Tag: 3BL

National interdisciplinary design firm, HGA, set out to understand how employees experience, perceive, and define workplace equity. Much of the literature on workplace equity focuses on its significance to business success rather than on the individual employee experience. Researchers from HGA’s Design Insight Group (DIG) interviewed 19 participants from diverse groups, including BIPOC, hourly employees, and those hired after March 2020. Participants voiced their understanding of workplace equity, made suggestions for enhancing equity, and answered pertinent questions.

The research aimed to: (a) offer an employee centered definition of equity in the workplace; (b) investigate the outcomes, enablers, and barriers of workplace equity; and (c) demonstrate, through examples and ideas, how the research insights into boosting equity can be translated into workplace solutions through physical space, workflow processes, technological resources, and organizational culture.

The process, along with qualitative research and a literature review, led to an intricate and expanded definition of equity and uncovered key insights. The researchers next tested a successful co-creation process in workshops with an HGA interdisciplinary team. The process transformed the insights into actionable steps to support equity at a particular organization.

Throughout this research three equity constructs resonated the strongest with interviewees:

Growth: Participants underscored the importance of ongoing learning and opportunities for advancement.Purpose: Interpretations of purpose ranged from a sense of purpose tied to the company’s mission, to intellectual stimulation, to revenue generation as a means to fulfill broader life purposes.Belonging: This outcome wasn’t exclusively around attachment to the company; rather, around fostering respectful and inclusive social dynamics within the workplace culture.

Semi-structured interviews enriched comprehension of workplace equity by humanizing data and allowing for meaningful engagement with employees’ lived experiences, leading to more effective strategies for positive change.

To effectively cultivate equity in the workplace, adopting a nuanced, employee-centered approach is crucial, given the variable interpretations of what equity means across individual and organizational contexts.

Download “Boosting Equity in the Workplace” to learn:

20 research-based insights that reveal underlying needs, desires, and challenges around equity.15 workplace solutions for boosting equity through physical space, workflow processes, technological resources, and organizational culture.

Read the full report here: https://www.hga.com/boosting-equity-in-the-workplace/

Energized by Edison

One of the highlights of Edison International’s trip to Dubai for the COP28 climate summit was visiting the massive Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park outside Dubai. With a planned capacity of 5,000 megawatts, it’s the world’s largest single solar power facility, and it will eliminate 6½ million tons of carbon emissions each year when complete in 2030.

Eleven years after the project’s launch, it is already halfway to its solar power generating goal. It is heralded as a shining example of a successful public-private partnership.

To put that in perspective, in the United States it can take 10 to 12 years — and often even more — just to build a new transmission line because of inefficient permitting regulations. Now that the federal government has approved hundreds of billions of dollars in incentives for new clean energy projects through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, there’s concern that permitting bottlenecks will slow the clean energy transition.

“We need hard, concrete results on things like siting and permitting reform,” said Edison International President and CEO Pedro Pizarro before he toured the solar facility at COP28. “Those investments need to make their way into steel in the ground and right now that isn’t happening fast enough.” Permitting delays are not just a U.S. problem. Several global CEOs who toured the solar facility expressed similar frustrations in the CEO roundtable.

Edison International joined a group of more than 25 global utilities at the climate summit in a pledge to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Reforming cumbersome siting and permitting regulations is imperative to meeting those clean energy goals.

Also participating in COP28 was Edison Energy, which is advising some of the world’s largest corporate, industrial and institutional companies on how to make science-based sustainability improvements in their operations, with a strong focus on supply chain reforms.

News coverage of COP28 was dominated by the role fossil fuels should play in the clean energy future. Pizarro and other energy industry leaders spent considerable time at COP28 discussing the merits of a “phase down” or “phase out” of fossil fuels. “For California, while we still see a need for fossil fuels in 2045 to maintain the most reliable and affordable pathway to meet the state’s climate goals, using negative carbon [carbon capture and offsets] is expected to address the emissions from those remaining fossil fuels,” Pizarro said.

“Doing this in a way that ensures reliability and resiliency is critical, so that’s why at least through 2045, it’s a phase down. Beyond that, probably it’s an eventually phase out as technologies mature,” Pizarro said.

Among the emerging technologies are offshore wind turbines, next-generation geothermal, hydrogen and power generated by smaller, advanced nuclear reactors that are safer and produce less waste.

The U.S. and 21 other nations at the summit pledged to triple their nuclear energy capacity by 2050, which U.S. Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry called a crucial pillar to achieving net zero.

“We are agnostic about which technologies will prove to be most successful, however, we know that we will need all the tools in the toolbox,” Pizarro said.

For more on SCE’s clean energy efforts, visit energized.edison.com/cleanenergy.

In a time of rapidly evolving technological change, it’s more important than ever that we accelerate our work to close the digital divide.

Recently, Comcast brought together hundreds of nonprofit and local leaders from across the nation for our Project UP Summit – leaders who are empowering communities to leverage technology to shape their lives. It was an inspiring two days at our headquarters in Philadelphia, and the perfect way to also celebrate Comcast’s founding 60 years ago.

Project UP, our $1 billion initiative to connect tens of millions of people to the Internet, is investing in, and partnering with, trusted community leaders nationwide to break down barriers to economic mobility and empower people with the skills and resources they need to succeed.

The Summit was a place for our partners to gather, learn, and deepen our collective impact to address social inequities and advance economic mobility. Through every panel, breakout session, partner spotlight, and conversation, three recurring themes emerged that will inform our work well beyond the summit:

By being in community, we have the power to solve challenges, earn trust, and effect change. Project UP partners are driving interconnected solutions that strengthen communities and help more people realize meaningful opportunities. Through stories like that of Ms. Jo Ethel (a community member) and Fernando Perez (a Digital Navigator with SERJobs), the impact of our work was powerfully described. As author Ruha Benjamin reminded us, small acts led by communities can “make justice contagious and generosity infectious.”

Public-private partnerships can unlock the promises of technology, propel economic mobility, and further broadband adoption and digital skills training. Leaders like Benya Beacom, co-founder of Lead for America, and Michael Smith, CEO of AmeriCorps, are answering the call of public service and partnering with Comcast to create a digital equity national service corps focused on small and rural towns and reemerging mid-sized cities.

This national movement, already underway, encourages young leaders across the country to return to, and reinvest in, the places they’re from and they love. Many Project UP partners are, as Benya said, “doing the hard work to make sure that resources allocated at the federal level are touching down in states and cities to ultimately make a difference.” Comcast is committed to ensuring that every community has access to digital opportunities like the Affordable Connectivity Program – the nation’s largest ever broadband benefit program.

Through mentorship we give back, inspire, and prepare the next generation for unlimited possibilities. As we look ahead to the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, Team USA will once again provide inspiration to millions of Americans. We heard from Jordan Burroughs and Trevon Jenifer – decorated U.S. Olympic and U.S. Paralympic gold medalists, devoted teachers, and proud mentors – on their storied athletic journeys and how having the support of community and mentors remains integral to their success.

As Jordan noted, “If I broke my gold medal to give a piece to each person and organization that’s helped me along the way, I would give each a speck of dust.” Having mentors and resources matters for young people to learn what is possible and how to achieve their dreams.

The inspirational story of Kevin Butler, who secured in-home Internet service for his family through Comcast’s Internet Essentials and discovered The Hidden Genius Project, which provided mentorship in growing his own digital skills, serves as an example.

Being in community, collaborating with partners, and investing in mentors are all central to the mission of Project UP. These themes only reinforce our resolve and fuel our aim to help close the digital divide and build a future of unlimited possibilities.

This ESG Talk mini-series highlights two episodes featuring Tensie Whelan, director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business. Part one introduces CSB’s innovative Return on Sustainability Investment—or ROSI—model. In part two, Tensie and Mandi McReynolds are joined by Kelly Fisher, head of corporate sustainability at HSBC Bank USA, and share stories of companies driving financial performance with ESG.

Listen Now

Looking for more? Subscribe to the ESG Talk podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, and YouTube.

Southern Company

EPRI and Southern Company recently announced the plenary speakers for the Electrification International Conference & Exposition, scheduled for March 12-14, 2024, in Savannah, Ga. Kicking off the event will be EPRI President and CEO Arshad Mansoor, and Southern Company President and CEO Chris Womack.

EPRI’s Electrification conference is the only event that brings together the entire ecosystem of electric technologies and stakeholders to collaborate around e-mobility (consumer and fleet vehicles and infrastructure), residential and commercial building decarbonization, industrial applications, agriculture, policy, regulatory developments, and more. It features a comprehensive agenda with expert speakers, an all-encompassing exhibit hall and multiple networking functions.

“By joining Electrification 2024, attendees will learn about the innovations shaping electrification and decarbonization, as well as the processes and policies that could facilitate our electrified future,” said Mansoor. “Electrification 2024 is the go-to event for innovators and decision-makers from across the electrification spectrum. All sectors must work together to achieve solutions that are practicable and scalable to meet decarbonization goals and the needs of every community.”

Plenary speakers include representatives from companies like Amazon, the U.S. Department of Energy, Daimler Truck, Exelon, and many more, participating in panel topics including Driving Community Equity Through Electrification, Putting Equity to Work in the Community, and Policy Implications for an Electrified Future. The event offers a comprehensive agenda with eight diverse tracks covering industrial, decarbonized transportation, smart and decarbonized buildings, people and communities, low-carbon fuels in electrification, electrification and grid impacts, and controlled environment agriculture.

“Southern Company is excited to host Electrification 2024 in the state of Georgia, where we are honored to serve millions of customers with their energy needs,” said Womack. “Collaboration and education are foundational principles of the innovation we are cultivating as we work together toward a net zero future.”

“As a founding member of EPRI, Southern Company is proud to take a leadership role in Electrification 2024,” said Dr. Mark S. Berry, senior vice president of Southern Company research and development. “We look forward to promoting an open dialogue that will advance impactful new technologies for the benefit of the customers and communities we serve.”

To receive updates on Electrification 2024, sign up for EPRI’s Electrification Events email list. Credentialed reporters can obtain a free pass to attend the event.

Follow #ElectricTogether on LinkedIn and X to see stories of the “Humans of Electrification,” highlighting the people in the industry and their personal stories, demonstrating the breadth, depth, and diversity of this community.

In today’s modern world, we have an insatiable appetite for data. As the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates and compute-intensive industries seek higher performance, energy demands continue to grow. New data centers are emerging and expanding to support the increasing demand for cloud infrastructures, high performance AI applications, supercomputing and more. As we continue to stretch the boundaries of what’s possible in computing, future improvements are becoming increasingly energy constrained. In fact, we’ve collectively been on a trajectory to consume more energy than the market can support within the next two decades.[i] The need for innovative energy solutions is becoming more and more important.

AMD is setting the pace of innovation for more energy efficient computing performance. We are deeply focused on energy efficiency in our product development, holistically crafting the designs for power optimization across architecture, connectivity, packaging and software. With this focus on energy efficiency, we aim to reduce costs, preserve natural resources, and mitigate climate impacts.

In 2021, we announced our vision to deliver a 30x energy efficiency improvement by 2025 from a 2020 baseline for accelerated data center compute nodes. We call this our 30×25 goal. Built with AMD EPYC™ CPUs and AMD Instinct™ accelerators, these nodes are designed for some of the world’s fastest-growing computing needs in AI training and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. While these applications require increasing amounts of computing power and energy, they’re vital to solving some of the most essential – and challenging – problems humanity has ever grappled with. Supercomputers like the AMD powered Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are leveraging accelerated compute to advance scientific research, genomics, new drug discoveries, climate predictions, as well as key advancements in AI which will be the defining technology to shape the next generation of computing. In fact, AMD now powers eight of the top 10 most energy efficient supercomputers on the latest Green500 list, including the two most powerful supercomputers in the top 10, Frontier and the Adastra supercomputer.

2023 Progress Update

So, how are we doing so far? With today’s launch of the AMD Instinct MI300 series accelerators, we’re thrilled to be making significant new strides toward our goal from the progress we shared last year and remain optimistic we can meet our 30×25 goal in 2025. With the latest performance data, we have achieved a 13.5x improvement from the 2020 baseline using a configuration of four AMD Instinct MI300A APUs (GPU with integrated 4th Gen EPYC™ “Genoa” CPU).[ii] Our goal utilizes a measurement methodology validated by renowned compute energy efficiency researcher and author Dr. Jonathan Koomey.

One of the innovations we’re leveraging in our AMD Instinct MI300 Series accelerators is AMD Smart Shift technology, which adaptively shares power between the CPU and GPU depending on where a specific application – generative AI for example – needs it the most. This is a fantastic example of the power of our APU architecture, which brings together CPU and GPU capabilities in a single package, as well as the innovation we can drive through ambitious energy efficiency goals. The foundation of Smart Shift technology is rooted in our work to achieve our 25×20 energy efficiency goal, which ultimately delivered a 31.7x improvement in the energy efficiency of our mobile processors compared to the 2014 baseline.

Design choices like these are pushing MI300A to deliver a >2x performance per watt advantage over comparable competitor chips.[iii] This brings a host of benefits including significant savings in electricity use, greenhouse (GHG) emissions and total cost of ownership at the solution level.

This is fantastic progress, but there’s still more to be done.

Where do we go from here?

As Moore’s law continues to show diminishing returns, and costs per transistor rise, we’re at an inflection point in the technology improvement trends where we’re seeing a marked slowdown in both density and energy per operation improvements, particularly as we scale past 5nm nodes into 3nm and 2nm and beyond.

In other words, the industry can’t rely solely on smaller transistors to drive significant performance and efficiency increases in future generations of processers. To overcome the slowing of Moore’s law, and to continue innovating new processor designs that deliver significant gains in both power and efficiency, we’re addressing the problem from a holistic design perspective, reimagining everything from our approach to packaging, architecture, memory, software and more.

While there is still more to be done to reach our 30×25 goal, I continue to be pleased by the work of our engineers and encouraged by the results so far. MI300 marks a significant step forward, and I hope you’ll continue to check in with us as we report annually on our progress.

Footnotes

[i] As reported by the SRC decadal plan for semi-conductors 2020.  https://www.src.org/about/decadal-plan/

[ii] Includes AMD high-performance CPU and GPU accelerators used for AI training and High-Performance Computing in a 4-Accelerator, CPU hosted configuration. Goal calculations are based on performance scores as measured by standard performance metrics (HPC: Linpack DGEMM kernel FLOPS with 4k matrix size. AI training: lower precision training-focused floating-point math GEMM kernels such as FP16 or BF16 FLOPS operating on 4k matrices) divided by the rated power consumption of a representative accelerated compute node including the CPU host + memory, and 4 GPU accelerators.

[iii] Measurements conducted by AMD Performance Labs as of December 4th, 2023 on the AMD Instinct™ MI300A (760W) APU designed with AMD CDNA™ 3 5nm | 6nm FinFET process technology at 2,100 MHz peak boost engine clock resulted in: 
 • 122.6 TFLOPs peak theoretical double precision Matrix (FP64 Matrix), 
 • 61.3 TFLOPs peak theoretical double precision (FP64), 
 • 122.6 TFLOPs peak theoretical single precision Matrix (FP32 Matrix), 
 • 122.6 TFLOPs peak theoretical single precision (FP32), floating-point performance. 

 Published results on Nvidia GH200 1000W GPU: 
 • 67 TFLOPs peak theoretical double precision tensor (FP64 Tensor), 
 • 34 TFLOPs peak theoretical double precision (FP64), 
 • N/A FP 32 Tensor -  Nvidia GH200 GPUs don’t support FP32 Tensor. Regular FP32 number used as proxy. 
 • 67 TFLOPs peak theoretical single precision (FP32), floating-point performance. 
 Nvidia GH200 source:  https://resources.nvidia.com/en-us-grace-cpu/grace-hopper-superchip 

 GH200 TFLOPs per Watt Calculations (peak wattage of 1000W used): 
 • FP64 Matrix: 67 TFLOPs / 1000W = 0.067 TFLOPs per Watt 
 • FP64: 34 TFLOPs / 1000W = 0.034 TFLOPs per Watt 
 • FP32: 67 TFLOPs / 1000W = 0.067 TFLOPs per Watt 

 * Nvidia GH200 GPUs don’t support FP32 Tensor. 

 Actual performance and performance per watt may vary on production systems.

Originally published on Built From Scratch

Maureen Caine was looking for a fresh start after losing her husband. Now, more than 10 years later, she’s found a sense of belonging helping customers with her fellow associates at The Home Depot in Columbia, South Carolina.

“They showed me care and compassion that was unbelievable,” says Maureen. “It wasn’t long before I realized that I had not only found a job, but I had found a home.”

As a customer order specialist, Maureen is passionate about helping customers get what they need for their home improvement projects. She also treats everyone who walks into the store like family, showing the same kindness she was welcomed with a decade ago. Maureen thrives on getting wins for her customers. Here’s her story.

Behind the Apron is a video docuseries that focuses on associate stories of perseverance, personal growth, community service, and reinforces The Home Depot’s core values.

Interested in a career at The Home Depot? Visit careers.homedepot.com.

Keep up with all the latest Home Depot news! Subscribe to our bi-weekly news update and get the top Built from Scratch stories delivered straight to your inbox.

Originally published by Team Rubicon

New no-cost trainings are bolstering disaster management capabilities within at-risk communities and providing them the ability to plan for future crises on their own.

For a community to effectively respond to and recover from disaster, that community must first understand its capabilities before the disaster happens. Decades of research demonstrate that every dollar a community spends on disaster preparedness can save anywhere from $4 to $11 in response or recovery costs. One of just three nongovernmental organizations nationwide to have a memorandum of agreement with FEMA, Team Rubicon has extensive experience and recognized expertise in disaster management and preparedness. Sharing that expertise in a professional setting is one of the most valuable services Team Rubicon offers vulnerable communities.

As a longtime sponsor of Team Rubicon, FedEx has helped countless communities after disasters across America. Team Rubicon’s mission, however, is to serve global communities before, during, and after disasters and crises, and FedEx’s partnership extends into supporting the before phase as well. Disaster preparedness exercises are one of the most effective ways that Team Rubicon reduces the impact of disasters on vulnerable communities: by bolstering the disaster management capacity in those communities. FedEx is a crucial ally in providing communities at risk with the knowledge and training to successfully plan for future crises.

How Communities Benefit from Disaster Preparedness Exercises

Many communities lack the resources to conduct disaster exercises effectively; community leaders need significant time, money, and trained personnel in order to practice their disaster-management strategies. Team Rubicon Greyshirts regularly conduct disaster preparedness exercises across the country for a wide variety of threats, from wildfires to floods—whatever hazard a community could face—all of which are run by Master Exercise Practitioners. Master Exercise Practitioners are FEMA-trained and -certified exercise managers. They are professionals with advanced knowledge and skills in emergency management exercise design, conduct, and evaluation. The professional structure of an experienced team can lead to great potential savings for communities that lack the resources to perform their own exercises.

“Most of the areas that we go to don’t have adequate funding or staff,” said Michael Brady, one of Team Rubicon’s Master Exercise Practitioners, “and our ability to bring these simulations at no cost to the community, along with our experience and certification, helps them build their capabilities.”

Building capacity begins with identifying disaster preparedness deficiencies, such as a lack of appropriate response equipment, an inadequate communications system, or staff without the necessary training to respond to a disaster. One of the primary advantages of these simulations is that they offer a no-fault, low-cost environment in which to stress-test a community’s disaster plans. Another advantage of these exercises is that the benefits scale up for tinier communities, says Team Rubicon’s Exercise & Field Leadership Manager, Greg Ramoni. “The smaller the community, the more time- and cost-prohibitive such an exercise is and so the greater the benefits to the community become.”

Most recently, this was the case for a small college in Wisconsin. In October of 2023, Team Rubicon helped the college conduct a tabletop exercise—a classroom-style simulation in which participants discuss their roles during a specific potential emergency and their responses to that particular scenario—for an active shooter situation.

“This is a small school,” explains Brady, “the impact on them, if there’s an active shooter, is going to be massive because they don’t have the resources like a big state university. By us going down there, we gave them close to that level of preparedness.”

By coming in as a neutral party Team Rubicon helps emergency managers and community leaders identify gaps in their planning, potentially saving time, money, and lives when a disaster does strike. As professionals from outside the community, Team Rubicon’s Master Exercise Practitioners provide expert analysis and testing that would otherwise be too expensive for many communities to afford. Thanks to FedEx, the costs and basic logistics of setting up and running an exercise don’t get handed off to the communities, either. Exercises demand paperwork, forms, posters, handouts, and more. “Every exercise we do,” said Brady, “there’s, at the very least, 11×17 handouts printed with all the exercise scenario information, all right out of a FedEx Office.”

Preparing for the Worst, Anywhere

The potential benefits of these simulations may be larger for smaller communities, but because Team Rubicon’s disaster preparedness exercises are based on the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP), they provide actionable lessons for communities of all sizes. Additionally, as a nationally recognized set of best practices, guiding principles, and performance guidelines, the HSEEP methodology is designed to be appropriate for all kinds of disasters—from cyclones and blizzards to wildfires to hurricanes and everything in between.

Toward the end of 2022, Team Rubicon participated in a full-scale nuclear disaster simulation in Atlanta with around 40 federal, military, state, local, and nonprofit agencies and organizations. “This gives us the ability to really respond to any situation,” said Chayne Sparagowski with the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency to Atlanta News First, “whether it’s a national disaster that occurs and we need to bring in some of these folks or something worse like a chemical, radiological, nuclear event.”

Team Rubicon’s emergency planning assistance isn’t limited to planning for domestic disasters. In the summer of 2023, Michael Brady and another Greyshirt flew to Colombia to lead a three-day disaster preparedness exercise, something the Colombian government had never done before. “Not only had they never run an exercise,” said Brady, “but should a major disaster strike, the government doesn’t have the infrastructure or capacity to quickly access many areas of the country; rural and remote communities will be on their own after a disaster. We empowered them to develop their own local exercises and their own local response using the templates that we shared with them.”

Team Rubicon’s exercises run the gamut from a functional, full-scale exercise to classroom seminars to small workshops; all of them allow community leaders to test their plans, policies, and personnel in a no-fault, low-cost environment. Partners like FedEx make it possible to bring these efforts to communities of all sizes, facing all varieties of disasters or crises. “I get to help train communities to better respond, to help people in their worst day.” said Greg Ramoni, “and FedEx helps get us there before that worst day happens.”

Nasdaq

On November 8, Nasdaq attended the Corporate Governance Awards by Governance Intelligence, formerly known as Corporate Secretary Magazine. The panel of expert judges was comprised of corporate governance professionals and Governance Intelligence editorial team members, including Joan Conley, Senior Advisor on Corporate Governance & ESG Programs at Nasdaq.

Nasdaq was nominated for three awards: Best ESG Reporting (Large Cap), Best Proxy Statement (Large Cap) and Governance Team of the Year (Large Cap). In addition, Erika Moore, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Nasdaq, presented the Rising Star Award that went to Erika Murdock Balbuena, Head of ESG at Robinhood.

Numerous Nasdaq Governance Solutions clients took home awards at the in-person event in New York City, including Robinhood, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Salesforce, Empire State Realty Trust, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and CSX Corporation. Nasdaq is proud to be a partner in helping clients meet the ever-changing needs of corporate boards and enabling governance teams to work at peak performance.

“We were proud to be nominated once again and to see our clients well-represented across the board at this year’s Corporate Governance Awards,” said Erika Moore, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Nasdaq. “Congratulations to this year’s winners – we look forward to continuing to partner with our clients to advance governance excellence and drive effective board leadership.”

Nasdaq Governance Solutions is a proud sponsor of the Governance Intelligence 16th Annual Corporate Governance Awards. Nasdaq Governance Solutions empowers boards and leadership teams with the tools—and the people—to navigate emerging corporate governance issues and work at peak performance.

For more information about the suite that powers first-class boards, visit: https://www.nasdaq.com/solutions/governance.

Originally published on U.S. Bank company blog

U.S. Bank and the Veterans Business Outreach Center of the Dakotas are coming together to support veteran business owners, most recently through their first first U.S. Bank-sponsored event in Fargo, North Dakota.

“Many active duty military dentists, optometrists and medical doctors want to pursue their dream of owning their own practice,” said event participant Jeramie Eimers, who is based out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and is a business development officer in the Business Banking Healthcare division at U.S. Bank.

“It’s rewarding to be able to provide them with a holistic approach to meet their banking needs, and it’s key that we are there for those who are currently serving or have served our country,” he said.

For Eimers, service has many meanings. He serves with the South Dakota Air National Guard 114th Fighter Wing as an active-duty National Guardsman. He also welcomes veterans home after Honor Flights to Washington, D.C. Alongside his colleagues at U.S. Bank, he strives to help active-duty military members transition into civilian life as business owners.

The more than 18 million veterans in the U.S. can serve as a powerful economic force as consumers, employees and employers. In fact, veteran-owned businesses make up about 5% of all businesses in the United States, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau published in 2023, covering industries from manufacturing to beauty and healthcare.

At the recent bank-sponsored event, dozens of veteran business owners came together to share challenges, find solutions and hear from Eimers and his U.S. Bank colleagues about starting and growing a business.

“We want our veteran business owners to find success, and being able to provide financial tips and business development strategies alongside my small business banking colleagues is central to that,” said Eimers, who sat on a panel during the first Brewing Financial Connections event in 2023. “Knowledge can be a key difference maker in whether a business can successfully grow and thrive.”

While the bank’s partnership with the VBOC of the Dakotas is new, the outreach center – which is part of the U.S. Small Business Administration – has been helping veterans for years. The Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC) of the Dakotas is dedicated to teaching key concepts for starting, running and operating a small business to veterans, active-duty members and military spouses.

“Our partnership with U.S. Bank is a fantastic collaboration that enhances our existing outreach efforts,” said Julie Hinker, the program director for the VBOC of the Dakotas. “U.S. Bank’s commitment to supporting veteran-owned entrepreneurs aligns perfectly with our mission. It has been instrumental in helping us organize this event, which allowed us to reach a broader audience and offer valuable resources to veteran and military spouse business owners throughout the Dakotas.”

Recalling the first conversation he had with Hinker, Jesse Mamaril – the U.S. Bank community affairs manager for North and South Dakota – said an introduction call quickly turned into a brainstorming session on how to better serve veteran business owners. For both VBOC of the Dakotas and U.S. Bank, that centered around knowledge.

“There is wealth in knowledge,” Mamaril said. “Bringing together small businesses, nonprofits and other community leaders to share their expertise only builds a more sustainable community. Success in small business means a more vibrant local economy.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Hinker.

“Supporting veteran-owned businesses is a way of giving back to those who’ve served our country,” Hinker said. “By choosing to buy from or collaborate with veteran-owned businesses, the community helps boost our economy and create more job opportunities for veterans. It’s a win-win situation that fosters a stronger sense of community and support.”

That resonates with Eimers, who spends his days supporting aspiring and current veteran business owners in healthcare at U.S. Bank while actively serving in the National Guard

“Helping a business owner start out, find their footing and grow is not something any one person or group can do,” Eimers said. “It, as they say, takes a village.”