Month: September 2023

September 13, 2023 /3BL/ – Ceres today published a report that provides guidance for investors to effectively influence and support utility companies in decarbonizing the gas distribution industry and align with the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Decarbonizing U.S. Gas Distribution: An Investor Guide provides insight into the diverse decarbonization options that can be deployed to viably reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. The report also underscores the financial importance of decarbonization in the utility sector, citing the substantial investor-owned assets totaling $379 billion in the gas distribution industry. By embracing decarbonization, utility companies can both mitigate financial risks and tap into substantial financial opportunities while ensuring energy remains reliable and cost-competitive for consumers. With major technological improvements across the industry and new investment spurred by the historic Inflation Reduction Act, the time is ripe for the industry to achieve a cleaner, more efficient, and equitable energy future.

“Decisive action on the part of utility companies is imperative for the gas distribution industry to successfully decarbonize. To ensure shareholder capital, maximize financial opportunities, and minimize costs to customers, their actions must also be grounded in viability,” said Dan Bakal, senior program director of the climate and energy team at Ceres. “Companies that are not aligned with a 1.5°C pathway need to move quickly by developing, implementing and investing in pathways that are both deeply impactful and feasible.”

“Our report provides an array of viable pathways that utilities can follow, empowering them to make informed decisions,” Bakal added. “This analysis also equips investors with the necessary tools to effectively engage and support these companies in their transition toward sustainable energy.”

The report’s key findings offer a clear roadmap for the industry’s transition:

Electrification presents compelling growth opportunities for both electric-only and dual-fuel service territories. It opens avenues for deploying capital in generation, transmission, distribution, storage, and appliances.Electrification and efficiency-centered pathways emerge as the most viable strategies to align with the 1.5°C target. These approaches often outperform low-carbon fuels and are already cost-competitive against unabated gas distribution.While renewable natural gas (RNG) and hydrogen-centric pathways have potential benefits, the evidence indicates they lack economic viability at the necessary scale to make substantial contributions toward 1.5°C alignment.Deep hybrid electrification presents an effective interim solution, particularly in regions with harsh winter climates. This strategy harmonizes electric grid congestion, averting costly capacity upgrades and their related expenses.Decarbonization plans must prioritize economic justice and equity, ensuring customer access and affordability are central. This approach fosters an optimized system which can benefit customers, utilities, and investors alike.

According to the International Energy Agency, the building sector—which closely corresponds to the emissions reductions needed in the gas distribution industry—needs to see a significant reduction in global average end-use carbon dioxide emissions of 46% by 2030. Furthermore, global methane emissions also need to drop by 75% by 2030.

The gas distribution industry is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions—representing approximately 14% of total U.S. emissions. With its vast network of pipes delivering energy to both homes and businesses, it plays an essential role in the energy landscape.

Ceres is committed to decarbonizing the six highest-emitting sectors of the U.S. economy—including the electric and gas utility sector—through its Ambition 2030 initiative.

About Ceres

Ceres is a nonprofit organization working with the most influential capital market leaders to solve the world’s greatest sustainability challenges. Through our powerful networks and global collaborations of investors, companies and nonprofits, we drive action and inspire equitable market-based and policy solutions throughout the economy to build a just and sustainable future. For more information, visit ceres.org and follow @CeresNews.

Media Contact: Reginald Zimmerman, zimmerman@ceres.org, 617-247-0700 ext. 136

WASHINGTON, September 13, 2023 /3BL/ – The American Forest Foundation (AFF), a national nonprofit that empowers family forest owners to create meaningful conservation impact, released a report today emphasizing how investment in family-owned forests in the United States is a critical but underutilized tool in the fight against climate change. The report, Boosting the Power of Corporate Investment in the Fight Against Climate Change, reveals that innovations to carbon programs and financing models are essential to build and scale a voluntary market that maximizes climate impact and benefits rural landowners.

“This new report makes it crystal clear: innovative investment tools are needed to unlock the power of family forests for climate action now,” said Rita Hite, President and CEO of AFF. “Today’s climate crisis requires a holistic, collaborative, and coordinated response from the world’s leading institutions and family landowners alike. Together, we must decarbonize the global economy by both drastically reducing emissions and drawing more carbon out of the atmosphere through natural climate solutions.”

The report, authored by AFF’s climate science and financing teams, outlines solutions to common concerns about carbon markets such as additionality and permanence, as well highlights the benefits of dynamic baseline methodologies and calls for improved financial models that account for the dynamism and complexity of natural systems, mainly:

Improving acceptance standards for setting and updating baselines in carbon projects on the voluntary carbon marketPull learnings from established markets – like agriculture – to adopt similar risk-sharing models and enhance the financial feasibility of projects without affecting their integrityPrioritize projects that use innovative financing models to underwrite uncertainty and distribute risk among all stakeholders, including federal agencies, carbon financiers, project developers, private philanthropies and carbon credit buyers

“By leveraging the innovative financing mechanisms outlined in the research, the private sector could facilitate the development of high-integrity carbon credits and catalyze the growth of the entire market,” said Nate Truitt, AFF’s Executive Vice President of Climate Funding. “New financing methods can fund higher quality nature-based projects in the United States – projects that restore forests and grasslands, advance coastal resilience, reduce the harmful impacts of wildfires, and improve agricultural practices on millions of acres – all while providing crucial economic support to rural communities.”

Spotlighted in the report is the investment of leading carbon programs, such as AFF and The Nature Conservancy’s Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP). A leader in the field, FFCP sets the example of a program that benefits both private landowners and companies alike. The program provides annual payments and technical support to enrolled landowners to implement forest management practices that are scientifically proven to enhance carbon capture and storage, improve forest health, and provide other important ecosystem benefits. The carbon generated by landowners enrolled in FFCP is measured and verified by a first-of-its-kind forest carbon accounting methodology that improves accuracy and transparency for the marketplace. By measuring the difference between similar forests, the methodology pinpoints the program as the sole variable that created additional carbon benefit on enrolled landowners’ property.

Access the full report: familyforestcarbon.org/white-paper 

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About The American Forest Foundation

The American Forest Foundation is a national conservation organization that works with a broad coalition of partners to empower family forest owners to make a meaningful conservation impact around carbon sequestration, wildfire reduction, wildlife habitat, clean water, sustainable wood supplies and support for rural communities.  To learn more about the American Forest Foundation and the Family Forest Carbon Program, go to www.forestfoundation.org/carbon.

If there is one universal truth accepted by all who have reached the age of reason, it is this: One size does not fit all.

It’s as true in healthcare as it is with every individual.

Just like there is no single solution to a problem, nor one road to better health, there is no one way to improve people’s lives.

Because there is no one patient.

For years, optimizing medical progress and expanding its impact was slowed by conducting clinical trials confined largely to adult male, white volunteers.

This conflicted with the growing knowledge that gender, ethnicity and environmental/societal differences all play a factor in overall health.

Since diverse participants were not equally represented in clinical trials, this impacted the understanding of which therapies best helped whom.

As leaders in the study and development of new ways to reach out to – and better treat – under-represented populations, we have focused on building a foundation of trust and science. This emphasizes diversity and inclusion in clinical trials to develop solutions that most benefit the greatest number of people.

But the work is complex and far from complete.

Not as Simple as 1, 2, 3. Rather, Step by Step.

Which is why we’re introducing not one or two, but three new programs in our continuing multi-million dollar initiative to further increase diversity in clinical trials and improve care among under-represented groups.

It’s all part of our comprehensive 2030 sustainability goal of improving the lives of more than three billion people by decades end – reaching one billion more than we do today, each year. We can only do that by continuing to develop innovative medical technologies across multiple healthcare disciplines around the world, and that only occurs after successful, representative clinical trials.

Step1: Create a new Diversity in Research Office at Abbott to make sure that all our clinical trials have a variety of participants.

This group will be led by Jennifer Jones-McMeans, Ph.D., divisional vice president of global clinical affairs at Abbott’s vascular business and Aparna Ahuja, M.D., divisional vice president of medical, clinical and scientific affairs at Abbott’s rapid diagnostics business.

As well-established experts in the field, they will oversee our holistic efforts to not only improve diversity, equity and inclusion plans – which will establish a template for future trials – but also to set performance goals and help collaboration efforts across the company, industry and regulatory groups.

“We are committed to addressing as many barriers to participation as we can,” Jones-McMeans said. “We’ve implemented programs that will increase the diversity in our trials by increasing participation from under-served and under-represented populations.”

“Achieving greater diversity will continue to be a key focus throughout Abbott to facilitate development of appropriate diagnostics, products and treatment ensuring better ways to fight diseases that often disproportionately impact diverse populations,” said Dr Ahuja.

Step 2: Fund a multi-year commitment to establish research program models at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

One of the challenges of setting up sustainable research models serving diverse communities is getting the resources needed to design and develop them from scratch.

Which is why we are providing $1.5 million to the Institute for Health Equity at Norton Healthcare to build models for HBCUs and clinics serving under-represented communities.

In addition to this work that will serve as a roadmap of best practices, the five-year commitment will support the hiring and training of research coordinators, data managers and others to help launch and sustain valuable programs.

In fact, two new research center programs – one in rural Mississippi, associated with Morehouse University College of Medicine and the second located in Louisville, Kentucky – are set to launch in 2023. This, in turn, will increase the number and quality of research sites, further reducing barriers to clinical trials.

Step 3: Provide a comprehensive program to support training of diverse clinical research coordinators.

Partnering with Barnett International, we are developing an educational program for the instruction of new clinical research coordinators (CRCs), who act as a central point of contact for patients, families and investigating physicians leading clinical trials.

CRCs are vital to trial success. Through this training, we will empower them with a strong foundation in essential core areas of clinical research, including study execution, patient consent, good clinical practice guidelines, documentation and other regulatory considerations.

Expanding CRC training to those with diverse backgrounds is designed to reduce another possible barrier for potential study participants.

Long-term Benefits of Clinical Trial Diversity

Our diversity initiative is just one aspect of continuing efforts to enhance health equity, expand access and affordability, and remove barriers to life-improving technology and scientific innovation.

We are building on the foundation of our initial success in establishing a Diversity in Clinical Trials Medical Advisory Board. This organization is comprised of external experts and an internal steering committee, while also focusing on increasing diversity enrollment in our own clinical trials.

Through $5 million in grants, we’ve also sponsored more than 300 scholarships at four HBCU medical schools, the National Black Nurses Association and the National Association of Hispanic Nurses to support future leaders of clinical research.

Complex. But Necessary.

We all love patient stories like the 22 year old woman who is leading a healthier life because of her cardiac monitoring device, or the young Black woman whose life was turned around by her cutting-edge glucose monitor, or the African-American man who was kept alive by his cardiac device until a healthy heart became available for transplant.

But each of these stories – and thousands more – are borne out of clinical trials that work best when they reflect the complex economic, cultural, scientific, medical reality of our ever-changing healthcare universe.

It’s a complex and often problematic world where one size most definitely does not fit all.

But we get that.

So, if you’re looking for us, we’ll be here in the background, trying to improve health outcomes by enhancing diversity in clinical trials, developing devices that fit each individual best, allowing them to live life to the fullest.

HORSHAM, Pa., September 13, 2023 /3BL/ – To meet the growing demand in the U.S., the Sofidel tissue paper group, well-known for its Regina, Nicky and customer brands, is further strengthening its production capacity with a $185 million investment in its integrated plant in Circleville, Ohio.

The project involves the construction of a new building that will house the new Valmet DCT 200 paper mill machine, which will start operation in Q3 2025 with a production capacity of 70,000 metric tons per year.

The Circleville plant, which is already home to two Valmet Advantage NTT paper mill machines, will reach a production capacity of over 200,000 metric tons per year (+50%) and become Sofidel’s most important production site globally.

“Last year, we celebrated our first 10 years in the U.S. market: 10 years of development and growth. Thanks in part to the close-knit and capable U.S. team and our excellent relationships with institutions, from the state of Ohio to the local communities that have always supported us, we open our second decade of operations in the U.S. with this investment in the Circleville plant. Today, Sofidel America has production sites in six states, and this operation will enable us to further meet the growing demand from our customers and continue to fuel our growth in this country,” said Luigi Lazzareschi, Sofidel CEO.

The Ohio plant was Sofidel’s first greenfield investment in the United States. To date, it is Sofidel’s most modern and sustainable plant. Located on a 280-acre (110-hectare) site, the plant sits in an area rich in water, gas, and electricity, and is close to a strategic logistics hub for distribution operators, with intermodal transport systems and major urban centers within a few hundred miles.

Sofidel America 

Sofidel America is a subsidiary of the Sofidel Group. It was established in 2012 through the acquisition of the Cellynne tissue company and two converting plants in Green Bay (Wisconsin) and Henderson (Nevada) – the latter moved to Las Vegas in 2018. Sofidel America is active in seven states – the original three listed, as well as Oklahoma, Mississippi, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 2022 the US market accounted for 26.7% of Sofidel’s revenues.

About The Sofidel Group

The Sofidel Group, a privately held company owned by the Stefani and Lazzareschi families, is a world leader in the manufacture of paper for hygienic and domestic use. Founded in 1966, the Group has subsidiaries in 12 countries – Italy, Spain, the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Romania, and the USA – with more than 6,400 employees. A member of the UN Global Compact and the international WWF Climate Savers program, the Sofidel Group considers sustainability a strategic imperative and is committed to promoting sustainable development.  For more information, visit www.sofidel.com.

Media Contact:   

Brianna Fitzpatrick 

Mulberry Marketing Communications

bfitzpatrick@mulberrymc.com