Month: July 2025

By Libby Richards, North America Community Engagement Manager, Lenovo

When Hurricane Helene swept through Western North Carolina in September 2024, it left behind more than just physical damage. It disrupted lives, isolated communities, and cut off basic necessities like clean water and communication. The scale of destruction was staggering: over 1,400 landslides, widespread damage to roads, homes, bridges, and water systems. In the midst of it all, local organizations and partners mobilized to help meet urgent needs and begin the long process of recovery.

Among the first to respond was Boone-based nonprofit Wine To Water. Known for their international work providing clean water in disaster-stricken and underserved regions around the world, the organization suddenly found itself responding to a crisis in its own backyard.

“I had to remind myself a few times that I was in the United States,” Courtney Mattar, Director of Partnerships at Wine To Water said. “I felt like I was transported back to where I’ve seen destruction from flooding in Nepal. The damage was that visceral.”

With its deep ties to the community and experience navigating emergencies, they shifted quickly from global relief to local action. Lenovo, a longtime supporter of Wine To Water’s global mission, stepped up to help as the focus turned to Western North Carolina.

Wine To Water’s teams were on the ground within hours, navigating blocked roads and delivering clean water by any means necessary, including trucks, ATVs, and even mountain bikes. They reached families who had suddenly found themselves without safe drinking water or shelter. Lenovo supported these efforts by sending the first truck of clean water into the region, helping Wine To Water begin their initial distributions at a time when access was nearly impossible.

“The first call I got once I had service was from Lenovo,” Mattar recalled. “They said, ‘What do you need?’ That kind of generosity felt like a giant hug – it reminded us we weren’t alone.”

Over the following weeks, the work deepened. Wine To Water transitioned from emergency response to long-term recovery, testing water at the tap in rural homes, distributing filters, and repairing wells and spring boxes that serve as critical water sources for many families in the region. They also took steps to offer something less visible but just as vital: safe shelter. With support from partners like Lenovo, they’ve provided more than 55 tiny homes to families displaced by the storm, offering warmth and security through the winter and beyond.

Technology also played a role in helping people get back on their feet. In partnership with the American Red Cross, Lenovo had previously donated 750 computers through the Red Cross Disaster Responder Program. After Helene, those devices became essential tools in local shelters, helping people find missing family members, access critical services, and stay informed during an uncertain time. The devices also powered Red Cross View, a mapping platform that supports everything from shelter tracking to damage assessments.

“Lenovo helped the Red Cross be prepared before Helene’s impact and have been ready to respond ever since,” said Rebecca Pittman, Regional Disaster Officer for the American Red Cross. “Having partnerships like the one Red Cross has with Lenovo allows us to be where we are needed, when we are needed.”

Another piece of the puzzle was connectivity. Through a partnership with Operation Connect Carolinas, Lenovo donated equipment to help restore internet access in areas where communication had been completely cut off. Staying in touch with emergency services, loved ones, and community networks was and still is key to recovery.

While the road ahead is still long for many in Western North Carolina, what has been clear from the start is the strength of the response. From neighbors helping neighbors, to nonprofits going beyond the last mile, to partners stepping in where they can, recovery is taking shape. It is never easy, and it does not happen overnight. But thanks to the relentless work of organizations like Wine To Water, the Red Cross, and Operation Connect Carolinas, and the resilience of the communities themselves, progress is being made one home, one family, one connection at a time.

Originally published on AgFunderNews

Operating mid-supply chain has some advantages when it comes to implementing regenerative agriculture practices, says Anne Jacobs, global regenerative agriculture manager at US-based food manufacturer Griffith Foods.

Griffith Foods makes ingredients that range from seasoning blends and sauces to dough mixes, texture components, and functional blends for meats that enhance flavor and color. Its roots in food innovation go all the way back to the early twentieth century, when the company’s founders saw the need for more science in the food industry.

Today, the company, which is still family owned, operates across 30 countries, working with some of the largest CPGs and meat-processing groups in the world.

Click here to read more on AgFunderNews.

“Sustainability for sustainability’s sake doesn’t often work. We have found a lot of ways to connect it to the business and business value.”

This is one of the many insights shared by Jeffrey Whitford, Vice President of Sustainability & Social Business Innovation at MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, at Sustainability LIVE Chicago 2025. Jeffrey took center stage at this event—a premier gathering of C-suite-, vice president- and director-level sustainability and ESG leaders—for an inspiring Fireside Chat titled, “Sustainability Driving Global Innovation.”

In a thought-provoking conversation, Jeffrey explored how sustainability can serve as a powerful catalyst for innovation—fueling creativity, unlocking business value and generating meaningful societal impact. He also emphasized MilliporeSigma’s commitment to embedding sustainability across its entire value chain—rather than isolating it in a silo. This ecosystem approach helps integrate sustainability throughout the product lifecycle, from design to end-of-life, positioning it as a strategic imperative.

Other key highlights from the session include:

• How everyday creativity can inspire sustainability innovation. Jeffrey shared how a simple QR code scan on a coffee cup—showing nutrition and allergen information—prompted him to rethink transparency for MilliporeSigma’s products. The result: developing a way for the company’s 2D barcodes on its 300,000+ diverse products to enable customers to access sustainability data like Product Carbon Footprinting—covering greenhouse gas impact of a product cradle-to-gate.
• The importance of leadership-driven cultural alignment. By encouraging innovation and cross-functional connection, MilliporeSigma is cultivating a culture that sees environmental and social challenges not as roadblocks—but as opportunities for transformation and shared progress.
• The impact of cross-industry collaboration in driving sustainability impact and future innovation. For example, Jeffrey spotlighted MilliporeSigma’s expanded partnership with Beyond Benign, a green chemistry education nonprofit. Together, they are driving systematic change in chemistry education by offering open access to online green chemistry resources and training and involving several higher education institutions around the world to make green chemistry an integral part of chemistry education. These efforts help better prepare next generation scientists with skills to address sustainability through chemistry. Beyond education, Jeffrey also discussed how MilliporeSigma is enabling sustainability across its ecosystem by offering a first-of-its-kind customer sustainability dashboard that guides more responsible decisions and by creating supplier toolkits that offer actionable steps for reducing environmental impact.

Watch Jeffrey’s full Fireside Chat on YouTube to hear more insights firsthand.

To explore the many initiatives MilliporeSigma is driving to bolster global sustainability innovation, visit the company’s Sustainability and Social Business Innovation webpage.

This article is authored by Emily Vesling, Director of Sustainability, Trane Technologies.

In a decade defined by the increasing impact of climate change on people and companies, the question is no longer why environmental sustainability matters, but how and when global companies will deliver on commitments — and are the plans part of the broader business strategy? At Trane Technologies, our Climate Transition Plan (CTP) answers that “how,” translating our sustainability commitments into a strategic roadmap for our science-based trajectory to net-zero by 2050.

Our CTP (the first of its kind in our sector) is both a strategic plan and a living document that will be updated as our approach evolves. It differs from the reports that many sustainability practitioners are accustomed to seeing. Rather than cataloging last year’s results, like a sustainability report, our climate transition plan looks forward, outlining the near- and long-term actions we will take on our path to net-zero. It also is deeply focused on a single topic — climate.

A strong framework for decarbonization

By aligning our company-wide climate transition plans with the Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT) Disclosure Framework, we’re leading by example and setting a practical, actionable path that the entire industry can follow, and we hope that they do.

The TPT Framework summarizes the transition to net-zero with three pillars: ambition, action and accountability. In our CTP, we used the same pillars to define our business sustainability strategy — with a goal to create a decarbonized and strong value chain.

Business resilience, defined as the capacity to anticipate and adapt to climate-related business disruption, is the connective tissue of those pillars. By translating ambition and action into an operational model that guides amid rapid change, resilience incentivizes business innovation to accelerate decarbonization, create business value and future-proof our company.

Ambition: our bold environmental sustainability targets

Our Climate Transition Plan connects vision to action, outlining a strategy for investment and innovation to help achieve our bold climate commitments. The ambition pillar of our CTP articulates clear, science-based milestones that have already put us on the road to a decarbonized future.

By 2030, our industry-first Gigaton Challenge will help our customers avoid one billion metric tons of emissions (from a 2019 baseline). We will move toward completely carbon neutral operations over that same period, reducing embodied carbon by 40% and transitioning to a fully electrified transportation fleet. These near-term 2030 goals are critical stepping stones on the path to our long-term goal of a net-zero value chain by 2050. With these industry-leading commitments, we set the stage to turn our decarbonization ambitions into action.

Action: decarbonization levers in motion

Delivering on those commitments requires coordinated action across our entire business. The key levers of our CTP and strategy are based on three focus areas: decarbonizing our operations, our sold products and our products’ life cycle. Together, these levers address every link in our value chain.

Decarbonization starts at home, and we’re doing the hard steps first by prioritizing renewable energy in our own facilities. Our La Crosse, Wisconsin facility, for example, runs entirely on electricity generated from renewable sources. We’re also phasing out high-emission refrigerants and tightening leak-detection processes while accelerating fleet electrification and developing advanced analytics for energy efficiency. Investing in these levers helps eliminate the emissions linked to our operations while also future proofing our business.

Decarbonizing the use of our products is a top priority because it represents over 98% of our carbon footprint, so we’re prioritizing the transition to high-efficiency equipment sales and expanding our product mix to accelerate electrification — while also focusing on system-level energy efficiency. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that high-efficiency equipment can reduce energy consumption by up to 50%. Our transition to low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants also showcases our progress and commitment to efficiency, with years of research and development focused on cutting refrigerant GWP by up to 78% without compromising performance.

We’re tackling the decarbonization of our products’ life cycle with equal rigor. From re-engineering material specifications to decrease the carbon footprint of materials, to supporting supplier decarbonization efforts with our sustainable procurement policy, we’re reducing emissions throughout our products’ entire service life.

Our circularity strategy covers every segment of our value chain, prioritizing sustainable design, maintenance, remanufacturing, reuse and end-of-life planning. This approach focuses on keeping valuable resources in use while reducing emissions, turning our supply chain into a regenerative loop while supporting business growth.

Together, this set of concrete levers accelerates our net-zero momentum, turning action into measurable impact.

Accountability: governance, metrics and transparency

Ambition and action carry weight only when accountability is embedded at all levels, from the boardroom to operations. Our Board of Directors provides oversight for our climate strategy, tracking performance against our sustainability commitments. Annual incentives for senior leadership are linked to our progress, aligning business performance with our decarbonization strategy and goals.

Progress against our Climate Transition Plan is disclosed publicly each year in our Sustainability Report. We use the GHG Protocol standards to measure and manage our progress toward our emissions reduction targets. To confirm the accuracy of our emissions calculations, we perform annual audits through an internal assurance process and use an independent third party to verify select emissions data that is included in our reporting.

The CTP is also a valuable tool for internal alignment and building shared momentum. The process of creating our CTP required extensive cross-functional collaboration throughout our organization, bringing a wide range of stakeholders together around our climate roadmap. This internal coordination keeps everyone on the same page, working towards our shared goal.

Looking ahead: collaboration for scale and impact

We know that climate risk is business risk, but climate innovation is also a business opportunity. The Trane Technologies Climate Transition Plan doesn’t just mitigate operational threats — it positions us to lead in a low-carbon economy. By operationalizing our climate strategy, we’re taking action to align with international climate agreements while preparing our business for future policy, market and technological changes.

We invite our stakeholders to join us in this important work. We ask our customers to participate by prioritizing decarbonized products and solutions, and our suppliers to join our low-carbon-materials journey. We call on policymakers to set standards that reward sustainable innovation and environmental stewardship. And we encourage talented individuals who are passionate about sustainability to come build their careers with us.

Together, we can drive systemic change to mitigate climate threats, create business value and fuel innovation. And together, we will demonstrate that embedding climate planning and resilience in business strategy is not just important — it’s good business.

Discover more in our Climate Transition Plan and see our progress in our 2024 Sustainability Report.

We are thrilled to share that since the inception of our partnership with Subaru of America, Inc. in 2008, the ASPCA has received more than $41 million in vital funds from Subaru. This funding has helped improve the lives of nearly 250,000 animals across the United States through rescue, transport, adoption, wellness services and more.

Last year, we were officially named the national charity partner for the Subaru Loves Pets program. Throughout October 2024, over 630 Subaru retailers provided direct funding through grants administered by the ASPCA to their local animal welfare partners to help cover costs for preparing animals for adoption, veterinary expenses and more. Many Subaru retailers also hosted adoption, microchipping or other types of events in their stores to help ensure more pets can find loving homes in their communities.

Additionally, we were one of four national charities to participate in the 2024 Subaru Share the Love® Event , which took place between November 21, 2024, and January 2, 2025. For every new Subaru vehicle purchased or leased during the campaign, Subaru of America, Inc. donated $250 to the purchaser’s/lessee’s choice among four national charity partners, or a local hometown charity(ies) supported by participating retailers. We have participated in the Subaru Share the Love Event for seventeen consecutive years.

As a result of the 2024 Subaru Share the Love Event, Subaru donated over $2.7 million to the ASPCA to support our nation’s most vulnerable animals. Thank you to everyone who supported us through not only the 2024 Subaru Share the Love Event, but every event since this collaboration began in 2008.

“We are incredibly grateful for Subaru’s unwavering commitment to animal welfare through the 2024 Subaru Share the Love® Event,” said Matt Bershadker, President & CEO, ASPCA. “Now in our 17 ^th year of partnership, Subaru’s generous support – alongside the dedication of local Subaru retailers and animal shelters across the country – has helped nearly 250,000 animals receive the care, protection, and second chances they deserve. This powerful, long-standing collaboration continues to improve the lives of animals in communities nationwide, and we’re proud to stand alongside Subaru and its partners in this lifesaving work.”

On behalf of the many animals that we serve, we extend our sincere gratitude to Subaru for their dedication and commitment to supporting animal welfare nationally and their retailers for supporting animals in need in their local communities.

Learn more about our partnership with Subaru and how we’re helping animals together.