Month: February 2024

CECP Media Contact: 

Katie Leasor 

kleasor@cecp.co  

NEW YORK, February 14, 2024 /3BL/ – As Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose®(CECP) kicks off the celebration of its 25th anniversary, it announced that it has appointed two leading executives to co-chair the organization’s distinguished Board of Directors: Former Vanguard Chairman and CEO Bill McNabb and EY‘s US Chair and Managing Partner Emeritus Kelly Grier. In addition, as part of its continuing efforts to create a better world through business, four new CEOs will join the Board of Directors: Megan Myungwon Lee, CEO, Panasonic Corporation of North America; Jessica Foster, CEO, RHR International; John Wood, Vice Chairman, Heidrick & Struggles; and Calvin Butler, CEO and President, Exelon Corporation.  

“Whether they’re making eminent commitments to fund life-changing innovations around the world or improving the lives of their workforce, CEOs understand their role at the helm of companies to support the connection between purpose and business success,” said Bill McNabb, Former Chairman and CEO, The Vanguard Group, Inc. “To fully achieve that impact, companies need an ally that uniquely understands the power of purpose. For over 25 years, CECP has been an ally to CEOs in this work and as a new co-chair of CECP’s Board of Directors, I look forward to joining this industry-leading organization focused on responsible business.” 

Bill McNabb is former Chairman and CEO, The Vanguard Group, Inc., one of the world’s largest investment management companies. He is a director of UnitedHealth Group and Axiom, former chairman of the board of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, chairman of the U.S. Rowing Foundation, and former chairman of Ernst & Young’s Independent Audit Quality Committee.  

CECP is the only business counsel and network dedicated to driving measurable returns on purpose. We promote responsible purpose-driven business as it increases customer loyalty, builds employee engagement, improves brand trust, attracts top talent, connects with strategic investors, and contributes to the bottom line. More than 200 of the world’s leading companies seek to improve their return on purpose through access to CECP’s solutions in research and insights, strategy and benchmarking, and convening and communications.   

Since its founding in 1999, CECP has developed the gold-standard for companies to achieve a return on purpose by providing affiliated companies with tangible frameworks, data, strategies, and goal setting. CECP advises its companies through custom benchmarking and flagship publications such as Giving in Numbers™, the largest and most historical data set on corporate community investment trends, in partnership with more than 617 multi- billion-dollar companies. The organization is regularly quoted by top-tier publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, FORTUNE, Financial Times, Reuters, Time Magazine, Chronicle of Philanthropy, and more as a go-to source on corporate purpose. Its annual events–the CECP Summit, CECP Board of Boards, and CECP CEO Investor Forum–are counted among the few that CEOs and other corporate leaders attend each year to obtain insights on key trends and network with their peers. CECP has grown to a movement of more than 200 of the world’s largest companies that represent $8.7 trillion in revenues, $47 billion in total community investment, 15.1 million employees, 16 million hours of employee engagement, and $34.1 trillion in assets under management. 

“In the 25 years since Paul Newman and a handful of like-minded CEOs founded CECP, the organization has helped companies across industries understand the inextricable link between corporate purpose and stakeholder returns, and that leveraging organizational resources to drive positive societal impact goes hand in hand with enduring value creation,” said Kelly Grier, EY’s US Chair and Managing Partner Emeritus. “Through its landmark research, unrivaled benchmarking services, and its high-profile meetings, CECP brings together corporate leaders at the highest levels to share insights, offer encouragement, and inspire positive change.” 

Kelly Grier is EY’s US Chair and Managing Partner Emeritus, having led more than 81,000 people in 31 countries during her tenure, with annual revenue of $21.2 billion. Recognized for her work, she was named to the Fortune Most Powerful Women in Business list in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; 2019 Crain’s 50 Most Powerful Women in New York list; and the 2019 and 2020 Most Powerful Women in the Accounting Profession list by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and CPA Practice Advisor magazine.  

“Our organization is consistently inspired by its Board of Directors to ask how we can drive long-term business success through positive social impact,” said Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP. “Given their exceptional leadership skills, real-world insights, and expertise, these two new co-chairs and four new directors will help companies find corporate purpose and develop a strategic approach to impact that will benefit their businesses, their workforce, their communities, and the world.” 

CECP is grateful to its 25th anniversary sponsors who make its continued work possible: Visa Inc. as a Visionary Sponsor and Exelon Corporation, Vanguard, and Panasonic Corporation of North America as Engagement Sponsors. 

The new co-chairs and members will join the current Board of Directors, which includes:  

Douglas R. Conant, Founder and CEO, ConantLeadership; Former CEO, Campbell Soup Company; former Chairman, Avon Products; and Chairman, CECP Theodore Dysart, Managing Director, Russell Reynolds Associates Richard Edelman, President & CEO, Edelman Sara Armbruster, CEO, Steelcase Inc. Alex Gorsky, Executive Chairman, Johnson & Johnson Mauricio Gutierrez, Former President & CEO, NRG Alan G Hassenfeld, Chairman, Executive Committee Hasbro, Inc. Fran Horowitz, CEO, Abercrombie & Fitch Co Barbara Humpton, CEO, Siemens USA Shelly Lazarus, Chairman Emeritus, Ogilvy & Mather Deanna Mulligan, CEO, Purposeful Suresh Muthuswami, Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services North America Jennifer Smith Turner, CEO, Smith & Associates LLC James White, Former Chairman, President, and CEO, Jamba Juice 

CECP’s Board of Directors also includes the following Directors Emeriti:  

Co-Founders Peter Malkin, Chairman Emeritus, Empire State Realty Trust Paul Newman, Actor and Philanthropist, (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008)  Kenneth T. Derr, Former Chairman & CEO, Chevron Corporation  Henrietta Fore, Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund  Surya Kant, Former Chairman, TCS North America Harold McGraw, III, Chairman Emeritus, S&P Global  Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Former Chairman and CEO, Carlson Holdings, Inc.  David Rockefeller, Former Chairman & CEO, Chase Manhattan Corporation (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017)  Michael I. Roth, Former Executive Chairman & CEO, Interpublic Group Paul Volcker, Former Chairman, Federal Reserve  Sanford Weill, Chairman Emeritus, Citigroup, Inc.  John C. Whitehead, Former Co-Chair, Goldman, Sachs, & Co., Former Deputy Secretary of State (April 2, 1922 – February 7, 2017)   

CECP also works with a group of CECP Ambassadors, which includes:  

Mitch Barns, Former CEO, Nielsen  Thomas J. DeRosa, Former CEO & Director, Welltower Inc. Lynne Doughtie, Former Chairman & CEO, KPMG Tony Earley, Executive Chairman, PG&E  Vince Forlenza, Former Chairman, President & CEO, BD Bill Goodwynn, CEO, Discovery Education  Ralph Izzo, Chairman of the Board, PSEG Hubert Joly, Former Chair & CEO, Best Buy David Kenny, CEO, Nielsen Holdings Phillipe Krakowsky, CEO, Interpublic Group Duncan L. Niederauer, Former CEO, NYSE  Stuart Parker, Former CEO, USAA Penny Pennington, Managing Partner, Edward Jones Christiana Riley, Regional Head of North America, Santander John Veihmeyer, Former Chairman & CEO, KPMG  Robert Wolf, Former CEO, UBS  Mark Weinberger, Former Chairman & CEO, EY 

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About Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP) 

Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose® (CECP) is the only business counsel and network dedicated to driving measurable returns on purpose. We promote responsible purpose-driven business as it increases customer loyalty, builds employee engagement, improves brand trust, attracts top talent, connects with strategic investors, and contributes to the bottom line. More than 200 of the world’s leading companies seek to improve their return on purpose through access to CECP’s solutions in research and insights, strategy and benchmarking, and convening and communications. With our companies, we share a goal of harnessing the power of purpose for the benefit of business, stakeholders, and society.  

For more information, visit http://cecp.co. 

CAMDEN, N.J. and WASHINGTON, February 14, 2024 /3BL/ – Subaru of America, Inc., and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, today announced the 2024 winners of the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books. The awards, which for nearly 20 years have recognized exceptional books about science that engage readers of all ages, this year honor books on subjects ranging from the noises of nature to the scale of the solar system.

The prize-winning books for 2024 are:

Whale Fall: Exploring an Ocean-floor Ecosystem by Melissa Stewart and illustrated by Rob Dunlavey.The Planets Are Very, Very, Very Far Away: A Journey Through the Amazing Scale of the Solar System by Mike Vago.Human Body Learning Lab: Take an Inside Tour of How Your Anatomy Works by Dr. Betty Choi.The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants by Karen Bakker.

Since 2005, Subaru of America and AAAS have partnered to encourage the writing and publishing of high-quality science books for young audiences – and to boost their interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and inspire the next generation of scientists.

“AAAS believes that, through good science books, this generation, and the next, will have a better understanding and appreciation of science,” said Sarah Ingraffea, the AAAS/Subaru Book Prize Award manager at AAAS.

Awards are given in four categories: Children’s Science Picture Book, Middle Grades Science Book, Hands-on Science Book and Young Adult Science Book. Judging panels composed of librarians, educators, scientists, and literacy experts evaluate each submission according to detailed criteria tailored to each category that include age-appropriateness, scientific accuracy, and the examination of scientific concepts without perpetuating stereotypes or misconceptions.

This year, the judges received a record number of submissions. With today’s announcement, the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books has now honored 76 books and more than 100 authors and illustrators.

The author of each winning book and the illustrator of the children’s book will receive a $1,500 prize and a commemorative plaque.

“Together with AAAS, we have the opportunity to spark a child’s imagination related to science, technology, engineering and math,” said Jeff Walters, President and Chief Operating Officer, Subaru of America, Inc. “This year’s prize-winning books can help inspire a lifelong love of curiosity, learning, and innovation.”

Learn more about the 2024 award-winning books, writers and illustrator:

Children’s Science Picture Book 
Whale Fall: Exploring an Ocean-floor Ecosystem, by Melissa Stewart. Illustrated by Rob Dunlavey. Random House Studio, 2023.

Whale Fall: Exploring an Ocean-floor Ecosystem captures the end of a whale’s life, during which they silently sink to the ocean floor and become a food source for the dwellers of the deep sea, from sharks to microbes, for many decades to come.

Melissa Stewart has written more than 200 science books for children, including the Sibert Medal Honoree Summertime Sleepers: Animals that Estivate, illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen. She holds a degree in biology from Union College in Schenectady, NY, and a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. While gathering research for her books, she’s explored tropical rain forests in Costa Rica, gone on safari in East Africa, and swum with sea lions in the Galapagos Islands.

Rob Dunlavey is a fine artist and children’s book illustrator. His recent titles include Whale Fall by Melissa Stewart, In the Woods by David Elliott, and Owl Sees Owl by Laura Godwin. A native of the tall-grass prairie and oak savannas of suburban Chicago, Dunlavey studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, Southern Illinois University, and Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. Rob is married and has two daughters and two cats—but no whales.

Middle Grades Science Book 
The Planets Are Very, Very, Very Far Away: A Journey Through the Amazing Scale of the Solar System, by Mike Vago. The Experiment, 2022.

In its pages that open out not once but twice, The Planets Are Very, Very, Very Far Away dismantles the myth of nine planets orbiting the sun in tidy concentric circle and shows the true scale and vastness of our solar system.

Mike Vago is the creator of the bestselling The Miniature Book of Miniature Golf, The Pocket Book of Pocket Billiards, and the interactive board books Train and Rocket. He’s a graphic designer and a regular contributor to The A.V. Club. He tells people he lives in New York, but he actually lives in New Jersey.

Hands-on Science Book 
Human Body Learning Lab: Take an Inside Tour of How Your Anatomy Works, by Dr. Betty Choi. Storey Publishing, 2022.

Aimed at kids age 8 and up, Human Body Learning Lab details each major body system and leads readers through hands-on activities that range from making a moving model of the eyes to creating a working model of the urinary system.

Dr. Betty Choi is a pediatrician, medical writer, and former homeschooling parent. From her roots at Boston Children’s Hospital to over a decade of work in education, she is passionate about making learning memorable and meaningful. Her debut book, Human Body Learning Lab, teaches kids about their amazing bodies through fun, hands-on activities. The accompanying website, HumanBodyLearning.com, offers more resources for curious kids, parents, and teachers.

Young Adult Science Book 
The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants, by Karen Bakker. Princeton University Press, 2022.

The Sounds of Life explores not just the many sounds created by plants and animals but how groundbreaking technology and traditional knowledge has deepened humanity’s understanding of those sounds – and affirmed our connection with nature.

Karen Bakker was a scholar at the University of British Columbia and entrepreneur who worked at the crossroads of technology and ecology. The author of seven books and more than 100 scholarly articles, Bakker also led The Smart Earth Project, which explores the impacts of digital technologies on environmental sustainability. In a tremendous loss to the many communities of learning she inhabited and impacted, Bakker passed away in August 2023, before this latest recognition for The Sounds of Life.

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About Subaru of America, Inc. 
Subaru of America, Inc. (SOA) is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Subaru Corporation of Japan. Headquartered at a zero-landfill office in Camden, N.J., the company markets and distributes Subaru vehicles, parts, and accessories through a network of more than 630 retailers across the United States. All Subaru products are manufactured in zero-landfill plants and Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. is the only U.S. automobile manufacturing plant to be designated a backyard wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. SOA is guided by the Subaru Love Promise, which is the company’s vision to show love and respect to everyone, and to support its communities and customers nationwide. Over the past 20 years, SOA and the SOA Foundation have donated more than $300 million to causes the Subaru family cares about, and its employees have logged nearly 88,000 volunteer hours. As a company, Subaru believes it is important to do its part in making a positive impact in the world because it is the right thing to do. For additional information visit media.subaru.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

About American Association for the Advancement of Science 
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. For additional information about AAAS, visit www.aaas.org.

Diane Anton
Manager, Corporate Communications
Subaru of America, Inc.
danton@subaru.com
(856) 488-5093

Andrea Korte
Digital Manager, AAAS
media@aaas.org   
(202) 326-6440

By The Black & Veatch Insights Group

The shift to clean energy is spiking global demand for commodities including copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and other essential minerals and rare earth elements. Mining companies know there is no energy transition without the future-facing commodities and that mining them depends on cost-effective, environmentally sustainable, and socially acceptable water stewardship. Hence there is renewed focus on water across the industry. The following outlines two targets, one on the supply side, the other on the usage side, to help miners maximize their water resilience.

Target: Developing Alternative Supplies

Mining companies are accustomed to operating in extremely arid regions and water-stressed communities. Nonetheless, for a host of reasons, they may expect the water scarcity issue to become more acute in the coming decades, driving the need to create a diverse portfolio of sources.

Reuse

The practice of water reuse is in a golden age. Advances in treatment equipment, smarter monitoring and control, and better economics have come together to make it a viable solution to improve water supply reliability when the availability of existing sources is inconsistent. Beyond those benefits, reuse can help companies reduce their energy consumption associated with conveying fresh water to the mine site and mitigate pollution concerns by reducing discharges.

As a pioneer and leader in water resource reclamation and recycling, Black & Veatch delivers research, conceptual, planning, design and operations solutions that make reuse a workable choice for miners. Our experience involving industrial water recycling facilities spans more than 40 years. We know how to implement best-fit advanced treatment technologies to create a predictable supply, decreasing reliance and strain on local and regional surface and groundwater resources while preserving water for communities and other commercial and industrial enterprises.

Desalination

Adoption of desalination as a fresh water supply alternative is on the rise in coastal regions. The obvious case is Chile, which is expected to vastly increase its use of seawater desalination by 2030 to fuel record mining production in the country, while use of continental water is being restricted. With advances in technology, the cost of seawater desalination is often comparable to other sources that require conveyance over long distances. While seawater desalination provides essentially unlimited supply, desalination of saline ground water and reuse of process wastewater provides additional supply, often at lower cost. Meanwhile, Black & Veatch is evaluating new technologies to recover water from hypersaline wastewater from facilities such as tailings storage impoundments and deep bore-hole water

Our desal experience includes the Escondida Water Supply Project for BHP Billiton in Chile, winner of the Industrial Desalination Plant of the Year in the 2017 Global Water Awards. Throughout almost five decades of desalting work, we have designed desalination facilities with a total capacity of more than 1,200 million gallons a day, or about 52,500 liters per second, for potable, industrial and irrigation applications. Our approach considers all design impacts – variable salinities, energy recovery systems, high-recovery membranes, challenging site locations, and more – to engineer desal solutions that deliver the supply needed yet fit seamlessly into existing systems and are flexible for the future.

Target: Doing More with Less Risk

Another target is operations. Systems-focused solutions that can help miners bolster their water resilience include the following.

Water Treatment

Miners need to neutralize acidity; address specific constituents such as sulphates, nitrates, salinity, heavy metals, selenium, etc., scale formation, corrosion, and organics; remove regulated elements such as metals and metalloids; and control toxicity. Supporting the specialized treatment processes miners need, Black & Veatch offers expertise in passive and active biological treatment, precipitation, adsorption onto solids, crystallization, evaporation, ion exchange, and reverse osmosis/nano-filtration. We also specialize in water loss management and complete stormwater management solutions, including diversion, conveyance, pumping stations, and storage.

Modeling

An accurately calibrated water balance model can help miners approach water supply, treatment, recirculation, and disposal processes in an integrated way, creating efficiencies and enhancing productivity. It does so by accounting for process-related water components including inputs, consumption, and outputs. Black & Veatch can develop water balance models to help miners explore their specific scenarios, produce statistical probabilities, and address their water use from a quantity and quality perspective.

Optimization

Black & Veatch can help companies optimize their operations to minimize water usage. One way is through process intensification. It involves using advanced technologies to increase treatment capacity, improve resource recovery and achieve desired water quality while using less energy and fewer chemicals. We can also help miners reduce their water, energy, and chemical consumption by implementing risk-management practices including hazard-and-operability review (HAZOP) as well as failure modes, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA).

Digital Water

Data and analytics solutions can realize improvements in capital efficiency, process optimization and cybersecurity via tools including instrumentation, automation, advanced reporting, AI, digital twins and more. The solutions are beneficial to understanding and controlling the entire water portfolio: source water management, leakage mitigation, water resource recovery, water reclamation and purification facility operation, and storage. Through the integration of data gathering, monitoring, and analytics, Black & Veatch can help miners advance their digital water implementation to gain critical insights that enable rapid and confident decision-making.

The need for resilient and sustainable water management solutions is central to the world’s transition to clean energy. Black & Veatch is poised to deliver these solutions with a clear focus on miners’ water resources and systems.