Month: January 2024

Originally published on Rayonier.com

WILDLIGHT, Fla., January 12, 2024 /3BL/ – Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) announced its commitment to The Climate Pledge, reinforcing our dedication to a sustainable and environmentally responsible future.

The Climate Pledge encourages businesses worldwide to take immediate and impactful action to combat climate change. By signing The Climate Pledge, Rayonier joins a growing community of over 460 companies that are committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement’s target.

As part of our commitment to The Climate Pledge, Rayonier will:

Measure and report: We will continue to measure our carbon emissions accurately and transparently, ensuring that we have a clear understanding of our environmental impact.Reduce carbon emissions: We will implement decarbonization strategies through real business changes and innovations to reduce carbon emissions across our supply chain and operations.Offset remaining emissions: Where necessary, we will neutralize any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent and socially beneficial offsets.

Rayonier will continue to communicate its carbon footprint within its annual Sustainability and Carbon reports.

“Rayonier becoming a signatory to The Climate Pledge is consistent with our goal of supporting a more sustainable future,” said David Nunes, CEO. “We are proud to join other organizations from across the globe in the effort to accelerate responsible climate action, and we are committed to reducing our carbon emissions.”

“We intend to refine our existing processes and embrace new technologies to reduce emissions across our operations as we pursue a goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2040,” said Doug Long, Executive Vice President and Chief Resource Officer. “As we transition to a low-carbon economy, we also anticipate that credible offsets will play a critical role in achieving a net-zero future. Rayonier looks forward to working with various stakeholders to provide high-quality offsets and other land-based solutions to combat the negative impacts of climate change.”

More information on Rayonier’s sustainability initiatives can be found on the Company’s Sustainability web page.

About The Climate Pledge

The Climate Pledge is a commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. It brings the world’s top companies together to accelerate joint action, cross-sector collaboration, and responsible change. For more information, visit www.theclimatepledge.com.

About Rayonier

Rayonier is a leading timberland real estate investment trust with assets located in some of the most productive softwood timber growing regions in the United States and New Zealand. As of September 30, 2023, Rayonier owned or leased under long-term agreements approximately 2.8 million acres of timberlands located in the U.S. South (1.90 million acres), U.S. Pacific Northwest (474,000 acres) and New Zealand (419,000 acres). More information is available at www.rayonier.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240109758864/en/

Investors: Collin Mings, investorrelations@rayonier.com, 904-357-9100 
Media: Alejandro Barbero, alejandro.barbero@rayonier.com

Source: Rayonier Inc.

Cadence announced that it has won the Top 10 Foreign Sustainable Model Companies Award from Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE) for its continuous efforts in promoting Taiwan’s sustainability by enabling electronic designs. The award ceremony of the 16th Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Award (TCSA) was held in Taipei on Wednesday, November 15.

Cadence advancements in computational software provide the foundation for next-generation electronic design of chips, boards, and systems, enabling smarter, smaller, and more power-efficient products. Cadence established its Taiwan office over 35 years ago and was the first EDA company supporting IC, semiconductor, and systems companies in Taiwan. To enable a sustainable Taiwanese semiconductor industry, Cadence products are provided to leading Taiwanese electronics and semiconductor companies to optimize their power, performance, area (PPA), and thermal needs to create products for applications with a lower carbon footprint on the world, such as automotive, HPC, and smart devices.

Cadence employees are invaluable, and Cadence Taiwan is dedicated to building a healthy work environment that promotes a culture of innovation and collaboration and values diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our culture has earned Cadence recognition on the Fortune Best Workplaces list for nine consecutive years, and Cadence has also been named a Best Workplace in Taiwan for several years. Also, with our commitment to community giving, Cadence Taiwan employees actively engage in many charitable activities—such as the rural-urban digital gap in Taiwan’s education, sustainable agriculture, and caring for the vulnerable—and convey the spirit of “Cadence Giving” to their suppliers and customers.

“Cadence Taiwan wins this prestigious award on our first participation. We are honored for making a positive impact in Taiwan through our continuous R&D investment, talent development, and culture of diversity and inclusion, and also innovation and collaboration,” said Brian Sung, country manager of Cadence Taiwan. “Moving forward, we will remain committed to advancing this effort for our customers, stakeholders, and communities and to fostering an environment and semiconductor industry where our employees can make an impact.”

Erin Bigley, CFA| Chief Responsibility Officer

Transcript

There are a lot of opportunities we’re going to be exploring in the responsible investing space in 2024, from carbon markets, which are developing rapidly, to blended finance, which is expanding, to the changing nature of the labor markets and how diversity, equity and inclusion can be a competitive advantage for companies.

One of the other areas of focus within responsible investing is emerging markets, which are really starting to take center stage. And in the emerging markets, what we see is the true intersection of environmental and social factors. We see that in things like just transition, where emerging countries need to think about transitioning away from fossil fuels but doing so in a way that does not disrupt the social fabric of their economies.

We also see that in the intersection of climate change and modern slavery, where many emerging markets are faced with physical climate change risks; they’re seeing increased incidence of typhoons, or droughts, that can lead to population disruption and can make populations more vulnerable to modern slavery and human trafficking.

Blended finance is one way to bring capital to emerging markets, much needed capital for biodiversity or other environmental challenges. Blended finance brings together developed-market governments, emerging-market governments and private investors. The developed-market government provides a guarantee that lowers the cost of finance to the emerging-market investor, and it also expands the attractiveness to private investors because the credit risk is lowered.

There are other areas of responsible investing that are equally as interesting. For example, biodiversity has been a big topic of research for our team over the past year, and in 2024, we’re going to be diving into a specific area of biodiversity in terms of water. Water issues will be at the forefront of investors’ minds over the next several years as communities, companies, countries need to deal with the risks around water scarcity, around water pollution and sustainable water management.

Biodiversity and water scarcity are concerns that we need to think about globally, both within the developed markets, as we’re seeing here in the United States, as well as across the emerging markets.

The views expressed herein do not constitute research, investment advice or trade recommendations and do not necessarily represent the views of all AB portfolio-management teams. Views are subject to revision over time.

Learn more about AB’s approach to responsibility here.