Tag: 3BL

Key Points

• Personal Safety Professional Eric Lord helps support safe operations across Marathon Petroleum’s terminals in Florida and North Carolina, the Electronic Work Permitting team, the Safe Driving team and major projects.
• Lord says safety leadership depends on staying present in the field, reinforcing proactive tools and helping employees keep hazards front of mind from task to task.
• He also emphasized the importance of audits, training, incident reviews and careful planning, including work completed during Hurricane Helene response efforts with zero injuries.

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National Safety Month offers an opportunity to highlight the people who help keep safety at the center of everything we do. Lead Personal Safety Professional Eric Lord supports safe operations by helping teams strengthen hazard awareness, reinforce safe work practices, cultivate a culture of safety and apply Marathon Petroleum’s safety standards across terminals, major projects and enterprise safety initiatives. His perspective reflects the focus, discipline and collaboration that support safe operations across the company.

Lord began his Marathon Petroleum career in 1998 as a terminal operator and moved into Safety five years later. He now supports southern midstream operations, including terminals in Florida and North Carolina, electronic work permitting, safe driving and major projects. He holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration with a specialty in accounting and a minor in finance and is a certified safety professional through the Board of Certified Safety Professionals.

Q: How would you summarize your primary responsibilities as a safety professional at Marathon?
A: My key responsibility is making sure everyone feels educated and empowered to own their own safety and looking out for others. I help ensure compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Marathon standards through auditing, training, inspections and project oversight. I also investigate incidents, develop corrective actions and share lessons learned across sites so we can prevent recurrence and keep improving.

Q: What motivates you to keep safety top of mind daily?
A: After so many years here, Marathon feels like a second family. I never want to see anything happen to one of my brothers or sisters, and that is what drives me every day to inform, educate and correct so everyone goes home safely.

Q: How do you help other employees remain focused from task to task?
A: I advocate for our behavior-based safety program because it helps drive better decisions and stronger habits. It’s a proactive, data-driven framework designed to prevent workplace incidents. Paired with our Big 3 safety questions, it keeps hazards front of mind and supports a safer way to work. I strive to stay present in the field, offering support or a sounding board whenever someone needs it.

Big 3 Questions to recognize and mitigate hazards 

Plan – What are you going to do?

• Do you have the right tools and steps to perform the job?
• Have you communicated the plan with others?

Evaluate – What could go wrong?

• What are the hazards that could cause an injury?
• Any unintended consequences of your actions?
• If something goes wrong, does everyone understand they can stop the job to reassess?

Prevent – What do we mitigate?

• What are we going to do to make sure we mitigate, prevent or eliminate any of these hazards from causing an injury?

Q: How has your role evolved as you’ve progressed in your safety career at Marathon?
A: Early on, my large territory meant a heavy focus on inspections and audits. Over time, territories realigned and the role evolved into more one-on-one conversations with employees and contractors where I’m reinforcing that safety leadership belongs to everyone, not just the safety professional.

Q: How do you use both technical safety expertise and business knowledge to manage complex risk?
A: Risk is always present in our industry. The goal is to eliminate it where possible and manage it wisely where needed and hold the line on zero injuries. That takes experience, sound judgment and listening closely to the people doing the work.

Q: Can you describe a project or situation where your safety input significantly influenced outcomes?
A: One of the efforts I’m most proud of was our response to Hurricane Helene in 2024. Teams came together to replace critical equipment and help restore fuel supply to the Tampa Bay area. By working together, maintaining strict energy-isolation practices and planning every lift carefully, we completed the work with zero injuries.

Q: What skills or personal traits are helpful for being an effective safety professional?
A: Strong safety work starts with strong people skills. You must tailor the message to the audience, be willing to listen and keep learning. In this field, there is always more to understand, and that mindset makes safety leadership stronger.

By Liz Miles

The stark images of a single home standing amid charred ruins of its neighbors are an apocalyptic memory of the Eaton and Palisades fires across Los Angeles in January 2025, 18 months ago. There was one house left standing in Malibu. Another in Altadena. One more on the westside of Los Angeles. Fewer than a dozen homes were built to resist the raging fires that devastated 40,000 acres across L.A., $30 billion worth of real estate and over $200 billion in capital losses. Insured losses were estimated at $45 billion, an indicator of many homes being uninsured or underinsured.

But how did those few houses manage to survive? And what can they teach homeowners set on rebuilding on their property in designated high-risk wildfire zones? Today, at least 44 million homes in the United States are sited in vulnerable areas – what’s called the “wildland urban interface” (WUI) – either because of homeowners’ desire to live closer to nature or because housing prices are more affordable.

Material Defense
One home in the Palisades was constructed to be fire-resistant after its owners lost their first home to wildfire in 1993. Theirs was rebuilt with steel-reinforced walls and a metal roof. Walls trimmed in cinderblock protected the seams where walls meet the ground, preventing flaming debris from blowing indoors. Notable is what’s missing from the home: eaves and roof vents which can trap heat or allow burning embers, which start fires from inside the house. Plants and brush growing near the home are cleared weekly. While all the grass and bushes in the yard were singed to nothing, the house survived where neighbors’ homes burned to the ground. Native plants, acting as natural firebreaks, can protect buildings from wildfires by singing rather than igniting, thus slowing the spread of fire.

Other homes that stood post-wildfires were largely brand new, built after 2008 California Chapter 7A rules passed, which upgraded codes to require fire-resilient features to protect structures built in wildfire prone areas. They also had vegetation-free zones around the yard, fenced off by a solid concrete perimeter wall, metal roofs with a fire-resistant underlay, and covered chimneys to prevent burning embers from slipping indoors. Some used Class A wood, which provides the highest level of fire resistance. The lone-standing home in Malibu was concrete with a fire-resistant roof and tempered double-paned windows.

Wildfire-Hardened Homes
Not all homes hardened against wildfires survive. “There are lots of examples of homes that have done everything right, but when you’re fighting millions of wind-borne embers that are flying through gusts of 70-mile per hour winds, it’s hard to keep one from going underneath your garage door,” says Alexandra Syphard, a research ecologist who studies wildfires.

The WELL for residential certification includes Fire Mitigation as a strategy for improving home safety, as the “majority of all fire injuries and fire-related deaths occur in residential buildings” and because “homes located in wildland-urban interface zones and similar areas have an increased risk of experiencing a wildfire.”

A fire suppression system may not save a home, but it will slow down a fire enough to give occupants extra time to evacuate. The key is to well-maintain such systems. One system in the Pacific Palisades with “heat and flame detectors, fire retardant, a 2,500 gallon sprinkler system to soak the property and humidify the air for an hour, and autonomy from the power grid,” slowed the fire, but didn’t save the house. Some of the sprinklers were clogged. But it was the home’s position on a canyon-edge exposed to flames racing uphill that overwhelmed the home’s extensive protective device. Where housing gets sited is a major determinant of wildfire destruction.

The Best Defense: Community Collaboration
Since wildfires are a chain reaction event, leaping quickly from one structure to the next, the most effective defense is a whole cluster of wildfire-hardened homes. A group of forward-thinking neighbors in Altadena are working together to rebuild their homes using Passivhaus methodology, in this age of climate change where droughts last longer and fire conditions are intensifying.

Homes built using Passivhaus are airtight, keeping out smoke and toxic ash, and highly insulated, which reduces the need for air conditioning and heating. It also makes maintaining high quality indoor air an imperative. Many are built all electric for health and safety reasons, omitting reliance on fossil fuels. WELL for residential also advises homeowners to minimize combustion or eliminate combustion-based products altogether from the home, as doing so significantly reduces “combustion byproducts including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter” – exposure to which can lead to negative health effects such as asthma symptoms.

Short of collaborating with neighbors on brand new rebuilds with all fire-resistant materials, there are simple low-cost steps that neighbors can decide to implement together, which can dramatically reduce their homes’ vulnerability to fire. Steady maintenance and smart strategies include:

• Closing a fireplace flue during wildfire season
• Relocating firewood at least 30 feet from the house
• Installing metal gutter guards
• Enclosing under-deck areas with metal mesh screening
• Clearing dry vegetation from property
• Replacing mulch within five feet of buildings with non-combustible dirt, stone or gravel
• Cleaning roofs, gutters, decks and the bases of walls regularly to avoid accumulating fallen leaves and other flammable materials.

An Opportunity to Strengthen
Rebuilding after widespread disasters such as the Eaton and Palisades wildfires is a slow process. Of over 22,500 homes destroyed in five of California’s most destructive wildfires between 2017 and 2020, less than 40% were rebuilt by 2025. Meanwhile, homeowners in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena who received unsatisfactory settlements from insurance companies, are selling their land to developers, who have reportedly purchased 44.6% of fire-damaged properties in these areas. For the homes that survived, there is significant smoke damage to clear as well as remediation of land strewn with debris and toxic chemicals. Eighteen months after the wildfires, renewal and rebuilding continues to be an uphill battle.

The California Wildfire Rebuilding Guide, developed by U.S. Green Building Council-California with support from Arup, contains more information for homeowners making critical decisions while rebuilding. There is also new construction using low-cost methods such as prefabricated, factory built modules that are joined into a house on site. The Altadena Prefab Showcase displayed modular homes costing just $292 to $362 per square foot compared with traditional builds that cost between $500 to $650 per square foot. Factory built modular housing also goes up on a quicker timeline, taking around 5-6 months to design and 6-8 weeks to install. Cosmic Buildings is utilizing robotic methods in its pre-fab builds that can frame a home in just 10 days and complete the build in 4-6 months. These modular builds incorporate materials and designs that improve structures’ fire resilience.

Affordable building methods combined with more resilient design and fire-hardened materials will hopefully improve upon and strengthen these communities’ structural defenses against wildfires, helping to improve long-term safety and public health in the process.

View original content here.

Originally published in GoDaddy’s 2025 Global Stakeholder Impact Report

Our employee experience is grounded in inclusivity, engagement, and belonging.

We seek individuals who will bring enthusiasm, curiosity, and a passion for what we do to their everyday work. Attracting and retaining qualified talent from a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences is a strategic priority. We intentionally create an environment where all employees can feel represented, valued for their contributions, and comfortable sharing feedback. Once here, employees are encouraged to engage and collaborate with the community around them. We regularly evaluate our processes to incorporate feedback, reduce bias, and strengthen inclusivity across our operations, where possible.

GoDaddy employees bring our inclusive culture to life by sharing their stories through videos and posts.

GoDaddy is an incredible place to kickstart or grow a career, because this isn’t just a company, it’s a community that celebrates who you are. From day one you will feel the energy from the diverse groups, ERGs, different fun activities, and challenges that make your day more exciting. You’ll have endless opportunities to learn, grow, contribute to the community, and put your ideas into action.

Diksha S. Security Engineer

Inclusive Recruitment 

As a global company, we are proud of the hiring practices that enable GoDaddy to be an employer of choice for talent. This includes showcasing our inclusive culture and principles, and reaching broad, diverse candidate groups. Our practices include:

• Talent Partnerships: Through partnerships, we invest in talent pipelines and workforce development to support hiring across our global footprint.
• Fair & Accessible Hiring Practices: We focus on reducing bias in job descriptions, supporting internal mobility through transparent role postings, and offering flexible, virtual interview experiences. In furtherance of our human-centered approach while also harnessing the power of AI, we are transparent about how we are using AI in our hiring practices, and we also provide guidelines to help candidates who choose to use AI to support their interview process. We also offer interviewer certification training focused on inclusive candidate experiences, bias mitigation, and responsible AI use. To learn more, visit our GoDaddy Careers page.
• Early-Career & Workforce Development: We invest in future talent through our global internship program and programs such as the Future of Work Summer Camp and the GoDaddy Software Engineering Bootcamp Program to broaden access to technical training and career pathways.

TEXAS CONFERENCE FOR WOMEN AND TRANSFORM 2025

GoDaddy periodically participates in conferences and industry events to strengthen brand visibility and connect with the communities in which we operate. In 2025, GoDaddy attended the Texas Conference for Women and Transform 2025, to engage with professionals of various backgrounds and reinforce GoDaddy’s commitment to community and inclusive recruitment.

Employee Engagement 

Engaging a global, hybrid workforce means fostering connection, collaboration, and a shared sense of purpose, no matter where employees work. We prioritize clear communication, meaningful growth opportunities, and an inclusive culture where employees feel valued.

We support these priorities through our employee engagement programs, including the GoDaddy Fun Fund, which enables team bonding activities that strengthen relationships, and Everyday Champions, our global recognition platform that celebrates and recognizes peer contributions.

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) play an important role in fostering a workplace where all employees benefit from the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed. ERGs are voluntary, employee-led groups open to all employees, focused on the identities, interests, and experiences that matter to our employees. They support connection, professional development, skill building, and collaboration, while advancing GoDaddy’s priorities across talent, learning, business, and community impact.

Our 11 Global ERGs:

• GD Abilities in Tech¹¹
• GD Asians in Tech
• GD Black in Tech
• GD Entrepreneurs in Tech
• GD Fitness in Tech
• GD Green¹²
• GD LatinX in Tech
• GD Next in Tech¹³
• GD United¹⁴
• GD Veterans in Tech
• GD Women in Tech

GoDaddy Entrepreneurs in Tech (GDEIT) is a community of people who think like builders and innovators. For me, it’s the perfect blend of passion and profession. In my day job I get to solve real-life problems for entrepreneurs, and through GDEIT, I help nurture that same entrepreneurial spirit within GoDaddy. It’s incredibly fulfilling to support others who are curious, scrappy, and eager to create, just like the customers we serve.

Vinod S. VP Product Management, GoDaddy Entrepreneurs in Tech Sponsor

Employee Feedback

We aim to create a workplace and culture where employees feel respected and supported to do their best work. Listening to our employees is a critical part of our talent management approach, and in 2025, 79% of our employees participated in GoDaddy Voice, our annual engagement survey.¹⁵

¹¹Focused on disability inclusion. 
¹²Focused on sustainability and environmentalism. 
¹³Focused on early career in tech employees. 
¹⁴Focused on LGBTQIA+ inclusion.

¹⁵ In 2025, GoDaddy conducted two shorter pulse surveys rather than a full census survey, as was completed in prior years. Results reflect the Q3 pulse survey.

Learn more about GoDaddy’s 2025 Global Stakeholder Impact Report.

About this Report

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.

In this bonus episode of Rethinking EHS, host Angelique Dickson (President, Inogen Alliance) is joined by Mariarosaria Galiotti and Sofiane Kessouar from Baden Consulting (Switzerland) to explore a real-world energy resilience case study involving a multinational organisation operating in Switzerland. The discussion examines how large energy consumers must navigate Swiss regulatory requirements while identifying practical opportunities to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions.

Listen Now

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• YouTube

Time Stamps

• 00:00:00 – Introduction to the Swiss energy resilience case study
• 00:01:11 – Defining large energy consumers in Switzerland
• 00:02:13 – Legal obligations for energy efficiency and emissions reduction
• 00:02:31 – Regulatory compliance pathways and available options
• 00:03:31 – Choosing the most appropriate compliance strategy
• 00:04:09 – Single-site versus multi-site considerations
• 00:04:54 – Understanding Switzerland’s cantonal structure
• 00:05:22 – Local regulations and sustainable construction leadership
• 00:05:55 – Introduction to LEED certification
• 00:06:31 – Benefits of green building standards
• 00:07:06 – Key LEED certification categories
• 00:07:39 – Lower operating costs and environmental benefits
• 00:07:57 – Reflections on local expertise and real-world case studies
• 00:08:06 – Closing remarks and the value of global collaboration

Guest Quotes

Mariarosaria Gagliotti:

“By meeting the definition of a large energy consumer, the company is obligated to take action, implementing reasonable measures to optimise energy consumption.”

Sofiane Kessouar:

“The LEED certification provides a framework for designing, constructing and operating highly efficient and cost-saving green buildings.”

For 15 years, the Connected by Safety program has demonstrated a powerful truth across Latin America: safety is more than a set of rules; it is the cornerstone of a resilient, thriving community. Created by Foro 21 and backed by grant support from the Motorola Solutions Foundation, the program unites teachers, students, first responders and local leaders around a shared belief that lasting safety begins with connection. 

The Reach of a Shared Vision

What began as a bold commitment has grown into a movement spanning eight countries, including Brazil, Chile and Argentina, reaching everyone from young students to seasoned public safety officials. 

Through nearly 1,400 interactive workshops, the program has engaged 65,000 participants and counting. Each session shares the same purpose: inclusive, hands-on education that empowers every community member to play an active role in keeping their community safe. 

The Heart of the Mission: Cultivating a Culture of Safety

Connected by Safety equips children throughout Latin America with the tools to build safer, more inclusive and more responsible cities. By bringing school communities, security agents and volunteers together, the program creates a general connection between community members and the public safety officials who serve them. The result is a generation better prepared to navigate the world around them. Children learn to recognize risk, use communication as an early warning tool, remember emergency numbers and embrace their role as engaged community members.

A Commitment to Safety

Lasting safety demands ongoing commitment, diligence, advocacy and trust between civilians and the officials who serve them. Through its steadfast support, the Motorola Solutions Foundation invests in that brighter future. 

Fifteen years in, the impact is clear and the momentum is strong. The Foundation’s commitment honors the everyday heroes and resilient communities, building a safer future for generations to come.

MetLife

MetLife’s responsible investments seek to achieve a market financial return while considering social and/or environmental benefits that help create healthier communities and a more sustainable environment. Responsible investments focus on the core areas of infrastructure investments, green investments, municipal bonds, affordable housing and impact investments.

Affordable Housing

MetLife invests in high-quality housing projects that seek to build financial health and bring benefits to communities. These housing investments involve partnering with nonprofit organizations that provide below-market rental homes to low-income earners.

Affordable housing is not just for social good—it is a financially material and strategically aligned investment category that can help enhance community well‑being while delivering stable long‑term value for investors. This relevance is reflected in MetLife’s financing of a portfolio of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-supported affordable housing properties across several states. Proceeds from the transaction were used to maintain and support ongoing operations of existing properties, and funded critical preservation needs to help maintain long-term affordability for residents.

Infrastructure

MetLife invests in infrastructure projects that create jobs, support resilient communities and provide economic benefits. These projects could include building or upgrading airports, ports, roads, pipelines, transmission lines and power generation. The impact of this strategy is illustrated through projects that demonstrate how long‑term infrastructure investments can strengthen connectivity, accelerate the clean‑energy transition and deliver tangible benefits for communities.

Infrastructure investment examples include:

• MetLife is helping to finance Portugal’s first high‑speed rail between the country’s two largest cities, Lisbon and Porto. The line is expected to significantly reduce travel time while improving regional connectivity for millions of passengers annually.⁴ The project seeks to deliver meaningful social, economic and environmental benefits, including lower emissions, as it is expected to encourage demand to shift from road and air travel to more sustainable rail.
• MetLife was also a major lender in Project Aurora, a large solar and battery storage initiative in Chile’s Tarapacá Region. The project aims to advance the country’s clean energy transition by replacing coal‑based generation with renewable power and strengthening grid reliability through storage that enables solar energy delivery, even after sunset.

Municipal Bonds

MetLife’s municipal bond investments support infrastructure, education and community services spanning 46 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. The proceeds of these investments can be used to finance or refinance environmental, water and clean energy projects, as well as projects with anticipated positive social outcomes, such as affordable public housing and school building revitalization.

• MetLife invested in the Idaho Housing and Finance Association (IHFA), a self‑supporting financial institution that expands affordable housing and strengthens Idaho communities by providing homeownership lending, rental assistance, homelessness support and multifamily finance. With deep expertise in real estate development, finance and tenant services, IHFA is committed to making safe, stable and affordable housing accessible to all Idahoans.

Green Investments

MetLife invests in companies and projects that focus on the conservation of natural resources, the production and discovery of alternative energy sources, the implementation of clean air and water projects and other environmentally conscious business practices. These investments demonstrate how MetLife advances our New Frontier strategy by deploying capital into projects that seek to strengthen environmental resilience, reduce long‑term risk and support sustainable value creation.

For example:

• MetLife installed solar panels on the rooftop of its Fairmont Hotel investment in Washington, D.C. The solar panels generate renewable electricity that supplies the local power grid and decreases reliance on fossil fuels. The installation supports MetLife’s broader efforts to reduce its overall carbon footprint by contributing to a greener grid.
• As part of a financing agreement, MetLife partnered with Resource Management Service, LLC, on behalf of investors to enroll thousands of acres in a Working Forest Conservation Easement (WFCE) funded by the U.S. Forest Service in partnership with South Carolina Forest Commission. The WFCE preserves sensitive lands vital to clean water, wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities, while also supporting rural economies dependent on timber resources for economic development.

Impact Investments

Since the MetLife Impact Investment program’s inception in 1984, MetLife has committed approximately $1 billion, with an average of $40.9 million annually for the past 10 years. The program’s investments are made with the intent to generate positive financial returns alongside measurable social and environmental outcomes, such as supporting financial health and climate resilience. These impact investments are originated solely for MetLife and MetLife Foundation. See For Our Communities for more information about MetLife Foundation’s work.

• Through our General Account (GA) portfolio, MetLife is a lender to the Lendable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Fintech Credit Fund II, which aims to expand financing for micro, small and medium enterprises and consumers by lending to fintechs in frontier and emerging markets. Lendable’s work supports access to fair financial resources that unlock consistent access to food, clean water, electricity, shelter, education and income.

Read more about our responsible investments in MetLife’s 2025 Sustainability Report.

 

^{1 At estimated fair value as of December 31, 2025. See the Glossary for responsible investments definitions.}

^{2 Green investments include MetLife Real Estate and Agriculture investments.}

^{3 Represents impact investments originated solely for MetLife’s GA investment portfolio and MetLife Foundation.}

^{4 Railway News (July 2025). https://railwaynews.net/portugal-high-speed-rail-lisbon-porto-line-funding-impact.html. Accessed February 2026.}

Originally published on Whispp

The project brought Whispp’s audio-to-audio Voice Reconstruction AI together with the on-device processing capabilities of Snapdragon X Elite. Thirty participants across nine countries used the technology during everyday calls and online conversations, providing practical feedback on performance, usability, privacy and communication quality.

Download the white paper

Bringing real-time Voice Reconstruction AI onto the device

Live voice communication leaves little room for delay, unstable processing or interruptions. For Voice Reconstruction AI to feel natural in conversation, the system needs to process audio continuously and respond almost immediately.

Whispp reconstructs whispered or affected speech into a clear, natural voice without first converting it into text. By keeping the process audio-to-audio and running it locally, the technology is designed to preserve conversational timing, expression and elements of the speaker’s identity.

For the pilot, Whispp was optimized to run on the Snapdragon X Elite platform, using its dedicated Neural Processing Unit to support real-time Voice Reconstruction AI inference.

Why the NPU matters

Running Voice Reconstruction AI on a dedicated NPU can improve both performance stability and energy efficiency. This is especially relevant for technology that needs to operate continuously during calls rather than process a single prompt or isolated task.

Testing conducted during the pilot showed that Whispp maintained processing latency of approximately 48 to 50 milliseconds when running on the NPU. CPU-based execution showed greater variation, including latency spikes and disruptions during sustained processing.

The NPU also delivered substantially longer battery runtime in the test setup. Whispp ran for approximately 310 minutes on the NPU, compared with around 130 minutes during CPU-based processing under the same conditions.

“This collaboration with Qualcomm allowed us to test Whispp where the technology ultimately needs to perform: in real conversations, on the devices people already use. Running Voice Reconstruction AI efficiently on Snapdragon X Elite shows what becomes possible when this technology moves directly onto the device.”

Joris Castermans, Founder and CEO of Whispp

Click here to read more on Whispp

Francia Páramo, Director of Freight Forwarding in DP World in Mexico, was recognized in T21’s “100 Women in Transportation and Logistics 2026,” an annual list celebrating women who are shaping the future of Mexico’s transportation, logistics, and supply chain sectors through leadership, innovation, and professional excellence.

Published by T21, one of Mexico’s leading business media outlets covering transportation, logistics, supply chains, ports, and international trade, the recognition celebrates business leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, and supply chain professionals whose careers have helped advance both their organizations and the broader logistics industry.

With more than 25 years of experience in logistics and international trade, Páramo has built a distinguished career in freight forwarding, business development, and strategic account management. Before joining DP World, she held leadership positions at global logistics companies including Kuehne+Nagel, Damco (Maersk), and CEVA Logistics, helping customers strengthen supply chains and expand international trade opportunities.

Today, as Director of Freight Forwarding at DP World in Mexico, Páramo leads the company’s freight forwarding business through an integrated end-to-end logistics model, providing solutions spanning air, ocean, and ground transportation, customs services, and supply chain management. Her leadership has strengthened DP World’s presence in strategic trade corridors supporting nearshoring and international commerce while delivering tailored logistics solutions for industries including automotive, retail, technology and consumer goods.

“Receiving this recognition is an honor because it reflects the incredible progress women are making across the logistics industry,” said Páramo. “As our industry continues to evolve, diverse perspectives and strong collaboration will be essential to building more resilient supply chains and creating opportunities for the next generation of leaders.”

Francia Páramo’s recognition reflects DP World’s broader commitment to fostering diverse leadership and creating opportunities for women across the logistics industry. By investing in talent and empowering leaders, DP World continues to strengthen the teams driving smarter, more connected global trade.

Learn more about the people driving innovation and shaping the future of logistics at DP World.

Purpose. Profit. Politics. Few business leaders have spent more time at the intersection of all three than Matthew McCarthy.

As former CEO of Ben & Jerry’s and a longtime leader at Unilever, he’s spent decades navigating the collision of competing stakeholder expectations, public pressure, and business performance.

On ‘It Shouldn’t Be This Hard’, we talk to business leaders, sustainability professionals, and social impact entrepreneurs working at the intersection of purpose and performance—hosting lively, playful (and often provocative) discussions around why sometimes it’s so hard to do the right thing… and do the right things.

In Part 2 of our conversation with Matthew McCarthy, we tackle anti-woke backlash, the monetization of conflict, the collapse of trust, and the difficult reality of leadership in a world where outrage is increasingly stoked over collaboration and progress.

Listen to Part 2 of the interview here.

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Grounded is a multi-award-winning, B Corp certified brand activation agency — thriving at the intersection of brand experience, commercial innovation, sustainability and social impact. They work with brands, retailers, startups and nonprofits all over the world, helping them transform purpose into profit, commercialize sustainability and drive positive behavior change at scale. Learn more.

NEW YORK, July 21, 2026 /3BL/ – The 2026 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report was released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and UNICEF. The report is the leading annual benchmark on global hunger, food access, and the affordability of healthy diets. Rotimy Djossaya, Chief Impact Officer with Action Against Hunger, available for interviews to discuss the findings.

The 2026 SOFI report, “Understanding and Addressing the High Costs of a Healthy Diet,” puts global hunger at 645 million people, 7.8% of the world’s population. This is a decrease of just 14 million from 2025’s estimate of 720 million. That decline is concentrated in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia; it does not reflect what is happening in Africa, where 309 million people, or 1 in 5, are hungry and 66.6% cannot afford a healthy diet. Without a sharp course correction, which includes reversing aid cuts, addressing conflict, and investing in climate-resilient food systems, the modest gains recorded elsewhere will not hold, and Africa’s trajectory will continue to worsen.

This year’s report also lands amid a prolonged funding crisis for humanitarian nutrition programs. In early 2025, the United States terminated roughly 90% of its foreign aid contracts, including $1.4 billion in emergency nutrition funding, and the effects are still unfolding. More than 13 million children across West and Central Africa alone are projected to suffer from malnutrition in 2026 as aid cuts push millions deeper into hunger. Supply chains for treatments like ready-to-use therapeutic food remain disrupted, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz continues to push up global food prices, adding further risk for children already on the edge.

Key findings:

• For the first time on record, Africa has more hungry people than Asia: 309 million, or 1 in 5 people, compared with 292 million (6%) in Asia. Latin America and the Caribbean stand at 4.8% (32 million); Oceania at 8% (3.7 million).
• Africa’s hunger population has nearly doubled since 2010, from 171 million to 309 million in 2025, driven by conflict, displacement, climate shocks, and economic instability in countries including Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and Nigeria.
• Nearly one in three people worldwide (32.7%) cannot afford a healthy diet. In Africa, that figure is two in three (66.6%) – more than double the rate in Asia (28.9%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (25.7%).
• Official Development Assistance from DAC donor countries fell 23.1% in 2025 compared with 2024. Action Against Hunger was forced to close more than 50 projects across 20 countries as a result, cutting services to hundreds of thousands of people, most of them in Africa. In Madagascar, the organization closed 3 of its 5 sub-bases and 10 mobile clinics stopped operating, affecting treatment for over 5,000 children with acute malnutrition. In Burkina Faso, 6 of 8 bases closed between 2025 and 2026.

“When 645 million people are hungry, that’s cause for concern. Perhaps even more alarming is the fact that this figure doesn’t yet count the ways that rising inflation, current conflicts, El Niño and other climate shocks are making hunger even worse,” said Rotimy Djossaya, Chief Impact Officer for Action Against Hunger USA.

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Action Against Hunger leads the global movement to end hunger. We innovate solutions, advocate for change, and reach 26.5 million people every year with proven hunger prevention and treatment programs. As a nonprofit that works across over 55 countries, our 8,500+ dedicated staff members partner with communities to address the root causes of hunger, including climate change, conflict, inequity, and emergencies. We strive to create a world free from hunger, for everyone, for good.

Spokesperson available. 

CONTACT:
Kara Green
kgreen@actionagainsthunger.org