Month: May 2023

By Kim Borges

As part of Regions Bank’s Earth Day celebration, Doing More Today is highlighting ways Regions associates, customers and community partners are making life better by helping protect our environment. Here, we see the impact of clothing waste and two nonprofits helping keep textiles out of landfills.

Purge, purge, purge.

Many of us have streamlined our closets during the past three years due to changes in work attire.

Next time – consider this:

The average American throws away more than 80 pounds of clothes every year, the weight of an 11-year-old child.The World Economic Forum cited the fashion industry as the world’s third-largest polluter in 2021, contributing 1.2 billion tons – or 10% of annual carbon dioxide emissions – into the atmosphere.And the fast fashion trend of mass clothing production at cheaper prices is predicted to continue increasing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.

But there are ways to reduce environment impacts – while enhancing community impacts.

One Regions Bank community partner extending the shelf life of clothing is Connections to Success in St. Louis, Missouri. The nonprofit provides people living in poverty with a comprehensive network of resources to become economically self-sufficient.

Regions associates are all-in, providing financial donations, teaching financial education, assisting with mock interviews and conducting clothing drives for the organization’s boutique.

“Each client we serve receives an average of 10 items,” explained Lynda Keeton, director of Resource Development for the nonprofit’s St. Louis and Central Missouri region. “Many of our clients have to make hard decisions every day on how to spend the little amount of money they have and are not in a position to purchase professional interview clothing, whether new or from a thrift shop. Our workwear program empowers the self-esteem and confidence of our clients and can be the difference in them securing employment.”

Linda Lockwood from Regions’ Institutional Services group has been plugged in with Connections to Success for over a decade. Five years ago, she facilitated a connection between the organization and a large department store to provide thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise to the nonprofit’s clients.

“One of the best things about this relationship is that it’s expanded the reach of Connections to Success,” said Lockwood. “The boutique has provided purses, and it’s also provided undergarments, a need that is often overlooked. Those generous donations have resulted in increased self-confidence for clients.”

The impact Connections to Success has made since opening its doors 25 years ago is significant.

“We’ve distributed more than 132,000 items to help those we serve secure employment opportunities,” said Keeton.

And even the items Connections to Success can’t provide directly to clients are still being put to use.

“There are several ways we redirect items our clients can’t use,” said Keeton. “Twice a year, we host a pop-up style sale featuring items that are considered more casual wear, as well as overstock inventory or out-of-season items. These items are sold at a very low cost so they are accessible to everyone we serve. Funds raised allow us to replenish our boutique with shoe polish, bags, and other operational items. We also provide overstock and other items we are unable to use to fellow local charities.”

The result is creating a brighter – and a greener – future.

“Repurposing clothing, handbags and shoes is a win-win,” said Keeton. “Anytime we can take an item that could potentially end up in a landfill and instead allow it to inspire a journey to economic independence, we’ve created a win for that woman and a win for the environment. It’s a way we can all do our part to support the earth and to be kind to one another.”

See the impact another nonprofit is making thanks to donated items: Goodwill is another place where many turned to donate items during the pandemic. Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont in Charlotte, North Carolina, a Regions Foundation grantee, resold and gave a second life to nearly 17 million items in its retail stores and more than 132,000 items via e-commerce in 2022 alone. It also recycled or refurbished more than 1.1 million pounds of electronics. The Regions Foundation is a nonprofit primarily funded by Regions Bank.

“When you donate to Goodwill, you’re not only giving items a second chance, but you’re also helping people in your community on their pathway to prosperity,” said Jose Luis, chief operating officer for Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont. “As a social enterprise, proceeds from the sale of donated goods fund job training and employment services offered free of charge. In 2022, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont provided support to more than 7,700 people in the Charlotte region thanks to donors and shoppers in our community.”

About the Regions Foundation
The Regions Foundation supports community investments that positively impact the communities served by Regions Bank. The Foundation engages in a grantmaking program focused on priorities including economic and community development; education and workforce readiness; and financial wellness. The Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation funded primarily through contributions from Regions Bank.

Electra Battery Materials, a processor of low-carbon, ethically sourced battery materials, is expanding its Ontario, Canada refinery to develop North America’s first integrated electric vehicle (EV) Battery Materials Park. The new recycling plant will feature cobalt, nickel, and manganese refining; black mass and scrap battery recycling; and precursor cathode active material (pCAM) manufacturing.

Operations will be built on Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) industrial automation services and technologies, offering data and reporting essential in the mining and metals industry, where sustainability and safety are top priorities.

“Once we’re up and running we will be able to track our product from the very beginning — from suppliers through to our customers,” explained Renata Cardoso, vice president of sustainability and low carbon at Electra Battery Materials. “With all this data, we’ll be able to understand, to improve, and to provide progress to society.”

Cardosa added, “Automation is key to tracking performance and delivering results.”

Currently in the pilot phase, Electra expects to start the commercial operation later this year. Additional refinery and production will commence in phases in 2024 and 2025.

Watch the video to learn more about how Electra and Rockwell are working together to provide sustainable and traceable raw materials for the electric vehicle industry.

Originally published on Rayonier.com

We put decades of work into each stand of trees, all leading to this day. Join us “behind the scenes” as we harvest them and turn them into logs destined to become all kinds of products you depend on every day.

Did you know a single tree might be used to produce multiple products, such as lumber, plywood and paper pulp?

A harvest operation does not simply involve taking trees and loading them onto trucks. Rather, they are carefully inspected one-by-one, sorted by size and quality, cut to specific lengths, and sent to different facilities depending on what they are destined to become.

The most important role in a harvest is that of the loader operator. With a trained eye, he or she can determine how to sort the logs without ever stepping out of the cab of the loader. The operator must judge the logs’ diameter, straightness and overall form to determine how to cut them and what products they will ultimately become.

ONE TREE MAKES MANY PRODUCTS

During a recent harvest, Timber Marketing Manager Rusty Cobb walked the length of one tree that had been set aside for demonstration purposes. He explained that single tree would be cut into three pieces:

Thanks to its large (above 8-inches) diameter and its straightness, the first two 19-foot, 5-inch sections of the tree would make excellent export logs. This is the most valuable use for logs on this property.The skinnier top of the tree didn’t have enough diameter to become an export log. Instead, it would become a 25-foot chip-n-saw log, used to make boards and paper pulp.

A loader operator makes the same type of determination for thousands of trees during the course of the harvest. Different log sorts will be loaded onto different trailers, which will then be driven to various mills or export yards.

TYPES OF PRODUCTS SOUTHERN YELLOW PINES BECOME

Here are the products Rayonier’s Southern Yellow Pine forests are typically sorted into, in order from most valuable to least:

Export logs. These high-value logs are cut to shipping container length, then they’re shipped to countries in other parts of the world, which use them to make lumber and veneer.Poles. Also meeting very specific standards for straightness, size and quality, these logs are destined to become utility poles or pilings for structures like docks. Watch how our foresters identify poles in this video.Domestic Saw Timber. The next-best use for a large, straight log without defect is domestic saw timber. These logs are made into larger lumber, such as 2X10s and 2X8s. Chip-N-Saw. These logs are used to make smaller cuts of lumber, like 2x4s and 2X6s, with leftovers chipped and used for pulp.Canterwood. While smaller and thus less valuable than Chip-N-Saw, canterwood makes small boards. Again, the rest of the wood is chipped and used for pulp.Pulpwood. The logs used for pulpwood are smaller in diameter and / or crooked, knotty or flawed, thus not ideal for making into lumber. Pulpwood is broken down into pulp, then made into paper and thousands of everyday products. You can read about many of the little-known products made from pulpwood here.

THE RESULT OF MORE THAN 20 YEARS OF WORK

So how did the trees get to this point? Here’s a quick overview of the work our foresters put into it:

A specific group of trees called a stand was planted in this location by a forester 20 years or more ago.Over the decades that followed, our team kept an eye on how the forest was progressing. Early in its lifecycle, we may have used herbicide to eliminate competing weeds that would have killed the trees or stunted their growth.We may have given the trees fertilizer as needed over the years to encourage their growth.If we saw any sign of disease or insect infestation, we worked to eliminate it as quickly as possible.And about 10-15 years after planting, we thinned the forest, taking weaker and diseased trees to the pulp mill. That left more space for the strongest trees to grow to their full potential.

As a Timber Marketing Manager, it’s Rusty’s job to make that 20+ year investment pay off. To do that, he estimates what types of products are in the stand of trees even before the harvest begins. He does this by measuring plots in the timber stand (see his demonstration of a timber cruise here). Once he has an idea of the value, he can either directly sell the timber to various facilities, hiring a logging crew to harvest and deliver the timber, or he can sell the standing timber to a dealer who will then manage the logging and sales to the mills.

What Happens After a Timber Harvest

Once the harvest is complete, planning for the next generation of trees begins. If needed, the land will be prepared through raking or chopping debris to break it down; plowing the soil into long mounds if the water table is high; and then planting the next stand of trees, ideally within a year of the harvest. Then the cycle begins all over again, with foresters nurturing that forest for another 20+ years until it’s time to harvest again. Laid out like a patchwork quilt in the forest, each stand of trees is at a different stage in the lifecycle, allowing a richly diverse habitat for the wildlife of the forest and ensuring a steady supply of wood for generations to come.