Month: June 2023

BROOKLYN, N.Y. /3BL Media/ – National Grid launched The Grid Collective, a groundbreaking program born out of the company’s cornerstone community commitment initiative, Project C. Business leaders, community members, and customers came together at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral in Jamaica, Queens to hear from a panel of National Grid employees discussing the benefits and process for becoming inaugural participants in the program.

The Grid Collective aims to grow green businesses and job opportunities in New York by providing weatherization and energy efficiency training to both vendor and individual workers. The program offers training through the Business Performance Institute (BPI) and other certified sites, helping vendors and workers gain skills and knowledge they need to keep pace with New York’s clean energy goals and capture their piece of the growing green economic opportunities at both the city and state level.

“We understand what’s necessary is the expansion of businesses to deliver weatherization and energy efficiency to meet the milestones and standards laid out in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act to help enable a clean energy future for all,” said Melanie Littlejohn, Vice President, Community and Customer Engagement, National Grid.

Building upon this call to action, Carla Hunter Ramsey, Director, External Affairs and Community Engagement, National Grid, spoke to the time sensitivity of a partnership program like The Grid Collective. “There is a shortage of vendors and individuals to do this work. We need more people to do the work. So, we must train up a workforce in order to do that,” she said.

National Grid chose Jamaica, Queens, one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse communities it serves, to launch The Grid Collective. Building on the mission of Project C, this choice underscores National Grid’s unwavering commitment to ensure inclusion, inspire change, create positive neighborhood impact, strengthen communities and make a difference for years to come.

Queens State Senator Leroy Comrie, said in a statement, “I have been pleased to work with National Grid for a number of years to expand green initiatives in Southeast Queens. The Grid Collective, a partnership with local small businesses, brings us a step closer to reaching climate and environmental justice goals for our communities by providing workforce development and training for residents and vendors in the clean energy sector in our neighborhoods. I look forward to seeing the program grow to bring even more opportunities to residents of the 14th Senate District.”

Ian Minerve, an Approved Program Partner with National Grid’s Total Home Comfort program, which provides rebates for energy efficiency and weatherization improvements for residential customers in the New York Metro area and on Long, operates Green Power Associates, a Gold Star BPI accredited company. He spoke to his success partnering with National Grid and the opportunities The Grid Collective can afford entrepreneurs in New York’s green energy sector. “Energy efficiency can mean many things to different individuals; this is a great time to get involved as the opportunities are limitless. If you have the passion, drive, and willingness you can go very far,” he said.

About National Grid

National Grid (NYSE: NGG) is an electricity, natural gas, and clean energy delivery company serving more than 20 million people through our networks in New York and Massachusetts. National Grid is focused on building a path to a more affordable, reliable clean energy future through our fossil-free vision. National Grid is transforming our electricity and natural gas networks with smarter, cleaner, and more resilient energy solutions to meet the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

For more information, please visit our website, follow us on Twitter, watch us on YouTube, like us on Facebook and find our photos on Instagram.

Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of integrated human capital management software solutions for human resources, payroll, benefits, and insurance services, today announced that Junior Achievement USA®, the nation’s largest organization dedicated to providing young people the knowledge and skills they need for economic success, will receive a $1 million grant from the Paychex Charitable Foundation. The grant, which allocates $250,000 annually over four years, will support the long-term financial health of America’s youth in key markets where Paychex has a high concentration of employees.

This is the third major gift given under the Paychex Charitable Foundation’s strategic giving framework focused on well-being, addressing mental health, physical health, financial health, and professional skills development. This gift to Junior Achievement will benefit the financial health focus area. Paychex announced similar grants to Mental Health America and Feeding America earlier in 2023 to support emotional and physical well-being, respectively.

“As one of the country’s leading providers of HR, payroll, benefits, and insurance solutions, Paychex has a unique view of the financial challenges American workers face and the critical role that strong financial literacy plays as young Americans join the workforce,” said John Gibson, Paychex president and CEO. “This insight underlies our belief that successful local economies start with vibrant communities—and financial health is the foundation of that mission. Our ongoing support of Junior Achievement will help ensure that the next generation of workers has the knowledge and skills for economic success.”

With more than 100 local affiliates across the U.S., Junior Achievement reaches more than three million students per year in approximately 127 thousand classrooms and after-school locations with core program content focused on work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy.

“We at Junior Achievement know that for many young people, financial literacy education in school is an essential part of experiencing financial health later in life,” said Jack E. Kosakowski, President & CEO of Junior Achievement USA. “We greatly appreciate Paychex’s investment and partnership in ensuring more young people have access to the information they need to benefit themselves, their families, and ultimately their communities.”

In addition to this financial gift from the Paychex Charitable Foundation, Paychex will be seeking opportunities to engage its 16,000 employees as a volunteer network to help advance Junior Achievement’s mission of supporting the long-term financial health of American youth. The markets that will receive funding through this gift are: Albuquerque, N.M.; Allentown, Pa.; Baton Rouge, La.; Chicago, Ill.; Pasadena, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Rochester, N.Y.; San Diego, Calif.; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Tampa, Fla. and West Palm Beach, Fla.

To learn more about the Paychex Charitable Foundation, visit the foundation’s website.

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 Junior Achievement USA® 
Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices. JA programs are delivered by corporate and community volunteers and provide relevant, hands-on experiences that give students from kindergarten through high school knowledge and skills in financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. Today, JA reaches more than 3.3 million students per year in 102 markets across the United States as part of 12.5 million students served by operations in more than 100 other countries worldwide. Junior Achievement USA is a member of JA Worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org.

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David Brabham, GP’s director of stewardship strategy, joined host Ashley Frasca on the Green and Growing podcast to connect GP’s stewardship commitment to the household products you use everyday. As a forest products company, we understand the importance of conserving the products entrusted to our care. Listen as David explains how GP is focused on being good stewards of Georgia forests: https://lnkd.in/gNpCYZyB

Georgia-Pacific

Based in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific and its subsidiaries are among the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of bath tissue, paper towels and napkins, tableware, paper-based packaging, cellulose, specialty fibers, nonwoven fabrics, building products and related chemicals. Our familiar consumer brands include Quilted Northern®, Angel Soft®, Brawny®, Dixie®, enMotion®, Sparkle® and Vanity Fair®. Georgia-Pacific has long been a leading supplier of building products to lumber and building materials dealers and large do-it-yourself warehouse retailers. Its Georgia-Pacific Recycling subsidiary is among the world’s largest traders of paper, metal and plastics. The company operates more than 150 facilities and employs more than 30,000 people directly and creates approximately 89,000 jobs indirectly. For more information, visit: gp.com/about-us . For news, visit: gp.com/news

Click here to listen to the whole interview

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Maintaining reliability and preserving affordability remain key prioritiesCompany making meaningful progress as it prepares its system for net-zero future

CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 12, 2023 /3BL Media/ – In 2022, Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) continued to make significant progress on its strategic goals, managed through headwinds with great agility and delivered constructive outcomes across its jurisdictions, chair, president and CEO Lynn Good told investors during the company’s annual shareholders meeting.

“Our more than 27,000 teammates seized every opportunity to deliver value to our stakeholders and grow our business,” she said. “We made meaningful progress on our clean energy strategy and took decisive action to position our company for the long term.”

Good cited several milestones:

“We expanded our net-zero goals to include Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 emissions, becoming one of the first in the industry to tie more than 95% of emissions to a net-zero commitment.”“We set a target to exit coal by 2035 subject to regulatory approval and expect coal to represent less than 5% of generation by 2030.”“We announced plans to add regulated renewables at an ambitious pace. We project we’ll have 30,000 megawatts on our system by 2035, which is five times more than we operate today.”“We advocated for policies that help us deliver affordable, reliable and increasingly clean energy, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which we estimate will generate billions of dollars in savings for our customers over the next decade.”“We filed our first proposed Carbon Plan with the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC), incorporating input from more than 500 stakeholders and outlining multiple portfolios designed to achieve some of the nation’s most ambitious goals while balancing affordability and reliability. In December, we received a constructive order from the NCUC, recognizing the value of an all-of-the-above approach.””We continued to modernize the grid and increase reliability and resiliency in all our service territories, including approvals of our $2 billion, six-year grid investment plan in Indiana and a $7 billion, 10-year storm protection plan in Florida.”“And increased the capital plan for our regulated businesses to more than $145 billion over the next decade. It’s one of the largest in the industry, with 85% funding investments in the grid and our clean energy transition.”“As we increased our capital plan to fund our clean energy transition, we conducted a strategic review of our Commercial Renewables business and made the decision to sell. This decision will strengthen our balance sheet and allow us to focus on the significant investment opportunities within our regulated operations. It will also position the renewables business for continued growth.”

“Whether it was restoring service after a historic hurricane, leading the way on decarbonization or finding ways to mitigate costs for customers, we rose to the occasion last year. We delivered on our commitment to customers and advanced our strategic priorities,” Good said.

Delivering consistent and lasting benefits to customers

Duke Energy continues its strong focus on affordability and cost management, while maintaining attractive returns for its shareholders.

“We worked with state regulators to mitigate bill impacts and provided customers with resources to help them. This included working with community assistance agencies to connect customers in need with nearly $300 million over the last two years,” said Good.

Already in 2023, Duke Energy has achieved constructive regulatory and legislative outcomes, including the approval of fuel and storm cost recovery in Florida; net metering reform in North Carolina; and new legislation in Indiana that supports modern recovery mechanisms and our generation transition.

“We look forward to building on our success, navigating the transition in a responsible way that continues to preserve affordability and reliability while delivering sustainable value for our investors, customers and communities,” said Good.

Other business

Also at today’s meeting:

Good fielded shareholder questions on a range of topics. The company will post responses to questions on its website.Shareholders elected all 14 nominees to the company’s board of directors.Shareholders approved the company’s 2023 Long-Term Incentive Plan.A nonbinding shareholder proposal regarding elimination of supermajority voting provisions in Duke Energy Corporation’s Certificate of Incorporation received the support of a majority of votes cast.A second nonbinding shareholder proposal regarding formation of a committee to evaluate decarbonization risk did not receive the support of a majority of the votes cast.

A replay of the meeting will be posted on Duke Energy’s investors page.

Duke Energy

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.

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On Tuesday June 13, 2023, thousands of KeyBank teammates across the country will leave their bank offices to volunteer for various local community organizations, projects, and causes for Neighbors Make the Difference Day.

This year marks the 32nd annual Neighbors Make the Difference Day and is one of KeyBank’s most visible community volunteer projects. The number of volunteer hours on June 13 is expected to be more than 16,000.

This long-standing annual event demonstrates KeyBank’s commitment to helping its neighbors and communities thrive. Neighbors Day began in 1991, when a group of KeyBank teammates in Alaska volunteered for service projects and dubbed the effort “Neighbors Make the Difference Day.” By 1993, the idea had swept across many of the communities that Key serves and became an official day of employee volunteerism. It is now the hallmark of KeyBank’s commitment to its neighborhoods.

In past years, volunteers from KeyBank helped to clean up Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens and also spent time at EDWINS, a 501(c)(3) organization that offers formerly incarcerated adults a foundation in the culinary and hospitality industries and a support network necessary for long-term success.

To participate in the social media conversation on June 13th, follow #KeyBankNMTDD, @KeyBank on Twitter and KeyBank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/keybank.

Volunteerism is an important part of Key’s teammate engagement. To read more about how Key helps employees thrive, Key’s 2021 Environmental, Governance, and Social report is available here.