Month: June 2024

Mike Bloomberg introduces the 2023 Bloomberg Impact Report

One doesn’t have to be a scientist to see that climate change is here, despite the denials and dismissals that some still make. Just read or watch the news. And increasingly, we can see it with our own eyes in our own towns and cities.

In June 2023, the sky above Bloomberg headquarters in New York City turned orange, as the smoke from wildfires burning in Canada descended across the eastern seaboard, creating dangerous air conditions. Throughout the year, climate change brought far worse consequences for many more millions of people around the world, as deadly flooding, heatwaves, tropical storms, droughts and other extreme weather surged during the hottest year in recorded history.

Bold and ambitious action is required to overcome the challenges climate change is bringing — and Bloomberg is helping to lead the way.

As you’ll see in the pages of this report, we’re working to increase access to data and information that helps investors and policymakers make informed decisions that both grow the economy and help catalyze investment in a clean energy future. In 2023, our company produced new datasets, tools, research and products that help firms assess the risks and opportunities arising from climate change itself, from the transition to a net-zero emissions economy that is underway, from new climate-related regulatory requirements and from the economic impacts that come from degradation of nature and loss of biodiversity.

Through our support of industry initiatives such as the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, we advanced our work providing resources to financial firms to help them measure and manage emissions across their portfolios. Meanwhile, the Climate Data Steering Committee, a group we are helping to lead along with French President Emmanuel Macron and other partners, unveiled the first version of the Net-Zero Data Public Utility, a new climate data portal that will gather corporate emissions data in one place and make it freely available to everyone.

We are committed to leading by example, and in 2023, our company continued to move closer to our goal of obtaining 100 percent of our electricity from certified renewable sources by 2025. We also welcomed a new Chief Sustainability Officer, Amy Springsteel, to help get us there, and to further integrate broader areas of sustainability into our business operations and decision-making.

As always, our employees helped to drive progress in the communities where we live and work. More than 19,000 Bloomberg employees volunteered their time and talents on service projects, some of which involved environmental protection. Our company’s most important asset is our people, and we continue to invest in diversifying our team. And by helping our company grow and succeed, all our employees helped to fund the work of Bloomberg Philanthropies, which is leading global efforts to protect the environment and accelerate the transition to clean energy. The vast majority of our company’s profits go to Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Winning the fight against climate change requires cooperation at every level of government and across every sector of industry. In 2023, our company joined with our clients and others to rise to this challenge — and in the coming year, we are committed to doing even more.

Learn more about Bloomberg’s commitment to bold and ambitious action in the 2023 Impact Report.

Pepco | The Source

We are powering local communities in ways that go beyond reliable energy service. Through our Sustainable Communities Grant program, facilitated by Sustainable Maryland, we provide local communities with environmental stewardship and resiliency grants each year.

Since the program launch in 2020, we have provided $350,000 in grants to municipalities, recreational authorities and nonprofits in the District of Columbia and Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland. Recipients of the 2023 grants are already putting the funds to use!

Residents who live in the City of Mount Rainier in Prince George’s County, Md., are already benefiting from sustainable grant funding. In November 2023, the city constructed an accessibility ramp at the local community garden. The ramp was made possible by the $10,000 grant awarded to Mount Rainier that supports open space and resiliency projects.

“The Mount Rainier community garden is more than just a plot of land in our city – it’s a space where neighbors can come together to plant and grow plants and vegetables in an urban environment,” said Mount Rainier Mayor Celina R. Benitez. “With better access and upgraded tools in the garden funded through Pepco and Sustainable Maryland’s Sustainable Communities Grant Program, we have empowered our community to cultivate connections and sustainability in Mount Rainier.”

The garden is a community-led initiative that promotes and educates residents of Mount Rainier on the benefits of gardening, planting and sustainability.

Learn more about other previous grant recipients here.

The 2024 grant application process is now open through July 1. Municipalities, recreational authorities and nonprofits in the District and Maryland service areas can apply for a Sustainable Communities grant each year

This year’s program provides:

$75,000 in environmental stewardship grants, up to $10,000 each, for projects focusing on open space preservation, improvements to parks and recreation resources and environmental conservation.

$50,000 in resiliency grants, up to $25,000 each, to support innovative approaches to providing a safe and reliable resource for a community during a time of emergency, such as severe weather.

Interested organizations can learn more about the Sustainable Communities Grant Program and how to submit a grant request by visiting our Sustainable Communities page on our website.

Starting a career can be daunting. Embarking on a new path often involves uncertainty about the future, which can make anyone feel uneasy. While young professionals may face unique challenges, organizations can help them overcome these obstacles through resources, training and tools to help put them on a path towards professional and personal success.  

At Cintas, they have been leading the way in addressing these challenges and make it a priority to support young professionals in part through their Management Trainee (MT) Program. 

The program’s purpose is to equip employee-partners with the necessary tools and resources to thrive by providing them with immersive, hands-on training in all aspects of the company’s operations, including sales, service, production, operations and administration. Once trainees have completed the 15-month program, they are placed in supervisory and leadership roles to maximize their strengths and potential for career advancement.

“You realize right away when you join Cintas the emphasis and priority that is placed in the MT program,” said Toby Atkinson, Director of DEI & Management Programs and a management trainee graduate. “You meet with executive leaders, you have a cadence for meeting with your mentor. You’re really getting to know the business firsthand, and these foundations that you’re getting at the start of your career are so you can be the next general manager or vice president at Cintas.”

Meeting with executives and new partners early in one’s career can sound intimidating at first, but Diego Nucete, Senior Vice President of the Northern Territory at Cintas, can still recall the warm smiles that greeted him as he walked through the opening doors at Cintas on his first day as an MT. 

“They were welcoming me home like I had been there forever,” said Nucete. “I still think back to that time because I learned a lot from my first day, how Cintas is really a family. I think back to the training and how it allowed me to make the decisions I do today because I had those hands-on experiences in the business.”

The program also pairs partners with a mentor who has also spent time as a trainee. This way they can help guide them throughout the process and answer any questions they have. 

Jake Resser, who started as a management trainee 20 years ago, is now the Group Vice President of the Northwest Group at Cintas. Resser knows just how important mentors are and how they can help usher you in your career.

“Your mentor is somebody who was in your same shoes, maybe only a few years ago,” said Resser. “They understand the challenges that you might have adapting to the professional work environment and what it takes to get you from college to being productive in your career.”

Another hurdle to starting a career can be not knowing what area you want to focus on. In the MT program, you can rotate and work in different departments and roles. This gives trainees the chance to learn new skills and discover what they are passionate about.

“The program offers endless opportunities, and you can move around into different areas of our business that fit you best,” said Beth Barney, Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Cintas and a former management trainee. 

Barney has been with Cintas for 21 years and has held various positions throughout her career. Her experiences in the MT program have contributed to her success and leadership skills. 

“There’s a reason they teach you leadership skills early in the process: to get you ready and make you a well-rounded leader,” said Barney. “It helps you be someone who can be depended on, someone who is reliable, someone that our leadership team can trust to take on responsibility and make an impact on the organization.”

These leadership skills are evident throughout the organization. In fact, two of Cintas’ CEOs, including the company’s current CEO and President, Todd Schneider, were management trainees. 

Macarena Cloninger, Senior Vice President of the Southern Territory at Cintas, has been with Cintas for 21 years. As a management trainee graduate herself, she emphasizes the importance of coaching and believes that learning from mistakes is crucial for developing into a leader.

“Leadership is learned through mistakes,” said Cloninger. “Our management trainees are already allowed to work on projects that impact the business and partners, but in a controlled environment where we have many coaching moments for them. It allows them to develop those leadership skills quickly so they can take on bigger responsibilities.”

These methods have been proven to be effective and are part of the reason why Cintas has been distinguished with several awards recognizing it as a great place to work for young professionals and recent graduates. 

This year, Cintas has been named to Forbes’ list of Best Employers for New Grads, Newsweek’s America’s Best Workplaces for Job Starters and received the Handshake Early Talent Award. 

Both the Forbes and Newsweek awards are based on insights from employees about their experiences with the company’s corporate culture, working conditions, education and career advancement opportunities, and other criteria. The Handshake Early Talent Award recognizes employers for best-in-class talent engagement and celebrates the top workplaces that attract Generation Z.

“These awards speak to our culture and how we do things the right way and have high standards,” said Barney. “I think people want to be part of that winning team and they see what we’re going to pour into them, into their professional and personal development. We’re going to give them all the tools and the resources that they need to be successful.”

It’s an exciting opportunity to join an organization that prioritizes young professionals and offers a program tailored to support them. With numerous possibilities and paths to explore, it’s important to remember to savor the journey and take each learned experience with you no matter where you go.

“My advice to a management trainee starting out is to take it all in,” said Atkinson. “It’s going to fly by, so lean into your mentors and lean into your rotations because this is setting the pace for the next 25 years of your career or more. 

Just know that we picked you because we want you to be our next leader at Cintas.”

Click here to watch a video to learn more about the Management Trainee program.

PORTLAND, Ore., June 4, 2024 /3BL/ – Effective immediately, the Global Electronics Council® (GEC) is activating its Ultra-Low Carbon Solar (ULCS) Criteria for the Solar category of the EPEAT® electronics ecolabel, setting the industry’s first embodied carbon threshold limits for use globally.

EPEAT is the only global ecolabel to tackle the often-overlooked issue of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during solar module production, enabling purchasers to lower their overall carbon footprint for this key part of the renewable energy infrastructure. For a 100 MW project, installing EPEAT registered solar modules is estimated to reduce up to 45,700 metric tons of CO2e, equivalent to removing over 10,000 gasoline powered cars from the road for one year.

All newly registered solar modules must now meet the low carbon threshold set in the ULCS Criteria to appear on the EPEAT Registry, with those that meet the ultra-low carbon threshold (≤400 kg CO2e/kWp) receiving the coveted EPEAT Climate+™ designation. These criteria and the thresholds contained within apply specifically to manufacturing and the other supply chain activities responsible for most solar module embodied carbon, from raw material extraction through product assembly.

“Just as not all solar is created equal, we also recognize that not all standards and ecolabels are created equal” explains Samantha Sloan, Vice President of Policy, Sustainability, and Marketing, at First Solar, Inc. “In addition to being independently validated, EPEAT for Solar is the first and only global ecolabel to evaluate the embodied carbon of solar modules. EPEAT Climate+ establishes a new benchmark for the solar manufacturing industry and enables customers to confidently procure solar modules that lower their scope 3 emissions and are responsibly made.”

The newly enacted EPEAT Criteria are meant to provide a trusted and consistent framework for evaluating the climate impact of solar modules and to promote low carbon alternatives. Solar manufacturers must now meet a required low carbon threshold (≤630 kg CO2 e/kWp) to appear on the EPEAT Registry. Modules currently on the Registry must also meet this threshold by the end of this year to remain listed.

This marks an important expansion of the EPEAT Climate+ designation which was launched in 2023 and currently includes nearly 1,500 products, produced by leading electronics brands, known as EPEAT Climate+ Champions. “We’re excited to see how solar modules fuel the already explosive growth of EPEAT Climate+” exclaims Bob Mitchell, GEC’s CEO. “GEC and our community created this differentiator to help purchasers, developers and investors quickly identify technology products designed and manufactured with climate change mitigation in mind. Adding solar manufacturers to this community is vital to drive our collective transition to a greener economy.

EPEAT Climate+ designated products are also supported by the twelve organizations that have taken the GEC Climate+ Pledge. All signatories play a vital role in promoting sustainability and driving positive change in their respective industries.

For more information about GEC’s work in solar energy products, visit gec.org, and visit epeat.net for more information about EPEAT registered products.

Global Electronics Council 

The Global Electronics Council (GEC) is a mission-driven nonprofit that leverages the power of purchasers to create a world where only sustainable technology is bought and sold. GEC’s work is focused on high-impact sustainability issues, such as climate change and product circularity. It manages the EPEAT ecolabel and produces other resources to support sustainable technology procurement, including training, purchasing guides, sample procurement language, and more. Visit gec.org to learn more.

EPEAT

Managed by GEC, EPEAT is the world’s premier electronics ecolabel. It serves as a free resource for procurement professionals to identify and select products with reduced impacts across key sustainability issues. Since its launch in 2006, procurement professionals have reported purchases of 2.4 billion EPEAT products, generating cost savings of USD 24.6 billion and a reduction of 286 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Visit epeat.net to learn more.

Contact

Erik Fessler

Manager, Global Communications

Phone Number: +1 971-380-4088

Email: efessler@gec.org