Month: June 2023

 

Statement by Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Steering Committee Co-Chairs Mark Fryling and Howard Popoola on the occasion of World Food Safety Day celebrated today.

June 7, 2023 /3BL Media/ From farm or factory to the dinner table, the wellbeing of billions around the world depends upon food safety standards. But when we eat, how do we know those standards are followed and our food is safe?

That question should never have to be asked.

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), a Coalition of Action from The Consumer Goods Forum, has a mission of safe food for people everywhere. GFSI addresses food safety by setting benchmarks for those producing, processing and selling food around the world. Codex standards form a key part of GFSI benchmarks as well as industry best practices shared among all in a pre-competitive form. For six decades, Codex standards have guided GFSI, governments and other stakeholders towards a path to safe food for everyone everywhere.

People in food safety work extremely hard to reach and uphold these standards and transform them into best practices, called “food safety management systems”, conscious that the wellbeing of millions depends upon doing their job well. When standards are absent or poorly respected, the consequences are grave. Foodborne diseases affect 1 in 10 people worldwide each year.

Those who make, distribute and sell food face a daunting task to uphold these standards in a world subject to all sorts of unforeseen events. Supply chain woes, fragile and limited energy sources, as well as cost hikes and little time or tools can make these standards hard to reach and maintain, especially for people in developing countries. That’s why the GFSI has just announced a Capability Building framework. It helps companies of all shapes and sizes build in-house capability no matter where they do business.

USAID sees the potential of the GFSI framework, partnering with us to help roll out the framework in Africa and other developing areas where compliance with standards remains weak. Food-related businesses, including women-owned firms and farms, will gain much, building up their knowhow. This will not just help reduce sickness and workdays lost, locally, but also improve the security of complex international supply chains as the global trade in food expands. The 1.4 billion people who call Africa home will notice when nutritious, abundant food keeps them not just alive, but healthy and safe.

As the world strives to end hunger, implementing high food standards everywhere will play a vital part in reducing suffering, and ensuring a better life for all.

Howard Popoola 
Co-Chair, GFSI Steering Committee; 
Vice President, Corporate Food Technology and Regulatory Compliance 
The Kroger Co.

Mark A. Fryling 
Co-Chair, GFSI Steering Committee; 
Vice President, Global Food Safety and Quality 
General Mills

Notes to editors: 

See the statement at the GFSI news room. 

About the Global Food Safety Initiative

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI; the Coalition) is a CEO-led Coalition of Action from The Consumer Goods Forum, bringing together 44 retailers and manufacturers and an extended food safety community to help oversee food safety standards for businesses and help provide access to safe food for people everywhere. As one of the world’s largest networks to help achieve safe food , GFSI is committed to making food safety everyone’s business and the Coalition members are addressing challenges facing food safety systems in their supply chains and the markets they operate in, and are helping to raise the food safety bar globally. Its ambition is to strengthen and harmonise food safety systems so they are able to feed the growing, global population and develop markets that can deliver food safely, no matter where in the world the consumer is. Learn more at: www.mygfsi.com

For further information: Contact James Pieper, Senior Manager, Communications, GFSI, The Consumer Goods Forum, at j.pieper@theconsumergoodsforum.com or on +33 627 37 64 60.

– ends / all –

Originally published on Tampa Bay Wave

Tampa Bay Wave is proud to announce that our longtime sponsor, the Nielsen Foundation, has committed to an additional three years of funding for the TechDiversity Accelerator, which supports diversity and inclusion in the tech startup industry across Tampa Bay and beyond. Powered by the Nielsen Foundation since its inception in 2018, this unique 90-day program supports high-growth early-stage tech startups that are 51% owned, controlled, and operated by underrepresented founders.

This multi-year commitment will continue to build the program and support the high-growth diverse-led tech startups participating in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 TechDiversity Accelerator cohorts. This extremely competitive program selects participants among hundreds of applications from across the United States and abroad; previous TechDiversity members hailed from over 120 cities, representing nearly all 50 states and 30 countries!

Thank you to the Nielsen Foundation for their generous support! We look forward to seeing how this multi-year commitment will continue to drive social and economic change by advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the entrepreneurial tech ecosystem. To commemorate this ongoing partnership with the Nielsen Foundation, we would like to recognize several successful TechDiversity startups that embody the mission of this program. Join us in celebrating the achievements of innovative founders disrupting their respective industries and solving real-world problems to create a brighter future for all!

LunaJoy (2022 TechDiversity Accelerator)

Women-led healthtech startup, LunaJoy, is breaking down barriers and disrupting women’s healthcare! The digital care clinic supports women through their lifespans by providing in-network therapy, medication management, and coaching. Co-founders Sipra Laddha, MD, and Shama Rathi are psychiatrists, mothers, and problem-solvers. Having experienced firsthand the lack of mental health resources available for mothers, they created a solution that ensures women receive accessible and affordable care. After launching the clinic in 2021, they joined the Y Combinator accelerator program, closed an oversubscribed seed round, and the pair will soon start raising funds for a Series A round! 

Home Lending Pal (2020 TechDiversity Accelerator)

Home Lending Pal (HLP), the first-ever AI-powered mortgage advisor, is mitigating bias for underrepresented home buyers. CEO Bryan Young built the platform to make homeownership a possibility for everyone, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. On a mission to disrupt the mortgage industry, the fintech company partnered with tech giant IBM, which has been integral to their growth and expansion, helping to stabilize the technology and focus on data security. New York Times bestseller, Malcolm Gladwell, interviewed HLP on Smart Talks with IBM to discuss how they are utilizing blockchain technology to close the homeownership gap and facilitate systemic change within the home buying process by concealing social identifiers from lenders. In 2022, HLP acquired tech startup, Horizons, to further simplify the home buying process and strengthen their approach to connecting customers with lenders. The AI and digital ledger technology was also recognized on UNESCO’s Global Top 100 list of projects achieving the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals!

SoLo Funds (2020 TechDiversity Accelerator)

SoLo Funds, the first ever Black-owned fintech startup to obtain B Corp Certification, creates opportunities for underserved communities to partake in an equitable economy. The mobile and online lending platform is an innovative new model for peer-to-peer lending, which provides microloans with terms set by the borrower. Co-founders Rodney Williams and Travis Holoway (featured by Forbes on the Next 1000) created SoLo Funds to serve and empower underrepresented communities by offering financial solutions in emergencies and raising financial literacy. In 2020, SoLo Funds won Startup of the Year at the 8th Annual Startup of the Year Summit! The FinTech company also partnered with Habitat for Humanity International and United Way to give users the ability to donate a portion of their revenue to non-profits.

Learn more even more of the TechDiversity Accelerator startups that embody the mission of this program here.   

 

Originally published in Key’s 2022 Environmental, Social, and Governance report

Giving back to communities is central to who we are. KeyBank teammates  generously gave their time and talent by serving their neighbors and neighborhoods throughout 2022.

Neighbors Make the Difference Day®

Our annual Neighbors Make the Difference Day – a designated day for employee volunteerism – first launched in 1991. It is the hallmark of Key’s commitment to its communities and a leading corporate volunteerism effort in America.

On Tuesday, June 7, 2022, more than 5,000 teammates volunteered in-person and online, with health and safety precautions, in communities for Neighbors Make the Difference Day. Team members completed 554 projects in 348 communities from Maine to Alaska, helping to make our 31st annual day of volunteerism one of our best yet.

Thirty-one years of Neighbors Make the Difference Day success relies on a coordinated and targeted team approach. From a national director to regional site coordinators, there are many partners who coordinate and execute Key’s day of volunteerism.

Volunteerism at Key is not limited to one day; our teammates bring our values-forward and purpose-driven culture to life every day in their communities. In large part because of their commitment, Key was named a Civic 50 Financial Sectors leader for volunteerism and civic engagement.

In 2022, our teammates:

Spent nearly 90,000 hours volunteering in their communities, including participating in more than 550 events during our 31st annual Neighbors Make the Difference DayServed as board members with 913 nonprofitsContributed more than $4.5 million through the 2022 United Way Campaign and other nonprofit donations, including matching gift donations from Key; special programs in 2022 included support of tragedies in Buffalo and Colorado Springs, the war in Ukraine, and natural disaster relief in Florida and California

To learn more about Key’s teammates commitment to volunteerism, read the 2022 Environmental, Social, and Governance Report here.

***

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 16,0000.

Originally published in SEE’s Global Impact Report

SEE® (formerly Sealed Air) is creating an overall culture of health, safety, and well-being for our people. As a manufacturing company, protecting the health, safety and well-being of our people is critical. Our goal is to be free of accidents with zero harm, and we have structured our operations to provide employees with a safe and healthy working environment.

SEE’s Zero-Harm Performance for 2021

Total recordable injuries reduced by 8%64% of SEE manufacturing plants achieved zero recordable incidents in 2021 

Environmental, Health and Safety Policy

SEE’s Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) policy outlines the company’s commitment to integrate EHS principles in all aspects of the business, including products, operations, and supply chain. 

The policy requires SEE’s employees and contractors to conduct business in accordance with applicable environmental, health and safety laws and understand and comply with company procedures and guidelines to protect the environment, health and safety of themselves and their co-workers.

The policy includes SEE’s commitment to:

Provide training programs for employees to perform their jobs safely and in an environmentally responsible manner, and to understand their role in complying with policies, procedures and guidelinesFocus on the design and development of products that enable customers to reach their EHS goals by reducing waste, increasing operational efficiency, protecting human health, and improving food safety and securityConserve raw materials, water and energy in our operations through source reduction, process improvement, use of alternative materials, and waste recoveryActively pursue programs to reduce the overall GHG intensity of our operations Share our EHS policy with customers, suppliers, shareholders, and the local communities in which we operate, where applicableEstablish targets and be transparent in reporting publicly on our progress towards improving our EHS performanceDevelop sustainable solutions that make our world better than we find it

Health and Safety Audits

Health and safety audits are conducted at each of SEE’s manufacturing sites minimally every three years by teams comprised of local, regional and global resources. In 2021, 28 health and safety audits were conducted. In addition to the audits, machine risk assessments based on ISO standards, have been administered throughout our operations with support from external safety consultants.

EHS standards are reviewed minimally on an annual basis to verify relevance and completeness and to identify opportunities for improvement. The EHS standards are updated as part of an ongoing continuous improvement process in response to changing regulation and audit finding trends. Every SEE facility is required to implement the relevant elements of the company’s EHS standards. The Audit Committee of SEE’s Board of Directors regularly reviews EHS matters.

Investing in Safety

SEE’s commitment to safety includes capital investments that improve the safety of our existing equipment and the design of new machines. Early in the design process, our global engineering team conducts risk assessments in accordance with ISO standards to ensure that all machines function to the highest safety standards.

Training Programs

SEE’s global EHS program includes behavioral-based safety training, hazard identification and risk assessment, and several other preventive trainings. In addition to on-site training, in 2021 SEE implemented an online safety training program that includes topics such as lockout and tagout, machine safety, arm’s length, hand and power tool safety, and job hazard analysis. More than 19,000* training sessions were completed in 2021 achieving 94% overall completion rate for targeted employees. 

*Some employees attended more than one topic training.

Emergency Preparedness Procedures

SEE sites are required to establish, implement, and maintain procedures to identify the potential for emergency situations, choose the methods for responding to those situations, and periodically test the emergency response plan.

Operation Clean Sweep

SEE is a signatory of Operation Clean Sweep®, an international program designed to prevent the release of plastic granules into the environment and water streams. By signing the Operation Clean Sweep pledge, SEE recognizes the importance of preventing spillages into the environment and commits to the following six actions: 

Improve worksite set-up to prevent and address spillsCreate and publish internal procedures to achieve zero industrial plastic material lossProvide employee training and accountability for spill prevention, containment, clean-up, and disposalAudit performance regularlyComply with all applicable state and local regulations governing industrial plastics containmentEncourage partners (contractors, transporters, distributors, and others) to pursue the same goals

COVID-19

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, SEE has followed the recommendations and guidance of health authorities and local governments across the globe. The company instituted precautionary measures for employees at all its facilities worldwide, including enhanced cleaning procedures, quarantine and testing protocols, temperature checks, face masks, engineered social distancing, remote work arrangements for non-location-dependent employees, restricted visitor access, and travel limitations.

Read Sealed Air’s Global Impact Report here.

Learn More About Sealed Air’s ESG efforts here.