Month: July 2023

PHILADELPHIA, July 6, 2023 /3BL/ – Comcast Corporation today announced a new $4.5 million, three-year grant to Per Scholas, a leading national nonprofit advancing economic equity through tech training and career building.

The investment will enable more than 10,000 diverse adults across 15 markets to launch new tech careers, empowering individuals from low-wealth communities to earn a collective $450 million in new wages alone. Notably, the funding will also support Per Scholas’s expansion to three new markets in need of skilled technologists for digital economies — allowing for even greater community impact.

10K+ Diverse adults will be enabled to launch new tech careers through this investment.

“The key to closing the digital divide goes beyond just mere access to the Internet,” said Dalila Wilson-Scott, EVP and Chief Diversity Officer for Comcast Corporation & President of the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation. “With nearly one-third of U.S. workers lacking the basic digital skills needed to function and compete in our increasingly digital job market, we need urgent focus on digital literacy and technical skilling — particularly in communities of color. ”

By continuing our partnership with Per Scholas, we are helping to produce measurable outcomes that will create a more prepared and inclusive workforce and better ensure that no community is left behind.

DALILA WILSON-SCOTT

EVP and Chief Diversity Officer for Comcast Corporation & President of the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation

Since 2021, the Per Scholas-Comcast partnership has resulted in more than 2,500 trained learners across a dozen markets, empowering nearly 1,700 graduates to launch tech careers, generating more than $76 million in collective new earnings. Through this new three-year grant and market expansion, Per Scholas learners will graduate from the “10,000 Accessible Careers in Tech” program equipped with in-demand technical and professional skills that prepares them to succeed in technology careers, with in-house support to identify employment opportunities during and post-graduation. Per Scholas current training tracks include AWS re/Start, Cybersecurity, IT Support, Java Development, and Software Engineering.

“Comcast continually helps Per Scholas unlock potential, building a future of unlimited possibilities,” said Plinio Ayala, President and CEO of Per Scholas. “Our partnership is powerful — Comcast is investing in communities, ensuring digital skills are ubiquitous across America, and hiring Per Scholas-trained technologists.”

Because of Comcast’s support, we just celebrated our inaugural graduation in Indianapolis, and I’m looking forward to making impact together in cities and communities that could benefit most from Per Scholas’s nationally-recognized, proven tech skills training.

PLINIO AYALA

President and CEO of Per Scholas

The 15 markets where the Per Scholas-Comcast partnership is making a difference every day include Atlanta, Baltimore, Greater Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Orlando, the National Capital Region, Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, New York, and two new cities to be announced soon. The Per Scholas grant announcement is part of a $25 million comprehensive funding initiative specifically targeted at creating economic opportunity through digital skills building in 2023, and Project UP, Comcast’s $1 billion commitment to help advance digital equity and build a future of unlimited possibilities.

Nasdaq

Increased public scrutiny of corporate action and disclosure on environmental and social topics has generated concern that both leaders and laggards are at risk of unwanted attention.

Amidst the shifting landscape of environmental and social regulations and stakeholder expectations, we gathered input from governance professionals across the Nasdaq network, including corporate secretaries, general counsels, executives, and board members, to identify leading practices informing their approach to ESG and sustainability. They raised corporate sustainability and social responsibility disclosures, as well as the role of ratings in reputation and risk management, as key topics.

Several of the governance professionals we spoke with predict that the days of broad aspirational statements in sustainability and corporate social responsibility reports are waning as risk mitigation further influences the information shared in voluntary disclosures. The resulting approach for many organizations is to disclose the most impactful environmental and social metrics and policies sought by investors and rating organizations, and those most critically aligned with the business strategy and goals.

While organizations are in the habit of responding to stakeholder demands for stronger environmental and social stewardship, governance professionals are increasingly focused on communicating the alignment of topics such as climate and human capital management with business goals and fiduciary duties. Organizations are finding that the entities bringing forth environmental and social proposals, or bringing attention to sustainability issues through other means, are changing. There is such connectivity and ease of information sharing across activist groups today, allowing for the amplification of voices across media channels. As a result, even unsuccessful shareholder proposals can garner significant attention. To mitigate these risks, governance professionals are weighing the impact of strong public positioning on specific sustainability issues in their voluntary disclosures as a risk management strategy.

Given their reputational weight and impact on access to capital, ratings and rankings of ESG performance were also top of mind for the governance professionals with whom we connected, as they rely heavily on public disclosures. These conversations revealed an unexpected upside of ratings in that they can be an effective driver of internal collaboration. Managing ratings is not only a critical risk management and branding strategy, but it also presents an opportunity to democratize and share ownership of the assessment criteria across the organization.

To effectively drive positive ratings, it is essential to first identify those prioritized by the organization’s key stakeholders through an assessment that leverages proprietary capital markets data sources, unique stakeholder engagement tools, and benchmarking. Third parties can facilitate this type of assessment, including the Nasdaq ESG Advisory team. Once a particular rating is categorized as pertinent to the organization’s stakeholders, a gap analysis should follow to identify what can be done to fill disclosure gaps. Then subject matter experts and responsible parties across the organization can weigh in on what should be done. For example, sustainability and investor relations leaders can work closely with the corporate secretary and legal team to support the governance component of ratings—particularly those included in the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) Governance QualityScore.

Looking ahead at the remainder of the year, governance professionals shared that they expect to see corporate resourcing of sustainability, climate, and human capital management goals and priorities to help prepare for regulatory changes and align with stakeholder expectations. Governance professionals believe there remains significant low-hanging fruit toward enhancing organizations’ sustainability profiles and driving long-term value creation.

In addition to corporate sustainability and social responsibility disclosures and the role of ratings in reputation and risk management highlighted above, governance professionals we spoke with raised valuable focus areas to build upon in 2023, including best practices to:

Establish organizational and operational design for strong governanceDefine “materiality” in the context of ESGDeepen board knowledge and education on ESG matters

For more insights—and solutions—that help governance professionals attain clarity around ESG initiatives and functions, get in touch with Nasdaq ESG Solutions: nasdaq.com/solutions/corporate-esg-solutions/contact.

Sustainability has long been central to VMware’s mission. And that’s not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because sustainability is a business imperative. We hear this from customers committed to reducing their carbon footprint to financial analysts who see a healthy Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy and effort translating into a healthy bottom line.

We began this journey back in 1998 with our first virtualization solutions—reducing the infrastructure required to run workloads and cut data center emissions. These solutions were intrinsically sustainable, and since then, we’ve doubled down on that commitment. We achieved carbon neutrality in 2018 and recently began engaging our partners and suppliers to follow suit. We have committed to science-based targets and are working towards net-zero emissions by 2030 and are making meaningful progress on those goals.

So, when VMware created a dedicated ESG team, we decided to locate it within the Office of the CTO (OCTO). At first glance, this might sound incongruous. On the surface, you might think an ESG team is better suited inside a function like human resources or operations. Why put an ESG team in a department focused on technology and innovation? Simple. VMware’s approach to outcome-driven ESG is innovative, and we wanted to set our ESG program up for maximum impact by placing this function in the heart of our organization’s “innovation engine,” giving it the fuel needed to thrive and influence the entire enterprise. It has turned out to be the right decision.

For example, within environmental sustainability, we’re working on ways to use AI to help reduce data center emissions. We also added a VMware “Green Score” to our VMware Aria Operations Cloud, which enables customers to track where they are in their decarbonization journey and how they progress over time. The Green Score includes workload efficiency, utilization of physical resources, virtualization rate, power source, and hardware efficiency. It also provides customers with actionable recommendations for improving energy efficiency and management.

In addition, we are continuing progress on VMware’s Community Microgrid prototype. The microgrid encompasses two buildings on VMware’s campus, supported by two 1 MWh batteries that integrate with existing rooftop solar panels and 100% renewable grid power. A partnership between the City of Palo Alto and VMware, the project’s goal is to test the potential of microgrids to advance energy resiliency and sustainability efforts at the community and corporate levels. Each microgrid can support the community’s Mobile Emergency Operations Center (MEOC), providing connectivity and power for its vehicles. Our list of sustainability initiatives continues to grow.

Recently, we held VMware’s first-ever Sustainable Software Development Workshop (SSDW). We convened individuals from different areas of the company to explore how VMware can further integrate sustainability into even more of its products and services. We explored challenges and opportunities, including 21 lightning talks across four themes: product-led growth, platform thinking, advanced technology, and from the field. It was a great success and laid out a roadmap for future projects.

Mentioning power and sustainable development, I’d be remiss not to acknowledge the impact of AI on energy demand. AI uses more energy than other forms of computing, and training a single model can gobble up more electricity than 100 U.S. homes use in an entire year1. If current AI practices remain unchanged, the energy needed for machine learning and associated data storage and processing may account for up to 3.5% of global electricity consumption by 2030. The need is now, and sustainable innovation is table stakes – at a minimum, we must decouple compute from carbon and swap dirty electrons for green ones. However, the gnarly question before us is, “Is today’s data center infrastructure the best architecture to support the enormous data processing needs of generative AI?” It’s important to emphasize that sustainability isn’t just about talk at VMware; it’s about action, progress, and impact both with our internal operations and also for our customers. It’s part and parcel of our company’s mission and value proposition to customers — and will always be.

1Bloomberg, Artificial Intelligence Is Booming—So Is Its Carbon Footprint, March 9, 2023

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PORCARI (LU), Italy, /3BL/ – Sofidel, one of the world’s leader in the manufacturing of paper for hygienic and domestic use, best known in Italy and Europe for its Regina brand, has decided to donate its products to the Protezione Civile (the Italian National Civil Protection Service) and the Bologna Committee of the Italian Red Cross, which are working to help the people affected by the flooding in Emilia-Romagna.

These associations will be responsible for distributing the materials as needed.

For the Protezione Civile, the operation will be carried out through the Fondazione Banco Alimentare Emilia Romagna Onlus, involving the Imola office and the Parma warehouse. For the Italian Red Cross, the warehouse of the volunteer military corps in Bologna will be responsible.

The donation consists of about 150 thousand rolls, including Regina-brand toilet paper and paper towels. This is the amount needed for one month for the people who are currently displaced, according to data provided by the Protezione Civile.

It is a way for Sofidel and its employees to show support and solidarity for those affected by the disaster at such a difficult time.

Sofidel Group 

The Sofidel Group is one of the leading manufacturers of paper for hygienic and domestic use worldwide. Established in 1966, the Group has subsidiaries in 13 countries – Italy, Spain, the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Romania and the USA – with more than 6,500 employees, net sales of 2,801 million Euros (2022) and a production capacity of over one million tonnes per year (1,440,000 tonnes in 2022). “Regina”, its most well-known brand, is present on almost all the reference markets. Other brands include: Sopalin, Le Trèfle, Hakle, Softis, Nalys, Cosynel, KittenSoft, Lycke, Nicky, Papernet. A member of the UN Global Compact and the international WWF Climate Savers programme, the Sofidel Group considers sustainability a strategic factor with regards to growth and is committed to reducing its impact on natural capital and maximising social benefits, setting as objective the creation of shared added value for all stakeholders. Sofidel’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets to 2030 have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as consistent with reductions required to keep warming to well-below 2°C, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

www.sofidel.com

SOFIDEL S.p.A. 

Via Giuseppe Lazzareschi, 23 – 55016 Porcari (LU) Italy | P +39 0583 2681 | www.sofidel.com

Sofidel Press Office 

Silvia Colleoni – +39 349 3457751 – silvia.colleoni@bcw-global.com

Giorgia Desimini – +39 389 2019708 – giorgia.desimini@bcw-global.com

Andrea Robuschi – +39 327 365 8485 – andrea.robuschi@bcw-global.com