Month: September 2024

Communities that are considered underserved often struggle to attain healthcare services. One of those groups are smallholder farmers in remote areas of Sub-Saharan Africa who depend on livestock for their livelihood, while facing considerable barriers to access vital animal health resources. Over the last six years, more than 40,000 farmers have been supported by Boehringer Ingelheim’s LastMile program. We met one of them.

Grace Njeri Kamau just finished milking her cows at her small family farm on the hills overlooking Lake Naivasha. “When I came here, I had a dream,” she shares. Grace and her husband David Kinyanjui Giathi own a small plot of land of less than three acres on which they farm kale, spinach, and other crops. For Grace, the dream she had since she first saw the farm her husband inherited was being able to sell the milk from her own cows to the local market and improve her family’s life. In particular, to finance her children’s education and give them brighter prospects.

Even in a fertile region like Nakuru County, above East Africa’s Great Rift Valley, three acres is not enough land to provide for the livelihood of a family of six on crops alone. To support them and their four daughters, Grace has been working the farm, while David drives a Matatu taxi on the dangerous roads towards Nairobi. The job often takes him long distances away from the farm, limiting the time he is able to spend with the family.

When animals are healthy, humans are healthier too

Smallholder farmers play a vital role in sustaining food security in Africa, as they do for over two billion people worldwide. To empower these farmers, providing education, resources, and sustainable practices contributes to a more resilient agricultural landscape. By connecting farmers with retailers and veterinarians, the access program LastMile fosters an ecosystem of quality animal health services. This, in turn, contributes to the local economy and strengthens the communities served.

Like Grace and David, many smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa live at or below the poverty line, with less than $1.90 USD per day to sustain themselves and their families. Additionally, they face considerable barriers to access information and resources for their animals’ health and subsequently their own health. From road infrastructure to educational resources, the challenges for Kenya’s smallholder farmers are immense. In remote areas such as these, the connection between thriving animals and thriving humans is particularly strong. Enhanced access to knowledge, products, and services can offer entire communities a route to escape poverty.

“Smallholder farmers in Kenya are often severely limited by the small plots of their farms. Combined with the high population pressure on the available farmland in comparatively densely populated areas, it becomes a real challenge to make available land sustain daily needs, like healthcare.“

Dr. David Chemimir
Business Unit Manager, SSA/SD4G at Boehringer Ingelheim IMETA and LastMile Project Manager

Building capacity for underserved communities

For Grace, turning her dreams of improving her family’s lives into reality proved to be more challenging than she had anticipated. “We went to Nyandarua County and bought a cow that was already older. We were told it would produce 10 liters, but when we brought it home, it only produced two liters. We had to sell it at a loss. But with Serah’s help, we got to start again and bought the cow we have now.” Serah Gatheru works as a LastMile Livestock Service Provider (LLSP) with the LastMile program. For two years she has been regularly visiting the farm and has advised Grace and David on how to keep their animals healthy and productive.

Since the program’s launch in 2018, LLSPs like Serah have engaged thousands of farmers. The LLSPs act as a central connection point between the farmers, veterinarians, and local retailers of animal health products to build a network able to support the community’s animal health needs. The program seeks to engage groups of farmers and co-operatives to generate a broad reach and connect as many farmers as possible to service providers. To the smallholder farmers mostly living in remote areas that are often underserved by veterinarians and that lack other animal health resources, what LLSPs bring first and foremost, is vital knowledge, as David explains: “LastMile has significant impact as an educational program that enables access to information. The power of knowledge is the biggest gift we can give. Each farmer will be educated on how to feed his animals, what role genetics plays, how to improve productivity, and how to best take care of their livestock. When we set out, we had hoped to reach 30,000 farmers, but now we have reached over 40,000.”

Removing barriers to health equity

Initially, Serah chose to get her qualification as a veterinary technician to take advantage of the employment opportunities in Kenya’s large agricultural sector. “But working with smallholder farmers and the LastMile program has really shown me the value of my work and how much satisfaction it can bring,” she shares.

Together with Serah, Grace has maintained her animal’s health over the past two years, despite various diseases affecting much of the cattle in the community. Implementing a tailored feeding plan for proper nutrition, ensuring better availability of products and medication at her local retailer, and strictly adhering to hygienic practices for housing and milking, has helped Grace prevent serious health problems in her animals.

Today, the dream of a successful milk business has become a reality for Grace. Since her initial contact with Serah and the LastMile program, the farm has added another productive milk cow and is about to add a third. They are now pursuing bigger ambitions to make the farm a true family venture which will be able to support all of them, allowing David to give up his job as a driver and be on the farm full-time, as well as financing a good education for their daughters.

Empowering individuals to strengthen entire communities

Though this may seem like an individual success, it benefits the surrounding farmers as well. Prevalent diseases like mastitis or foot and mouth disease are often transmitted between farms, so that multiple farms are affected simultaneously. This can lead to drastic drops in productivity, thus endangering the livelihoods of the entire community.

Through education, access to resources, and a supportive network, LastMile empowers smallholder farmers to improve their livelihoods. Enhancing their productivity and connecting farmers with vital services creates lasting positive change for this underserved group. “The local community are good, hard-working people that want to utilize the little land they have well. We are introducing our neighbors to LastMile, and the benefits speak for themselves.” Together with LastMile, Grace has set an example the community is looking up to.

“We are introducing our neighbors to Last Mile and the benefits speak for themselves.“

Grace Njeri Kamau, smallholder farmer in Nakuru County

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Find out more about Boehringer Ingelheim’s global sustainability initiatives, ranging from creating more sustainable healthcare solutions and community engagement with impact to environmental stewardship in Imagine: our sustainability story hub.

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At AMD, we strive to create products that improve people’s lives and help our customers and end users reduce their own energy use and GHG emissions. We collaborate closely with our customers and partners on product design and system-level optimizations to advance environmental sustainability, including by reducing environmental impacts and energy use.

Increasing the computing performance delivered per watt of energy consumed is a vital aspect of our business strategy. Based on engagements with our customers, while product energy efficiency is not as significant a driver of demand for our products as total cost of ownership as well as compute performance, our customers recognize the role that energy efficiency may play in total cost of ownership over time. In addition, many of our customers have energy efficiency and GHG emissions goals of their own. Our products’ cutting-edge chip architecture, design, and power management features have resulted in significant energy efficiency gains. Global electricity consumption trends show a collective trajectory to consume more energy than the market can support within the next two decades.i The need for innovative energy solutions is becoming increasingly important – perhaps nowhere more so than in the data center.

AMD EPYC™ processors power some of the most energy efficient x86 servers, delivering exceptional performance and reducing energy costs.ii These AMD powered servers can meet performance demands with fewer physical servers, which can result in a reduced data center footprint and associated energy use and GHG emissions.

For example, achieving the same amount of compute (10,000 units of integer performance) is estimated to require 11 Intel servers (2P 60 core Xeon Platinum 8490H CPUs) or six AMD servers (2P 96 core 9654 EPYC CPUs).iii The difference of five servers amounts to estimated operational savings of up to 45% less power, which over a three-year period can avoid up to 107 metric tons of CO2e and up to $37,700 in energy costs. This does not include the environmental and financial benefits of avoiding the extraction, manufacturing, shipping, and end of life management of the five servers that are not needed due to higher performance of the AMD solution.

Energy efficiency is paramount when it comes to workloads that require more compute performance, such as AI and supercomputing, which is the concentration of processing power across multiple parallel computers. This is why we set a bold goal to achieve a 30x improvement in energy efficiency for AMD processors and accelerators powering HPC and AI training by 2025.iv If all AI and HPC server nodes globally were to make similar gains to the AMD 30×25 goal, we estimate billions of kilowatt-hours of electricity could be saved in 2025, relative to baseline trends.iv Achieving the goal would also mean we would accelerate past the industry trendline at 2.5 times the rate of 2015-2020, as measured by the worldwide energy consumption for these computing segments and reducing energy use per computation by up to 97% as compared to 2020. When creating the goal, AMD worked with the renowned compute energy efficiency researcher and author Dr. Jonathan Koomey to validate the goal measurement methodology.

As of late 2023, we achieved a 13.5x improvement in energy efficiency for AMD processors and accelerators from the 2020 baseline, using a configuration of four AMD Instinct™ MI300A APUs (4th Gen AMD EPYC™ CPU with AMD CDNA™ 3 Compute Units).v We will continue to report our progress toward this goal. We are also proud that AMD powers 157 of the most energy efficient supercomputers, including the majority of the top 50, according to the Green500 List published in June 2024.vi

Learn more about our energy efficiency goals and data center sustainability efforts at https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/corporate-responsibility/data-center-sustainability.html. 

Originally published in AMD 2023-24 Corporate Responsibility Report. 

i “The Decadal Plan for Semiconductors,” Semiconductor Research Corporation, https://www.src.org/about/decadal-plan/ (accessed May 15, 2024).

ii EPYC-028D: SPECpower_ssj® 2008, SPECrate®2017_int_energy_base, and SPECrate®2017_fp_energy_base based on results published on SPEC’s website as of 2/21/24. VMmark® server power-performance/server and storage power-performance (PPKW) based results published at https://www.vmware.com/products/vmmark/results3x.1.html?sort=score. The first 105 ranked SPECpower_ssj®2008 publications with the highest overall efficiency overall ssj_ops/W results were all powered by AMD EPYC processors. For SPECrate®2017 Integer (Energy Base), AMD EPYC CPUs power the first 8 top SPECrate®2017_int_energy_base performance/system W scores. For SPECrate®2017 Floating Point (Energy Base), AMD EPYC CPUs power the first 12 SPECrate®2017_fp_energy_base performance/system W scores. For VMmark® server power-performance (PPKW), have the top 5 results for 2- and 4-socket matched pair results outperforming all other socket results and for VMmark® server and storage power-performance (PPKW), have the top overall score. See https://www.amd.com/en/claims/epyc4#faq-EPYC-028D for the full list. For additional information on AMD sustainability goals see: https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/corporate-responsibility/data-center-sustainability.html. More information about SPEC® is available at http://www.spec.org. SPEC, SPECrate, and SPECpower are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. VMmark is a registered trademark of VMware in the US or other countries.

iii SP5TCO-034: This scenario contains many assumptions and estimates and, while based on AMD internal research and best approximations, should be considered an example for information purposes only, and not used as a basis for decision making over actual testing. The Bare Metal Server Greenhouse Gas Emissions TCO (total cost of ownership) Estimator Tool – version 6.80, compares the selected AMD EPYC™ and Intel® Xeon® CPU based server solutions required to deliver a TOTAL_PERFORMANCE of 10,000 units of integer performance based on the published scores for these specific Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC CPU based servers as of January 10, 2023. This estimation reflects a 3-year time frame with a PUE of 1.7 and a power US power cost of $0.16 / kWh. This analysis compares a 2P AMD 64 core AMD EPYC_9554 powered server with a SPECrate2017_int_base score of; to a 2P Intel Xeon 60 core Platinum_8490H based server with a SPECrate2017_int_base score of 991, https://spec.org/cpu2017/results/res2023q1/cpu2017-20221206-33039.pdf.

iv “Data Center Sustainability,” AMD, https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/corporate-responsibility/data-center-sustainability.html.

v EPYC-030a: Calculation includes 1) base case kWhr use projections in 2025 conducted with Koomey Analytics based on available research and data that includes segment specific projected 2025 deployment volumes and data center power utilization effectiveness (PUE) including GPU HPC and machine learning (ML) installations and 2) AMD CPU and GPU node power consumptions incorporating segment-specific utilization (active vs. idle) percentages and multiplied by PUE to determine actual total energy use for calculation of the performance per Watt. 13.5x is calculated using the following formula: (base case HPC node kWhr use projection in 2025 * AMD 2023 perf/Watt improvement using DGEMM and TEC +Base case ML node kWhr use projection in 2025 *AMD 2023 perf/Watt improvement using ML math and TEC) /(2020 perf/Watt * Base case projected kWhr usage in 2025). For more information, www.amd.com/en/corporate-responsibility/data-center-sustainability.

vi AMD Remains the Partner of Choice for World’s Fastest and Most Efficient High Performance Computing Deployments, https://www.amd.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-5-13-amd-remains-the-partner-of-choice-for-world-s-fast.html (accessed May 11, 2024).

Noelia Velazquez aspires to be on your mobile device and TV, bringing you exciting interviews and the “main character energy” of a talk show host. The recent high school graduate uses her experience in professional gymnastics and pageants to craft her on-screen presence, and hopes that getting a degree in broadcast media will help her realize her dream career.

But funding that college degree and finding a mentorship network doesn’t come easy. That’s when Velazquez, who is Latina, found the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF), she says.

“While searching for scholarships, HHF came up, and it was this huge community of Latinos, so I knew I’d feel right at home,” she says. “I’m Puerto Rican, and growing up in a small town, I came to learn the importance of community and family support.”

Velazquez says since becoming the gold recipient of HHF’s Youth Award in the Media & Entertainment category in her region of North Carolina, she has been gifted more than a grant to help her with college. It’s provided her a community of support.

“I will now be attending High Point University as class of 2028 this fall, majoring in broadcast journalism, which is incredible,” Velazquez says. “There are so many doors that have opened after receiving this scholarship. I was given the opportunity to attend events where I was able to meet other award winners in the Media & Entertainment category as well as professionals from the field.”

Velazquez’ story is one of many that Antonio Tijerino, President and CEO of the HHF, says is the heartbeat of the organization’s mission. He wants Latino youth to be ready to join the growing workforce in the U.S. — the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 78% of all new jobs, or nearly eight out of ten, will be filled by a Latino over the next seven years.

“There are over 60 million Latinos in the U.S., and we have to make sure we’re part of a connection that moves the country forward through access to technology and all of the different tools that you need to be able to innovate, create and grow,” Tijerino explains. “A young person with access to a device and Wi-Fi has an unbelievable reach. T-Mobile and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation want to make sure that they have access to those tools, access to that confidence, access to that vision.”

Now entering its 26th year, HHF’s Youth Awards program has selected over 4,700 youth from more than 35,000 applicants across the U.S. and Latin America each year to receive grants and development opportunities in various fields such as technology, green sustainability, healthcare and science, and entrepreneurship and business. Tijerino says with the help of longtime partner T-Mobile, which is donating $200,000 to support HHF’s efforts this Hispanic Heritage Month, the foundation can use the power of connectivity to support its Youth Awardees in achieving their goals.

Youth Awardee Velazquez says this investment in her future will have a lasting effect.

“Now with HHF, I have that community, not of just my family, but of all these different people I’ve met,” she says. “You have to be proud of who you are. There were times growing up I forgot where I came from. I know now I have such a special community, and as I get older and go into my field, I can lean back on those people and have their support in the future.”

Starting Tuesday, Sept. 17, you can join T-Mobile in its support of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and its commitment to donate $200,000 to support their efforts in providing scholarships to help pay for college, fund community service projects and provide networking and resources for Latino high school seniors.

Event will be held at The Nest Climate Campus at The Javits CenterThe partnership strives to inspire and equip the next generation of emerging leaders with authentic perspectives from young professionals working in climateEvent will feature sustainability leaders from The Estée Lauder Companies

NEW YORK, September 17, 2024 /3BL/ – The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC), Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business Responsible Business Center, and Net Impact will co-host an event at The Nest Climate Campus, the official event partner of Climate Week NYC, on Thursday, September 26, 2024 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm ET.

The climate action event is designed to inspire and equip future industry leaders who seek to pursue climate-related careers. Harnessing the excitement of Climate Week NYC, it aims to enlighten and engage those who will play an instrumental role in shaping our climate future: emerging business leaders.

Titled “A New Generation of Climate Careers: Leading Change as a Young Professional,” the event will feature young experts who have a demonstrated track record of driving climate action through their careers. The event will be part of The Nest Climate Campus’ new Education focus which will also include a Green Jobs Pavilion and free Green Jobs Coaching from LinkedIn.

“There’s no question that Millennials and Gen Z-ers, who are 18-35, want to pursue careers that are in line with their values, and there’s also no question that companies are eager to hire fresh “green talent” that can support their climate initiatives. But the journey that takes place between graduating university to landing that first job is hard to navigate. This event will be a window into the experiences of the people who have walked that road successfully and the knowledge they’ve acquired along the way. It will demonstrate the ways we can continue to grow, accelerate, and equip the green talent pipeline,” noted Leigh Anne Statuto, Executive Director of the Gabelli School of Business Responsible Business Center.

“We are thrilled to support this event and provide a platform for emerging talent to explore careers in climate across various organizational contexts,” said Al Iannuzzi, Vice President, Sustainability at The Estée Lauder Companies. “We recognize that ELC’s commitment to climate action extends beyond our company walls. We strive to lead in nurturing and developing talent in this vital field, while sharing our insights and experiences along the way.”

Net Impact, a global community organization that serves over 250 global chapters of students and emerging professionals who work to use the tools of business as a force for good, reports that climate change, corporate social responsibility, and career development, are the top 3 topics amongst their global community this year. “We are meeting the moment,” Karen Johns, CEO of Net Impact, said. “This partnership has enabled us to showcase what it means to be a responsible corporate citizen while addressing a real need for next-gen leaders: landing climate jobs.”

For more information and to register for the joint event please visit NetImpact.org.

Media inquiries can be addressed to Hilary Manzo at hmanzo@netimpact.org.

About The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. 
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is one of the world’s leading manufacturers, marketers, and sellers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products, and is a steward of luxury and prestige brands globally. The company’s products are sold in approximately 150 countries and territories under brand names including: Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, M·A·C, La Mer, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin Paris, TOM FORD, BALMAIN BEAUTY, Smashbox, AERIN Beauty, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, GLAMGLOW, KILIAN PARIS, Too Faced, Dr.Jart+, the DECIEM family of brands, including The Ordinary and NIOD.

About Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business Responsible Business Center 
Founded in 1920, the mission of the Fordham University Gabelli School of Business is to inspire and empower positive global change, developing students into compassionate business leaders and supporting faculty members and students in the ongoing generation of new knowledge. The Gabelli School has become a driver of social innovation by equipping graduates to be business leaders who understand and meet the need for sustainability in business and who are able to harness the power of social responsibility for both financial success and societal impact. The Gabelli School of Business is home to the Responsible Business Center, a platform for interdisciplinary engagement in ESG and sustainability that fosters cross- industry collaboration and action towards ESG, advances research, and supports business school learnings Visit Fordham.edu/rbc.

About Net Impact 
Over 30 years, Net Impact has built a diverse community in 40+ countries committed to using business to advance social and environmental action. Net Impact mobilizes its global community of more than 100,000 emergent change agents to leverage their careers to drive transformational environmental and social change. Through a strategic set of initiatives aimed to engage and benefit its core stakeholders, Net Impact is committed to advancing climate action and building the capacity of the next generation of workforce members. Visit www.netimpact.org.

What you need to know: 

Verizon Innovative Learning, Verizon’s premier education initiative, announces the opening of 18 new Verizon Innovative Learning Labs this school year, bringing the total number of Labs nationwide to 161. Many of these state-of-the-art Labs in Title 1 middle schools have also been outfitted with Verizon’s 5G network.Freely available for all on verizon.com/learning, the new Verizon Innovative Learning Lab: STEM Exploration augmented reality app gives students the opportunity to work with a group of scientists to solve an environmental disaster.This Fall, the Verizon Innovative Learning STEM Achievers program is offering full-day workshops for middle schoolers at 44 HBCUs, HSIs, and community colleges, including campus tours for parents and students. For more information, visit: https://verizon.nacce.com/

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., September 17, 2024 /3BL/ – Verizon Innovative Learning announces the opening of 18 new Verizon Innovative Learning Labs, a new augmented reality app to make the Lab experience accessible to students nationwide, and free STEM workshops for middle school students on college campuses across the country.

Donna Epps, Verizon’s Chief Responsible Business Officer, said, “Through our flagship education initiative, Verizon Innovative Learning, we are committed to equipping students and educators with the tools they need to thrive in a digital world. As technology evolves and expands, so too does Verizon Innovative Learning. Through our new offerings, including new state-of-the-art Labs with connectivity to Verizon’s 5G network, free STEM workshops on college campuses, and a new web-based AR app, we are working with our nonprofit partners to utilize next-gen technology and curriculum to ensure educators and students not only have access to technology but can also use it effectively.”

18 new Verizon Innovative Learning Labs launching this school year

Verizon Innovative Learning, with its nonprofit partners, is launching 18 new Verizon Innovative Learning Labs in Title I middle schools, bringing the total number of Labs across the country to 161. Labs are opening in: Atlanta, GA; Bristol Township, PA; Compton, CA; Fulton County, GA; Glendale, CA; Irving, TX, Jefferson County, KY; Little Rock, Arkansas; Polk County, Tennessee; Saint Louis, Missouri; San Antonio, TX; Wichita, KS; and Winston-Salem, NC.

Select Labs will host ribbon cutting ceremonies. Media are encouraged to attend to tour the space and technology, learn about the curriculum, and interact with students and teachers.

More about the Verizon Innovative Learning Lab program:

The Lab program combines emerging technology with an innovative, project-based curriculum, created in partnership with the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at Arizona State University, to spark real-world problem solving, all in a custom-designed, experiential learning space within the school’s campus. The Lab program provides a full space transformation created by the nonprofit Heart of America.Verizon outfits its 5G connectivity in select Labs to enable immersive learning at scale and to meet the demands of future technology. The 5G connectivity is now in over 70 Title I schools.The Verizon Innovative Learning Lab curriculum offers tech-focused courses such as immersive media (AR/VR), 3D printing, AI and more, and is freely available to all educators via Verizon Innovative Learning HQ.Third party surveys show that 92% of students are more engaged in school after participating in the Lab program. Teachers from the Lab program receive ongoing professional development from Arizona State University.

Verizon Innovative Learning launches new, free web-based augmented reality app 

Verizon Innovative Learning HQ now offers a new, free, web-based application to help bring the Lab experience to all educators and students. Five other AR learning applications are also available on Verizon Innovative Learning HQ.

Through the new Verizon Innovative Learning Lab: STEM Exploration augmented reality app, students can take on the role of an Oceanographer, Chemist and Microbiologist, and leverage atomic structures, microorganisms and bioremediation to help protect a vibrant island ecosystem.

Verizon Innovative Learning launching free STEM workshops on college campuses 

This Fall, the Verizon Innovative Learning STEM Achievers summer program will host a full-day workshop at 44 HBCUs, HSIs, and community colleges in 27 states and Washington, DC. Programming is open to middle school students and includes campus tours for parents and students.

In the workshop, students will have access to similar emerging technology from the Labs, and will learn about design thinking, 3D printing, augmented reality and social entrepreneurship. Third party surveys show that, following the program, 83% of students said they can use STEM to impact issues affecting their communities, nation and the world. To register, visit here.

Verizon Innovative Learning STEM Achievers, in partnership with the National Association of Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), provides a free STEM-intensive summer program to middle school students in under-resourced communities to explore STEM subjects, learn problem-solving skills and gain exposure to career opportunities in technology fields. This most recent summer, the program supported 6,500 students in 44 locations.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) powers and empowers how its millions of customers live, work and play, delivering on their demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity and security. Headquartered in New York City, serving countries worldwide and nearly all of the Fortune 500, Verizon generated revenues of $134.0 billion in 2023. Verizon’s world-class team never stops innovating to meet customers where they are today and equip them for the needs of tomorrow. For more, visit verizon.com or find a retail location at verizon.com/stores.

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Media contact: 
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