The report traces the evolution of social impact from its roots in the English Poor Law of 1601 through key historical friction points. It evaluates how corporate giving moved from legal uncertainty during World War I—the first large-scale wave of coordinated corporate donations to organizations like the Red Cross and YMCA—to formal validation under the Revenue Act of 1935. The study also analyzes how the sector matured despite intellectual resistance, such as Milton Friedman’s landmark 1970 essay rejecting CSR in favor of pure shareholder returns. And it also looks at how businesses repeatedly mobilized resources to drive tangible community impact during national crises, including the $2.8 billion corporate response following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
“Looking back at the historical milestones of American philanthropy reminds us that corporate community investment is not a modern add-on, but a core element woven into the fabric of our economic system,” said Leah Battin, Manager, Strategic Advisory, CECP. “As we navigate rapid technological change and shifting workforce expectations, companies have both a distinct advantage and a clear responsibility to align their community investments with a deeper corporate purpose. True innovation happens when business goals and community resilience advance together.”
Data analyzed within the report from Giving USA, Blackbaud, CECP, and the IRS highlights the massive growth and institutionalization of the social impact ecosystem. Key findings show:
Sector Growth: The U.S. nonprofit sector has expanded exponentially, growing from just over 82,000 501(c)(3) charitable organizations in 1975 to nearly 1.55 million in 2024.
Corporate Giving Durability: According to Giving USA 2025 data, corporate contributions reached US$44.4 billion in 2024. While individual giving dropped from 80% of total contributions in 1984 to 67% in 2024, corporations have consistently accounted for 5% to 7% of total giving over the last 40 years.
Meeting the Moment: Long-term data from CECP’s 20-year matched-set of companies reveals that median Total Community Investment (TCI) grew from US$98.3 million in 2005 to $120.2 M in 2024. Intermittent spikes—such as a jump to US$174.7 million in 2020—demonstrate that corporate giving regularly rises to meet changing moments of economic, political, and social dynamics.
The Matching Gift Standard: Highlighting the deep integration of workplace giving, the report notes that since the GE Foundation launched the first 1:1 corporate matching-gift program in 1954, the benefit has become a standard practice, offered by 93% of companies by 2024. According to CECP’s Giving in Numbers® data, the median total community investment per company sits at US$21.5 million.
“Overtime, the right technology turns manual, localized giving into scalable, data-driven global impact,” said Dale Strange, president, Corporate Impact, Blackbaud. “By utilizing automated matching-gift platforms and digital grants management, companies are streamlining their operations and removing barriers to employee engagement. This technological shift not only clarifies success metrics for corporate leaders but also provides nonprofit partners with the efficient, transparent support necessary to address modern societal needs.”
Looking ahead, the report notes that contemporary CSR is increasingly shaped by technology and employee choice. Case studies featured in the report illustrate how modern enterprises leverage digital grants management and workplace giving platforms to streamline global impact, automate matching gifts, and capture clearer data metrics.
As workforce trends shift, future strategies must balance digital enablement with an authentic employee voice. With 71% of Americans believing it is vital for the country to provide opportunities for prosperous lives, but only 19% believing it does so effectively, the report concludes that integrated corporate purpose will remain paramount to building healthy, resilient communities over the next decade.
The full report, featuring historical milestones, data trends, and future-looking insights from CSR leaders, is available for download here.
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About Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP)
Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose® (CECP) is the only nonpartisan business counsel and network dedicated to driving measurable returns on purpose. We promote responsible purpose-driven business as it increases customer loyalty, builds employee engagement, improves brand trust, attracts top talent, connects with strategic investors, and contributes to the bottom line.
More than 200 of the world’s leading companies seek to improve their return on purpose through access to CECP’s solutions in insights and benchmarking. With our companies, we harness the power of purpose for business, stakeholders, and society.
The 30th annual American Chemical Society Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference gathered educators, students, and industry professionals in San Antonio with a shared goal: advancing sustainability in chemistry and reducing the environmental impact of science. As a champion of both efforts, MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, supported the conference as a sponsor, with experts contributing to and leading sessions. Company experts also shared practical insights on the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and related sustainability topics.
This included a focus on science communication, helping attendees understand why it matters and how to do it effectively. Supporting the annual student and postdoc workshop, Jeffrey Whitford, Vice President of Sustainability & Social Business Innovation at MilliporeSigma, shared insights shaped by more than 20 years of experience in science communication and sustainability, to nearly 100 attendees.
In the first session, “From Bench to Breakthrough: The Art and Science of Communicating Chemistry,” Whitford and workshop participants explored the fundamentals of effective science communication, analyzed real-world case studies and practiced their skills through mock media interviews. In the second session, “Crafting an Authentic, Credible and Standout (ACS) Personal Brand as a Research Chemist,” Whitford examined MilliporeSigma’s branding evolution, how the organization externally reframed sustainability as a business strategy, helped attendees identify their own personal brands and conducted an exercise to update their LinkedIn profiles.
Throughout both sessions, Whitford emphasized why communication is more important than ever in science: if scientific discoveries are not communicated effectively, they may not be understood, delaying action and impact. Through a mix of educational and hands-on activities, attendees left better equipped to serve as advocates for science and Green Chemistry.
AMSTERDAM, HONG KONG, OAKLAND, Calif., July 14, 2026 /3BL/ – The apparel alliance (Apparel Impact Institute, Cascale, Textile Exchange, and ZDHC Foundation) today announced the launch of Version 2 of the Supply Chain Taxonomy, an updated harmonized framework designed to improve consistency, transparency, and collaboration across the textile, clothing, leather, and footwear (TCLF) sectors of the broader apparel industry.
“Shared definitions are not just administrative; they help the industry make better decisions, improve data quality, and work from the same understanding of the supply chain. Clarifying that wet processing is accounted for across all tiers, not just Tier 2, gives the industry a more accurate picture of where emissions sit and where action is needed most.” — Alma Palacios, senior sustainability reporting coordinator at Aii
“When facilities, products, and processes are classified consistently, the whole industry benefits, from more reliable data and clearer reporting to stronger collaboration on the work that matters most. The updated Supply Chain Taxonomy is foundational infrastructure for a more aligned and effective sustainability ecosystem. It reflects what’s possible when organizations commit to alignment, and we’re confident it will support more effective progress across the value chain.” — Joël Mertens, director of environmental impact methodologies at Cascale
“Aligning on a shared language for the supply chain is fundamental to driving credible, system-wide progress. This updated taxonomy helps bring greater clarity and consistency to how materials, processes, and impacts are understood and reported, enabling more effective collaboration and accelerating the industry’s transition to preferred production systems.”— Luca Mosca, director of impact data and reporting at Textile Exchange
“No single organisation can drive industry transformation alone. Shared language is a crucial foundation to enable collaboration within the ecosystem of like-minded partners. Bringing more depth to the Supply Chain Taxonomy with this new update strengthens the common foundation of the apparel alliance to enhance clarity for the wider value chain actors as well as unlock new opportunities to create a more interoperable system.” — Maria Arroyo, sector partnership lead at ZDHC
Building on its initial release in November 2024, the updated taxonomy addresses key challenges in the original framework, including overlapping processes, undefined boundaries, and classification gaps. The result is a clearer, more detailed structure that supports consistent classifications across the TCLF value chain and future alignment across apparel alliance work and joint initiatives.
The Supply Chain Taxonomy supports the apparel industry by:
Creating a shared framework and common language across stakeholders.
Improving transparency and reporting through more consistent disclosures and supply chain visibility.
Supporting compliance and risk management through clearer process ownership and environmental boundaries.
Reducing duplication and aligning efforts across organizations.
Enabling better benchmarking and supporting collective sustainability initiatives.
The Supply Chain Taxonomy is a jointly developed and maintained resource of the apparel alliance organizations (Apparel Impact Institute, Cascale, Textile Exchange, and ZDHC). Designed as an evolving framework, planned annual updates reflect stakeholder feedback, emerging materials and technologies, and ongoing regulatory and industry developments. While not exhaustive, the taxonomy provides a practical foundation for classifying the most common processes and products across the value chain.
ABOUT THE apparel alliance The apparel alliance is a collaborative industry working group uniting four global organizations: Apparel Impact Institute, Cascale, Textile Exchange, and ZDHC Foundation. Since its inception in 2020, the apparel alliance has worked to align sustainability tools, programs, and industry initiatives while reducing duplicative efforts across the apparel and textile sector. By combining complementary expertise, global networks, and shared goals, the apparel alliance aims to accelerate industry decarbonization and achieve a minimum 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 across the global supply chain.
ABOUT Aii Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) is a nonprofit collective founded in 2017 by four industry leaders: the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) and Target Corporation. The organization emerged organically as a result of a real need that apparel brands and retailers self-identified. Gap Inc., PVH, Arvind Mills, HSBC, GIZ, Stichting Doen and Schmidt Family Foundation joined the founders in the first three years of start-up and organizational development. Aii identifies, funds, and scales proven quality solutions to accelerate positive impact in the apparel and footwear industry. Aii programs focus on areas that result in positive environmental impact from the production of apparel and footwear products to improve the industry.
ABOUT CASCALE Cascale is the global nonprofit alliance driving systemic transformation to combat climate change and support decent work in the consumer goods industry. Formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Cascale unites a diverse, worldwide ecosystem of over 300 retailer, brand, manufacturer, supplier, service provider, government, academic, and nonprofit members.
Our alliance catalyzes pre-competitive collaboration for maximum impact, anchored by our stewardship of the Higg Index frameworks — implemented through the Worldly technology platform — and recent acquisition of the Better Buying and Sustainable Furnishings Council tools. While these methodologies are central to our work, they are part of a broader strategy to mobilize collective action, challenge industry norms, and build an industry that gives back more than it takes to the planet and its people.
ABOUT TEXTILE EXCHANGE Textile Exchange is a global non-profit driving beneficial impacts on climate and nature across the fashion, textile, and apparel industry. It guides a growing community of brands, manufacturers, and farmers towards more purposeful production from the very start of the supply chain.
Its goal is to help the industry to achieve a 45% reduction in the emissions that come from producing fibers and raw materials by 2030, while keeping its focus holistic and interconnected and seeking to improve the state of our freshwater, soil health, and biodiversity too.
For real change to happen, everyone needs a clear path to beneficial impact. That’s why Textile Exchange believes that approachable, step-by-step instruction paired with collective action can change the system to make preferred materials and fibers the accessible default, mobilizing leaders through attainable strategies, proven solutions and a driven community.
At Textile Exchange, materials matter. To learn more, visit TextileExchange.org.
ABOUT ZDHC The ZDHC Foundation oversees the implementation of the Roadmap to Zero Programme and is a global multi-stakeholder initiative of more than 350 Signatories within the fashion and footwear industry. Its vision is widespread implementation of sustainable chemistry, driving innovations and best practices to protect consumers, workers, and the environment. ZDHC uses collaborative engagement to drive a holistic, industry-focused and practical approach to sustainable chemical management. ZDHC guidelines, platforms and solutions drive large-scale industry-wide implementation that advances the industry as a whole towards the zero discharge of hazardous chemicals.
Cleft lips and cleft palates affect far more than a child’s appearance. They can impact feeding, nutrition, speech, hearing, dental development, emotional wellbeing, and long-term healthcare from the moment a child is born.
Comprehensive cleft care is coordinated treatment provided by a multidisciplinary cleft team from infancy through adulthood. Depending on a patient’s needs, this care may include feeding and nutrition support, cleft surgery, speech therapy, dental and orthodontic treatment, hearing care, and psychosocial support. Together, these services help people with clefts eat, speak, hear, smile, and thrive.
What Treatments Are Involved in Comprehensive Cleft Care?
Comprehensive cleft care is not a series of isolated interventions. Around the world, cleft experts recognize multidisciplinary team care as the gold standard for treating cleft lips and palates because it is an integrated, multidisciplinary approach where each specialty strengthens the next, creating a continuum of care that supports children throughout every stage of life.
Major areas of comprehensive cleft care include:
Feeding and nutrition support for newborns
Safe cleft surgery
Speech-language therapy
Orthodontic and dental treatment
Ear and hearing care
Emotional and psychosocial support
These services are most effective when they are coordinated through a multidisciplinary cleft team. For example, good nutrition can help prepare a child for surgery, surgery can improve speech outcomes, and hearing care can support language development. Comprehensive cleft care recognizes that each stage of treatment influences the next.
How Long Does Cleft Lip and Palate Treatment Last?
Cleft treatment often extends across many years and may continue into adolescence or adulthood. While every patient is unique, many people with clefts receive care at multiple stages of life as their needs evolve.
Feeding and Nutrition Support for Babies with Clefts
Cleft-related feeding challenges can make it difficult for infants to receive the nourishment they need to grow and thrive, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where access to specialized support may be limited. That’s why feeding support is often the first cleft intervention a baby receives and may begin within days of birth.
A 2022 peer-reviewed study commissioned by Smile Train in partnership with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation found that more than 45,000 children under the age of five died from cleft-related malnutrition between 2000 and 2020.
By expanding access to early feeding interventions, nutrition counseling, and specialized support, Smile Train helps local multidisciplinary cleft care teams address these challenges from the start — saving lives, improving surgical readiness, and laying the foundation for better long-term health outcomes.
Early feeding and nutrition support can help babies with clefts grow stronger and prepare for surgery
Smile Train empowers local nutritionists to help families navigate these early challenges through:
Breastfeeding and bottle-feeding guidance
Safe cup-feeding techniques
Specialized feeding equipment when needed
Nutritional monitoring and support
2025 Impact
25,500+ nutritional interventions supported across 35+ countries
A Warrior at Heart
At one month old, Mirian weighed just four pounds. Five months later, with the support of our local partners, she had transformed into a happy, chubby baby.
Surgery is a transformative milestone in the cleft treatment journey. It not only treats the cleft itself, it lays the foundation for other aspects of comprehensive cleft care to succeed.
Cleft palate surgery is particularly important. By closing the opening in the palate, it can improve feeding, support healthy growth and development, and enable other interventions — including speech therapy, dental and orthodontic care, and ear and hearing care — to be more effective.
Cleft surgery is just one facet of the comprehensive cleft care journey, and Paulwin’s smile reflects years of care and support
How Many Surgeries Do People With Clefts Need?
The number varies by individual. Some children may need only one or two surgeries, while others may require additional procedures. Common surgical milestones include:
Optimal Age
Procedure
3-6 months
Cleft lip surgery
9-18 months
Cleft palate surgery
7-9 years
Alveolar bone graft surgery
Adolescence through adulthood
Additional procedures as needed
While these milestones represent the ideal timeline for most children, it is never too late to seek treatment. Cleft surgery can meaningfully improve health, function, and quality of life at any age. Through Smile Train’s sustainable local model, children and adults alike can access the care they need, when and where it is right for them.
2025 Impact
94,400+ cleft surgeries supported across 75+ countries
Recipient of Our 2 Millionth Surgery Witnesses a Generational Transformation
For many children with clefts, learning to communicate clearly is one of the most time-intensive stages of the treatment journey. Structural differences in the lip and palate can affect how speech sounds are produced, making it more difficult to develop clear and understandable speech.
Children with clefts may experience:
Delayed speech and language development
Difficulty producing certain speech sounds
Hypernasal speech
Air escaping through the nose during speech
Voice and resonance challenges
Early access to nutrition support, surgery, and hearing care can help reduce some of these challenges. However, many children will still require ongoing speech therapy to develop the communication skills necessary to fully participate in school, relationships, and everyday life.
The impact of speech difficulties extends beyond communication. Children who struggle to make themselves understood may also face stigma, social isolation, bullying, and reduced self-confidence. That makes speech outcomes among the most important measures of long-term treatment success, and speech-language pathologists core members of multidisciplinary cleft teams.
Smile Train’s model recognizes this. By funding speech therapy for cleft-affected children in need while training speech-language professionals to deliver high-quality, cleft-specialized speech therapy in areas where it had never been available before, the organization is making sure this critical service is available to children now and well into the future.
Speech therapy is a vital part of comprehensive cleft care, supporting communication long after surgery
The Mentoring Alliance for Global Speech (MAGS) is an excellent example. This structured virtual mentorship program connects Smile Train partner mentors — from regional leaders and trainers to global experts in cleft speech therapy — with Smile Train partner mentees in low- and middle-income countries. These specialists work with cleft-affected patients every day but may not have access to specialized guidance on the more complex cases they encounter.
The MAGS program has trained over 150 speech-language professionals across 34 low- and middle-income countries in just four years, delivering more than 1,000 hours of mentorship to date.
Smile Train has also developed free speech therapy apps for families and providers and offers multilingual educational resources to help caregivers practice speech exercises at home.
Dental and Orthodontic Care for Children with Clefts
Children with clefts are more likely than their peers to experience oral health challenges such as:
Misaligned teeth
Missing or extra teeth
Delayed eruption of permanent teeth adjacent to the cleft
Tooth decay and gum disease
Jaw and bite irregularities
These issues are about more than appearance. Oral health plays a critical role in a child’s overall cleft care journey, influencing speech development, nutrition, readiness for future procedures, and confidence in social settings.
Because comprehensive cleft care is a connected system of support, dental and orthodontic specialists work alongside surgeons, speech therapists, nutritionists, and other providers to help children achieve the best possible outcomes. Each intervention strengthens the next, creating a foundation for lifelong health and overall well-being.
What Specialized Oral Health Care Do Children with Clefts Need?
Children with clefts often require specialized care that evolves as they grow. Smile Train’s local model allows patients to access the support they need close to home from infancy through adulthood.
This care may include:
Pre-surgical infant orthopedics, including nasoalveolar molding devices
Long-term orthopedic/orthodontic treatment
Preventive dental care
Ongoing oral health monitoring and follow-up
By investing in local expertise and long-term care, Smile Train helps strengthen oral health systems while ensuring children with clefts have access to the specialized treatment they need throughout their lives.
Specialized dental care supports lifelong oral health and strengthens the broader comprehensive cleft care journey
Advancing Oral Health Around the World
Expanding access to cleft-specialized dental and orthodontic care requires collaboration. Smile Train works alongside leading oral health organizations and advocates to build local capacity, share expertise, and advance standards of care globally.
Key partners include:
Dentsply Sirona, a global leader in professional dental technologies and education
Together, these partnerships help equip cleft teams with the tools, training, and resources needed to deliver high-quality care and create healthier futures for children around the world.
2025 Impact
25,700+ orthodontic interventions provided across 30+ countries
Dental Care for Those Who Need it Most
It broke Dr. Meza’s heart to see his patients with clefts struggle to eat, speak, sleep, or even feel good about themselves because of poor dental health. So he partnered with Smile Train to do something about it.
The ability to hear clearly is fundamental to how children learn, communicate, and connect with the world around them. For children with cleft palates, access to hearing and ear, nose, and throat (ENT) care is an especially important part of comprehensive cleft care.
How do clefts affect hearing?
Cleft palates can cause fluid buildup in the middle ear (otitis media with effusion), putting affected children at significantly higher risk of chronic ear infections and hearing loss. Without timely intervention, these challenges can affect speech development, educational outcomes, social connections, and overall well-being.
Because hearing is deeply connected to communication and learning, investing in hearing care helps create opportunities for children to reach important developmental milestones and participate fully in their communities.
Ear and hearing care helps children with clefts develop speech, language, and learning skills
What Specialized Ear and Hearing Care Do Children with Clefts Need?
Comprehensive cleft care addresses hearing health early and throughout childhood to help prevent long-term complications and support healthy development.
Smile Train’s local model empowers partner specialists to provide cleft-specific services such as:
Hearing evaluations and monitoring
ENT consultations
Ear tube placement procedures
Audiology support before and after cleft surgery
These interventions help identify challenges early, improve hearing outcomes, and support children’s ability to develop speech and language skills.
A Team-Based Approach To Better Outcomes
Hearing care does not happen in isolation. Audiologists and ENT specialists work closely with surgeons, speech therapists, psychologists, nutritionists, and other members of the multidisciplinary cleft care team to ensure every aspect of a child’s development is supported.
This collaborative approach reflects the core principle of comprehensive cleft care: when specialists work together, children receive more effective, coordinated care. By investing in multidisciplinary teams and strengthening local expertise, Smile Train is helping build healthcare systems that can support children with clefts throughout their lives — ensuring they have the opportunity to learn, communicate, and thrive.
2025 Impact
1,500+ hearing and ENT interventions provided across 9 countries
Destiny’s Journey from Silence to Song
A story of the miracles you make possible for World Hearing Day
Emotional and Psychosocial Support for Cleft-Affected Children and Families
Research shows that children with clefts and their families face higher rates of stigma, bullying, social isolation, anxiety, and depression. These experiences can affect confidence, relationships, educational outcomes, and overall quality of life.
That is why psychosocial support is a critical component of comprehensive cleft care. Just as surgeons help restore function and speech therapists help children find their voice, mental health professionals help children and families build resilience, confidence, and a sense of belonging.
Care Rooted in Trust
Support is most effective when it is delivered by people who understand the communities they serve.
Smile Train’s local model allows children and families to receive care from providers who share their language, culture, and lived experiences. The organization has built these trusted relationships over years to create a foundation of continuity and support that extends far beyond a single appointment or procedure.
When families know their care team will be there throughout their journey, they are more likely to seek support, remain engaged in treatment, and feel empowered to face challenges with confidence.
Creative programs, like art therapy, can help children with clefts and families build confidence, connection, and belonging
What Mental Health Resources Are Available To Children with Clefts and Their Families?
Smile Train supports a range of programs designed to strengthen emotional well-being, foster connection, and create supportive communities for children and caregivers, including:
Counseling and mental health services
Parent and caregiver support groups
Camps and peer connection programs
Art therapy and recreational activities
Online support communities
Together, these services help children develop confidence, build meaningful relationships, and see new possibilities for their future.
Healing is not measured only by surgical outcomes. It is also measured by a child’s ability to participate fully in school, connect with others, pursue their goals, and feel a sense of belonging in the world around them.
2025 Impact
1,300+ patients received psychosocial interventions across 8 countries
Monica’s Inner Strength Shows in Her Smile
Monica has been through more than any child should, but today she shines bright.
A cleft lip or palate cannot be fully treated in a single day or with a single surgery.
From feeding support in infancy to speech therapy, oral health treatments, ear and hearing care, and emotional support, children with clefts often require years of coordinated, interdisciplinary care.
Smile Train is helping make this vital comprehensive cleft care accessible, sustainable, and safe for children around the world through our local model and unparalleled global network of medical partners.
Because every child deserves access not only to surgery, but to the full spectrum of care needed to eat, speak, hear, smile, and thrive.
In this episode, host Angie Dickson (President Inogen Alliance) is joined by David Wiley (Tonkin + Taylor, New Zealand) and Sofiane Kessouar (Baden Consulting, Switzerland) to explore the growing importance of energy resilience for businesses operating in an increasingly complex global landscape. The discussion examines the challenges posed by rising energy costs, grid instability, climate change, decarbonisation pressures, and increasing demand driven by emerging technologies such as AI.
Drawing on perspectives from Europe, New Zealand, and global markets, the guests discuss how organisations can strengthen resilience through energy efficiency, distributed generation, renewable energy adoption, advanced storage technologies, and smarter energy management systems. The conversation highlights the need for organisations to balance sustainability ambitions with operational reliability while embracing innovations that improve both resilience and long-term profitability.
00:00:00 – Introduction: Why energy resilience matters
00:01:17 – Rising energy costs, climate impacts, and growing demand
00:02:54 – Europe’s energy transition and regional differences
00:05:42 – New Zealand’s renewable energy journey and emerging challenges
00:07:34 – Business risks and operational resilience
00:08:27 – Distributed generation and taking control of energy supply
00:09:31 – Regulatory considerations and ownership challenges
00:11:12 – Conservation and energy efficiency strategies
00:12:16 – Why there is no one-size-fits-all solution
00:14:24 – IoT, real-time monitoring, and demand-side management
00:16:32 – Emerging storage technologies and battery innovation
00:17:25 – Floating solar, waste heat recovery, and smart grids
00:18:56 – Decarbonisation goals versus operational requirements
00:21:54 – Community energy projects and local resilience initiatives
00:23:26 – Balancing sustainability, reliability, and cost
00:24:34 – Emerging technologies shaping the future of energy
00:25:14 – Battery innovation, virtual power plants, and AI-driven optimisation
00:28:38 – Heat pumps and energy efficiency opportunities
00:31:07 – Key trends and practical advice for organisations
00:33:14 – Closing reflections and future outlook
Guest Quotes
David Wiley:
“The cost of renewables is dropping much faster than most people realise, and the cost of battery storage is dropping at a pace that many clients don’t realise either.”
Sofiane Benhaddou:
“The biggest challenge is that there is absolutely no one-size-fits-all solution. You are dealing with a fragmented world.”
The race to build AI infrastructure is accelerating, but adding capacity is only part of the equation. As investment pours into new data centers around the world, industry leaders are increasingly recognizing that the biggest challenge isn’t demand; it’s coordinating the many systems required to bring projects online successfully.
In a new Fast Company Executive Board article, Glen Clark, CEO of DP World in the U.S. and Regional Head of Contract Logistics, argues that AI infrastructure has entered a new phase. Success now depends on synchronizing power, logistics, workforce, permitting, and equipment across multiple projects, rather than simply building individual facilities.
AI Infrastructure Is an Execution Challenge
As organizations scale AI deployments, project complexity is growing alongside demand. Bringing data centers online requires multiple interdependent systems to move in lockstep – from utility connections and specialized equipment to construction schedules and regulatory approvals.
Rather than isolated bottlenecks, leaders are managing a network of dependencies where delays in one area can ripple across entire deployment timelines.
Coordination Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
Today’s AI infrastructure projects depend on more than technology. Global logistics, energy availability, skilled labor, and community engagement all play a role in determining how quickly new capacity comes online.
Organizations that can better coordinate these moving pieces will be positioned to accelerate deployment while reducing schedule risk and improving operational resilience.
Read the Full Perspective
As AI investment continues to reshape global infrastructure, execution is becoming just as important as innovation.
GENEVA, July 14, 2026 /3BL/ –The Tire Industry Project (TIP) today announced that the Thailand Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (TATMA) has joined TIP as its ninth Affiliate Member, expanding TIP’s global reach into Southeast Asia, an important tire manufacturing region.
Affiliate Members support TIP in delivering on its mission to anticipate, understand, and address global environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues relevant to the tire industry and its value chain. The regional perspectives they bring are particularly important, strengthening TIP’s ability to monitor and anticipate global industry trends in Southeast Asia.
Thailand is strategically important to the tire industry’s sustainability efforts as the world’s second-largest tire-exporting country by volume. The country is also seeing a circular economy ecosystem emerge across the tire value chain, creating valuable opportunities for TIP and TATMA to exchange knowledge and insights around end-of-life tire (ELT) management and circularity topics. As the membership organization of tire manufacturers based in Thailand, TATMA’s work encompasses trade promotion and industry coordination, as well as ESG matters including quality standards, manufacturing practices, and environmental compliance.
“We are pleased to welcome TATMA to our network,” said TIP Executive Director Larisa Kryachkova. “The tire trade associations’ local insights inform our global sustainability-related activities. Through our expanding and diverse membership, we are strengthening our shared vision of a sustainable tire value chain.”
“We recognize TIP as the global platform for addressing key ESG challenges facing the tire industry, particularly in the areas of tire and road wear particles, ELT, and sustainable raw materials,” said Keeratisuda Khakhong, Secretary General of TATMA. “Through this partnership, we look forward to active knowledge exchange, sharing best practices, and engaging with global affiliates to support the tire industry toward a more sustainable future.”
TIP’s Affiliate Members are tire trade associations selected based on criteria including the economic significance and ESG footprint of the tire industry in their respective geographies. They include the Australian Tyre Industry Council (ATIC), the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association of India (ATMA), the British Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (BTMA), Tyres Europe, the Japan Automobile Tyre Manufacturers Association (JATMA), the Korea Tire Manufacturers Association (KOTMA), the Tire and Rubber Association of Canada (TRAC), and the United States Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA).
About the Tire Industry Project (TIP) Formed in 2005, TIP is a voluntary CEO-driven initiative with a mission to anticipate, understand and address global environmental, social and governance issues relevant to the tire industry and its value chain. TIP acts by commissioning independent research of the highest standards, collaborating on sectoral solutions and engaging with external stakeholders. TIP currently brings together 10 leading tire companies that represent more than 60% of the world’s tire manufacturing capacity. TIP operates under the umbrella of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
About the Thailand Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (TATMA) Thai Automobile Tyre Manufacturers Association (TATMA) is a non-profit association that aims to promote the automobile tire industry. It does so by formulating and informing policy measures and by conducting research to improve the safety and environmental and economic effectiveness of tires. TATMA supports the automobile industry’s contribution to the sound development of Thailand’s industry and economy and the improvement of consumers’ welfare. Its member companies include Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop (Sumitomo), Goodyear, Maxxis, Michelin, and Yokohama.
The Group, which is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its founding this year, continues its innovation journey within its production facilities in Europe and the United States
PORCARI (Lucca), Italy, July 14, 2026 /3BL/ – Sofidel, among the global leaders in the production of paper for hygienic and household use, known particularly in Italy and across Europe for its Regina brand, continues its commitment to decarbonization by bringing a new biomass boiler into operation at its Sofidel France facility in Frouard, in the Grand Est region of France.
Supported by ADEME (Agence de la Transition Écologique) under the BCIAT 2022 program (Biomasse Chaleur Industrie, Agriculture et Tertiaire), the new boiler will generate steam currently generated using natural gas, enabling an estimated annual reduction of 9,100 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
A biomass boiler has already been in operation at the Frouard site since 2014. Together, the two boiler units will cover 95% of the steam required to heat the drying cylinders of the plant’s two paper machines. Natural gas will be used only during peak demand periods and as backup, accounting for approximately 5% of the total demand.
“For Sofidel, the journey toward decarbonization is not only a regulatory requirement, but a clear industrial choice. In France, biomass represents a valuable resource, in which we have invested and will continue to invest,” said Luigi Lazzareschi, Sofidel Group CEO.
The activation of the new boiler comes just days after the finalization of an expansion plan for the Group’s facility in Inola, Oklahoma, in the U.S.
The investment in France is part of Sofidel’s broader decarbonization strategy, focused on increasing the use of energy from renewable sources through a multi-option approach tailored to the climate, infrastructure, and regulatory frameworks of the countries in which the Group operates.
For Sofidel, sustainability is a strategic development lever closely linked to the innovation of production processes, products and logistics, supporting new growth opportunities and continuous improvement while reducing the impact of business activities on natural capital.
This year, DaVita announced its 2030 Community Care commitments, a new set of long-term goals, focused on improving patient outcomes, supporting the expansion of economic opportunity for teammates, and strengthening community and environmental resilience. Guided by DaVita’s Trilogy of Care, the 2030 builds on more than 25 years of progress and reflects DaVita’s continued commitment to raising the standard for kidney care in the communities it serves.
Poised for Impact Where it Matters Most
Our 2030 Community Care Goals
Our Patients
Provide industry-leading care for all our patients.
Improve patient quality of life: Reduce hospitalizations to extend lifespans
Empower 150,000+ people to make more informed modality choices through kidney education
Narrow the disparity: Increase home dialysis and transplants rates for underserved populations
Support 40,000+ DaVita patients receiving a life-changing transplant
Our Teammates
Differentiate our culture by Our World fostering purpose, connection, belonging and growth.
Sustain market-leading teammate engagement scores of 80% or higher each year
Grow our own talent: Graduate 2,000 new nurses through DaVita programs
Build pathways to prosperity: 65,000 promotions to drive economic mobility for front-line teammates Doing What’s Right Acting with integrity is foundational to how we pursue our goals and measure our progress. As we set these commitments, we align them with evolving regulatory reporting expectations and ensure the data behind what we report is accurate and reliable.
Mobilize our teammates for good: Complete 300,000 hours of community service
Our World
Build a healthier, more resilient future for the communities we serve.
Strengthen our communities with philanthropic investments benefiting 400,000 people
Power all global operations with 100% renewable energy each year as part of our path to net zero by 2050
Safeguard patient care by assessing risks from severe weather and building more resilient operations
Scale water conservation best practices in each country in which we operate
Doing What’s Right
Acting with integrity is foundational to how we pursue our goals and measure our progress. As we set these commitments, we align them with evolving regulatory reporting expectations and ensure the data behind what we report is accurate and reliable.
Responsibility for achieving these goals sits with leaders across DaVita, reflecting our longstanding belief that Community Care is not owned by any single team — it belongs to all of us.
2030 Goals: Caring for Our Patients
Providing Industry-Leading Care for All Our Patients
Excellence in patient care is the beating heart of our work at DaVita. Ultimately, every decision we make reinforces our commitment to helping every patient achieve their own best possible health outcomes.
Improve patient quality of life:
Reduce hospitalizations to extend lifespans. For those living with kidney disease, avoiding the hospital is a potent indicator of improved quality of life, reflecting more sustained periods of stable well-being and more effective management of disease complications. Over the coming five years, we commit to reducing the average hospitalization rate among the patients we serve, as measured against a 2025 baseline.
Empower 150,000+ people to make informed modality choices through kidney education.
Our Kidney Smart® program provides kidney health education and lifestyle recommendations to help at-risk individuals understand kidney health, apply strategies to help prevent disease progression and make the modality choices that best meet their personal health goals. Today, the program is available in person, by phone and online in over 13 languages. We commit to building on this strong foundation to reach more than 150,000 people with expert, accessible kidney education by 2030.
Narrow health disparities: Increase home dialysis and transplant rates for underserved populations.
We are tackling head-on the persistent reality that underserved populations experience lower rates of home dialysis and transplantation. We commit to reducing these disparities, consistent with our goal of providing industry-leading care for every patient.
Applying methodology recommended by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to identify patients considered “underserved,” we will track key metrics for underserved and the broader patient populations to assess and report on our progress in narrowing the gap.
Support 40,000+ DaVita patients receiving a life-changing transplant.
For patients for whom kidney transplant is a medically appropriate option, transplantation is the ideal treatment for end stage kidney disease. We commit to working with our transplantproviding partners in the broader kidney care community to support more than 40,000 DaVita patients on the transplant journey.
2030 Goals: Caring for Each Other
Differentiating Our Culture to Foster Purpose, Connection, Belonging and Professional Growth
At DaVita, we put people at the center of everything we do, which supports our culture, empowers a shared purpose and drives our pursuit of a healthier tomorrow.
Sustain market-leading teammate engagement scores of 80% or higher each year.
Annual engagement surveys help us gauge teammate sentiment, recognize successes and identify areas for improvement. Through a comparative industry assessment, we established a benchmark leadership score of 80%, and set this as our annual goal for 2026–2030.
Grow our own talent: Graduate 2,000 new nurses through DaVita programs.
When we support a thriving pipeline of nursing talent, the entire healthcare sector benefits. By offering a wide range of sponsorship and mentorship programs, as well as tuition reimbursement options, we commit to helping 2,000 new nurses earn their credentials with support from DaVita programs by 2030.
Build pathways to prosperity: Promote 65,000 front-line teammates to help drive economic mobility.
We recognize the allimportant connection between career growth and economic mobility for the dedicated DaVita teammates who deliver front-line patient care. Our Clinical Ladders program provides the framework for career growth, offering clear and actionable pathways to advancement opportunities for clinical professionals. We commit to 65,000 promotions for our frontline teammates through the Clinical Ladders program by 2030.
Mobilize our teammates for good: Complete 300,000 hours of community service.
The same spirit of service that draws all of us to work at DaVita inspires us to give back beyond our walls. We encourage and support a vast range of volunteer activities, including both DaVitasponsored initiatives and those driven by teammates independently. In the coming five years, we commit to completing 300,000 hours of volunteerism — acting as a community first, a company second.
2030 Goals: Caring for Our World
Building a Healthier, More Resilient Future for the Communities We Serve
Working to strengthen the communities and environment around us is a natural extension of our longstanding legacy of care. Through philanthropy, conservation initiatives and investments that help communities prepare for and respond to challenges, we aim to support health and safety today and into the future.
Strengthen our communities with philanthropic investments benefiting 400,000 people by 2030. In alignment with our caring ethos and wide-ranging platform of community initiatives, philanthropy is another way we work to extend the reach of DaVita’s positive influence on human health. Through the DaVita Giving Foundation we commit to sustained, high-impact philanthropic investment in the years ahead.[1]
Power all global operations with 100% renewable energy each year as part of our path to net zero by 2050.
Having met our goal of powering 100% of our global operations with renewable energy in 2025, we’ve set the bar high. Moving forward, we commit to upholding this gold standard of environmental sustainability and maintaining our position as renewable energy leaders even as our operations grow in scale and impact.
Safeguard patient care by assessing risks from severe weather and building more resilient operations.
Protecting patients and teammates is our top priority during severe weather events. In the years ahead, we’ll perform a robust assessment of the physical risks from severe weather in each of the communities we serve. We’ll apply this data to develop capital improvement plans to safeguard patient care and support operational continuity in the event of weather emergencies.
Scale water conservation best practices in each country in which we operate.
Building on the success of our U.S. water conservation initiatives, we commit to pursuing water conservation on a global scale. In the coming years, we’ll develop tailored water-saving best practices for each country in which we operate, ensuring we manage this critical resource responsibly throughout our enterprise.
[1] Impact will be measured through attestations from the recipient organizations.
LAS VEGAS, July 14, 2026 /3BL/ – Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) has contributed $300,000 to Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY), bringing its total contributions for NPHY’s programs to address the growing population of youth experiencing homelessness in Clark County and the nonprofit’s role in spearheading the statewide Movement to End Youth Homelessness to $3.2 million since 2014.
In 2025, Nevada’s first statewide study on youth homelessness found that almost 3,000 unaccompanied youth across Nevada accessed homeless services in one year. The study also examined young people falling through the cracks of systems and determined that the true number of young people experiencing homelessness across the state could be as high as more than 33,000 in a single year. At the same time, NPHY also has experienced unprecedented levels of uncertainty regarding government funding at federal and local levels.
Sands’ focus on helping end youth homelessness is one of the company’s top community engagement priorities at corporate headquarters, and the 2026 Sands Cares investment supports three foundational areas: funding programs for youth in crisis; providing capacity-building support to facilitate NPHY’s growth; and continuing to underwrite NPHY’s leadership of Nevada’s Movement to End Youth Homelessness.
With Sands Cares’ support, NPHY served 726 individual youth in 2025 across its core programs, the most youth the organization has ever assisted in one year, and made more than 17,000 contacts with youth in need via outreach efforts. NPHY’s emergency shelter also is now one of the only privately funded emergency shelters in Southern Nevada and the only shelter that serves unaccompanied minors experiencing homelessness.
“Sands has been a transformational partner for more than 10 years, consistently supporting our vision to be Nevada’s leading advocate and service provider for youth experiencing homelessness,” Arash Ghafoori, CEO of NPHY, said. “The company has helped us give youth in crisis a pathway to stability while fueling our vision toward lasting solutions that overcome one of the most critical issues in our community and state. Our partnership is again leading us toward another milestone as we kick off development of the state’s first stand-alone plan to end youth homelessness this year and bring statewide stakeholders together to contribute to this work at the 10th annual Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit in November.”
The 2026 Sands Cares contribution to NPHY continues the company’s long-standing support for the following initiatives.
Providing Immediate Relief to Youth in Crisis: A portion of the Sands Cares funding is underwriting NPHY’s comprehensive continuum of care for young people experiencing homelessness, which includes outreach efforts, Safe Place mobile crisis intervention, family reunification, the drop-in center, and housing programs spanning emergency shelter, transitional housing and rapid-re-housing. This year’s Sands Cares funding is enabling NPHY to work on increasing emergency shelter beds by 50% without changing or increasing its shelter staffing model.
Capacity-Building to Strengthen NPHY: NPHY is restructuring functions previously housed under a central development department into three entities: a development department; an impact, systems and policy department; and an advocacy and communications department. Separating these functions will enable the organization to best capitalize on development and communication opportunities while focusing other staff on leading systems-level work. Sands Cares funding is empowering this transition through underwriting of staffing and other infrastructure needs.
Advocating for Lasting Solutions and Systemic Change: The third component of the Sands Cares donation is continued investment in NPHY’s leadership of the statewide Movement to End Youth Homelessness, including Sands’ co-presentation of the 2026 Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit with NPHY. Other NPHY activities supported through this funding include launching the statewide process to create Nevada’s first standalone plan to end youth homelessness, establishing the first statewide Movement Youth Action Board, establishing and supporting regional youth action boards across the state, bringing Movement Institute trainings to northern Nevada for the first time, and continuing advocacy to strengthen higher education access for vulnerable young people.
“Our commitment to ending youth homelessness remains strong – yet the challenges have only gotten stronger as incidence rates in our state continue to rise,” Ron Reese, senior vice president of global communications and corporate affairs, said. “We cannot rest on what has been done in the past if we are to ensure safety nets are in place for our most vulnerable youth. NPHY continues to evolve solutions to help youth in crisis move beyond their situations and has a sound vision for how our state can mobilize to end youth homelessness. That’s why we continue to invest in their mission.”
To learn more about Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, visit https://nphy.org/.
About Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth
NPHY is the most comprehensive service provider for the thousands of homeless youth in Southern Nevada, serving hundreds of youth through core programs and touching the lives of thousands more through outreach each year. NPHY’s programs stabilize homeless teens’ lives, meeting their immediate needs and providing a safe, supportive environment and a path to self-sufficiency. Through work with homeless youth, NPHY creates productive, healthy adults who contribute to society. Strengthening and complementing the high-quality direct services for homeless youth, NPHY is dedicated to advocating with and for the Las Vegas Valley’s homeless youth population and serves as a leader in systems-level efforts to eliminate homelessness among Nevada’s youth. For more information or to support our life-changing work for homeless youth, please visit www.nphy.org.
Sands is the leading global developer and operator of integrated resorts. The company’s iconic properties drive valuable leisure and business tourism and deliver significant economic benefits, sustained job creation, financial opportunities for local businesses and community investment to help make its host regions ideal places to live, work and visit.
Dedicated to being a leader in corporate responsibility, Sands is anchored by the core tenets of serving people, communities and the planet. The company’s ESG leadership has led to inclusion on the Dow Jones Best-in-Class Indices for World and North America, as well as Fortune’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies. To learn more, visit www.sands.com.
