Month: March 2024

One of my favorite things about Covia is the people. Since I was hired back in 2014, I’ve been able to work alongside such a reliable, open, and supportive group of Team Members. Working with them to find big picture solutions to environmental challenges has inspired me to be a better employee and more collaborative person. They give me the confidence I need to be the best version of myself so that I can make a real difference at Covia and in its communities.

Collaborating to Make an Impact

Before I started at Covia, I worked in an environmental role at a processing plant in Torreón, Mexico. A friend of mine who worked in the mining sector told me about the opportunity at Covia. They said Covia was looking for an environmental auditor and that I should pursue the opportunity. It worked out because my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, was working in Monterrey, Mexico, where the Covia position would have me relocate to. Nine years later, I am so glad I made the move. Covia has changed and grown a lot since I joined. The leadership team has really helped create a tight-knit employees. This includes the team that I work with, as we have grown to be close. They are reliable, open, and supportive. Because our relationships are built on trust, I have always been able to talk with supervisors and leadership to discuss anything. I am appreciative of my mentors from the leadership team as they have encouraged me to grow and express my ideas freely. In my current role, I travel to the company’s different sites in Mexico to determine if there are any environmental concerns and I take the opportunity to communicate any safety situation that might need addressed to meet Covia’s standards. I work closely with EHS supervisors and plant managers to help them follow a Safety First mindset – ensuring they follow best practices to stay compliant. Another part of my job, and the job of my team, is to obtain necessary environmental permits from local governments so Covia can continue operating at certain locations. Much of my work involves collaborating with others. I try to empathize with them to understand their ideas so we can find the big picture solution to environmental challenges. I really enjoy this part of my job as it’s important to be open to finding new ways to tackle a problem. Collaborating with others truly is the most rewarding part of what I do.

Project Highlight: Reclamation & Expansion

I’ve known that Covia was deeply passionate about protecting the environment since my first day. I’ve seen how much effort we put into reclaiming the lands where we operate – not only due permit compliance, but because we believe it’s important to Act Responsibly. One project that I am proud to have worked on was my first permit for our expansion into Canoitas. While working with my team on this project, I had the opportunity to learn a lot about federal and state regulations. It was also a great opportunity to collaborate with several Covia Team Members, including geologists, operations, and legal. The process was challenging because for most of us, it was our first permit application and first time dealing with Federal and State authorities. While it took some time, our team worked together and successfully attained the permits needed to expand. It was an especially rewarding experience working as a group to accomplish everything we need to for the expansion.

An Adventurous Spirit

Outside of work, I enjoy taking time out of my day to seek out new experiences, spend time with my family, and learn new things. For instance, I have been studying English for some time to better connect with my colleagues and I just recently started doing yoga. Travel is also important to me, and I am always excited to see new places. While most of my travel is back and forth between Covia plants or to visit my family in Torreón, I have plans for an upcoming educational trip to India with a group that I am a part of. I am always willing to try something new and go out of my way to find an exciting opportunity to explore.

Working Together Toward a Bright Future

I am so excited about all the changes happening at Covia. There are always new challenges to meet, goals to achieve, and innovative ways to approach environmental initiatives. I am happy to help Covia move into the future as we tackle emission and reclamation goals as a part of our ESG responsibilities. I can see how committed Covia Team Members are to the success of the organization and each other. Every person here wants to support Covia’s mission and that is really exciting to me. As we continue to give new employees the training and support they need to thrive, Covia will continue to grow and succeed. My advice to those young leaders is to be patient and respectful. I realized that actively listening to others and showing empathy is a key aspect of personal growth and development. Make sure to connect with the people around you and create relationships built on trust. You will find that there are more opportunities to succeed when you have friends by your side.

Every part of Haiti is now facing “crisis” levels of hunger, with five million people dealing with acute food insecurity and 1.64 million people just one step away from famine. This according to a new report from the IPC, the group responsible for assessing hunger levels in countries around the world.

We asked Martine Villeneuve, Haiti Country Director for Action Against Hunger, to tell us more about the crisis and what can be done.

Why is hunger rising in Haiti?

Haiti has long been one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere. In recent years, a breakdown in government and increasing violence has led to a growing crisis. Approximately 362,000 people, including 180,000 children, have fled their homes.

Additionally, the violence has forced the airport and shipping in Port-au-Prince to close, creating ripple effects across the country. To compound matters, unsafe conditions have made it extremely difficult for humanitarian organizations to get food and other supplies to those most affected.

How many people are in need today?

The situation has deteriorated rapidly, with another 532,000 more people food insecure than what we saw in the IPC’s last report. Today, half the population—nearly five million people—are in a food crisis. That means they are dealing with acute food insecurity. About 17% of the population, or 1.64 million people, are in “emergency” conditions, or IPC’s Phase 4, which is one step away from famine.

The IPC is the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an independent committee of food security and nutrition experts from the United Nations, governments and NGOs, including Action Against Hunger, a global nonprofit leader in the movement to end hunger, which has been operating in Haiti since 1985.

How does this relate to water and disease?

Crisis and displacement jeopardize access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). For vulnerable populations, that increases the risk of water-borne diseases such as giardia and cholera, which is known as the disease of inequity. Although preventable, when left untreated, cholera has devastating symptoms and can kill within hours. It is so contagious, even one case needs to be treated like an epidemic.

According to the recent Water Funding Gap Report from Action Against Hunger, only 36% of requests to fund WASH programs were met in 2023, leaving a 64% funding gap.

What role does climate change play?

While the current crisis in Haiti is related to political instability and violence, climate change is an underlying factor that leaves people far more vulnerable. Around the world, changing weather patterns and more frequent natural disasters are making food production increasingly difficult. In Haiti, below-normal rainfall has lowered agricultural yields. Ironically, rural populations can be particularly hard hit by climate shocks, since they are no longer able to grow enough to feed themselves or to sell for essential income and a more diverse diet.

What can be done?

Action Against Hunger is urging local, national, and regional actors to arrange expedited humanitarian supplies and food shipments through secondary ports and airports, notably Cap Haitien. While smaller ports may not be a perfect solution, new approaches are essential to help address the current crisis.

In the long term, we need greater funding for programs that reduce reliance on imports and can help strengthen food security in the region. For example, Action Against Hunger provides seeds and supplies to help people plant nutritious foods that are fast-growing and require little maintenance. Investing in cash crops can provide a sustainable source of income and food for those facing food insecurity.

About Action Against Hunger

Action Against Hunger leads the global movement to end hunger. We innovate solutions, advocate for change, and reach 28 million people every year with proven hunger prevention and treatment programs. As a nonprofit that works across 55 countries, our 8,900 dedicated staff members partner with communities to address the root causes of hunger, including climate change, conflict, inequity, and emergencies. We strive to create a world free from hunger, for everyone, for good.

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Photos by Christophe DaSilva

By Amy Andrews

Ask for help, keep learning, build a network and be open to new perspectives.

These are some of the career tips Regions leaders recently shared with students at University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Collat School of Business.

Highlighting their diverse experience at and outside of Regions, the leaders of Regions Technology, Operations, Digital and Data group provided soon-to-be UAB graduates with a view into the trajectory of their careers, the challenges new technologies like AI pose in the workplace, and the advice they wish others would have shared with them before joining the workforce.

It’s okay to ask for help and don’t think you have to have it all figured out.

Dan Massey, Chief Enterprise Operations and Technology Officer

Say yes to opportunities, even the ones that might seem overwhelming, uncomfortable, maybe even a little scary – those are the ones to explore.

Regan Liggins, head of Enterprise Operations & Technology Risk

The proximity of UAB to Regions Headquarters makes Regions a contender for UAB students when looking for that first job after graduation – and the students seized on the moment to ask the leaders what it’s like to work at Regions and why should they consider Regions as an employer?

Regions is like the Goldilocks of companies—it’s just the right size that you can specialize in your area of expertise, but still have projects and opportunities to do other things that interest you.

Melissa Dabb, head of Cloud and Infrastructure

I get to see the impact I’m making with our associates through mentoring and developing them to be their best.

Nathan Davis, head of Technology – Enterprise Systems and Services

It’s all about the people. I was recruited from another company and the people have made the move to Regions a career highlight.

Manav Misra, Chief Data and Analytics Officer

Serving the community is central to Regions’ mission of making life better for its customers and the neighborhoods where we live and work. Through the Regions Institute of Financial Education at UAB and the partnership with the Collat School of Business, Regions is honored to bring experience and expertise to help students, faculty and the greater UAB community.

Steering well-informed strategic decisions with a near-real-time view of the environmental, social, and governance performance of the manufacturing site.

Challenge: Accelerating the Shift to Sustainability

Climate change is one of humanity’s biggest threats, and global enterprises are now working closely with governments and regulatory authorities to accelerate the shift to sustainability. Alongside environmental improvements, it is also crucial for businesses to implement healthy social and governance frameworks—helping to promote greater workplace safety, diversity, and inclusion.

Lenovo is committed to achieving Net-Zero emissions by 2050 and our sustainability efforts start with our own manufacturing and supply chain. To help achieve this goal, Lenovo has developed an innovative ESG management system called Lenovo ESG Navigator that helps monitor key ESG metrics at the factory site and deliver near-real-time insights on GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and energy use.

This article explores how the Lenovo ESG management platform is helping Lenovo monitor ESG performance across the value chain—and how businesses across all sectors can leverage a data-driven ESG performance management system.

Challenge: Striving for ESG Excellence

Committed to building a sustainable global economy, promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and being a responsible corporate citizen, Lenovo has launched bold targets to improve its performance against key ESG metrics.

In particular, Lenovo is committed to net-zero emissions by 2050 with emission targets validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), an independent climate action group for the private sector.

Rico Liu, Sr. Manager, GSC Global Manufacturing at Lenovo, explains: “To help measure our progress toward Net-Zero, our goal is to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions by 50% by 2030. For Scope 3 GHG emissions, we are targeting reductions of 25% per tonne-km of transported product in upstream transportation and distribution, reductions of 35% on average from the use of sold products, and reductions of 66.5% per million US$ gross profit within the same timeframe.”

Challenge: Gathering Fine-Grained Insights

Hundreds of different factors contribute to the overall sustainability of Lenovo’s operations. However, measuring the impact of sustainability initiatives at the manufacturing site presented some tough challenges.

Previously, Lenovo used manual processes to track practically all ESG metrics at its manufacturing sites. For example, employees used spreadsheets to track data on everything from energy usage on the factory floor to occupational health and safety, incident reporting, and workplace risk mitigation measures.

Rico Liu says: “What can be measured, improves—but without the right tools, it’s impossible to keep track of all manufacturing-related ESG variables in a company of Lenovo’s size. To solve that challenge, we embarked on an ambitious project to digitize our manufacturing site and monitor ESG data points.”

Solution: Lenovo powers Lenovo

Working with stakeholders from across the business, Lenovo created an innovative ESG management platform: Lenovo ESG Navigator. This integrated solution replaces the traditional manual management of ESG metrics with a flexible, transparent, and highly automated approach and captures data across the value chain—all from a single point of control.

To put these new capabilities to the test, Lenovo deployed the ESG Navigator to support Lenovo’s Tianjin Smart Campus (TJSC)—our state-of-the-art, AI-accelerated manufacturing facility in China. Using Internet-of-things (IoT) devices, we capture and process thousands of data points every hour, offering unprecedented visibility into the environmental performance of the facility.

“We need to collect 12 months of data to certify the campus under the Zero Carbon Factory Standardization developed by the China Electronics Standardization Institute [CESI],” says Rico Liu. “Using our new ESG management platform, producing the reports that CESI requires will be easy.”

Result: Making Data-Driven Decisions

Lenovo now uses the ESG Navigator to capture more than 250,000 data points across the manufacturing site and deliver dashboard reports for 228 KPIs. It also helps simulate a 3D model of the facility that showcases all the different data points. So far, we have deployed the platform at two manufacturing sites, including TJSC.

Yujiao Liu, DT Business Process Design Analyst, GSC Smart Manufacturing at Lenovo, confirms: “Our decision-makers now have access to ESG insights in minutes. Lenovo ESG Navigator has also accelerated reporting ensuring data accuracy, enabling management teams to steer decisions based on up-to-date information about what’s happening on the factory floor.”

Rico Liu adds: “The combination of automated data collection at our manufacturing sites and dynamic dashboard reports has significantly reduced the manual work involved in ESG analytics. Using IoT devices to collect environmental data on electricity and water consumption and on indoor air quality data helps eliminate the risk of human error, all of which improves the accuracy of our sustainability reports.”

Result: Innovations at Tianjin Smart Campus

Based on internal testing, we have seen the below-estimated results at our Lenovo Tianjin Smart Campus.

Use of clean energy such as solar.More than 32,000 square meters of distributed photovoltaic power generation panels will be laid on top of the three main buildings, with a total annual power generation of about 5 million kWh, which can meet the annual electricity demand of the park exhibition centre.More than 25% energy savings with the help of compressor waste heat recovery systems.Save 5% of fresh water every year through the park’s rainwater storage system.Use of reclaimed water is further reducing the site’s use of fresh water.

Result: Managing All Aspects of ESG in Manufacturing

For Lenovo, all aspects of ESG are crucial—and Lenovo ESG Navigator has been designed to deliver a near-real-time view of social and governance metrics, too.

For example, the platform enables us to track potential social and governance risks in areas such as occupational health and safety, sanitation, building security, and more, from a single dashboard. Employees can log information on potential risks, helping to ensure that all hazards are assessed and remediated promptly.

To support this objective, Lenovo stakeholders can configure the ESG Navigator to send automated alerts. In addition to reminding managers to investigate potential hazards, alerts can help the company manage recurring ESG-related activities. For example, users can track upcoming health and safety assessments and receive reminders via email as the date approaches.

Result: Delivering Global Impact

Lenovo is now implementing the ESG Navigator and other sustainability initiatives around the world, beginning with our major manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico.

Leandro Sardela, Western Operations Director at Lenovo, elaborates: “We produce a large mixture of products in Mexico, which places complex demands on our manufacturing operations. Using Advanced Production Scheduling [APS] solutions developed by Lenovo, we’re dramatically reducing the time taken to create production schedules. By replacing manual scheduling with an intelligent, centralized APS solution, we can orchestrate people, equipment, and materials to balance our production lines and minimize environmental impacts.”

Monterrey site results:

47% more units per person per hour with 22% smaller teams.56% to 73% boost in number of products that pass quality control on first inspection.

Result: Targeting Sustainability Success

As Lenovo races ahead on its journey to net-zero emissions, the company is confident that the management platform, ESG Navigator, will be a key enabler of sustainability success.

JianBiao Yin, Sr. Manager, DT Strategic Business Process Design, GSC at Lenovo, says: “Although our global rollout of the ESG management platform is just beginning, we’re certain that the solution is going to play an important role in supporting our global business as we move towards the 2050 emissions target.”

+250k ESG data points tracked3D carbon data visualization of your entire facility100% energy and environment data monitoring using IoT devicesNear-real-time carbon data visibility

To find out how your business could draw on Lenovo’s experience and leverage solutions like the ESG Navigator to make more data-driven decisions in managing manufacturing footprint, visit Lenovo.com or speak to your Lenovo contact.

Learn more about how Lenovo Powers Lenovo, from supply chain innovation to AI-powered transformation.

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