Month: May 2024

This month marked Expedia Group‘s 25th EXPLORE partner conference. It was my third time attending, and as always it is so energizing to connect with partners and colleagues. 

I had the opportunity to host an important conversation on how to advance a more open, inclusive and accessible travel ecosystem. We featured thoughtful insights from our partners: Lawrence P. from Green Book Global and Heather Ansley from Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), both organizations who we have supported via our Open World™ Accelerator program and Made to Travel™ Fund, respectively. During the session, we also previewed initial insights from our forthcoming inclusive travel research – I look forward to sharing more on that research soon! 

This work is part of our commitment to power global travel for everyone, everywhere, read more about our progress here: 2023 Global Impact Report. I’m thrilled at the strides we have made over the last year and what’s to come with our new CEO, Ariane Gorin leading our organization.

Read more about Expedia Group’s drive for more inclusive travel here.

Originally published in GoDaddy’s 2023 Sustainability Report

Innovation 

We’re focused on evolving to deliver for our customers.

The world is constantly changing and so are the needs of our customers. To stay ahead of the curve, we commit to progressing our products and services through continuous experimentation and innovation.

Controlled Experimentation 

We intentionally create a culture of experimentation to empower each employee to be an inventor, a problem solver, and a champion for our customers. In 2023, our experimentation catapulted many ideas into becoming fully integrated customer solutions. The purpose behind our controlled experimentation lies in our commitment to building great products and experiences that solve real customer problems. This effort requires an approach to decisionmaking that embraces learning and evidence-based methods, where decisions impact not only our performance but also our customers’ performance. GoDaddy experiments use randomization and robust statistical methods that empower teams to build confidence in their decision-making, find incremental value in each experiment, and trace the causal effects on key stakeholders.

To engage in controlled experimentation, our teams follow our five experimentation lifecycle stages:

Observation or opportunityExperimentation designPlatform experimentationExperiment configurationExperiment results and decision

In 2023, we conducted a total of more than 1,700 controlled experiments in product — 33% more than in 2022. We also continued our Experimentation Showcases to further our test-and-learn culture. During the 11 Experimentation Showcases held in 2023, GoDaddy teams created and trialed experiments to enhance customer experience and submitted them for review. Senior leadership representatives then voted on experiments based on design features, innovative thinking, and potential for value creation. Experiments with the most votes are featured in a live, cross-company Experimentation Showcase.

Technological Innovation 

Our GoDaddy Tech Manifesto guides our innovation through a set of technological principles:

SimplicityAbstractionConsistencyExtensibilityConnected DataIterate

These foundational principles allow our teams to make the right technology decisions quickly, increasing both the velocity and quality of delivery. Our Tech Manifesto also builds on our existing engineering principles of security, speed of delivery, performance, availability, quality, and embracing innersource and open-source communities to foster innovation. In 2023, we enhanced our Tech Manifesto by elaborating on the implications of our principles to emerging GenAI technology, specifically with reference to how our GoDaddy GenAI service and custom LLMs (Large Language Models) promote the fifth principle of connected data.

To improve transparency and cross-company collaboration, we use Tech Radar, a forward-looking summary of our global technology strategy. In 2023, we continued the Tech Radar Tuesday newsletter series to highlight new technologies and encourage engagement across engineering teams. This sharing of ideas promotes breakthrough innovations that solve the most challenging issues at hand.

Artificial Intelligence 

Keeping up with the fast-paced digital world means leveraging GenAI and machine learning (ML) to build experiences that improve feature discovery, engagement, and monetization. We engage GenAI to enhance accountability, save time, and effort, which in turn helps our customers achieve heightened success.

In 2023, we announced GoDaddy Airo™, a GenAI-powered intelligent experience that proactively builds and helps entrepreneurs grow their online businesses. GoDaddy Airo™ is a breakthrough technology that simplifies our customers’ experience, automatically generating a branded logo, customized website, tailored content, communications, social marketing, and more. The process is GenAI-driven and personalized.

We are also leveraging GenAI to improve our customer service experiences and the accuracy of our support bots, helping to reduce the time it takes to get to the root of a customer’s need. Our Care Guides are an integral part of the community learning how to use prompt engineering to offer value to our customers quickly and more effectively. While GenAI enhances and streamlines processes, our GoDaddy Guides are available to provide one-on-one customer assistance and guidance.

In 2023, we rolled out an Artificial Intelligence (AI) coding assistant so our developers can write code faster and with less work, by quickly cycling through lines of code, completing function suggestions, and deciding which to accept, reject, or edit. Using these new AI tools, we can accelerate our innovation to meet our customers’ evolving needs.

As these technologies continue to evolve, we remain vigilant in encouraging ongoing dialogue and minimizing risks posed by GenAI, such as misinformation or algorithmic bias. At GoDaddy, our AI and ML Governance Council helps to oversee these efforts and works to ensure that the appropriate guardrails and risk management measures are in place. By fostering a culture of responsibility and ethical GenAI use, GoDaddy seeks to leverage GenAI to deliver real customer impact.

AI Office Hours 

For our customers who wanted to harness the power of AI for their small businesses, GoDaddy’s internal AI enthusiasts offered indepth video support to enhance customer usage of AI and drive their business growth. During these ‘AI Office Hours,’ GoDaddy Guides dove deep into the world of AI, offering practical advice and real-time problem solving to attendees. Leveraging our extensive prompt library and crafting new prompts on the fly, we demonstrated how AI can revolutionize operations, marketing, customer engagement, and more.

Whether our customers were curious about chatbots, predictive analytics, automated processes, or any AI-related topic, GoDaddy panelists provided valuable insights and actionable strategies to help navigate the AI landscape safely and effectively. In 2024, we are eager to provide more opportunities for our customers to learn from industry leaders and help their small businesses gain a competitive edge in the digital age.

GoDaddy Engineering Hackathon 

Hackathons are a way we inspire employees to think innovatively. At the GoDaddy Engineering Hackathon 2023, employees were encouraged to build solutions across any areas they felt would drive impact in customer experience, developer productivity, and security. Innovations created during the Hackathon were tested, and select innovations were launched into production.

Ambitions for 2024 

In 2024, we’ll continue to experiment and innovate, including hosting more employee-led events to reward creative solutions. The Experimentation Showcase remains integral to our commitment to harness game-changing innovations. Efforts to streamline developer processes from ideation to production are underway through tool development and hands-on training sessions. We’ll also continue to innovate responsibly leveraging GenAI, while monitoring and mitigating evolving risks. Our culture of innovation is a cornerstone of GoDaddy’s success, fostering creativity and customer-centricity

To learn more, read our 2023 Sustainability Report.

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About this Report 

The GoDaddy 2023 Sustainability Report details our progress toward our corporate sustainability goals, strategies, and initiatives in support of our overarching corporate mission and values. Unless otherwise noted, this report reflects our corporate sustainability performance across our global operations covering the fiscal year period from January 1 to December 31, 2023. To demonstrate our commitment to transparent communication regarding our sustainability progress, we routinely share updates through our website and our annual Sustainability Report. We welcome your questions, comments, and feedback on this report by contacting ESG@GoDaddy.com.

This report references the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and includes select Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) metrics for the Internet Media and Services sector. We also disclose our contributions and progress toward priority UN SDGs. For additional information on how we align with these frameworks and key indicators demonstrating our sustainability performance, please review the Frameworks and Metrics section.

After two years of serious consideration, including review of a record number of public comments the agency received on the draft rule, the Securities & Exchange Commission issued its final corporate climate disclosure rules on March 6. Anti-ESG critics quickly moved into action, with various state attorneys general, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, state treasurers and finance heads, and others, attacking the rule with court challenges and other measures.

Several lawsuits were filed to prevent the SEC from implementing the rules, which have been consolidated in the U.S Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (covering the states of Arkansas, Iowa, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska). The final decision may well end up being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. While the legal actions are playing out, the SEC has stayed its rules.

With the SEC disclosure rules on hold, the anti-ESG forces are making climate and ESG into prominent issues in Congress and in 2024 political campaigns. Several committees in the U.S. House of Representatives have passed measures to try to prevent financial institutions from using ESG factors in investment decision-making. Depending on election outcomes this year, there could be more actions to rein in ESG policies in the next Congress.

In monitoring what U.S. companies are doing as the SEC disclosure rules are on hold, this headline grabbed our attention and is one of our Top Stories: “Alive and Kicking: The Future of ESG.” The commentary is from CCI, an independent, free, web-based news source focused on compliance, ethics, and risk management. Jennifer Gaskin, CCI’s editorial director, begins with the observation that “…few companies are spending time relaxing and even fewer are abandoning their ESG commitments” while waiting for the outcome of the court cases challenging the SEC’s new climate disclosure rules. She posits: They cannot afford to.

A major factor cited is the proliferation of international ESG / sustainability reporting frameworks, especially including moves in the European Union (CSRD, ESRS) and the Corporate Sustainability Standard Board’s voluntary framework. California’s climate reporting rule will affect many public and private companies.

In a Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance commentary by the law firm Latham & Watkins, also a Top Story in this issue, market actors are looking for ways to more fully integrate climate risks into business decisions. Internally, many corporate executives are examining climate-related costs and impacts, and the complexity of cross-jurisdictional climate-related reporting.

These topics are currently being explored in depth in G&A Institute’s Pathfinder webinar series. G&A Institute team members are also working with corporate clients moving forward in their sustainability journeys and preparing more complete disclosures on their progress to better inform their stakeholders. These Top Stories explain “why” enlightened corporate managers are pressing on despite the attitudes of the anti-ESG voices. For sure there is more news to come on pro-and anti-ESG actions.

This is just the introduction of G&A’s Sustainability Highlights newsletter this week. Click here to view the full issue.

NEWARK, N.J., May 29, 2024 /3BL/ – Whole Cities, a Whole Founds Market Foundation project dedicated to broadening community access to fresh food and nutrition education, announced today that 10 community-led nonprofit organizations in Newark, New Jersey have been awarded up to $20,000 each through the Newark Fresh, Healthy Food Access Grant.

In 2017, Whole Cities started the Newark Fresh, Healthy Food Access Grant program to advance the city’s long-term healthy food access solutions and improve community health. Since then, the project has awarded more than $1 million to 34 community-directed organizations throughout Newark’s five wards and has provided financial backing for additional opportunities shaped by the goals and requests of its grant partners. Grantees have included community gardens, urban farms, farmers’ markets, mobile markets, healthy cooking classes, nutrition education programs, agriculture-skills development programs, and a SNAP incentive project.

“No one knows the barriers to healthy food access, the solutions that are most effective, or the support that is needed to implement these ideas better than those who live it every day,” said Dianna Purcell, Director of Programs at Whole Cities. “So, Whole Cities champions locally led, locally supported and often overlooked organizations that are spearheading homegrown solutions.”

This year, the following 10 Newark organizations were awarded grants averaging $19,895 each for a total of $198,950:

Giving One Tenth Community Garden, Greater Newark Conservancy Inc, Ironbound Community Corporation, Kids in Business, Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District, Newark Science and Sustainability, Inc., Project U.S.E., STEAM URBAN, Ubuntu Permaculture Mission Inc., and Urban League of Essex County.

“With Whole Cities’ support, we have been able to update our infrastructure, allowing us to facilitate and augment our onsite food production,” said Brian Morrell, Director of Development at Greater Newark Conservancy, a six-time grantee. “Recent funding from Whole Cities enabled us to expand our outreach into more areas of the city. Now, we will be collaborating with community gardens and urban farms across Newark, helping to strengthen their operations and marketing to city neighborhoods.”

Whole Cities reviews applications in conjunction with the Newark Community Advisory Council, a panel of engaged Newark leaders who have lived and/or worked in Newark for an average of 24 years. Grantees are determined by the sustainability of their projects and their alignment with Whole Cities’ mission.

“Reviewing Newark Fresh, Healthy Food Access Grants was more than just an opportunity to read individual and organizational inspirations,” said Chesha Hodge, a new addition to the Newark Community Advisory Council. “This was an intricate review of the blueprint that launches steadfast initiatives which fuel Newarkers every day.

Whole Cities has also supported deep community engagement through grants for healthy food access in Detroit, Mich.; New Orleans, La.; Jackson, Miss.; and Greater Englewood, a neighborhood of Chicago, Ill. These commitments were in addition to the project’s ongoing Community First Grant program, which has reached more than 150 cities in the U.S. and Canada.

For more information on Whole Cities’ Newark Fresh, Healthy Food Access Grant program, including a list of past grant partners, visit wholecitiesfoundation.org/grants/newark-nj. The next grant application window will open in early 2025.

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ABOUT WHOLE CITIES

Whole Cities is a project of Whole Foods Market Foundation, an independent, nonprofit organization founded by Whole Foods Market based in Austin, Texas. Whole Cities has worked alongside more than 250 community-based organizations in more than 150 cities in the U.S. and Canada to improve neighborhood health through collaborative partnerships, nutrition education, and broader access to fresh, healthy food. Through vibrant grant programs, Whole Cities supports community gardens, urban farms, pop-up produce stands, agriculture skills development, farmers’ markets, mobile markets, healthy cooking classes and other community-directed initiatives to build thriving local food systems and improve health. For more information on Whole Cities and its programs, visit wholecities.org. For ongoing news and updates, follow Whole Foods Market Foundation on Facebook, Instagram, X, or LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Nikki Newman Sobhani, Senior Communications Manager
Nikki.Newman@wholefoods.com

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., May 29, 2024 /3BL/ – Two years since its transformational reorganization to better align with its evolving business segments, global sustainable infrastructure innovator Black & Veatch is further sharpening its client focus with a refined operating structure as it continues to address dynamically changing megatrends impacting the world.

Black & Veatch Chairman and CEO Mario Azar called the proactive reconfiguration instrumental in leading clients through their decarbonization, clean water and operational process resiliency strategies. As an essential, trusted partner to clients, Black & Veatch believes the changes will deliver faster, finely tuned outcomes that deliver innovative and proven solutions in a disruptive market undergoing a global energy transition.

“Amid the changes prompted by evolving regulations, advancing technologies and increasing cybersecurity threats, our clients are looking to confidently deploy their capital to transform their infrastructure, accelerate to a net zero emissions capability and remain resilient, compliant and competitive,” Azar said. “Addressing those strategic needs requires sharpened expertise in consulting, engineering, construction and asset management solutions.”

With proven, deep engineering expertise and a skilled workforce, Black & Veatch offers clients a practical resume of design and execution excellence in delivering the world’s latest, novel infrastructure projects that help meet their sustainability goals.

The new Black & Veatch operating model is expanded to five discrete client-facing areas:

Power Providers, focused on the holistic demands for the energy generation markets that include utilities, independent power producers (IPP) and new non-traditional entrants adding to the much-needed supply of secure, clean power to our industries and communities.Fuels and Natural Resources, which has a discrete focus on global investors and operators who need to tap into Black & Veatch’s broad portfolio of large-scale solutions dedicated to converting critical resources into essential fuels and feedstocks.Technology, Commercial and Industrial, a significantly revamped grouping of capabilities focused on the latest needs for clients in the fast-growth technology-led arena of advanced manufacturing, and generative AI computing including gigafactories, bio/ag tech, data centers and clean transportation.Governments and Communities, focused on the specific infrastructure needs of municipalities, state and local governments, and specialized physical and digital infrastructure solutions for government and federal agencies.Strategic Advisory and Lifecycle Resiliency Services, a new portfolio of integrated strategic consulting and operating resiliency services that apply across the clients’ entire investment-to-operations lifecycle commitments.

These five client-centric entities will leverage the company’s entire portfolio of proven solutions delivered via a centralized world class operations and delivery global group of design, engineering, procurement, safety and construction professionals.

With more than 100 solution offerings, Black & Veatch can propel the scaled build-out the world needs across the entire sustainable infrastructure value chain with innovative thought leadership in key critical resource areas. These resource areas include grid connection, fleet electrification, utility-scale power generation, liquefied natural gas (LNG), green hydrogen & ammonia, industrial grade water, metals mining, renewables power, industrial cybersecurity, clean water reclamation and many other capabilities and managed asset services.

A new cohesive function, Enterprise Evolution, supports all these global businesses with an enterprise-wide focus on integrating the market trends and clients’ needs into the organic and inorganic future development and commercialization of Black & Veatch’s long-range strategy and new solutions.

In 2023, the company expanded its broad portfolio of services to meet the global demand with record numbers of construction hours completed (24.5 million, up nearly 8 million from the previous year), and increased its diverse employee-owners workforce by 17 percent to over 12,000 as of Q1 2024 to meet historic levels of project backlog and growth globally. In April, the Engineering News-Record’s (ENR) “Top 500 Design Firms” Sourcebook again ranked Black & Veatch among the top global leaders in power, water and telecommunications as decarbonization, sustainability, cybersecurity, resilience and other megatrends propel its growth.

“As passionate employee-owners, we are all tightly aligned around the imperative to evolve and adapt to have the right solutions, talent, expertise and insights that our clients need and expect, both for today’s operations and tomorrow’s investments,” Azar said.

About Black & Veatch

Black & Veatch is a 100-percent employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people around the world by addressing the resilience and reliability of our most important infrastructure assets. Follow us on www.bv.com and on social media.

Media Contact Information: 

JIM SUHR | +1 913-458-6995 P | SuhrJ@BV.com

24-HOUR MEDIA CONTACT | Media@bv.com

Originally published on NRG Energy Insights

By NRG Editorial Voices

There’s something about mamas at NRG. Especially when you get a glimpse of them through the eyes of their children. To be sure, there’s a fair amount of silliness when it comes to being a mother, but make no mistake — these moms take care of business.

Empathetic. Strong. Focused. Insightful. Resilient. Savvy.

These character traits are the tip of the iceberg when describing the mothers at NRG.

When it comes to our team of people working toward a common goal, they comprise one of our most celebrated pillars of strength. They are compassion and wisdom in action. There’s no doubt about it — moms are a force. They are mavens of prioritization, multi-tasking, communication, negotiation, adaptability, and more. And they manage to spin every plate without skipping a beat or sweating the small stuff.

Motherhood brings a unique lens to the meaning of teamwork and professional commitment. At the moment of birth (and even before), moms become part of a special team, partnering with significant others, medical professionals, family members, and other caregivers to nurture, protect, and engage with their child. Collaboration, communication, and grace under fire are just some of the skills honed in the trials and triumphs of parenthood. But perhaps the biggest lesson is that true teamwork makes it possible to achieve things you never thought you were capable of.

At NRG, we understand that for parents who work outside the home, balance between professional responsibilities and personal commitments can feel a bit like whack-a-mole. That’s why we’re dedicated to fostering a supportive environment that transforms the quest for balance into a quest for harmony — because when it comes to parenting, moms know that imbalance is never far off, and learning to navigate chaos is crucial. When work at home and work in the office harmonize, success comes naturally.

We set our sights on a workplace that works for everyone. Flexible work arrangements, discretionary paid time off, comprehensive parental leave policies, and access to resources for parents ensure that the moms of NRG can prioritize their families without sacrificing their career aspirations.

Not only does that make NRG a great place to be, it makes us a better company for our customers. Because when mothers feel empowered to bring their whole selves to work, their unique talents and perspectives drive the kind of collaborative and innovative culture that gets us closer to actualizing a brighter future for all.

Want to learn more about what being part of the NRG team is like? See Life at NRG.

For more insights on our unique work culture, check out the other installments of our Culture in Focus series.