Month: July 2023

International Olympic Committee news

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 will set new standards for environmental responsibility, demonstrating how to hold global sporting events in an era of accelerating climate change.

Social, economic and environmental sustainability was central to the winning Paris 2024 bid to host the Games.

In a bold move defined during the candidature phase, the Paris 2024 Committee pledged to halve carbon emissions compared to the average of London 2012 and Rio 2016.

This ambitious goal is in line with both the Paris Agreement on Climate Change – the seminal agreement to which the host city gave its name in 2015 – and the recommendations of Olympic Agenda 2020 and Olympic Agenda 2020+5, the strategic roadmaps of the Olympic Movement.

“As climate change accelerates, the Games’ response to it must do the same,” said Marie Sallois, IOC Director for Sustainability. “The Paris 2024 organisers are stepping up to the challenge, and they are doing so by focusing first and foremost on the core part of addressing it: by cutting emissions.”

Paris 2024’s carbon reduction goal required a comprehensive strategy, and a definition of an overall “carbon budget” that would allow the organisers to keep each part of the Games delivery in line with this objective and to monitor progress. It encompasses all planning and operations – from energy and transport to catering and procurement policy. New tools have also been developed to estimate, track and manage the carbon footprint of every stage of the event, as set out by Olympic Agenda 2020.

Here are just some of the ways in which Paris 2024 is putting its vision into action:

Infrastructure: Reduce, Reuse and Build responsibly

Environmental responsibility starts with avoiding all unnecessary carbon impacts.

Paris 2024 decided to minimise new construction, in line with the IOC’s philosophy of lower-impact Games that adapt to the needs of hosts and of their residents, and which use a maximum of existing and temporary venues. Some 95 per cent of the venues will be pre-existing facilities (refurbished and modernised, where necessary) or temporary structures.

For new construction, SOLIDEO (the Olympic Delivery Authority) has developed an unprecedented strategy for sustainability and legacy.

The Aquatics Centre is the only new competition venue to be used for the Games. It meets a local need in the deprived Seine-Saint-Denis department, where half of middle-school children do not know how to swim. Designed to high environmental and energy-efficiency standards, it incorporates 2,300 cubic metres of wood, avoiding the high emissions generated in the manufacturing process of concrete and steel. The structure features the world’s largest concave catenary framework in wood (with a 90m span), an achievement enabled by a SOLIDEO innovation fund. The roof design also reduces the need for air heating. Overall, the building will consume significantly less energy than a standard Olympic pool – energy that will largely be sourced from a solar rooftop array and heat recovery from a nearby datacentre. The seating for spectators is made from locally collected and recycled plastic.

The Olympic Village is another model of sustainable construction, with a carbon footprint 30 per cent smaller than that of a modern construction project. Designed to adapt to changing temperatures, most buildings within the Village will benefit from a water-based cooling system and heating from a geothermal network. Innovative construction techniques make extensive use of wood, and some construction materials have been recycled in situ. Fittings and materials specific to the Games that will no longer be needed will be reused or recycled by Paris 2024. Located in Seine-Saint-Denis, northeast of Paris, the site’s housing, shops, public facilities, workplaces and green spaces will meet the long-term living needs of 6,000 residents and provide jobs for 6,000 people.

Energy: Go green and Innovate

Paris 2024 is optimising its energy use and introducing innovative solutions that will benefit French sport long after the Games.

All venues will be connected by grid operator Enedis and supplied by EDF with 100 per cent renewable electricity generated by wind and solar farms. This innovative energy model –sports and cultural events normally rely on diesel generators – enables Paris 2024 to avoid the equivalent of 13,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. These new grid connections will remain after the Games, becoming an important part of the Games’ legacy.

Temporary venues also demanded a new solution. While the electricity grid is being reinforced for iconic sites like Eiffel Tower or les Invalides, retractable electrical terminals have been tested and are being installed to secure supply and avoid the use of diesel generators.

Some locations – including the Olympic Village and Aquatics Centre – have been designed to meet part of their energy needs with on-site solar or geothermal generation. For the Village, rooftop photovoltaic panels will help to satisfy local electricity needs. A temporary canopy made of photovoltaic fabric will be installed over its Transport Mall, powering a nearby building as well as providing shade for the athletes. It will be reinstalled elsewhere after the Games. A floating solar power plant on the River Seine is intended to boost the flow of renewable power during the Games, and its 720m² of photovoltaic panels are planned to be reused elsewhere afterwards. The remaining energy needs of the Village will be covered by renewables.

Backup systems are still essential in case of interruptions in the supply from the grid or on-site sources. For Paris 2024, generators will run on biofuels, further reducing CO2 emissions.

Transport: Maximise public transport

To further reduce carbon emissions, Paris 2024 has planned for maximum use of public transport. Venues with strong public transport links have been prioritised. Games locations in Paris are also served by a 418km network of cycle lanes that includes 88km of new protected routes.

Paris 2024 is finalising other aspects of its transport programme, including the use of electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles, recharging facilities and domestic travel partners.

Strategy: Boost climate action through sport

A signatory to the UN’s Sports for Climate Action initiative, Paris 2024 aims to harness sport to help drive this transition and boost climate action nationwide.

For example, sports events in France will be able to estimate the carbon footprint of their events and reduce their impacts with the help of a new tool – a “climate coach” app developed by Paris 2024, together with the Ministry of Sport and the French National Olympic and Sports Committee. Available for free, the tool estimates an event’s carbon footprint across 10 categories: catering, accommodation, travel, infrastructure and energy, sports equipment, logistics, site preparation, promotional items, digital material and waste. It identifies the biggest sources of emissions, and suggests tangible measures to reduce them.

CINCINNATI, July 26, 2023 /3BL/ – Cintas Corporation (Nasdaq: CTAS) today published its Fiscal Year 2023 Impact Report, which includes information and giving data about the company’s philanthropic initiatives that it supported during the last fiscal year through Cintas Cares. 

Cintas’ FY 2023 Impact Report is the company’s first such report and covers the company’s fiscal year 2023 (FY’23), which ended May 31, 2023.

>> View the 2023 Cintas Impact Report

Cintas Cares is the umbrella under which Cintas engages with its local communities and charitable and philanthropic organizations, providing a broader platform for the company’s employee-partners to make an impact in the communities the company serves. 

“I’m incredibly proud of the value and impact we deliver every day in every city and town we serve throughout the United States and Canada,” said Todd Schneider, Cintas President and CEO. “Our first Impact Report summarizes our commitments to a Shared Drive for Better and being partners for a better tomorrow.”

Each year, Cintas employee-partners throughout North America participate in enterprise-wide programs and fundraisers and offer additional to support local organizations doing good in their local communities. This includes monetary donations, in-kind donations, and active fundraising on behalf of key charitable and not-for-profit organizations. 

Highlights outlined in the report include:

Through Cintas’ 20-year relationship with Matthew 25: Ministries, 15 million people around the world have been helped in times of need.Cintas employee-partners have climbed the equivalent of 6,415,200 steps through the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb events.Cintas employee-partners have supported American Cancer Society research by helping raise more than $1 million at the grassroots level.Since 2016, Cintas’ has certified more than 1 million people in the American Heart Association’s lifesaving first aid and CPR programs.The Cintas Partner Assistance Fund has grown to more than $4 million after launching in 2019 with $500,000 in seed money. 

For more information about Cintas’ Philanthropic activities, visit cintas.com/impact.

About Cintas Corporation

Cintas Corporation helps more than one million businesses of all types and sizes get Ready™ to open their doors with confidence every day by providing products and services that help keep their customers’ facilities and employees clean, safe, and looking their best. With offerings including uniforms, mats, mops, towels, restroom supplies, workplace water services, first aid, and safety products, eye-wash stations, safety training, fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems and alarm service, Cintas helps customers get Ready for the Workday®. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Cintas is a publicly held Fortune 500 company traded over the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CTAS and is a component of both the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and Nasdaq-100 Index.

Media Contacts:

Lizz Summers, Cintas Director of Corporate Affairs, summerse2@cintas.com, 513-972-2859

Originally published on Illumina News Center

Comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) assesses hundreds of tumor genes to find actionable mutations and is becoming the standard of care for many cancers. However, oncologists often opt for single-gene tests (SGT) before pursuing CGP.

A new study, conducted by Labcorp and presented last month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, showed that SGTs use up precious biopsy samples, reducing CGP effectiveness and depriving patients of comprehensive genomic information about their tumors.

“This study shows that just doing a single-gene test, which is a legacy process from a decade ago, denies and delays care,” said Dr. Vivek Subbiah, MD, now chief of Early-Phase Drug Development at Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Nashville, Tennessee, who presented the study.

The 2022 study looked at non-small-cell lung cancer samples from 580 patients at more than 80 community oncology practices. While SGT can identify several well-known mutations and structural variations, CGP interrogates nearly 600 genes associated with tumor growth, resistance, and other traits.

To better illustrate the study’s ramifications for precision medicine, Dr. Phil Febbo, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Illumina, moderated a fireside chat at the ASCO meeting. He was joined by Subbiah and by Dr. Prasanth Reddy, a medical oncologist.

“We’re hearing about some incredible innovations on the therapy side,” Febbo said. “More and more of these innovations are dependent on understanding an individual’s tumor and the different molecular changes in the tumor. That means choosing the right tests has become crucial for cancer care.”

The impact of SGTs on CGP 
The study showed that CGP was used as a secondary diagnostic in 29% of participants. In those cases, 89% of CGP tests used material from the same tumor sample as the primary SGT, which reduced CGP efficacy—there simply wasn’t enough viable tumor tissue for effective testing. When there had been no prior SGT, or when CGP used a different sample, CGP provided more detailed information about tumor genomics.

Overall, prior SGT reduced CGP’s ability to detect important variants by 8%. In addition, prior SGT increased CGP turnaround times from a median 13 days to 20 days.

“If you look at the failure rate when you do single-gene testing up front, it’s twice as high as when you do CGP up front,” said Reddy. “And there are other implications, such as turnaround time, which is extended. Those are meaningful days, during which a patient has a diagnosis and needs to start therapy, and we’re delaying the initiation of therapy because we don’t have the right answers.”

The changing oncology landscape 
The panelists were unanimous on the need to move away from this two-step process and simply start with CGP. One of the major concerns is that SGTs often provide incomplete information, leading to ineffective treatments.

“We know patients with RET-fusion-positive lung cancers do not do well with immunotherapy,” said Subbiah. “However, if they get a single-gene test, EGFR is negative and they don’t test for RET, they will start that patient on immunotherapy. It’s delaying the appropriate treatments and denying patients the gift of time.”

Getting this right is critically important. Genomic diagnostics is the most precise way to characterize a tumor and get patients the care they need.

“To win the war against cancer, we need to have every ounce of intelligence about it, and genomics should be a part of that process,” said Subbiah. “Years ago, when I saw a patient with 100, 200, 300 mutations, I knew there wasn’t a lot we could do for them. Now, I get excited when I see a patient whose tumor has hundreds of mutations, because they become the best candidates for immunotherapy.”

This study, and other evidence, has shown that comprehensive testing provides better clinical insights to guide care. The next step will be to ensure all patients have access to primary CGP.

“Maybe we can’t help every single patient, but we better help the folks that should be helped,” said Reddy. “The first step is ensuring that everybody has access to world-class testing. From there, hopefully, we have the right information to put each patient on the right drug at the right time.”

To watch a video of the entire panel discussion, click here.