Month: April 2023

Construction set to begin on company’s first floating solar pilot in FloridaPilot will feature more than 1,800 floating solar modules, providing even more clean, carbon-free energy for customers

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., April 5, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Duke Energy Florida announced that its first floating solar array pilot will begin construction later this month in Polk County.

The almost 1-megawatt floating solar array will feature more than 1,800 floating solar modules and occupy approximately 2 acres of water surface on an existing cooling pond at the Duke Energy Hines Energy Complex in Bartow.

“We’re excited to get hands-on experience with Duke Energy Florida’s first floating solar project at one of our own power plant sites,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. “Unique pilots like floating solar are helping us better understand the capabilities of innovative clean energy technologies that can benefit our Florida customers and communities now and in the future.”

Crews will construct and assemble the module floating system on land in segments before securing it with anchors in the water. The project will take approximately five to six months.

The pilot is part of Duke Energy’s Vision Florida program, which is designed to test innovative projects such as microgrids and battery energy storage, among others, to prepare the power grid for a clean energy future.

Duke Energy Florida

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 10,500 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 1.9 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,600 people.

Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.

Duke Energy was named to Fortune’s 2023 “World’s Most Admired Companies” list and Forbes’ “World’s Best Employers” list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy’s illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Media contact: Audrey Stasko 
Media line: 800.559.3853 
Twitter: @DE_AudreyS

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Originally published on LBMJournal.com

ATLANTA, April 5, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Georgia-Pacific celebrated four years of partnership with the St. Jude Dream Home in Charlotte with a donation of ForceField Weather Barrier System. The house, built by Charlotte-based Newton Custom Homes & Realty, was completed in September 2022, and raffled off to a winner in October 2022.

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Vinod Chathlani| Lead Portfolio Manager—Multi-Asset Solutions

Salima Lamdouar| Senior Research Analyst—2050 CleanTech Solutions

Carbon Allowances Link the Price of Carbon to Markets

Climate change poses many risks to society and industries, whether it’s elevated weather uncertainty and physical damage from global warming or business-model disruptions in the transition to a lower-carbon economy. While both can impact asset prices over longer horizons, the risk of markets pricing in a faster-than-expected transition is more likely to impact portfolios in the near term. Carbon allowances can be an important tool in protecting portfolios from such transition risks. Based on our research, they’ll likely become a key asset-allocation building block in the years ahead.

A carbon allowance is a permit for a company or other organization to emit one metric ton of CO2 within a specified timeframe—usually one year. They’re issued by local jurisdictions from governments and authorities to supranational entities and are usually auctioned to companies to align with mandatory emissions caps. Companies that emit more greenhouse gases (GHG) than they’re allowed risk hefty fines but those that don’t use all their allowances can sell them back into the market.

Allowances differ from carbon offsets, which businesses buy to support green initiatives outside their operations, hoping to reduce their overall carbon footprint. Another key difference is that carbon offsets are usually “retired” from the market once the buyer claims them.

Carbon allowances, on the other hand, are usually traded among companies and financial intermediaries in the markets they serve. Some of these markets can be accessible through futures and swap contracts, and their prices change with market dynamics. Carbon allowances are the most liquid carbon-related asset class and are often exchanged at high volumes. The most heavily traded market is the European Union’s ETS, with an average of EUR €2.5 billion in contracts changing hands daily.

Carbon Markets Are Still Evolving but Rife with Opportunity

Carbon allowances trade in the compliance markets, one of two primary types of carbon markets. The other is voluntary. While both are important, we think compliance markets, which involve some regulatory oversight, are more imminently investable given their greater scale, liquidity, stronger integrity and transparency.

Voluntary markets tend to be more freewheeling, with no shortage of controversies. They’ve grown only to USD $2 billion over decades and need fundamental reexamining before they can be an effective tool in the low-carbon transition. In contrast, compliance markets add up to USD $850 billion and rising, offering investors much more choice today.

Commonly referred to as “cap-and-trade” or “emissions trading systems (ETS),” compliance markets can range in scope from individual US states to multi-country zones. With nearly 200 countries committed to the Paris Agreement’s goals, the floodgates have swung wide open for carbon allowance issuance across compliance markets worldwide, with secondary investor demand regularly outpacing supply. And as imports increasingly are factored into countries’ decarbonization goals, new Carbon Border Allowance Mechanisms in Europe and elsewhere should only boost compliance market growth through the end of the decade.

What Carbon Allowances Can Do for Investors

In weighing climate-specific risks to investment outcomes, we see three roles for carbon allowances:

They can enhance return potential, since they participate directly in a secular theme of a transition to a decarbonized world that’s already gaining momentum. Issuance will continue to shrink as caps are lowered and fewer allowances are distributed. Moreover, some markets are likely to converge further over a longer time horizon, as we saw with California’s ETS 2014 linkage with Quebec’s, allowing the two systems—now known as the Western Climate Initiative—to share carbon instruments to reach their goals. This trend should provide select arbitrage opportunities over time.Allowances are an effective diversifier, with consistently low correlation to traditional assets such as stocks and bonds (Display). For example, based on a five-year period ending March 31, 2022, the US 10-Year Treasury had a -0.19 correlation with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Just as important, carbon pricing is regional, with varying degrees of emission coverage, market mechanisms and policies in place. Therefore, correlations across carbon markets have also been historically low, such as the 0.13 correlation between the California ETS and the European Carbon Emission Allowance (EUA) for the same period. This makes a strong case for active allocation—not just among carbon allowances but throughout the carbon-related asset class.They’re an effective hedge against some of the tail risk of investment losses related to the climate transition. In fact, we found that carefully selected allocations to carbon allowances have historically reduced transition risk in diversified investment strategies.

Risk Considerations When Allocating to Carbon Allowances

When sizing carbon allowance allocation weightings, three considerations are important: which climate transition path is most likely to occur, the portfolio’s exposure to that scenario and the investor’s tolerance to this risk. That is, there are several ways climate transition could progress, so investors need to weigh the ones they think are most likely to occur.

Moreover, for a given transition scenario, different portfolios may have varying exposure to its risk. For instance, a strategy with a higher allocation to companies whose business models are likely to be disrupted by a faster transition, such as commodity producers, will be more exposed to this risk than one that invests in utilities that produce renewable power.

Our analysis compared multiple climate transition scenarios based on the Network for Greening the Financial System’s (NGFS) REMIND model, a widely accepted baseline.

Looking to 2050, temperature scenarios examined ranged from conservative and methodical to random and disorderly. An orderly path, such as 2 degrees warming orderly scenario, assumes that the early introduction of policies made the transition gradual and with more subdued risks. The disorderly scenarios feature delayed or divergent policies, with carbon costs rapidly increasing later to make up for lost time. Much of the risk comes down to each scenario’s cost of carbon over time—carbon prices will likely rise faster in more rapid transition scenarios (Display).

The climate risks for economies, financial systems and businesses vary widely with each scenario, which has important—and potentially significant—implications for investment strategies. Using common indices as proxies for global equities and stocks of commodities producers, we applied the distinct carbon pricing risks for each scenario to all three assets against the Paris Agreement’s 2030 deadline to cut GHG emissions in half (Display).

As expected, the modest scenario made the smallest impact. The projected loss from transition risk and cost of carbon for global stocks in a 3 degree nationally determined contribution (NDC) scenario was minimal (the gold bar). But transition risks are higher depending on portfolio context. For instance, global stocks saw up to a 3% loss among the more aggressive scenarios. However, commodity producers—companies involved in the carbon-intensive business of providing fossil fuels and related materials—have materially greater transition-risk exposure. That’s why the size of the allocations come down to which scenarios are more likely and the exposure of the portfolio under consideration.

Allocating to Allowances: How Much is Enough?

Based on our assessment of the likelihood of each NGFS transition scenario, we assume a base case scenario for the expected path of climate transition.

Global stocks are exposed to less relative transition risk. So, we think a nearly 2% allocation to carbon allowances is sufficient to protect the strategy in our base-case scenario. For commodity producers, risk exposure is higher, which would need a much higher allocation to achieve a similar level of protection in the base case (Display). Of course, climate change is a moving target. What’s important isn’t the specific numbers, which may evolve with climate change data and models, but rather finding the right framework to think about putting carbon markets to work in investor portfolios.

Diversification has long been the calling card of an effective long-term strategy. But with climate change a growing factor in portfolio risk, global leaders contend that traditional asset mixes may need rethinking and expanding. We see carbon allowances as the next logical step in that direction.

The views expressed herein do not constitute research, investment advice or trade recommendations and do not necessarily represent the views of all AB portfolio-management teams and are subject to revision over time.

Learn more about AB’s approach to responsibility here

Early in 2020, Keith Prowell was making the most of his retirement in New York and staying active with swimming and tai chi. But as reports of a new, unknown virus started spreading, he began not feeling well.

“I started to feel like something was off and didn’t know whether it was a cold or a flu or this new thing that was out there called COVID-19,” recalls Keith.

Keith was instructed to isolate himself from his loved ones, including his wife and son. While in isolation, his breathing became labored. His cough grew worse and he was pale and weak. Concerned, Keith went to urgent care and was soon transferred to the hospital, where he tested positive for COVID-19.

“People were dying and the numbers were going up every day. I wondered if I was going to be a part of that statistic,” he says.

While in the hospital, Keith was offered the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial for an antiviral therapy. He began receiving treatments right away and soon his breathing and speech improved.

Once he recovered, the experience left him inspired to spend more time with his family and to be fully present with those he encounters.

“When you come to a point that you feel like all of that would be lost overnight, you gain a deep appreciation of the little things that you go through every day,” says Keith.

Originally published by Gilead Sciences

On a connected planet, food security concerns everyone

Not long ago, hunger was on the decline. Between 2003 and 2013, the global population grew by almost a billion, while the number of undernourished people fell by 200 million. Development and innovation helped feed more people, even though we were overstretching the planetary boundaries. In recent years, the impact of climate change through weather extremes, as well as shocks caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, have exposed vulnerabilities in the global food system. In fact, the world today is getting hungrier. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, up to 828 million people in the world faced hunger in 2021.

Food insecurity is a global problem that unfolds differently in different parts of the world. However, no matter what the challenge is, fighting hunger always starts where the journey of our food begins: on the farm. Scroll or click on the hotspots to explore some of the challenges impacting agriculture and the food system in different parts of the world. And keep reading further below to find out how some of our solutions can support global stability.

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Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of integrated human capital management software solutions for human resources, payroll, benefits, and insurance services, has been named among one of the 2023 World’s Most Ethical Companies® on Ethisphere‘s annual list for the 15th time.

Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, each year recognizes a select group of companies that show exceptional commitment to ethical operations, compliance performance, and governance practices.

“Ethics matters. Organizations that commit to business integrity through robust programs and practices not only elevate standards and expectations for all, but also have better long-term performance,” said Ethisphere CEO, Erica Salmon Byrne. “We continue to be inspired by the World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees and their dedication to making real impact for their stakeholders and displaying exemplary values-based leadership. Congratulations to Paychex for earning a place in the World’s Most Ethical Companies community.”

“Since our company was founded in 1971, our commitment to ethics and corporate social responsibility has been at the core of everything we do,” said John Gibson, president and CEO of Paychex. “Earning this World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition validates that by living our corporate values, each Paychex employee can make a difference for the customers we serve and the communities we live in.”

In the 2022 Environmental, Social, and Governance Report, Paychex announced that governance; privacy and security; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I); empowering businesses; and occupational safety would join the company’s existing pillars—community; the environment; employees; and ethics—as top priorities going forward. The company has made significant strides toward improving gender and racial diversity among teams, employee safety, cybersecurity practices, and more:

Paychex continues to prioritize and amplify diverse voices through recruitment, employee resource groups, mentorship programs, training, and pay equity. Last fiscal year, in (FY22): 62 percent of Paychex hires were female (+12 percent from FY21); 44.4 percent of Paychex hires were racially diverse (+14.5 percent from FY21).With an ongoing focus on providing its employees with a safe and comfortable work environment, Paychex has experienced a 75 percent reduction in the number of reported new workers’ compensation claims in the last five years.The privacy and security of confidential client information is a top priority of Paychex. The company’s leadership can be demonstrated using independent security rating services such as Security Scorecard and Bitsight, providing external validation of the Paychex cybersecurity program.

To view the full list of this year’s honorees, please visit the World’s Most Ethical Companies website, at worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees. For more information on corporate social responsibility at Paychex, visit paychex.com/corporate/corporate-responsibility.

Methodology & Scoring 
Grounded in Ethisphere’s proprietary Ethics Quotient®, the World’s Most Ethical Companies assessment process includes more than 200 questions on culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity, and initiatives that support a strong value chain. The process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify the leading practices of organizations across industries and around the globe.

About Paychex 
Paychex, Inc. (Nasdaq: PAYX) is a leading provider of integrated human capital management solutions for human resources, payroll, benefits, and insurance services. By combining innovative software-as-a-service technology and mobility platform with dedicated, personal service, Paychex empowers business owners to focus on the growth and management of their business. Backed by 50 years of industry expertise, Paychex serves more than 730,000 payroll clients as of May 31, 2022, in the U.S. and Europe, and pays one out of every 12 American private sector employees. Learn more about Paychex by visiting www.paychex.com and stay connected on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Ethisphere 
Ethisphere is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere also helps to advance business performance through data-driven assessments, guidance, and benchmarking against its unparalleled data: the Culture Quotient dataset focused on ethical culture and featuring the responses of 2+ million employees around the world; and the Ethics Quotient dataset, featuring 200+ data points highlighting the ethics, compliance, social, and governance practices of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. For more information, visit https://ethisphere.com.

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The Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals (ACCP) is now accepting proposals for speakers for its Annual Conference, to be held at the Four Seasons in Denver on October 16-18.

The theme of this year’s Conference is Embrace the Moment. Propel Purpose. Attendees will be approximately 300 CSR and ESG professionals from all career stages. We seek session speakers who motivate attendees to drive their work forward through change and think creatively and collaboratively. Sessions will be designed to leave attendees inspired and energized to tackle the ever-changing post-COVID corporate social impact landscape.

ACCP seeks speakers for various session types, including general keynotes, fireside chats, plenaries, workshops, learning labs, and spark sessions. Proposed session topics include social impact, DEI, grantmaking, disaster relief, volunteerism, impact measurement, and more. 

Please visit the ACCP website for more information about session types and how to submit an RFP. RFPs will close on May 5, and applicants will be notified in June.

 

The Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals (ACCP) is the preeminent membership organization advancing the practice of corporate social impact. ACCP increases the effectiveness of CSR & ESG professionals and their companies by sharing knowledge, fostering solutions, and cultivating inclusive and supportive peer communities. ACCP amplifies the voices of its practitioner network to elevate strategies that work, provide innovative solutions, and expand impact.