Earlier this year, I wrote about Dry January and the growing sober curious movement. Halfway through 2026, trusted health organizations are backing this trend with updated guidance and new research. Summer days are marked by barbecues and beach days, often paired with seasonal beverages. So it’s a good time to highlight these revised recommendations. If it’s all new to you, and your own intake exceeds recommendations, maybe it’s also a good time to consider Dry (or “Damp”) July.
Definition of a Standard Drink
Let’s begin by reviewing the definition of a standard drink. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a standard drink (in the US) contains about 14 grams (0.6 fluid ounces) of pure alcohol. This looks like:
A 5-ounce glass of wine at 12% alcohol by volume
A 1.5-ounce shot glass of distilled spirits at 40% alcohol by volume
A 12-ounce regular beer at 5% alcohol by volume*
*Some craft beers are as much as 10% alcohol by volume, making 12 ounces the equivalent of two standard drinks. The same goes for many canned cocktails.
Alcohol Consumption Guidance
Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies, Rutgers University
Last month, the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs published the results of a new study on alcohol intake. Using weekly consumption reports, investigators examined the per-occasion impact on a person’s health. The goal was to understand the connection between alcohol consumption and morbidity and mortality in the US. The authors concluded that alcohol consumption should be limited to one drink per day or less to lower risk of developing health issues.
American Heart Association
The American Heart Association (AHA) has also updated their guidance on alcohol intake. In a new scientific statement, the AHA highlights the challenges of studying the impacts of low/moderate drinking. Previous advice suggested that some alcohols (like red wine) may be beneficial. However, the AHA has determined that recommending alcohol intake as part of a healthy lifestyle is no longer valid. More importantly, binge drinking, or consuming on average more than three drinks a day, often aligns with elevated blood pressure and increased risk for cardiovascular events. Given the definition of a standard drink, it’s not uncommon for an individual to have three drinks on one occasion. This AHA guidance was underscored in updated recommendations released earlier this year. They simply stated that if you aren’t presently drinking alcohol, don’t start. And if you are, limit your intake.
American Cancer Society
Alcohol is classified as a class #1 carcinogen (the highest risk group), and linked to seven different types of cancer. For this reason, the American Cancer Society recommends limiting intake to no more than one drink per day for women and two drinks a day for men. For breast cancer prevention, specifically, women should limit or abstain from alcohol altogether to lower risk.
Additional Research
Women’s Health
Alcohol impacts women in particular in many other ways, including negative effects on heart, liver, and brain health. Alcohol intake also worsens menopause symptoms, causing higher frequency and intensity of hot flashes, along with greater potential for weight gain and poor sleep. Regular or heavy drinking also negatively affects bone health. Current guidelines recommend that women limit intake to one standard drink/day (maximum seven drinks/week) to lower risk.
Brain Health
Studies published over the past several years have connected moderate and heavy drinking with cognitive decline. The impacts on brain health include accelerated aging and increased inflammatory markers. Alcohol has also been shown to increase risk of dementia and other brain disorders. This includes Alzheimer’s Disease, which progresses faster with heavy drinking (defined as eight drinks per week).
If you’re looking for something special to serve this summer that’s refreshing, but non-alcoholic, try one of these:
AMSTERDAM and HONG KONG and OAKLAND, Calif., July 7, 2026 /3BL/ – Cascale today announced the establishment of its Membership & Stakeholder Advisory Council (MAC), a new governance body designed to strengthen how member and stakeholder perspectives inform the organization’s strategy, engagement priorities, and collective action efforts. By bringing together leaders from across brands, manufacturers, affiliates, and stakeholder organizations, the MAC strengthens Cascale’s ability to convene the industry around shared challenges and accelerate collective action toward climate and social goals.
The inaugural MAC includes member representatives and external experts from organizations including ALGI, bluesigntechnologies, CentricBrands, CIELTextile, CrystalInternational, DunelmPLC, ITLHoldings Ltd., la Vie en Rose, lululemon athletica, Recover, TAL Apparel Ltd., and the Outdoor Industry Association, alongside additional organizations from across the consumer goods industry. Together, these leaders bring perspectives spanning brands, manufacturers, affiliates, and stakeholder organizations. The Council is chaired by former Fair Wear Executive Director Alexander Kohnstamm.
The establishment of the MAC marks another milestone in Cascale’s governance evolution, building on the launch of the Technical Advisory Council (TAC) earlier this year. Together, these advisory councils create clearer pathways for participation and strategic input, helping ensure Cascale’s work benefits from both technical expertise and broad stakeholder perspectives.
The MAC will provide strategic recommendations on membership engagement, public affairs, and programs that scale collective action across the industry. In its inaugural year, the Council is expected to advise on topics such as improvements to the member experience, strategic guidance for Cascale’s decarbonization work, and other priorities identified by the Council. By strengthening how member and stakeholder perspectives inform strategic decisions, the MAC helps ensure Cascale remains a trusted, representative partner for industry collaboration.
As sustainability expectations continue to increase, effective collective action depends on strong governance, broad representation, and meaningful stakeholder engagement. The MAC provides a structured forum for member and stakeholder perspectives to help inform how Cascale engages its community, advances shared priorities, and develops programs that drive measurable industry progress.
“Strong governance depends on creating meaningful pathways for participation and perspective,” said Nikki Wood, director, governance, Cascale. “The MAC expands how members and stakeholders can contribute strategic insight to Cascale’s work, helping ensure our engagement, public affairs, and collective action efforts remain relevant, representative, and responsive to industry needs.”
“Effective collective action requires more than shared ambition — it requires clear common purpose, based on governance structures that bring diverse perspectives together,” said Alexander Kohnstamm, chair of Cascale’s Membership & Stakeholder Advisory Council. “I’m looking forward to helping the MAC create space for thoughtful dialogue and strategic recommendations that strengthen Cascale’s impact across the value chain.”
The establishment of the Membership & Stakeholder Advisory Council reinforces Cascale’s commitment to collaborative, transparent, and representative governance. As the organization continues to evolve, the MAC will help ensure that diverse perspectives from across the consumer goods value chain inform the decisions, partnerships, and collective action needed to accelerate meaningful environmental and social progress.
Sophia Mendelsohn: [00:00:00] AI’s capabilities are entirely inseparable from data centres. And data centres are inseparable from land, water, power, waste, heat at scale. Most credible projections assume demand will keep rising. Demand for electricity, demand for those precious natural resources will keep rising. So framing AI as sort of just software allows leaders to defer the hard infrastructure question a little bit. And that deferral is a governance failure.
Tom Raftery: That’s the crux of this conversation. AI’s promise is real, but the choices around it are already becoming business, climate, and governance decisions. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, [00:01:00] where everywhere in the world, this is Climate Confident Stories and Strategies that cut Emissions Episode 284, and I’m your host, Tom Raftery.
My guest today is Sophia Mendelsohn, who leads SAP’s Global Sustainability Platform. We talk about how sustainability teams can move beyond PDFs and carbon accounting and into procurement, supplier data, financial planning, and the decisions that shape AI before those systems lock in.
So I began by asking Sophia how sustainability and commercial growth come together. And very quickly the conversation moved to the infrastructure reality behind AI.
Sophia, welcome to the podcast.
Would you like to introduce yourself?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Yeah. Thank you Tom. Thank you to everyone giving us their time to listen. I am Sophia. I run SAP’s Global Sustainability [00:02:00] Platform, including corporate as well as the products and solutions that help others also execute their sustainability.
Tom Raftery: Interesting. And so you sit across both sustainability and commercial growth. How do those two worlds come together for you?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Well, they come together through ensuring that we know exactly what needs to be done in the world of sustainability. In technology, there is a philosophy that the closer you are to the problem, the closer you are to the people and teams executing on that problem, the better off the solution.
Tom Raftery: And was there a moment for you when these two worlds stopped feeling separate?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Oh, these worlds were never separate to me. I’ve been a Chief Sustainability Officer three times. I’ve been in this space over 20 years. [00:03:00] I know that the major challenge for sustainability teams are putting those precious time and resources from the wrong space to the right space. Sustainability teams don’t get outta bed in the the morning gung ho to create PDFs.
They’re not excited, right? About counting things that they don’t see the world valuing. No. We want to use technology and automation to build up the governance, the infrastructure, the accounting, the carbon accounting elements in particular as quickly as possible, and free the sustainability teams to get to the change management work.
Tom Raftery: And let’s get into the tension because this is where things get interesting. AI, AI is not a weightless. So what are most leaders still getting wrong about AI and sustainability?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Yeah. And you’re [00:04:00] right, Tom. Tension is where things get interesting, right? And sustainability professionals, and those in the world of climate solutions sit at attention, have volunteered, have put their hand up to be part of that tension. And the same goes for AI, right?
So first and foremost, let’s establish two basic facts. One, AI’s capabilities are entirely inseparable from data centres. And data centres are inseparable from land, water, power, waste, heat at scale. So most credible projections assume demand will keep rising. Demand for electricity, demand for those precious natural resources will keep rising. These are engineering constraints within real geographic regulatory and community dimensions, In SAP’s own integrated report in 2025, we acknowledge that the growing demand [00:05:00] for energy due due to increasing use of AI could have a negative effect on GHG emissions. We see the same from the World Economic Forum, but the upside is also real.
So is the downside. So framing AI as sort of just software allows leaders to defer the hard infrastructure question a little bit. And that deferral is a governance failure, right? So if we’re going to talk about AI, we’re also gonna have to talk about sustainability.
Tom Raftery: Okay. And obviously as you said, people think that AI is just software, but what changes when we treat it as physical infrastructure?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Mm.
Tom when we see AI as physical infrastructure, right? The data centre comes in to focus, and this is structurally identical to [00:06:00] what mining and energy companies have navigated for centuries. The discipline built to manage all that contradiction, all that tension that we talked about earlier is called sustainability.
The difference is that the technology centre is arriving at this realisation now, right? As this technology builds and grows and brings benefits to us, whereas mill and mining and other traditional energy industries had a hundred, a hundred and fifty plus years to deal with it. This is like watching history in fast forward.
Tom Raftery: Right. Well then where do you see the real business stakes if companies get this wrong?
Sophia Mendelsohn: There are real business advantages at stake AI can bring, and it has already brung, immense benefit and changes to companies. There is no company that’s gonna leave [00:07:00] that advantage on the table. So we are all opting in to proactive, conscious, additional resource consumption. And if we seek only the benefits without counterbalancing the reality of investment for those benefits, what supports the business case will eventually falter.
We will eventually come full circle to the need to say, we want the benefits of AI. That means investing in understanding the unwanted externalities as well as the resource consumption going into it, and investing in building up the accounting and governance infrastructure to support that.
Tom Raftery: And then when we think about reporting and decision control, when does sustainability stop being a reporting exercise? Those PDFs you referred to and become a [00:08:00] decision rule inside the business?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Mm, today, please, Tom, let it be today. There’s a historical perception of sustainability as a reporting function. And that is a liability at this moment. Sustainability, friends do not approach AI the way we approached ESG reporting, We do not want to be bean counters of carbon and water associated with AI while missing the largest technical opportunity to advance a balanced economy that we’ve seen in our lifetime.
And I’ll, I’ll make a pitch directly to my fellow sustainability leaders here, right? You bring three capabilities that are necessary for your organisation to scale and grow and benefit from AI. So, you know, one, how to manage resource constraint management. [00:09:00] Two, you know how to do multi-stakeholder engagement.
And three, you understand how to administer the social licence to operate.
Tom Raftery: To what end?
Sophia Mendelsohn: To the end of being able to use AI within planetary boundaries, within social acceptance, and within the benefit of your own company’s understanding of the ROI of the technology. Right? So I think, Tom, we’re already seeing this a little bit, and you know, podcasts live on far past the moment they’re recorded.
But if we take ourselves into this moment for a second, with every technology, with every trend, there’s a hype cycle, right? We saw it with sustainability as well. And within the upward initial curve of that hype cycle, there’s a temptation to disregard any [00:10:00] consequence of the new topic, to not consider the pros and cons, the different stakeholder groups.
And without that consideration, you get what Gartner, which is a major analyst in the technology industry, refers to as a hype curve or a hype cycle that then comes crashing down much faster. And organisations, companies, they do best with sort of slow, stable improvements that then continue in an upward trajectory.
And I would argue as a corporate professional, any sustainability executive or team member who’s opted in to a company structure, we have a fiduciary responsibility to help our organisations not just get the fastest return on AI as a technology, but the most consistent and sustained. And that’s what we’re seeing happening right now.
When you’re deep in it like I am, you see [00:11:00] organisations realise like, Hey man, tokens actually cost money and maybe we should hold the outcomes of AI to any other investment we would make. Show me the benefit to my people. Show me the benefit to my business.
How do I create a quantifiable outcome for this? That’s the side of the equation sustainability wants to be on. What are the benefits to materials R&D? What are the benefits to new technology that do help us live in planetary boundaries? You do not wanna be on the side of the equation of tallying up the bill and then going, oh gee whiz, we don’t know how to solve it, so use less of it.
Tom Raftery: And obviously then we gotta get into the issue, the thorny issue of data. Because if AI is making recommendations from [00:12:00] fragmented sustainability data, what goes wrong? Are we likely to be making bad decisions just more efficiently?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Well, as has been said many times before, AI is a reflection of ourselves. It’s a reflection of what we’ve done. It’s a reflection of how we train it. And what’s clear in the business world is that we have an inherent bias towards the short term, very understandably. So if we train AI to do business case analysis, for example, as seeing sustainability as inherently, moral or inherently for a greater good outside of our business structure, and AI is inherently within the business structure because it creates efficiency. You’ll get the wrong answer.
And it’s worth, Tom, if I may, before you ask me another question, just pause here for one second, folks, because the sustainability [00:13:00] elements we’re talking about here are very short term. Community backlash against data centres holding up hundreds of billions of dollars of investment that is real today. Concern about energy and water use in local communities and social licence to buy in onto data centres real today. And likewise, if you think you can create a beneficial business case or a superior analysis for an organisation without considering the changes in natural resources, without considering supply chain, you’d be grossly mistaken.
It would be like trying to buy olive oil without seeing what olive oil and olive farmers are saying in Greece. Or it would be like looking at cacao without noticing the trends of cacao prices and droughts in Africa.
Tom Raftery: Mm-hmm. As a guy based in the south of Spain, [00:14:00] in the middle of olive country, I do have to point out that Spain is the world’s largest exporter of olive oil, but the Italians get all the credit.
Sophia Mendelsohn: That’s okay. And so, so Tom, if I may ask you a question, right? You sit at a country already feeling the effects of climate change, I think with, a proud history, of things like olive oil. And is there a global, or social, I should say, is there a community-wide dialogue about the effects of olive oil in Spain?
Tom Raftery: I mean, there is, but only because it’s massively consumed here, as well as produced here. So if you remember, two years ago, two summers ago, so summer 24, the year before that, again, 23, we had a significant drought here. So the olive oil harvest dropped by about 40%. And so the price two years ago, [00:15:00] so six months after, the price in summer 24 of olive oil went from about, five euros a litre to between 10 and 12 euros, a litre for extra virgin olive oil. So in that scenario, yes, it is very, very close to people’s, attention span, but it’s gone back down now again. It’s, it’s at about five again per litre. Now it’s quite variable, and so we’ll have to see what it’s like next year after this summer because, and, and this summer, even after, because with the El Nino effect coming in, there’s a large possibility that we’ll have a, a drought again next year, next summer.
So the year after the, the harvest may be impacted again. We’re quite lucky this year because we had a very wet winter. And so, the olive harvest should be good this year.
Sophia Mendelsohn: And so that’s, that’s exactly the question. I, is that a sustainable way for an organisation to go on? As sustainability professionals, when we see that our [00:16:00] communities or companies are exposed to price fluctuation at this rate, is our job to say, this is how much emissions came out of an AI data centre, or is our job to say, this is how much emissions came out of a data centre.
Now let’s make dang sure, we reduce past that through additional benefits. I don’t mean just direct carbon capture offsets, which are an important part of the equation, but I mean in the ability for sustainability professionals to use AI to talk about baseline and shifting baseline, right. We are also in a moment in time as this podcast is happening right now where gas prices all over the world are going up and down in geopolitics, and I’m constantly asked, oh, is this it?
Is this where sustainability is coming back? Is this where we see the return in the pendulum swing? And I’m like, heck no. These are short term things. Olive oil prices went [00:17:00] back down, gas prices will go back down. It is about pointing out the sustained disadvantage, the sustained volatility, the sustainability professional, using AI to understand and quantify that risk for their organisation so that we can use AI to create a living intelligent institutional memory for the decision makers in our companies that goes beyond what olive oil or gas costs today.
Tom Raftery: Sure. Sure, sure. And in terms of the, social licence that you talk about, is the constraint more likely to come from communities, or regulators, or customers, or employees, or someone else entirely, or all of the above, or it depends?
Sophia Mendelsohn: So let’s start with what social [00:18:00] licence to operate even is. Social licence to operate is sort of the informal permissions granted by communities, customers, and workforces for a company to operate. It’s different than legal compliance. So right now for AI, we see this popping into three places. One, the communities hosting the infrastructure.
Two, the enterprise customers whose own stakeholders scrutinise their technology choices. And three employees who must trust the systems they’re being asked to use daily.
Tom Raftery: And obviously we’re seeing a lot of companies racing into AI, but governance, as you referred to earlier is lagging. So why is accountability so hard to assign?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Why is accountability so hard to assign? It’s so true.
Accountability for ethical AI and AI and [00:19:00] sustainability challenges our conventional organisational structures. It challenges the typical boxes we like to put people and ideas in, So AI typically sits in technology and now we need it to sit alongside technology, people, and environment. There’s no ability to say we want to work on re reducing emissions, but we’re not gonna reflect on perception of data centres.
Tom Raftery: And what’s the cost of waiting until after deployment to govern AI properly?
Sophia Mendelsohn: The cost of waiting for sustainability to engage in AI will be the missed opportunity, This is our window of opportunity to say how you design a [00:20:00] chip for water consumption matters. This is our opportunity to say, no, I do care which data centre my resources for my AI use cases and my token consumption are being pulled from.
And I would like to know that that data centre is covered by renewable energy, either in the local market or through some type of market based measure. This is when whole new worlds of procurement are taking shape. And I would implore my sustainability coworkers do not use this moment debating or reporting out on how much AI emissions increase your scope 3. Yeah do that. To be clear, Tom, for the comments, do that, please do that because we are the accountants and record holders. Do [00:21:00] that, but also go to procurement. Go to your global risk function and say, we are now signing new contracts for the first time. We have new companies new types of companies asking us to engage with them for the first time.
Now is the time to bring sustainability to the negotiating table and say, if you want us to go with your data centre, if you want us to go with your forward deployed engineering teams, talk to us about how you are gonna control for water, land, and energy consumption. So I know my brand is not exposed. I know my Scope 3 isn’t exposed, and I know you have a way to control costs in the long term.
Today is the period to ask questions because the system will solidify itself. It will calcify into something that scales and the [00:22:00] messages that the market gives now to those organising and decision makers are what will be entrenched in the larger governance system for the years to come.
Tom Raftery: So what you’re saying there is that sustainability teams are not best placed to solve this alone, they need a broader coalition.
Sophia Mendelsohn: Oh, good Lord. I’ve never seen anyone solve anything alone. And when it comes to AI, while sort of the act of coding or vibe coding can be very individual, the act of applying the outcomes of that coding to society is perhaps more social and communal than anything we’ve seen in recent times.
Tom Raftery: And where have you changed your mind on responsible AI or sustainability over the last year?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Oh, Tom, it’s a hell of [00:23:00] a question. where have I changed my mind on sustainability and AI over the past year? I have gone from thinking that we could look at energy consumption and direct carbon air capture and market-based measures alone to really seeing AI as a gift to sustainability teams because we now also have a tool to calculate externalities. We now also have a tool to create the assumptions and data sets that we need. And let’s just take Scope 3 for an instance. Okay. I’m assuming everyone listening to something like this knows about Scope 3.
Scope 3 is based on the belief that if you ask, you will get information back. That is not correct, right? We know what it looks like inside a supply chain. You could ask and not get an answer. By the way, [00:24:00] shout out to the sustainability community on LinkedIn for their hilarious gifs, and JPEGs on Scope 3 emissions and asking for suppliers for information and not getting responses back.
But with AI, there’s the ability to generate that information for yourself and say, dear supplier, is this right or wrong? And you have the opportunity to prove it to me otherwise, but I’m gonna go forward and say, this is your carbon footprint, this is your product carbon footprint, and I’m expecting you to minimise that.
I would also say, let’s talk about sustainability, AI and investors. Okay, so slightly different headspace, gear change for our conversation, but an important one. I spend time with investor relations. I spend time with investors. And what AI is making clear in that space is that investors have [00:25:00] the opportunity to model scenario plans and different potential outcomes as much, if not more, than the company and the portfolio themselves. So this is a huge cue for sustainability professionals, Do not remain the asker for information. Transition to becoming the calculator of the information with AI in your own hands, and then pressure testing if that works with your stakeholders.
But establishing for your own organisation, a net new amount of data, a net new baseline. And Tom, that baseline is so important because baselines within human psychology and human nature are shown to shift about every two years. So I’m [00:26:00] sitting outside right now. It’s hotter than it historically has been, but I’m not really processing that because it’s been hotter than historical averages in the summer where I am for the past two years. My baseline has already shifted. Actually even now, socially acceptable olive oil prices are probably higher than they would be without climate change. But the Spanish baseline for what is acceptable to pay for olive oil has already shifted. Right?
And then we look for all these other ways to compensate for that, ways to cure the symptoms rather than the root cause. And if sustainability professionals are able to use AI to scenario plan what their company’s supply chain looks like in the foreground, or go back to the background and say, Hey, that supplier that went out of business, or that spike we saw in automotive parts that was related to historical flooding in Thailand X number of years ago.
And by the way, those [00:27:00] prices came back down, but they never came back down to the same baseline before that climate crisis moment. Right now we’re having a conversation.
Tom Raftery: Sure. Sure, sure. And so then what does it mean to build sustainability into AI decisions as opposed to bolting it on afterwards?
Sophia Mendelsohn: To build sustainability into AI decisions rather than bolt on after, means to consider the entire equation of AI and sustainability as a return on investment. We are investing a certain amount of human capital, land use, water use, and energy use into a net new technology. What is the return on investment for your organisation, for the community you’re from and for the long term objective you might be trying to achieve? In this case, I would say a low carbon circular economy that can still grow and thrive and support more and more people.
And [00:28:00] right now, dear sustainability professionals in your organisation, that calculation is being taken at the board level with the CEO level. And the return, or the outcomes are being listed. We get through this workflow faster. We eliminate this cost. We get this type of information that helps us grow in new markets.
We increase margin because of AI,
Tom Raftery: Hmm.
Sophia Mendelsohn: And our job is to make sure that sustainability outcomes are added to those returns, right? So the investment is being made already. The dollars are being spent. Now, our job is not to count the impact of the dollars spent alone. It is also to make sure that outcomes include the objectives of the [00:29:00] sustainability team within that organisation.
And then once you’re in that return on investment conversation, and you’re looking not just at, for example, margin, decrease through more efficient processes in the factories, but also the ability to use AI to rethink R&D for packaging, and reduction in packaging fines, fees, and just sheer amount of plastic used. Now, you’re part of the benefits conversation for the business.
And you’re earning your seat at the table by articulating an outcome that your organisation should receive for investing in AI and changing the balance of equation. This much money spent, this many more benefits, and that is a much stronger place to then go ahead and continue to address land use, emissions, and water from, rather than being the bean [00:30:00] counter or the one trying to stop or pull back on a technology per se.
Tom Raftery: And can you give me, one practical decision that AI could improve if sustainability data were properly included?
Sophia Mendelsohn: AI plus sustainability can bring real benefits immediately. Let’s imagine you are a beauty company, right? And you’re selling perfume. Perfumes are actually made of natural ingredients, very beautiful natural elements like vanilla and rose petals, These are precious inputs to your commercial product.
In the past, a corporate sustainability professional would’ve had to pay sort of X dollars to a consultant to go through a complicated scenario analysis per raw ingredient, and then get it back as a PowerPoint [00:31:00] to try and pitch to the product team about why they should care about how hot it is where you grow rose petals.
Now for every input into that perfume, you can run a scenario of how endangered that ingredient is, what could be done with local communities to protect that commercial input and cost to your commercial product, how you might need to pay more for shade grown ingredients rather than regular, and how you might need to compensate for that cost by changing the packaging and turning around and going to the packaging manager and saying, let’s rethink our R&D on this.
Let’s see if we can get plastic out or switch from glass to plastic in a different type of example to bring cost down and then go to the marketing department and say, dear marketing, [00:32:00] you’ve always assumed that the driving force of this perfume was how it looked on the shelf. Now let’s test that, right?
We can use AI to do many, much more virtual outreach and prove that actually maybe there’s more customer engagement in changing the packaging, for example, to recycled packaging or a material made of plastic harvested and saved and pulled out of the oceans. And there’s an engagement story there as beauty companies I’ve spoken to have seen as sneaker companies I’ve spoken to have seen.
And it allows the sustainability professional to go department by department in the value chain of whatever their organisation sells and say, let me help you rethink our assumptions, because now we have the budget and bandwidth to do it.
Tom Raftery: Nice. And what changes then when carbon [00:33:00] moves from sustainability report into financial planning?
Sophia Mendelsohn: When carbon moves from your PDF report to your true financial plan, the first thing you do is make it approachable for your colleagues, right?
They’re not thinking in scopes, they’re thinking at the group level, they’re thinking at the enterprise level, the country level, the P&L level, the portfolio level, and ultimately the SKU or product level. So if you are going to approach someone with an ask, a desire for investment and change, we gotta be speaking the same language as them.
And because it’s you with the ask, we’re gonna speak their language? After it becomes approachable, you can make it relevant. What does this have to do with me? What does this have to do with my iPhone instead of with Apple and the memory of Steve Jobs? And then you can begin to scenario plan for it, right? More and more of the world has a [00:34:00] price on carbon.
We see the cost and polluter plays principles being distributed to companies as voters and their elected officials are reluctant to put on general costs in a high inflationary environment. And companies need to be able to account for what is in their product and negotiate with the regulators or the equivalent of the tax man and say, this is how much we have in there and this is how much we don’t.
And you need that topic to have been approachable and relevant to your colleagues first, if you’re then gonna do that.
Tom Raftery: And can you turn this whole argument into one sentence a CEO would remember?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Well, Tom, if I had to give a CEO one sentence to remember, I would start it with a compliment.
I would say [00:35:00] as the most intelligent and experienced person in the room. You have been through waves of excitement about change in technology before, and you know that the organisations that get the most sustained benefit from that change are the ones that bring multiple stakeholders in from across the company to determine the best outcomes for themselves, and then blend and prioritise them for investment.
Having sustainability in that blend of outcomes not only gets you an additional outcome, it protects all the others.
Tom Raftery: Lovely.
So can you take this, Sophia, from where we are at kind of ground level now to going up 3000, 5,000 a hundred thousand feet. [00:36:00] Give us your overview of it.
Sophia Mendelsohn: Sure. So in the immediate right at the 30,000 foot level, this is headed towards the sustainability team, making sure they are canvassing their organisation to understand who is spending what on AI and determining how sustainability could be an additional advantage of that. Let me give you one really clear example on that, Tom, for the short term, right?
We have one company in the technology space, the consumer goods technology space, using AI to better answer questions they receive from their clients as a vendor, and the vendor questions they have. At first, they were just answering questions about price. When we engaged the sustainability team with them, they were able to quickly and automatically calculate thousands of product carbon footprints across multiple [00:37:00] locations.
Each location of course, having its own special different process and say, this is the price and these are the additional benefits and attributes we give you at the product level of what you’re asking for. So the ability to generate an additional return on investment, an additional listed outcome in the short term. And then in the medium term, there’s the protection of the resources as we’ve discussed many times. There’s also the protection of the company, Hey company, you’re signing up for a lot of money. That’s a lot of spend. Company, we should think about what we could ask for while engaged in that spend, or what additional costs to that spend might be.
And then at the highest level, that a hundred thousand foot level, the sustainability professionals should get excited how much data [00:38:00] and points of view this will be able to calculate for them on their existing budget and what type of tools that can literally put in their hands to go back to their stakeholders and say, your baseline is shifting and you don’t even know it, but I got the data to help you track that now.
And I have views on where it’s going.
Tom Raftery: Okay, great. For people who are listening to this, Sophia, who want to act on this, where should they start?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Well, Tom, I’ll, I’ll answer that question as a leader, What do I hope my team members come to me with from AI on where to get started, my customers come to me on where to get started, and our regulators, or elected officials and other stakeholders and influencers like the media. So for the team member, we want the team member to get started with AI by canvassing their organisation, understanding where it’s in [00:39:00] use for what purpose, and determining if there can be an additional outcome related to sustainability or additional protection added to that. And using a balanced equation, using AI tools to make a data-driven argument that used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars of consultants and now doesn’t. And that’s something my own team’s done and that I’ve seen for myself.
Tom Raftery: Okay.
Sophia Mendelsohn: For my customers, we’re seeing them say, Hey, I didn’t have this information from my supply chain before, and even when I did get it, I didn’t believe it.
But now with your tools, I’m able to calculate it for myself and work from that place rather than waiting for the world to come up.
And for stakeholders, be them media or influence or regulators to understand that AI is an infrastructure question and a social buy-in question as much as it is a technology [00:40:00] question.
Tom Raftery: A left field question for you, Sophia. If you could have any person or character, alive or dead, real or fictional as a champion for sustainable AI at scale, who it be and why?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Well, I am sitting in a field, and if I look to my left and I had to imagine a historical figure coming or a fictional figure, I would choose the Greek goddess Athena, because Athena knew that you had to get in the mix if you wanted to apply your wisdom. In every story, both Athena and the sustainability professional refuse to be passive accountants of the change, but determine how it should be designed [00:41:00] for what outcome, at what cost.
Tom Raftery: Very good. Lovely. I like it.
So, Sophia, if people would like to know more about yourself or any of the things we discussed on the podcast today, where would you have me direct them?
Sophia Mendelsohn: Oh SAP. Sustainability. I used to give a website address, but you know, now you can just put it into your agent. Tom, for anyone who wants to continue the dialogue and go deeper, I am engaging on LinkedIn on exactly this topic.
Tom Raftery: Great. I’ll put your LinkedIn details in the show notes and everyone will have
access to them.
Sophia Mendelsohn: Thanks.
Tom Raftery: Sophia, that’s been fascinating. Thanks somebody for coming on the podcast
BERLIN–(BUSINESS WIRE)– #IoT–Dryad Networks, the leader in ultra-early wildfire detection technology, today announced a major achievement in the finals of the Autonomous Wildfire Response track of XPRIZE Wildfire, a four-year, $11 million global competition accelerating new solutions to end destructive wildfires. Competing against just two other finalists selected from an original field of nearly 300 teams worldwide, Dryad successfully demonstrated the integrated capabilities of its Silvanet wildfi
Bravery often lives in a single, split-second decision. At the 24th Annual American Red Cross Heroes Breakfast in Chicago on May 6, community leaders, supporters and partners gathered to honor those rare individuals who, in the face of crisis, chose to run toward the danger.
As a long-standing partner of the American Red Cross of Illinois, the Motorola Solutions Foundation was proud to sponsor the Heroes Breakfast’s Law Enforcement Hero Award. This is more than an award. It’s a moment to recognize the heart, grit and selflessness of the people who protect our communities every day.
A Heroic Rescue on the Ice
This year’s Law Enforcement Hero Award honorees,Officers Dennis Stachura and Marco Lomibaoof the Glendale Heights Police Department, show us that “duty” often requires extraordinary sacrifice.
On a sub-zero December morning, a vehicle carrying three people plunged into a frozen pond. Despite the danger of the thin ice and freezing water, the officers pressed on until every life was saved. Their teamwork and courage capture the true meaning of heroism.
Watch the powerful story of their rescue.
About the Program
The Heroes Breakfast honors a Class of Heroes whose actions reflect the Red Cross mission to alleviate human suffering. We congratulate the entire 2026 Class of Heroes for their inspiring courage.
Diagnosed at a time when HIV was often considered a terminal condition, CVS Specialty patient Christopher Hooper is now living a full life decades later, reflecting the impact of modern treatment.
Today’s HIV therapies can help people manage the condition long term, with effective treatment and prevention options available.
CVS Specialty pharmacists, HIV-focused CareTeams and Center of Excellence help support patients with education, adherence and ongoing care.
Living with HIV today: One patient’s experience
When Phoenix-based Christopher Hooper was diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as a college student in the 1990s, treatment options were limited and life expectancy was uncertain.
Today, after decades of advances in care, he is a business owner, married and living well.
Now a CVS Specialty patient, Christopher works closely with his HIV CareTeam, including his pharmacist, Helen Everett, to manage his condition and stay on track with treatment.
“It’s important to feel supported,” he says. “That relationship has provided a consistent foundation of trust and confidence that I don’t have to manage it all alone, allowing me to focus on the parts of my life that matter most.”
How HIV treatment and prevention have evolved
HIV care has changed significantly over the past several decades.
Early treatments often required multiple medications with significant side effects.
Today, patients have more simplified and flexible options with fewer side effects, including once-daily oral medications and long-acting injectable therapies administered by providers every two to six months.
With consistent treatment, many people can achieve an undetectable viral load.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a person living with HIV who is on treatment and maintains an undetectable viral load is not at risk of transmitting HIV to sexual partners — a concept often referred to as Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U).
Today, the average life expectancy for people living with HIV on continuous antiretroviral therapy, is similar to people without HIV.
CVS Specialty supports patients, communities impacted by HIV
CVS Specialty has a long history of supporting patients and communities impacted by HIV, including CVS Pharmacy Specialty Services walk-in locations originally established in neighborhoods heavily affected by the condition — roots built on trust, community engagement and commitment to expanding awareness and access that continue to shape how patients are supported today.
CVS Specialty provides support across the patient journey through:
Access to HIV medications and CareTeams: Patients can connect with CVS Specialty pharmacists and technicians who specialize in complex conditions like HIV and can help answer questions about medications and pharmacy care.
Help starting therapy: Support with processes like prior authorizations and connecting patients to third-party assistance programs that may reduce out-of-pocket costs, can help patients begin therapy as quickly as possible.
HIV Center of Excellence (CoE) for injectable HIV therapies: CVS Specialty’s HIV-focused teams help facilitate access to long-acting injectable therapies for patients and their providers, including coordination with provider offices. These therapies require more complex administration and are supported by pharmacists with specialized therapy-specific training.
Adherence and refill support: Outreach programs help identify when patients may be at risk of falling behind on therapy, with reminders and follow-up to help them stay on track and maintain viral suppression.
Community engagement and outreach: Relationships with local and national advocacy organizations help expand awareness, education and access to care.
Why HIV testing, prevention and awareness still matter
Advances in treatment and prevention have transformed what it means to live with HIV, but HIV remains a public health issue.
Approximately 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV, but about 1 in 8 are unaware of their status. (CDC data)
More than 50% of new diagnoses occur in the South. (HIV.gov data)
HIV continues to disproportionately affect certain populations, including racial and ethnic minorities and gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. (CDC data)
The CDC recommends that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 get tested for HIV at least once as part of routine health care, with testing available in many settings, including options like MinuteClinic.
Helping people start and stay on therapy, while reducing stigma and expanding access to care, remains critical to improving outcomes for individuals and communities.
Learn more
To learn more about HIV prevention, testing and treatment options, visit:
Lenovo advances toward net-zero emissions, scales circular innovation, and strengthens governance of AI to sustain business growth and resilience across environmental, social and governance impacts.
MORRISVILLE, N.C., July 8, 2026 /3BL/ – Lenovo today announced strong progress against its first generation of long-term, enterprise-wide Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) aspirations, advancing its vision to provide smarter technology for all that supports Lenovo’s own sustainability goals and its customers. The FY2025‑26 ESG Report highlights measurable gains in climate action, circular economy, social impact, and governance, while reinforcing responsible innovation in the AI era and Lenovo’s continued commitment to ESG programs with the announcement of a new set of sustainability aspirations.
“This fiscal year represents an important moment for Lenovo,” shared Dave Carroll, Lenovo’s Chief Legal and Corporate Responsibility Officer. “As we near the end of our first generation of ESG goals, we are proud of the progress we’ve made—but even more focused on applying what we’ve learned to accelerate future impact. Our work is closely aligned with the needs of our customers and partners as we navigate environmental challenges, geopolitical complexity, and the rapid evolution of AI.”
Over the last five years, Lenovo has embedded ESG across its global operations, strengthening collaboration and driving measurable action while remaining agile. The company remains on track to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, with targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. Today, more than 90% of Lenovo’s global operations’ electricity now comes from renewable sources (onsite renewable energy generation, PPA agreements, and/or purchase of RECs), demonstrating strong progress in emissions reduction and support for renewable energy markets.
As a global technology powerhouse, Lenovo continues to advance responsible design through its R.E.A.L Framework, focusing on repairability, reuse, and recycling. Key achievements include:
100% of PC products incorporate post-consumer recycled content materials (excluding tablets and accessories)
Enabled more than 800 million pounds (~363 million kg) of end-of-life product recovery since 2005
Reused 300 million pounds of post-consumer recycled plastics since 2005
Increased smartphone packaging sustainability, including 60% recycled materials and a 50% reduction in single-use plastics (compared to FY2020/21, excludes Lenovo-branded smartphone packaging and includes motorola razr packaging as of FY2023/24).
Lenovo continues to foster an inclusive workplace and positive community impact. Representation of women and underrepresented groups has measurably improved across Lenovo’s global workforce. The company’s inclusion efforts have been recognized by organizations including Disability:IN, Workplace Pride, the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, and Forbes.
From 2021 to 2026, Lenovo’s philanthropy programs positively impacted more than 25 million people by expanding access to technology and education. Employee programs like Love on Month of Service achieved record engagement, reflecting a strong culture of volunteerism.
In the era of AI, Lenovo is advancing its smarter AI for all focus to support metric collection and analysis for sustainability, highlighting AI’s role as a tool for a more sustainable future. Lenovo also supports industry collaboration through initiatives like the ITU AI Skills Coalition and Coalition for Sustainable AI, in addition to social impact initiatives that harness the power of AI, including:
TRAdA solution for predicting heart arrhythmia in athletes
As Lenovo prepares its next generation of ESG aspirations, it remains focused on innovation and responsible growth to advance sustainability worldwide. Future aspirations can be found in the FY2025-26 ESG Report.
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a US$83 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #196 in the Fortune Global 500, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. Guided by its vision of “Smarter Technology for All”, Lenovo is executing a Hybrid AI strategy that spans Personal AI – one personal AI, multiple devices; and Enterprise AI – helping customers turn data into insights and value. This strategy is delivered through the Group’s commitment to world-class innovation and a full-stack AI portfolio, including devices (PCs, workstations, smartphones, tablets, accessories), infrastructure solutions (server, storage, edge, high performance computing and software defined infrastructure), as well as software, solutions, and services. With a global footprint spanning more than 20 research and development locations and a global supply chain that includes more than 30 manufacturing sites across 10 markets, Lenovo is widely recognized for its operational excellence. Lenovo is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange under Lenovo Group Limited (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY). Learn more at www.lenovo.com and follow the latest news in our newsroom.
Following the commissioning of a new biomass boiler in France in March, the Group – celebrating its 60th anniversary this year – has brought a new photovoltaic system into operation at its Rothley Lodge converting facility in Leicester, UK
PORCARI (Lucca), Italy, July 8, 2026 /3BL/ – Sofidel, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of paper for hygienic and household use, known particularly in Italy and Europe for its Regina brand, continues to invest in the energy transition across its European facilities.
The Group today announces the start-up of a new photovoltaic system installed at the Rothley Lodge converting facility in Leicester, in the United Kingdom.
Installed on the roof of the production building and covering a total surface area of 6,130 square metres, the system is designed to directly use the solar energy generated, without the need for storage systems such as batteries. This technical choice optimizes operational efficiency while reducing management complexity. The installation is equipped with the latest solutions for production optimization and fire prevention.
During the initial operating phase – characterized by significantly limited solar irradiation in Northern Europe – the system covered 11.68% of the site’s total electricity demand, corresponding to 13.45% of the electricity drawn from the grid. During the summer months, coverage is expected to peak at around 19%.
“Also at Sofidel UK facility in Rothley Lodge, we continue to take action to reduce our carbon footprint. The results of the first operating period are encouraging, especially considering they were achieved during the coldest season and with lower levels of solar irradiation,” said Giuseppe Munari, Country Operations Manager for Sofidel in the United Kingdom. “This represents further confirmation of our investmentstrategy in renewable energy, driven by the conviction that reducing dependence on fossil fuels also means building a lasting competitive and industrial advantage.”
The investment made in the UK photovoltaic system is just the latest step in Sofidel’s broader decarbonization strategy across the countries where it operates. This approach adapts solutions to local climatic, infrastructural and regulatory contexts: biomass in France and the United Kingdom, biomethane in France and Sweden, bio-syngas in Sweden, and photovoltaic systems in Romania, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Just a few weeks ago, a biomass boiler was commissioned at the Group’s Frouard facility in France. Together with a first unit already in operation, it will make it possible to cover up to 95% of the site’s steam requirements.For Sofidel, sustainability is a strategic lever for development, closely linked to innovation in production processes, products, and logistics. It enables the Group to anticipate new opportunities for growth and continuous improvement, while reducing the impact of its activities on natural capital.
As part of its commitment to generating diversified economic growth and opportunities for the Macao region, Sands China prioritizes the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and has enabled a number of entrepreneurs to find success through engagements at its five resorts.
A component of Sands’ global commitment to propelling business impact in its regions around the world, SME engagement is most prominent in Macao where Sands China has led the company in SME procurement spending. Globally, Sands’ regions invested more than $1.7 billion with SMEs from 2021-2025.
“SMEs are a vital pillar of Macao’s economy, securing the foundation of the city’s diversified industries,” Grant Chum, chief executive officer and executive director of Sands China, said late last year in celebrating the 10th anniversary of the company’s Local Small, Medium and Micro Suppliers Support Programme.
Working with the Macao Chamber of Commerce, the company established this pioneering initiative in 2015 to help spearhead industry efforts around local SME support and a buy-local mindset. The program provides business development opportunities, including financial support, interactive platforms, and training and development through the Sands Procurement Academy.
“For more than 20 years, Sands China has remained committed to supporting the growth of local SMEs by leading the industry in prioritizing local procurement, building promotional platforms for local businesses, and sharing our business expertise and experience to help them achieve independent development,” Chum continued.
The successful business partnerships and entrepreneurial growth stories resulting from Sands China’s SME initiatives are a testament their success.
An example of a budding business endeavor is Sands China’s work with Youfruit, which provides professional fruit and vegetable preparation service. After Youfruit founder Suki Leong reached out to Sands China through the SME supplier support program to inquire about opportunities for its service, the company brought the SME on board with support beyond the contract.
To ensure high standards in hygiene and food production for the resort’s restaurants, Sands China provided the Youfruit team with technical expertise, including instructional videos from chefs to guide them on cutting techniques and methods to maximize the use of raw materials.
The synergy created has significantly reduced preparation workload for Sands China’s restaurants and allowed the company’s Team Members to focus on enhancing diner experience. For Youfruit, the relationship has helped propel the company’s growth since 2023.
Another unique Sands China partnership with a local SME was a pilot with craft brewery Funny Eye. The relationship began last year with the goal of addressing a food waste issue in The Londoner Macao’s central kitchen, where large volumes of fruit peels were being discarded during daily food preparation.
Working together, The Londoner Macao team and Funny Eye tested an innovative solution to transform fruit peels into beverages by extracting their natural flavors and infusing them into locally produced soda water and sparkling teas. The positive results have led Sands China and Funny Eye to explore a long-term partnership.
One of Sands China’s major initiatives to advance SMEs is the Entrepreneurship Recruitment Programme, which funds businesses and provides developmental opportunities to help them launch and operate in Macao’s Rua das Estalagens commercial district. The program is part of the company’s commitment to re-energizing the historic district’s economic vitality. SME participants can receive subsidies of up to twice their invested capital.
In April, Sands China announced continuation of the program, after initially helping seven entrepreneurs launch businesses in the area. In phase two, the company will recruit a new group of SMEs to establish businesses on Rua das Estalagens.
Another facet of Sands China’s Rua das Estalagens initiative its Shop Rebranding Programme, which helps existing businesses strengthen their brands and operational capability. Selected applicants may receive up to three times their invested capital.
Sands China’s Entrepreneurship Recruitment Programme has greatly benefited the first cohort of businesses, which were initially selected in 2024 and received funding and supportive program opportunities to launch and operate their businesses.
“In addition to providing startup capital to relieve financial pressure, Sands China offered professional advice to keep our opening on track,” Lau Fong Hoi, founder of Voyage Thai Kitchen, a phase one program participant, said. “On the promotional front, they have worked hard to build platforms for us, such as a food fest and inclusion in the Sands China Macao International 10K promotions. This [promotion] transforms the high traffic of major events into actual foot traffic for our shop, strengthening our confidence in operating on Rua das Estalagens.”
Agostinho Jesus, owner of Catfee Macau and another original recipient of Sands China’s Entrepreneurship Recruitment Program investments also said Sands China’s support has been comprehensive. Catfee Macau is a pet souvenir store that combines a cat rescue with artistic displays and a café. The store promotes an “adopt, don’t shop” mentality, and customers can enjoy a unique culinary experience from the rooftop with a view of Rua das Estalagens.
“Beyond the promotional opportunities, the entrepreneurial training courses covering social media marketing and business plan writing were particularly beneficial,” Jesus said. “These [programs] helped us optimize operations and lay a foundation for long-term growth. We’ve used this support to bring an innovative concept – combining the rescue of stray cats with a café – to this historic street.”
To learn more about Sands China’s work with SMEs and Sands’ support for local business development in its regions, read the company’s latest ESG report: https://www.sands.com/resources/reports/
We recognize that the entrepreneurial journey is as diverse as the individuals who embark on it. At GoDaddy, inclusive entrepreneurship means everyone deserves the chance to pursue an independent business venture on their own terms. Our purpose is to expand access to opportunity, helping people shape their own paths and livelihoods.
We advance this work in two connected ways. We support entrepreneurs with tools and targeted grants designed to meet them where they are, and we study and share the positive impact entrepreneurs have on their communities.
GoDaddy Empower
GoDaddy Empower is our signature social impact program, designed to help emerging entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses online. Access to education, mentorship, networks, tools, and capital can make meaningful differences throughout an entrepreneur’s journey. We support entrepreneurs by providing access to GoDaddy technology, alongside targeted grant funding delivered through partners.
GoDaddy Empower works with entrepreneurs at every stage, from individuals creating their first idea to those growing their established business. Wherever they begin, we help entrepreneurs build skills and transform ambition into action.
Investing in student-led ventures through colleges and universities: Through our current and potential future partnerships, we aim to help students bring their ideas to life. With access to GoDaddy tools, students can develop practical digital skills and the confidence to take their ideas and launch their online presence for the first time, laying the groundwork for futures shaped by possibility.
Supporting entrepreneurs through partners: Through partnerships with nonprofit and community organizations that offer established entrepreneurship programs, eligible participants can earn $1,000 grants after completing entrepreneur-focused training and milestones defined by each partner. These grants help participants invest in themselves and their businesses.
$2.7+ Million
More than $2.7 million invested in 2025 to support entrepreneurs.
Providing Tools to Get Online
Participants receive access to GoDaddy products and services that make it easier to build and grow an online presence. Solutions like Airo, an AI-powered experience, help entrepreneurs establish and expand their digital footprint with less friction, so they can focus on what matters most: building something they believe in.
Participants receive:
A professionally branded email
A free .com or .org domain for two years
Free web hosting for two years
EMPOWERING STUDENT-ATHLETES AT ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
In partnership with the Arizona State University Student- Athlete Venture Studio, GoDaddy Empower equips Division I student-athletes with the tools and support to build skills beyond the field. By integrating GoDaddy services and targeted funding into the curriculum, the program helps athletes establish digital identities, bring ideas to life, and develop practical skills that power long-term success.
One participant, Adama Fall, is applying that mindset to life after football. Adama used Airo to build a digital professional presence that reflects both his athletic career and future ambitions. For Adama, the program is about owning his story and creating opportunities that extend well beyond the field.
GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab
The long-term success of entrepreneurs and their microbusinesses plays a vital role in supporting the economic wellbeing and resilience of communities. The GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab, formerly Venture Forward, is a multi-year, multi-country research initiative that analyzes more than 20 million small and microbusinesses to quantify their economic impact and provide insight into their attitudes, demographics, and needs.
At GoDaddy, we believe the better we understand entrepreneurs, the better we can support them. That is why we make these findings publicly available at no charge to help inform policymakers, partners, and the broader small business ecosystem.
2025 YEAR-END REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:
8+: More than 8 new jobs are created by each microbusiness entrepreneur on a county-level.
72%: 72% of entrepreneurs feel confident they’ll achieve their definition of success in their lifetime.
2%: Every 1% increase in microbusiness ownership within a community correlates with roughly a 2% rise in income, or around $1,500 over three years.
49%: Nearly half of entrepreneurs use AI for their business, which is almost double the 25% reported in early 2024.
Read the GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab’s full 2025 Year-End Report here.
GoDaddy Microbusiness Data Hub
To support and amplify the impact of microbusinesses, the GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab launched the Microbusiness Data Hub in 2022. This platform provides access to free, downloadable, anonymized data on more than 20 million microbusinesses and their owners across the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. Refreshed quarterly, the data hub offers valuable insights into microbusiness density by geography and industry, empowering policymakers, researchers, and community leaders to make data-driven decisions that support small business growth.
MICROBUSINESS DATA HUB GPT
In 2025, the GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab published its first public GPT on ChatGPT, combining each microbusiness report we’ve released since 2020 into a single, conversational experience. Users can explore regional differences, long-term trends, and industry insights, review five years of survey results, and dig into the stories behind the data. The tool, found here, also allows users to ask direct questions of U.S. microbusiness data at the state, county, and metro level.
The GoDaddy 2025 Global Stakeholder Impact Report details our progress toward our corporate sustainability goals, strategies, and initiatives in support of our overarching purpose and values. Unless otherwise noted, this report reflects our corporate sustainability performance across our global operations covering the fiscal year period from January 1 to December 31, 2025. To demonstrate our commitment to transparent communication regarding our sustainability progress, we routinely share updates through our website and our annual reporting. We welcome your questions, comments, and feedback on this report by contacting ESG@GoDaddy.com.
This report references the Global Reporting Initiative Standards, includes select Sustainability Accounting Standards Board metrics for the Internet Media and Services sector, and the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures. We also disclose our contributions and progress toward priority UN SDGs. For additional information on how we align with these frameworks and key indicators demonstrating our sustainability performance, please refer to the Frameworks & Metrics section.
About GoDaddy
GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar, helps millions of entrepreneurs globally start, grow, and scale their businesses. People come to GoDaddy to name their idea, build a website and logo, sell their products and services and accept payments. GoDaddy Airo®, the company’s AI-powered experience, makes growing a small business faster and easier by helping them to get their idea online in minutes, drive traffic and boost sales. GoDaddy’s expert guides are available 24/7 to provide assistance. To learn more about the company, visit www.GoDaddy.com.
