Month: April 2025

“FedEx’s commitment to improving healthcare access and strengthening supply chains during emergencies and disaster situations has been instrumental in improving the lives of countless individuals in Mexico.” 

– Eduardo Mendoza

As World Health Day approaches in Mexico, delivering healthcare to those who need it most requires continuously growing innovation and collaboration, and a deep commitment to overcoming challenges. In Mexico, where many communities face significant barriers to accessing essential medical resources, these efforts are especially critical. Understanding this need, Direct Relief Mexico was established 11 years ago. FedEx encouraged this work from its inception which laid the groundwork for the new operation in Mexico City with a local staff who work closely with public agencies, health care providers, and nonprofit groups throughout the country.

In the years since, FedEx has played a crucial role in supporting Direct Relief’s logistics in Mexico, enabling it to become the nation’s largest charitable provider of medicines and medical supplies.

From emergency medical backpacks deployed during earthquakes and hurricanes to chartering eight flights carrying 17 million doses of donated COVID-19 vaccines, the collaboration between FedEx and Direct Relief has demonstrated time and again the power of teamwork in improving health outcomes for those in need.

Strengthening Emergency Preparedness and Response

As part of an ongoing multi-year emergency preparedness collaboration, Direct Relief and FedEx recently worked with Mexico’s National Defense Secretariat’s Emergency Response Battalion, a unit that operates in some of the country’s most challenging conditions. Together, they delivered 70 Emergency Medical Backpacks and eight Emergency Health Kits filled with essential medicines and supplies used by first responders to provide immediate care in disaster-affected communities.

The impact of this collaboration was also evident during Hurricane Otis in 2023. Prior to the storm’s landfall, Direct Relief and FedEx collaborated to pre-position three emergency health kits in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico, and provided 53 field medic packs to health providers on the ground. These efforts ensured that first responders had immediate access to essential medical supplies, enabling them to deliver timely care to those affected by the hurricane.

Ensuring Critical Care for Mexico’s Most Vulnerable Patients

In addition to emergency response efforts, Direct Relief Mexico has delivered lifesaving pediatric oncology medicines to hospitals and clinics nationwide, ensuring that children with cancer receive the specialized treatment they need. Transporting these temperature-sensitive medications requires extensive coordination and expertise—something both Direct Relief and FedEx excel at. By leveraging their logistical capabilities, the two organizations are helping to give children the best chance at recovery and a healthy future.

Supporting Maternal and Newborn Health

This World Health Day also marks the beginning of a year-long initiative, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, dedicated to supporting midwives and health workers who ensure safe deliveries worldwide. With Mexico recently integrating midwives more fully into its healthcare system, Direct Relief and FedEx are working together to provide critically needed medicines and supplies that support mothers and newborns, reinforcing their shared mission of ensuring timely healthcare delivery where it’s needed most.

A Collaboration for Lasting Impact

The approach of World Health Day brings the enduring collaboration between Direct Relief and FedEx into greater relief. Through their combined expertise in healthcare logistics and emergency response, they remain committed to strengthening health services, promoting resilience, and ensuring that communities in Mexico and beyond receive the care they need—when they need it most.

***Photos courtesy of Direct Relief Mexico

Click here to learn about FedEx Cares, our global community engagement program.

The demand for skilled professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) continues to rise. Projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that STEM occupations will grow by 10.4% between 2023 and 2033, outpacing the 4.0% growth rate for all occupations. Thus, early exposure to STEM education plays a crucial role in shaping students’ interests and aspirations in these areas.

Understanding the importance of nurturing future innovators, MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is committed to fostering curiosity and providing access to science education through its Curiosity Labs™ program—now featuring a new lesson focused on the role that artificial intelligence (AI) plays in drug discovery.

A standout feature of the new “AI in Drug Discovery” lesson is its hands-on experiment, where students use 3D-printed models to understand how AI aids drug discovery. Similar to how the company’s AI-powered AIDDISON™ platform matches shapes and colors of molecules with potential target proteins, students will create a drug candidate molecule out of 3D-printed building blocks and then match it to a target protein model. This interactive approach provides students with a tangible understanding of how AI can simplify the complex process of developing new medications.

All Curiosity Labs™ lessons are developed in partnership with Washington University in St. Louis, a global leader in applied research, through its Institute for School Partnership, with input by the company’s subject matter experts and in alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards. Offering lessons both at schools and on-site at the company’s facilities, the program is of no cost to participating schools. The company provides all the necessary materials and equipment for its trained employee volunteers to facilitate the Curiosity Labs™ lessons.

“With Curiosity Labs™, we believe that sparking curiosity early can change a student’s entire trajectory in STEM,” said Maite Nogales, Global Curiosity Labs™ Lead, the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. “Our hands-on approach allows students to see themselves as scientists, problem-solvers, and innovators, regardless of their background. By making complex scientific concepts like AI more accessible and engaging, we hope to break down barriers that often deter students from pursuing STEM careers. It’s incredibly rewarding to see students light up when they make connections between what they’re learning and the real-world impact of science.”

Educators and other interested parties are encouraged to visit the company’s Curiosity Labs™ webpage or email curiositylabs@milliporesigma.com to learn more about how the program educates and inspires students to consider pursuing a career in STEM.

At Elanco, our commitment to animal health goes beyond developing innovative products and extends to supporting the organisations that make a difference in animals’ lives. It is our privilege to support the incredible work being done at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital (SASH) through its blood donor program.

With over 200 veterinarians and 500 nurses working across their hospitals, SASH offers a unique opportunity to engage with a wide network of veterinary professionals dedicated to saving lives and advancing animal health.

Protecting Heroes with Credelio PLUS and Seresto

Earlier this year, our Elanco representatives, Mel and Lorna, teamed up with SASH to support this meaningful initiative. SASH’s blood donor program is an important resource for the veterinary community, providing life-saving blood donations for animals in critical need. Their dedicated team of veterinary professionals and pet parents understand the impact that these transfusions can have, offering a second chance at life for countless animals.

We donated Credelio PLUS and Seresto collars to protect the canine blood donors who make life-saving transfusions possible. These products provided vital protection against parasites, ensuring the continued health and wellbeing of these animal heroes who deserve the highest level of care.

Stories from the Elanco Team

This partnership is particularly special for the Elanco team members involved. For Mel, the connection is personal. Inspired by the idea of her own dog, Angel, becoming a blood donor when she was old enough, Mel was eager to support SASH. “Knowing that as a pet parent, I could contribute to something that positively impacts other dogs in need was important to me,” she shares. “Partnering with SASH to promote parasite protection has been a fantastic way to help even further.” On Christmas Eve, Angel was able to donate 517 grams of negative blood, which is the universal blood type.

Lorna adds that, “this is a win-win for Elanco, SASH, and especially the animals involved. Seeing SASH’S call for blood donors on social media sparked a desire to get involved, not only to support the program but also to elevate the conversation around pet health and the importance of pet blood donors.”

For Elanco, this partnership reflects our core mission of enhancing animal health and well-being. It’s a story of positive impact, not only for our products but also for Elanco’s role as a leader in animal health. By supporting SASH, we contribute to an important cause, and a shared mission to create a healthier future for animals, people and the planet.

Get Involved

To learn more about the incredible work being done at SASH and the life-saving impact of their blood donor program in animal care, visit their website: https://sashvets.com/services/animal-blood-bank/

by Janine Firpo, Invest for Better

Women are becoming a Financial Force – Women are poised to become a financial force like never before. By 2030, women are expected to control $34 trillion, or 38%, of the wealth in the United States — a dramatic increase from $7.3 trillion just a decade ago. Yet the financial industry has been slow to recognize and adapt to this shift.

Breaking Barriers in Values-Aligned Investing – When I first explored values-aligned investing, the concept was still emerging. Conversations about impact investing largely revolved around institutions and high-net-worth individuals. But what about the rest of us? Could someone like me — without formal financial credentials — learn to align my investments with my values? The journey wasn’t easy. I trusted financial advisors who mismanaged my money, navigated unfamiliar financial landscapes, and experimented repeatedly before gaining confidence in managing my finances.

Eventually, I realized I wasn’t alone. Many brilliant, capable women had been excluded from financial conversations. That realization led me to write Activate Your Money: Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World. The book wasn’t just mine — it was shaped by certified financial planners, financial leaders, and women who shared their insights as thought leaders and reviewers. It was a collective effort, just like the movement itself.

At the same time, I co-founded Invest for Better, a nonprofit equipping women with the tools and confidence to align their money with their values. Through Invest for Better, I’ve experienced firsthand the extraordinary impact women can have when they come together, share knowledge, and take action. This movement isn’t about going it alone — we are in this together.

Read Janine’s insightful and useful article here- https://greenmoney.com/the-power-of-women-and-collective-action-in-investing-for-change

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This blog is part of our focus on Cisco employees who are “Striving for Sustainability” by finding opportunities to integrate sustainability in their day-to-day work.

At Cisco, we have been focusing on evolving from a linear economy that extracts resources and eventually wastes them, to a circular one that finds new uses for products and their inputs. ​By understanding the environmental impacts of our products, we can make informed decisions to reduce the resources used and determine how to extend the life of our products.

That brings us to Sripriya Narayanan, a senior product manager based in India who works for Cisco’s Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) business unit, which focuses on industrial routers, switches, and access points. She has collaborated with Cisco’s Circular Design team to develop a series of industrial routers with Circular Design Principles at the core. I recently sat down with her to learn more about her story:

When did your interest in sustainability begin?

Sripriya: My journey towards sustainability began in my childhood in India, surrounded by my parents and grandparents, who lived what we now call a sustainable lifestyle. Their approach was simple: buying only what was necessary, avoiding plastic, minimizing waste, and embracing a holistic, minimalist lifestyle. This simplicity deeply influenced me. Another influence is my love for nature and spending time in natural settings. Being in nature taught me the importance of preserving its tranquility and beauty for future generations.

When I moved to the United States after starting my career at Cisco, I began volunteering with an environmental nonprofit in San Jose called Our City Forest. There, I trained as an arborist and earned a certification in tree planting. On weekends, I led community groups, including children and parents, in tree planting activities across Santa Clara County. This experience sparked my passion for environmental advocacy.

Can you tell us about your professional and educational journey so far?

Sripriya: My journey began as a software engineer at Cisco, where I progressed to a lead engineer and technical leader. While I enjoyed my work, I realized that to drive change, I needed to transition to the business side where decisions impacting sustainability were made. To facilitate this, I pursued an MBA. I chose Berkeley’s Haas School of Business due to its focus on sustainability and the active Net Impact Club. This club allowed me to engage with industry influencers and educate my peers, many of whom were CEOs or VPs attending evening and weekend classes. Collaborating with these key industry figures was enriching, as it enabled us to collectively promote sustainable practices.

During my second year at Berkeley, I transitioned into product management at Cisco, a natural progression aligning with my goals. I joined the industrial IoT business unit as a product manager, leading the industrial routing portfolio. This role involves end-to-end management, from defining the product to launching it and engaging with customers as well as managing its end-of-life. The industrial IoT business unit was crucial to me, as it allowed direct interaction with industry leaders in sectors like utilities, manufacturing, oil and gas, and transportation. The convergence of IT and OT is a focus for industries and critical infrastructure providers. Cisco leverages its direct interactions with business leaders to explore how it can enable best practices, including sustainability, across networks from enterprise to industry spaces, all while maintaining trust and addressing both internal product challenges and external factors. It was a chance to influence sustainability on a larger scale, fulfilling my ambition to integrate circularity practices into the business realm.

How are you incorporating circularity in your role as a product manager?

Sripriya: Embracing modular design has become imperative, especially in our industrial IoT business unit, where customers expect long-lasting products, unlike the enterprise sector with frequent refresh cycles. Modularizing components allows for standardization across business units, offering flexibility and reducing redesign costs. This approach also aligns with sustainability goals by minimizing waste and resource usage.

While developing our next-generation products, I prioritized Circular Design Principles. Inspired by sustainability advocates and my own passion, I collaborated cross-functionally to integrate modular components and improve energy efficiency for utility clients concerned with energy consumption.

I also initiated more packaging sustainability efforts, eliminating excessive foam and adopting materials with a lower environmental impact from manufacturing or end of life. This was achieved through collaboration with Cisco’s packaging sustainability team. At this point of my career, I was promoted to a senior product manager position and was chosen as a leader to drive sustainability initiatives for our entire Industrial IoT business unit.

Looking to the future, I will continue to drive sustainability initiatives for Cisco Industrial IoT in partnership with the Chief Sustainability Office (CSO) and Engineering Sustainability Office (ESO) teams.

What benefits have you observed from implementing Circular Design Principles?

Sripriya: Implementing Circular Design Principles offers numerous advantages, particularly in extending product lifetimes. Traditionally, businesses focused on frequent product refreshes to achieve their goals. However, by adopting a circular design mindset allows us to foster innovation without the necessity to launch new products every few years. This shift in perspective is not only beneficial for our company but also resonates across various industries, including the enterprise B2B sector.

Circular design can support faster innovation by building on existing products rather than starting from scratch. This approach reduces operational costs and capital expenses, as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, by minimizing the use of natural resources. Furthermore, designing products in a modular way facilitates take-back and reuse, which can reduce financial pressures on both our customers and our supply chain management.

From an environmental standpoint, circular design reduces waste and improve energy efficiency. During product use, energy efficiency is crucial. Our collaboration with the CSO team on a comprehensive product life cycle analysis highlighted that the majority of GHG emissions occur during the use phase. Therefore, integrating energy-efficient features in product design is essential for reducing emissions.

How are Cisco’s Industrial IoT innovations helping customers transition to more circular models?

Sripriya: It’s essential to address our customers’ current business challenges while providing them with easy ways to leverage new innovations without completely replacing their existing products. Cisco’s Industrial IoT solutions underscore energy efficiency and support circular practices, enhancing sustainability in product management.

With a circular design approach, we enable our customers to save the expense of buying completely new equipment every time their requirements change, which also eliminates the resources and energy required to create new equipment across manufacturing, shipping, and logistics. By upgrading or repairing just the individual modules, customers extend the product’s lifetime, reduce materials that are disposed of prematurely, and help conserve resources.

Customer stories that showcase how Cisco IoT solutions have helped them with their goals can be found here.

Do you do anything in your personal life to promote circularity? If so, what advice would you give others?

Sripriya: In my personal life, I strive to promote circularity by adopting a minimalist lifestyle. This journey began during my time in the United States, where I focused on purchasing only essential items and using reusable bags for grocery shopping to avoid plastic waste. Choosing an electric or hybrid car over a traditional gas-powered vehicle was another significant step that I took, as well as taking public transportation.

Recently, I relocated to India to be closer to my family and care for my aging parents. Here, I’ve noticed significant challenges regarding waste management and environmental awareness. While there is growing awareness about plastic pollution in some countries, in India, this understanding is often limited to certain urban areas.

Despite these challenges, I aim to influence my community by advocating for simple lifestyle changes that reduce consumption and promote responsible living. Encouraging people to consider the necessity of their purchases and seek better, more sustainable options is key. It’s about making conscious choices and recognizing that there are always alternatives that are better for the environment.

I also believe in leading by example and sharing knowledge with others to inspire them to become environmental advocates. By fostering discussions about sustainability, I hope to contribute to a more responsible and environmentally conscious world. These small actions in my daily life reflect my commitment to promoting circularity and encouraging others to do the same.

View original content here.

At Griffith Foods, we proudly celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8th, honoring the invaluable contributions of women while cultivating an inclusive and authentic environment.

Our HR leadership team can be seen here showcasing this year’s theme, Accelerate Action, which highlights the urgency of dismantling systemic barriers and biases—both personal and professional. It’s a call to drive meaningful change through bold, decisive steps.

Together, let’s champion progress, empower women, and take action toward a more inclusive world. How will you Accelerate Action in 2025?

About Griffith Foods
At Griffith Foods, our purpose defines who we are, what we do, and why we exist, highlighting what makes us distinct and authentic in the marketplace. We help our partners meet the evolving needs and desires of consumers in ways that respect and sustain the planet. Our care and creativity mean we’ll find the right mix of global reach and local impact to serve the earth and nourish all of us who call it home.

View original content here.

To mark the milestone, the Whirlpool Women’s Network (WWN), hosted a fireside chat with Kristin Day, Vice President of Operations and Manufacturing for NAR Manufacturing, and Roxanne Warner, Sr. Vice President and Corporate Controller.

See the original content here.

About Whirlpool Corporation

Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) is a leading home appliance company, in constant pursuit of improving life at home. As the last-remaining major U.S.-based manufacturer of kitchen and laundry appliances, the company is driving meaningful innovation to meet the evolving needs of consumers through its iconic brand portfolio, including Whirlpool, KitchenAid, JennAir, Maytag, Amana, Brastemp, Consul, and InSinkErator. In 2024, the company reported approximately $17 billion in annual sales – close to 90% of which were in the Americas – 44,000 employees, and 40 manufacturing and technology research centers. Additional information about the company can be found at WhirlpoolCorp.com.