers to help through a Device Reuse and Recycling Program, which led to 11.6M customer devices being reused, resold, or recycled for free in 2021.

Ultimately, T-Mobile is committed to being an even greater force for good in wireless and the world in which we live and is all in on its relentless pursuit of progress in sustainability.

“We know we can’t be the best at connecting customers to their world without also taking on the challenge of changing our industry, for the better, and making a positive impact on the world around us,” Witt told Upworthy. “And sustainability commitments are no exception—and we won’t stop using our expanded network, scale and resources to help create a connected world where everyone can thrive.”