Month: March 2024

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized companies for outstanding contributions to energy efficiency and the transition to a clean energy economy. Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) is among a select group to receive the ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award, which the EPA presents at its discretion. It’s the fifth consecutive year MPC has received this award, which reflects continuous improvement in organization-wide energy savings and environmental performance.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is praising Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s (MPC) contributions to building a clean energy economy as a winner of the 2024 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award. This honor, MPC’s fifth consecutive, puts the company in a select group because the EPA chooses recipients at its discretion.

“I congratulate this year’s ENERGY STAR award winners for their innovation and leadership in delivering cost-effective energy efficient solutions that create jobs, address climate change and contribute to a healthier environment for all,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan.

The Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award is the highest level of recognition in the EPA’s ENERGY STAR program. Winning companies must go above and beyond the criteria for Partner of the Year recognition by showing continuous improvement over time in organization-wide energy savings and environmental performance, demonstrating best practices and actively promoting the ENERGY STAR program.

MPC’s award recognizes its performance throughout 2023, which included these achievements:

Company-wide greenhouse gas intensity decreased for the ninth consecutive year.The St. Paul Park, Minnesota, refinery completed a three-year project to reinforce insulation across the entire site, which is lowering energy consumption and anticipated to reduce carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by nearly 16,000 metric tons per year.In MPC’s midstream segment, MPLX, the Bluestone natural gas plant in Pennsylvania reduced its energy intensity by approximately 10% within just one year of establishing a baseline as part of the ENERGY STAR Challenge for Industry.Five refineries (Anacortes, Washington; Canton, Ohio; Garyville, Louisiana; Robinson, Illinois; St. Paul Park, Minnesota) received 2023 ENERGY STAR certifications, meaning their energy efficiency performance was in the top 25% of peer facilities across the country. Since the certification program began, MPC has earned more certifications than all other refining companies combined.

MPC earned the company’s first Sustained Excellence Award in 2020 after receiving the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award in 2018 and 2019. For a complete list of 2024 ENERGY STAR award winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.

Q&A with Andrew Logan, Senior Director, Climate and Energy, Oil and Gas at Ceres

This is the third in a series of Q & As with the Ceres experts who are engaging with companies to decarbonize six of the highest-emitting sectors of the economy. Click here to read the previous Q & A.

Q: Why is the decarbonization of the oil and gas sector so important? How can it be achieved? 

The oil and gas sector is key to unlocking a clean future for the global economy for two basic reasons. It’s a major contributor to the planet’s overheating, with oil and gas production representing almost 15% of global emissions. And the industry invests hundreds of billions of dollars every year in maintaining and growing the supply of energy.

Where this capital goes–whether into low-carbon technologies like clean energy or hydrogen, higher carbon fossil fuels, or is simply returned to shareholders–will have a major impact on the world’s ability to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Q: Where do you see the biggest challenges? 

The oil and gas industry faces fundamental challenges in both its efforts to eliminate carbon pollution from its operations, and in its work to adapt its business strategy to prosper in a cleaner energy world.

It’s no secret that the oil and gas industry is lagging behind. It is responsible for the largest source of methane emissions in the U.S., and yet field research suggests that current industry reporting misses half or more of methane emissions. While much work is underway to better understand sources of emissions and how they can be mitigated, there is still much to be done to reach near-zero methane emissions by 2030.

While operational emissions are important, the emissions embedded in the industry’s products (oil and natural gas) are orders of magnitude larger. There is no single path for companies that want to climate-proof their business strategies, and Ceres has worked with investors, banks and industry to define what good practice in this respect looks like.

Q: What are the biggest successes you have seen in recent months to move the sector closer to addressing climate risks and opportunities? 

The past few months have seen substantial progress in decarbonizing the oil and gas industry.

In late 2023, with support from leading companies in the sector, the EPA moved to finalize its groundbreaking methane rule, which would reduce oil industry methane emissions by 80% over the coming decade. And more key companies including ExxonMobil and other national oil companies joined the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, the UN’s flagship reporting and mitigation program.

A critical mass of large and small oil companies are also moving to set net zero ambitions for their operational emissions, including Exxon. At COP28, 50 companies representing more than 40% of global oil production committed to net zero operations by 2050 at the latest, ending routine flaring by 2030, and near-zero upstream methane emissions by 2030.

Q: Are there any upcoming projects and technology that you are most excited to see that will aid in further cleaning up the energy market? 

We are starting to see the world’s national oil companies, which represent most global production, start to seriously address emissions. This is seen most notably in the launch of the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter at COP28.

This work by NOCs and others will be advanced by the launch of MethaneSAT, a satellite that tracks methane emissions, and advances in other remote detection techniques that mean that global emissions will be accessible to anyone with a desktop or a phone.

Q: What drew you to your work in the oil and gas sector?  

The oil and gas sector is interesting because it is so critical to our ability to decarbonize and manages to combine cutting-edge technology, geopolitics, finance, and barbecue in a single, globe-spanning industry. It’s also full of some of the most interesting people you will ever meet.

Highlights 

COP 28 Oil Industry Commitments 

At COP28, representatives of the oil industry announced their joint intention to decarbonize their oil and gas operations by 2030, including an agreement to end routine venting and flaring of methane, which was a “necessary and important step, but more climate action from the sector is needed.”

In the lead up to COP28, Andrew Logan penned an opinion piece on the pivotal role that the oil industry plays in driving climate action, emphasizing the sector’s imperative not only to acknowledge the necessity of transitioning to cleaner energy sources but to actively embrace sustainable methods and technologies. Calls from both investors and companies alike are demanding a departure from the status quo—and urging the industry to redirect investments away from oil and gas production.

As reports have shown, the world is not on track to achieve substantial reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions and companies need to move beyond pledges. Andrew spelled out exactly what the industry, especially national oil companies, need to do to align with a net-zero future. This includes the elimination of methane emissions and increased investments in renewable energy infrastructure.

Methane Benchmarking Report 

Last summer, Ceres, in partnership with the Clean Air Task Force and ERM, released the third annual Benchmarking Methane and other GHG Emissions of Oil and Natural Gas Production in the United States, which analyzes the production-based emissions of the largest oil and gas producers in the United States and highlights dramatic variation among producers and basins.

The analysis found that reported methane and greenhouse gas intensity in the oil and gas sector have declined 28% and 30%, respectively, between 2019 and 2021, despite an increase in natural gas and total hydrocarbon production. While overall emissions trended down, the report found that the gap between leaders and laggards continues to grow. The report also found that natural gas producers in the highest quarter of methane emissions intensity have an average emissions intensity that is nearly 26 times higher than natural gas producers in the lowest quarter of methane emissions intensity.

Originally published by Gray Media Group on KPLCTV.com

What started as a job to keep a Nebraska woman afloat during college turned into a 50-year career at Pizza Hut.

Beckie Lacey, the manager at a Pizza Hut in Wahoo, has been working at the same restaurant for 50 years. The store celebrated the milestone over the weekend with discounted pizza pies and $1 beers, KOLN reports.

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Originally published by WorkLife

Learning AI doesn’t need to just start at the higher education level either. IBM’s commitment to train 2 million learners in AI by the end of 2026 begins much earlier. Most recently, the tech giant partnered with Usher’s New Look – a nonprofit organization dedicated to training under-resourced young people to become leaders – to provide free career readiness training through IBM SkillsBuild. It has a significant focus on AI and helping students, as early as eighth grade, understand how it relates to workplace skills.

In a recent U.S. YouGov survey on AI in education, 61% of respondents reported it is very or somewhat necessary for K-12 students to learn AI-related skills for their future careers. “This is going to be completely transformative for our organization and for the youth that we serve,” said Careshia Moore, president and CEO of Usher’s New Look.

For Usher’s New Look, which works with people aged between 14 and 24 years old, the training will include resume-writing with generative AI, building their own AI chatbot and mastering the art of AI prompting. Plus, students will have access to more than 1,000 free courses in IBM SkillsBuild as well as digital credentials, including coursework in AI fundamentals, generative AI, AI ethics, prompt writing, machine learning, AI to help the environment, and improving customer service with AI.

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Originally published on Built From Scratch

To further extend its mission of training the next generation of skilled tradespeople, The Home Depot Foundation is granting $1 million to its veteran-led disaster response partner Team Rubicon to build a new trades training program. Through the “TRades Academy,” Team Rubicon will provide its students with on-the-job training in carpentry, electrical, plumbing and HVAC as they rebuild homes in communities impacted by natural disasters. Once trained, graduates will be equipped to work with general contractors and nonprofit organizations, addressing the skilled trades gap in these communities and broadening support after natural disasters.

“In 2023, a disaster causing a billion dollars in damage happened every 13 days on average, and each affected community also experienced a shortage of qualified labor. There simply aren’t enough skilled tradespeople to help communities rebuild and recover after disaster strikes,” said Art delaCruz, chief executive officer of Team Rubicon. “The Home Depot Foundation’s investment in the TRades Academy will help empower our dedicated veteran and civilian graduates to serve communities impacted by natural disasters in a new capacity while helping to fill the skilled labor gap.”

The Home Depot Foundation has partnered with Team Rubicon since 2012 to provide immediate disaster response and long-term disaster recovery to communities in need. With the support of the Foundation and Team Depot, The Home Depot’s associate volunteer force, Team Rubicon has been rebuilding homes and serving communities devastated by hurricanes and tornadoes. While working to rebuild homes, Team Rubicon experienced challenges in finding trained professionals available to provide long-term recovery and rebuild support for families following disasters.

“We’re proud to invest in the TRades Academy to help train skilled tradespeople, embed trades specialists in vulnerable communities and further scale the incredible work of Team Rubicon’s volunteers after disasters,” said Erin Izen, executive director of The Home Depot Foundation. “Programs like this allow The Home Depot to help fill the skilled labor gap and provide Pros access to qualified candidates.”

In the U.S., there are more than 400,000 open construction jobs today, a number that is only growing. Through the Path to Pro Program, The Home Depot Foundation offers free training opportunities and scholarships to introduce youth, underserved communities and separating U.S. military servicemembers to meaningful careers in plumbing, carpentry, electrical and HVAC. Additionally, The Home Depot connects skilled tradespeople to construction job openings and offers free, virtual classes on careers in the trades. For more information, visit PathtoPro.com.