Author: sHq_LoGiNz
PLAYA DEL REY, Calif., April 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The Ballona Wetland Land Trust, a non-profit environmental group, has raised concerns that the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, a California state agency, voted last Thursday to delete all references to the phrases “climate change”, “ocean acidification”, and “environmental justice” from its work plan, which will be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency with a request for federal funding. Numerous environmental groups, and several members of the Commission, opposed the changes. However, a majority of Commission member entities, including Heal the Bay and a prominent UCLA climate scholar, reasoned that the replacement of established scientific and policy terms with what Commission staff called “alternative language”, was justified to preserve $850,000 in funding. The move was in response to vague “informal guidance” from EPA.
A written statement from Gabrielle Crowe, co-chair and secretary of environmental sciences for the Gabrielino-Shoshone Nation of Southern California, was read by Commission staff, stating: “Climate change is an issue that impacts all communities, but particularly the same disadvantaged and underserved communities and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities that you are erasing from your work plan.” Crowe argued that if without a written commitment to tribal engagement and inclusion, the Commission would lack accountability.
E.J. Caldwell, general manager of the West Basin Municipal Water District and alternate to District President Gloria Gray, was especially vocal in his opposition to the proposed deletions. Caldwell was supported by Hermosa Beach Mayor Dean Francois. “The informal guidance, to me, is insufficient to really make these changes,” said Caldwell. In response, an EPA employee acknowledged that she could not say which phrases might cause grant applications to be rejected, adding that “I don’t think I’m going to be able to give you a satisfactory answer.”
The Ballona Wetlands Land Trust, a local non-profit that first discovered and publicized the proposed language changes, indicated that it is exploring a potential legal challenge. “The willingness of a California environmental protection agency to bend so easily on replacing scientific language with ‘alternative language’ poses an existential threat to all environmental protection efforts,” said the Land Trust’s President Walter Lamb. “We can’t effectively address the impacts of climate change by going silent on the issue. The Commission is ignoring the Clean Water Act.”
More information, including documentation, is available at www.ballona.org/climate.
Contact: Walter Lamb, 310-384-1042, walter@ballona.org, www.ballona.org/climate
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/in-california-trump-finds-unlikely-support-for-weakening-climate-and-environmental-justice-policies-302433806.html
SOURCE BALLONA WETLANDS LAND TRUST
DES PLAINES, Ill., April 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Chicago Faucets launches its redesigned Low-Flow MVP® Metering Faucets, a product line that exemplifies the company’s deep-rooted commitment to ecological responsibility and sustainable innovation. The new MVP metering faucet series, featuring a sleek and durable 765 push handle, expands on this legacy with five low-flow models engineered to deliver exceptional performance while dramatically reducing water consumption in high-use environments.
Low-Flow MVP™ Series of Metering Faucets for Sustainability and Durability
The Low-Flow MVP metering faucets combine a contemporary aesthetic with robust functionality, making them the ideal choice for schools, parks, libraries, and all commercial buildings committed to sustainability.
“Chicago Faucets is thrilled to showcase these contemporary Low-Flow MVP® Metering Faucets during Earth Month,” said Richard Nortier, Director of Marketing at Chicago Faucets. ” They underscore Chicago Faucets’ commitment to water conservation and sustainable practices. The 765 handle provides a modern look and vandal-resistant solution that meets the demands of today’s public facilities, while also aligning with our customers’ sustainability initiatives.”
- Enhanced Water Conservation: Low-flow models (0.35 GPM and 0.50 GPM) significantly reduce water consumption, contributing to sustainability goals and lower utility costs.
- Durable and Dependable: The 765 handle features solid metal construction and a vandal-resistant design ensuring long-lasting performance in high-traffic and high abuse environments.
- Sustainable Design: Metering faucets eliminate the need for electrical power, further reducing the environmental footprint and saving energy. Utilizing Low-Flow or Econo-Flow faucets are instrumental in meeting EPA WaterSense, CALGreen, and LEED requirements.
- Proven MVP® Cartridge: It features automatic shut-off, cast construction, is usable in hard water, and offers a slow close with adjustable run time (2–25 seconds). Maintenance is simplified with a solid brass actuator, stainless-steel sleeve and a large replaceable filter screen.
- Hygienic Push-Button Operation: Self-closing push button handle provides precise water flow for a preset cycle time.
- ADA Compliant: The contemporary and durable metal handle is ADA compliant.
Modern Push Button Design Easily Updates Existing Faucets
With the design of the 765 cylindrical handle, Chicago Faucets has engineered a contemporary handle with vandal-resistant construction for unmatched dependability in public areas that take heavy use and abuse. The one-touch convenience of the 765 handle ensures ease of operation and promotes improved hygiene while minimizing water usage.
For buildings with existing Chicago Faucets metering fittings, it is easy to upgrade with MVP 765 Handle Conversion Kits:
- 765-RKPABCP: Single handle kit, includes handle, actuator, cartridge, filter
- 765-RKPHABCP: Single handle kit, includes handle and actuator
- 765-RKECOABCP: Double handle kit: handles, actuators, cartridges, filters, 0.5 GPM laminar insert
The Chicago Faucets Low-Flow MVP™ Metering Faucets along with standard flow Metering Faucets with the 765 Handle Series are available now visit chicagofaucets.com/low-flow-metering-faucets or call 847/803-5000. To meet with a representative for a faucet demonstration click here.
As a longstanding member of the U.S. Green Building Council and a charter sponsor of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, Chicago Faucets continually advances water conservation through both its products and its operations. Chicago Faucets is also a member of the American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE), American Society of Health Care Engineering (ASHE), International Well Building Institute (IWBI), and a partner with EPA WaterSense. For more information visit: https://www.chicagofaucets.com/about/corporate-responsibility
ABOUT
The Chicago Faucet Company is part of the Geberit Group, a European sustainability leader, s innovator and global provider of sanitary technology with products available in the United States at geberit.us. This launch reflects Chicago Faucets’ holistic approach to environmental stewardship. The company actively monitors and reduces its use of electricity, natural gas, and water, and has achieved a 60% reduction in landfill waste at its Milwaukee foundry Chicago Faucets recycles 98% of its scrap brass—over 20 tons internally and more than 600 tons with outside partners annually—while utilizing a clean, virgin alloy process that allows scrap to be recast as new product. For more information visit www.chicagofaucets.com.
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SOURCE The Chicago Faucet Company
SAN DIEGO, April 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — As a part of their joint commitment to advancing children’s nutrition and food access with the “Nourishing Families by Nourishing Schools” program, Del Monte Foods and Alliance for a Healthier Generation joined Field Elementary School in San Diego on April 18 to celebrate its recognition as one of America’s Healthiest Schools in the Food and Nutrition Access category. The celebration took place during the school’s Family Friday assembly, where attendees joined in a cooking demonstration with Del Monte® canned fruit, showcasing how healthier food options can still be affordable.
America’s Healthiest Schools recognizes schools across the country for their achievements in advancing the physical, mental, and social-emotional health of students, staff, and families. Del Monte Foods proudly sponsors the Improving Nutrition & Food Access topic area, aligning with its commitment as Growers of Good® to advance the health of youth and communities nationwide.
During the celebration, Healthier Generation and Del Monte Foods congratulated the school for their outstanding accomplishment and prepared a family-friendly snack, demonstrating how Del Monte® canned fruit can be used to prepare healthy, budget-friendly meals at home. Each family also received nutrition resources and recipe cards, available in English and Spanish, and samples of Del Monte® canned products to take home.
“Children learn best when their health and nutrition needs are taken care of,” said Kathy Higgins, CEO of Healthier Generation. “In partnership with Del Monte Foods, we’re ensuring children get the nourishment they need to succeed both in and out of the classroom.”
Through the partnership with Healthier Generation, Del Monte Foods has reached 11.4 million children and families at over 13,000 schools with tools to make nutritious meals at home. Last year, Del Monte Foods and Healthier Generation hosted a student taste test with an elementary school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where students got to try a new, healthy recipe featuring Del Monte® canned sliced pears and share their feedback.
“Del Monte Foods is proud to support school-based nutrition programs to improve children’s health and academic performance,” said Greg Longstreet, President and CEO of Del Monte Foods. “Field Elementary shines as a great example of a school that’s offering nutritious options that help students thrive, both academically and physically. We’re thrilled to celebrate their success in providing the resources kids need to succeed.”
This event also served as a celebration for the hundreds of schools across the country who applied for America’s Healthiest Schools 2025, which closed applications on April 15. This year’s awardees will be announced this fall.
For more information about Del Monte Foods and Healthier Generation’s “Nourishing Families by Nourishing Schools” initiative and for kid-friendly snack and easy weeknight dinner recipes, please visit www.healthiergeneration.org/delmontefoods.
About Del Monte Foods
For more than 138 years, Del Monte Foods has been driven by our mission to nourish families with earth’s goodness. As the original plant-based food company, we’re always innovating to make nutritious and delicious foods more accessible to consumers across our portfolio of beloved brands, including Del Monte®, Contadina®, College Inn®, Kitchen Basics®, JOYBA®, Take Root Organics™ and S&W®. We believe that everyone deserves great tasting food they can feel good about, which is why we responsibly source and produce food for a healthier tomorrow.
Del Monte Foods Corporation II Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of Del Monte Pacific Limited (Bloomberg: DELM SP, DELM PM) and is not affiliated with certain other Del Monte companies around the world, including Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., Del Monte Canada, Del Monte Asia Pte. Ltd., Conagra/Productos Del Monte, or Del Monte Panamerican. For more information about Del Monte Foods and our products, please visit www.delmontefoods.com or www.delmonte.com.
Media Contacts:
Molly Kavanaugh
Edelman
Molly.kavanaugh@edelman.com
650-339-2269
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/del-monte-foods-and-alliance-for-a-healthier-generation-bring-affordable-nutritious-canned-food-recipes-to-san-diego-families-amid-rising-food-costs-302433695.html
SOURCE Del Monte Foods
On an international work trip to Taiwan last summer, I was gazing out my airplane window at the sun shining, wind blowing and waves crashing, amazed by how these natural forces generate enough renewable energy to power global electricity demands. Yet less than one-third of global annual electricity comes from renewable sources.i Turns out it’s complicated to harness and deliver electricity where and when it’s needed. This was a key mission of my AMD trip and our ongoing work with the SEMI Energy Collaborative: to accelerate renewable energy access and rapidly decarbonize the semiconductor industry.
At AMD, we believe leveraging the benefits of technology while mitigating climate impacts relies on a combination of increased renewable energy use and energy-efficient computing. AMD and the broader sector have made strong progress in the product use phase, particularly in the data center where most energy use and emissions tend to occur. While these efforts need to continue, particularly given the acceleration of AI, our industry has been working to address key challenges in the manufacturing stage. The combination of more energy-intensive manufacturing processes in regions with renewable energy shortages raises challenges that require increased collaboration and new approaches to meet supply-and-demand.
In honor of this year’s Earth Day theme, “Our Power, Our Planet,” I am highlighting three ways companies in the semiconductor industry can help unlock the supply and impact of renewable energy.
- Adoption: Target “hotspots” where renewable energy is needed most
Data-informed energy and emissions assessments help identify hotspots across the value chain where more renewables could have an outsized impact to drive down total product emissions. This can be done at a product level by estimating product carbon footprints; at a corporate level by analyzing value chain emissions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3; or even at a sector level by aggregating industry data.
At AMD, we have more than tripled the amount of renewable energy sourced for our operations between 2020 and 2024 (from 36 to over 110 GWh) through onsite generation, utility green tariff programs and renewable energy credits, while currently evaluating power purchase agreements. However, we recognize that energy use and corresponding emissions in the AMD supply chain are much higher. BCG and CDP estimate that corporate supply chain emissions are on average 26 times higher than operational emissions.ii
Most of AMD supply chain energy use and emissions come from wafer foundries. TSMC has been a key partner for years, and AMD worked closely with TSMC as it increased its 2030 target for renewables from 40% to 60% of the total energy supply and pulled in its 100% renewable energy target from 2050 to 2040 iii.
However, the amount of renewable energy available in Taiwan is very limited, with around 12% of the country’s electricity coming from renewables.iv Considering that nearly 90% of the world’s most advanced chips come from Taiwan,v this is a key challenge that requires new approaches and a collective effort.
- Access: Join industry collaborations driving supply-and-demand solutions
In 2023, AMD became a founding member of the Semiconductor Climate Consortium (SCC) to drive sustainability and accelerate the industry’s transition to a low-carbon future. The SCC conducted the first in-depth analysis of the semiconductor value chain’s carbon footprint and found 80% of the industry’s emissions stem from electricity use.vi It also assessed where renewable energy demand far exceeded supply, revealing a handful of manufacturing regions that are central to the supply-and-demand conundrum. These insights led to the formation of the SEMI Energy Collaborative (EC), which AMD sponsored, to focus on understanding and removing obstacles to the installation of renewable energy in specific Asia-Pacific regions.
By collectively engaging on solutions to the policy, markets, technology and infrastructure challenges, the EC aims to broaden access to renewables within the next five to ten years. For example, the SCC has worked to lower geographic barriers for international companies to participate in building new renewable energy projects, which promotes increased competition and lower costs. On the demand side, the SCC is combining the renewable sourcing needs from various companies and using the larger scale to entice developers and investors to the business opportunity.
These strategies for addressing the regional nuances of renewable energy supply-and-demand markets are critical, but they will take time.
- Accounting: Modernize the framework for renewable energy reporting to unleash markets
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) is the global accounting standard that largely determines how emissions from energy use are accounted. The GHGP Scope 2 guidance, released in 2015, says renewable energy is to be sourced within the same grid where the emissions are accounted, with limited exceptions. Yet we know renewable energy is not adequately available in several regions, and emissions vary significantly depending on the electricity it displaces.
In 2025, AMD joined the Emissions First Partnership, which advocates for restructuring the accounting principles based on matching emissions instead of electricity consumption. A ton of carbon is a ton of carbon, and the climate doesn’t care where it comes from. By putting emissions first, we prioritize renewable energy investment to maximize impact (i.e., where grid emissions are higher) and scale (i.e., allowing sourcing from a broader market). For example, a company that aims to reach 100% renewable energy and that happens to operate in a region with limited supply could reach its goal years or even decades sooner, and likely at significantly lower costs.
In the end, these are complex challenges to solve. But that’s what we do at the cutting-edge of the semiconductor sector, and we do it best through collaborative, data-driven approaches. I am confident that by working with our suppliers and industry groups, we can rapidly accelerate renewable energy use and decarbonize the industry and planet. I invite business leaders to learn more about the SCC and EFP organizations.
For more information on AMD Environmental Sustainability initiatives, please visit https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/corporate-responsibility/environmental-sustainability.html.
ihttps://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2024/global-overview
ii“Corporates’ Supply Chain Scope 3 Emissions Are 26 Times Higher Than Their Operational Emissions,” CDP and BCG, https://www.eticanews.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Scope-3-Upstream-Report.pdf
iiihttps://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/3067
ivhttps://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2024/global-overview
vhttps://www.stimson.org/2022/semiconductors-and-taiwans-silicon-shield/
viSemiconductor Climate Consortium – Transparency, Ambition, and Collaboration: Advancing the Climate Agenda of the Semiconductor Value Chain (2023).
On April 16, 2025, 125 high school students in Indio, CA, were treated to a behind the scenes look of the iconic Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as part of an AEG Presents’ career exposure day.
The day was designed to introduce students to career opportunities in the live events industry and was held in partnership with the Mobius Conference, a two-day event that engages high-school students in topics around art, culture, and politics.
The students began their day at the popular Coachella activation, Party In My Living Room™, a house party created by LA-based artist THURZ, that brings together good tunes and good vibes. Students had a chance to listen to a fireside chat with THURZ, who spoke candidly about his career, the origins of the activation, and its connection to the community.
In addition to fireside chat with THURZ, students participated in a panel discussion with Goldenvoice staff where they learned what it takes to produce the world-renowned festival. The panelists also shared their individual career paths and recommendations on how to break into live music and event production. Panelists included Goldenvoice’s Talent Buyer, Chavantae Flakes; Production Coordinator, Kierrah Matthews; Director of Crowd Management, Mason Shaw; and Manager of Ticketing, Nicholas Green. The panel was moderated by AEG Presents, DEI Business Partner, Twana Simmons
Following the panel session students had a chance to participate in a dance class led by professional choreographer Alecc Daddoul and met with members of AEG Presents’ and Goldenvoice’s Human Resources team to learn about how to secure an internship, job pathways in live music, and career opportunities. The students wrapped up the day and received final words from Cole Froelich, VP Festival Operations, Goldenvoice festivals.
“Without an understanding of how to enter the workforce, statistics have shown that youth unemployment numbers increase. That’s why events like this career connection day are so important,” says Twana Simmons, DE&I Business Partner, AEG Presents. “By participating in this event, we hope students will have a better understanding about the opportunities available in the live event industry, and that it helps them better prepare for life after graduation whether it be from high school or college.”
To learn more about the Mobius Conference, click here.