Month: August 2023

Farm Powered anaerobic digestion is a powerful process that recycles organic waste, mainly food and beverage waste from the manufacturing sector and dairy cow manure, into renewable natural gas. It’s a pretty simple process – think of it as a giant Crock-Pot that is full of methanogens – which are naturally found in cow manure – that gobbles up the food waste and the manure and creates biogas. That biogas is then cleaned, upgraded, and becomes a powerful tool to fight climate change – renewable natural gas. A drop-in replacement for fossil natural gas and is one of the tools in our toolbox to mitigate climate change.

Food waste is a fact of life, whether it be in a home or at a factory. If a batch of ice cream has too few chocolate chips, it can’t be sold. Food and beverage companies have to make a choice of how they choose to dispose of their inedible product – send it to a landfill or find a higher purpose for that waste. Turning that inedible waste into renewable energy is not only good for the planet, but can help a company reach its zero-waste to landfill goals, and gives them a great sustainability story to tell their investors and consumers.

For dairy farmers, manure presents some smelly challenges. Like food waste, you can’t have dairy cows without cow manure. There are several ways that farmers and food and beverage companies can handle their unavoidable waste. We believe that recycling them together through Farm Powered anaerobic digestion provides a sustainable solution for both dairy farmers and food and beverage manufacturers.

There are also many benefits of recycling food waste and dairy cow manure through anaerobic digestion; creating positive impacts on waste management, renewable energy generation, greenhouse gas reduction, and sustainable agriculture.

Vanguard Renewables is taking its Farm Powered process nationwide. Learn more at www.vanguardrenewables.com

Originally published on TriplePundit

Ways of doing business are shifting from a narrowed focus on solely revenue, to a broader vision focused on a company’s purpose to serve all stakeholders, including employees, customers, communities and the environment.

“There’s greater stakeholder interest in what’s going on. External stakeholders are asking more questions, wanting to know and have more visibility on the disparate activities that your company is involved in,” said Grady Crosby, vice president and chief sustainability and impact officer at leading financial services company Northwestern Mutual. “There’s also been a regulatory push for more information on how non-financial factors can impact your business — from the standpoint of the recent pandemic, your ability to attract and retain talent, and your impact in the local community, for example.”

In its 166-year legacy, Northwestern Mutual’s purpose has been centered on helping people and businesses achieve economic success while committing over $400 million to community investments since 1992. These impact investments include fighting childhood cancer, improving education, and investing in the community revitalization of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the company is headquartered.

Since 2013, Northwestern Mutual has invested over $15 million to foster safe neighborhoods and support the growth and well-being of Milwaukee residents. “To close racial and economic disparities in our communities, we work directly with residents to advance their objectives,” Crosby said. “Just in the last year we built on our neighborhood revitalization efforts, offering $1.7 million in grants to nearly 30 nonprofit organizations in Milwaukee’s Amani, Metcalfe Park and Muskego Way neighborhoods.”

Investing in your ‘own backyard’ for long-term sustainability

Investing in local communities with solutions to address the racial wealth gap and other challenges can help restore economic optimism, which continues to be low.

“We have some great initiatives in progress. One is focused on increasing the stock of affordable housing,” Crosby said. “Having access to affordable housing is an economic tool to help people relieve their financial anxiety and bridge the racial wealth gap that we know exists in the U.S.”

To close the gap in their hometown of Milwaukee — where Black homeownership rate is trailing behind other cities — Northwestern Mutual announced a $3 million investment to local housing nonprofits to support Milwaukee’s underserved communities with the resources and tools to achieve financial stability through homeownership.

“The neighborhoods we work in are some of the most economically disadvantaged in Milwaukee,” Crosby said. “So, when we help build a perpetual stock of affordable housing, it goes toward community building, because people who own their home with pride are more likely to take care of themselves and their communities. Owning a home is one of the biggest investments an individual will make, and it’s also that home that allows them to start thinking about the transfer of wealth.”

A shift toward social value proposition

One of the top 10 findings in the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer, which surveyed more than 32,000 people across 28 countries, is that people want businesses to do more, not less, to address issues like climate change, economic inequality and workforce re-skilling. 77 percent said they expect CEOs to take a public stand on the wealth gap, and 79 percent said it is a CEO’s obligation to ensure their home community is both safe and thriving.

“We have a strong social value proposition as part of our core business mission which revolves around relieving Americans from financial anxiety,” Crosby said. “To be able to deliver on this, it requires us to put people first and understand their needs. Since serving the communities we impact is at the core of who we are, it only makes sense that when we talk about impact, it starts with community development and neighborhood revitalization.”

Community involvement is a powerful strategy for organizations looking to drive growth and establish trust. By investing time and money in the community, businesses can help address their problems and spur sustainable economic growth.

In 2022, Northwestern Mutual more formally defined its environmental, social and impact (ESI) strategy with accountability at the core. “This strategy builds upon the values that Northwestern Mutual has embraced since its inception,” Crosby said.

Crosby echoes the importance of forward thinking, reminding peers that it takes a marathon, not a sprint to achieve sustainable impact in your communities. “Companies need to roll up their sleeves, be a part of the solution and commit to the journey [because] it’s one that never stops.”

This article series is sponsored by Northwestern Mutual and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Image courtesy of Northwestern Mutual

As published in Qualcomm’s 2022 Corporate Responsibility Report

We have been a committed partner to countries around the world for more than 30 years, supporting policies that encourage innovation, foster the advancement of mobile technology and enable business-friendly environments globally. With each new generation of wireless connectivity, we strive to create shared success in collaboration with lawmakers and regulators, and to create new opportunities for local industries and communities.

We implement our public policy approach around four key principles:

Participation: We engage in policy discussions with governments, organizations and industries around the world to advocate for policies that promote innovation and protect and foster new ideas in wireless connectivity. We are committed to helping policymakers at all levels understand our business model and role as an ecosystem enabler.Responsible Governance: We abide by all applicable laws and regulations regarding political contributions and expenditures, and our contributions are subject to the approval of our senior management with oversight by the Governance Committee of our Board of Directors.Transparency: We publicly disclose to the Federal Elections Commission all political contributions made by our Company and our Political Action Committee, and we abide by all legal obligations of the FCPA and similar legislation around the world.Policy Guides: We carefully monitor and evaluate developments that affect the world of wireless connectivity.

Our key public policy topics are 5G, invention and IP, spectrum, privacy, immigration and taxation. Our general positions are outlined below and published on our public policy website.

We published our global tax strategy to highlight our commitment to being a responsible and transparent corporate citizen. Our approach to tax is consistent with our CoBC and Code of Ethics and is premised on complying with applicable tax laws, maximizing stockholder value and delivering transparent tax reporting and disclosures. We also seek to pay the requisite taxes on profits generated from the activities performed in each jurisdiction.

Implementing our business strategy requires specialized engineering and other talent, as our revenues are highly dependent on technological and product innovations. To ensure that we can attract top talent, we must be able to hire the best engineers, regardless of their country of origin. Beyond fierce competition for talent across our industry and with our competitors, existing immigration laws make it more difficult for us to recruit and retain highly skilled foreign nationals, making the pool of available talent even smaller.

We engage in public policy efforts to support regulations that are aligned to today’s economic reality. Our Government Affairs team participates in diverse advocacy efforts that contribute to helping us ensure that immigration laws support our Company’s ability to develop leading-edge technologies specifically and our innovation-based global economy in general. Our advocacy efforts, as they relate to immigration laws and recruiting a global workforce, are generally implemented through collaborations with trade associations and diverse coalitions of employers. For more information on our approach to managing a diverse highly skilled workforce, please see our Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Index.

Key public policy topics

5G: 5G is a unified connectivity fabric that we believe will transform industries, create jobs and usher in an estimated $13.1 trillion in global sales activity in 203523. To achieve these benefits, we believe governments must adopt policies that support a comprehensive 5G rollout plan.Invention and IP: Invention, innovation and protection of IP are core drivers of economic growth and competitiveness. Without robust patent systems and strong global protection of IP, innovation would be significantly weakened.Spectrum: The benefits of wireless connectivity depend on the availability of adequate and appropriate radio spectrum. We believe in freeing new spectrum in a responsible way to meet the demands of consumers and businesses.Privacy: We believe that cultivating consumer trust through a foundation of security and privacy practices helps drive broader adoption and more personalized wireless technology offerings.Immigration: Highly skilled talent, especially in the areas of math, engineering and the sciences, is vital to the success of our Company and to the future of technological innovation around the world.Taxation: We support policies that incentivize innovation and enable American technology companies to comp

Learn more in Qualcomm’s 2022 Corporate Responsibility Report

Originally published on Built From Scratch

During his third combat tour with the United States Air Force in May 2011, Technical Sergeant Dan Fye was severely injured by an improvised explosive device (IED). He sustained major damage to his lower limbs. After numerous surgeries and three years of physical therapy, Dan now wears a prosthesis on his left leg and a brace on his right leg for mobility.

Team Depot, The Home Depot’s associate volunteer force, recently came together with Semper Fi & America’s Fund to celebrate and acknowledge this local hero at his home in Washington state. They upgraded Dan’s outdoor space by installing fencing and pavers. They also assembled a patio furniture set, built raised flower beds and laid fresh mulch. Finally, the team assembled a gazebo, a chicken coop and a storage shed. Inside the shed was a surprise for Dan and his family: a new Traeger grill, tools and lawn equipment.

These days, Dan enjoys spending time with his family at home. He works on cars and dreams of opening a gym where he can help others with physical challenges learn weightlifting. Dan also serves his community as a firefighter and ER tech.

Giving back to veterans is personal to The Home Depot as more than 35,000 of the company’s associates are veterans or military spouses. Since 2011, The Home Depot Foundation has invested more than $475 million in veteran causes and improved more than 55,000 veteran homes and facilities, ensuring more of our nation’s heroes have a safe, comfortable place to call home that fits their individual needs. The Foundation has pledged to invest half of a billion dollars in veteran causes by 2025. 

To learn more about our veteran initiatives, visit HomeDepotFoundation.org.

Keep up with all the latest Home Depot news! Subscribe to our bi-weekly news update and get the top Built from Scratch stories delivered straight to your inbox.

FORT WORTH, Texas, August 9, 2023 /3BL/ – American Airlines announced the findings of a first-of-its-kind study on contrail avoidance, with results verified by satellite imagery, aimed at reducing aviation’s environmental impact.

Contrails form when airplanes fly through layers of humidity, and they can persist as cirrus clouds for minutes or hours depending on the conditions. While these extra clouds can reflect sunlight back into space during the day, certain contrails can trap heat within the Earth’s atmosphere at night.

The study, led by Google Research and Breakthrough Energy and with support from American, tested whether it is possible to identify atmospheric zones that are likely to create contrails. The team then determined whether pilots could avoid making contrails in flight when supplied with data regarding the location of these zones.

“American is grateful for the opportunity to work with our partners at Google Research and Breakthrough Energy to help advance the science on contrail avoidance,” said Jill Blickstein, Vice President of Sustainability at American. “The results from this small-scale test are encouraging, and, while clearly there are more questions to answer about how to operationalize contrails avoidance across our industry, we’re excited to have played a role in establishing this first proof point. And we’re looking forward to sharing what we learned with stakeholders in the aviation industry and beyond.”

After collecting large data sets — such as satellite imagery, weather and flight path data —Google Research and Breakthrough Energy used artificial intelligence (AI) to develop contrail forecast maps. A small group of American pilots flew 70 flights over six months, using AI-based predictions to make small modifications to routes that were projected to create contrails.

“Our contrails predictions combine the latest in AI research with massive amounts of satellite imagery, weather data and flight data,” said Juliet Rothenberg, head of product for Climate AI at Google Research. “We now have the first proof point that commercial flights can use these predictions to avoid contrails, as verified in satellite imagery. We’re grateful for our partnership with American Airlines and Breakthrough Energy – together we’ve taken a significant step towards understanding a high-potential climate solution.”

After the test flights, Google Research analyzed satellite imagery and found that flights where pilots used the AI predictions to avoid creating a contrail reduced contrail formation by 54%, as measured by distance, compared to flights where pilots did not use the predictions. This first proof point — albeit on a small number of flights — shows that a commercial flight can verifiably avoid creating a contrail. Additional research is necessary to determine if this success can be replicated and scaled.

“Avoiding contrails might be one of the best ways to limit aviation’s climate impact, and now we have a clear demonstration that it’s possible to do so,” said Marc Shapiro, Director of Breakthrough Energy Contrails. “This study is a great example of what happens when creative, ambitious organizations work together to better understand and solve a tough problem, and we’re grateful for American’s and Google’s partnership.”

American is working to make its operations more sustainable with more-fuel efficient aircraft powered increasingly by low-carbon fuel and new technology. To achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the airline has set a number of ambitious intermediate targets. Earlier this month, American issued its 2022 Sustainability Report, providing updates on the company’s strategy and progress on key issues over the year, including climate change.

Learn more in Google Research’s video and blog post.

About American Airlines Group
To Care for People on Life’s Journey®. Shares of American Airlines Group Inc. trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol AAL and the company’s stock is included in the S&P 500. Learn more about what’s happening at American by visiting news.aa.com and connect with American on Twitter @AmericanAir and at Facebook.com/AmericanAirlines.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements and information
Certain of the statements contained in this release, including goals for and projections of future results, the expected execution and effect of our sustainability strategies and initiatives and the amounts and timing of their expected impact, should be considered forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the company’s current objectives, beliefs and expectations, and they are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside the company’s control, that may cause actual results and financial position and timing of certain events to differ materially from the information in the forward-looking statements. Please see the company’s latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and the company’s other filings with the SEC for a discussion of risk factors as they may relate to forward-looking statements. The company does not assume any obligation to publicly update or supplement any forward-looking statement to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting these forward-looking statements other than as required by law. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof or as of the dates indicated in the statement.