Tag: 3BL

Originally published on Essity.com

Prevention for preparedness in hygiene and health

Prevention helps save lives and facilitates equity and equality. Prevention measures including access to basic hygiene services are as essential for health systems and societies as they are for individuals. They help safeguard public health, minimize the spread of disease, and contribute to overall health and well-being in society. Prevention forms the bedrock for good health and well-being but also for preparedness to pandemics and other global disruptive health events. A solid prevention agenda is therefore key to healthy societies as much as it is to an overall preparedness to pandemics and similar responses.

There are significant beneficial societal and health outcomes and financial savings that can be unlocked by shifting to more proactive mindsets in society and our health systems.

Access to basic hygiene services at home or in public spaces is vital in terms of prevention. Investing in prevention through appropriate hygiene measures and services throughout society to ensure that communities and individuals are better prepared is key. Currently, more can be done to protect society from preventable ailments. This will have considerable impact on people’s well-being as well as for equality, and society’s productivity. Prevention for preparedness refers to policies and programs that aim to proactively make health systems more effective, resilient, sustainable, and economical.

Throughout the world, access to essential hygiene infrastructure is a key challenge. If zooming in on healthcare facilities, the WHO reports that as many as half of the healthcare facilities across the world lack basic hygiene services with water and soap or hand sanitizer rub in their restrooms. As many as 3.85 billion people use these facilities. If access to basic hygiene services is not in place, people are placed at greater risk of infection, including the 688 million people who receive care at facilities with no hygiene services at all.1

Within prevention and preparedness, there is a need to assess the necessary measures to embrace and enhance prevention. This includes behavioral changes in society going forward, how health systems can be strengthened to keep our societies healthy, and how to effectively respond to future challenges such as pandemics, including the silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). International cooperation is vital to exchange and raise knowledge and awareness, to identify measures and best practices for enabling health and well-being in everyday life, and to prevent global health threats. At the same time, the cost of reactive healthcare must be examined and compared to proactive and preventive societal measures.

SDG 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Prevention and preparedness drives progress to achieve several of the goal’s targets.

SDG 6. Ensure availability and sustainability of water and sanitation for all. Access to proper, safe, and dignified sanitation facilities and clean water is a cornerstone of preventative care. Ensuring that everyone has access to clean water and safe sanitation will reduce the incidence of water-borne disease and limit infections, driving progress to SDG 6.

Download the Essity 2023-2024 Hygiene and Health Report to learn more

Learn more about Essity here

1Progress on WASH in health care facilities 2000–2021: special focus on WASH and infection prevention and control. Geneva: World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2023. 

Originally published on U.S. Bank company blog

For Jorge Estudillo-Castillo, thinking about a future career in banking started while attending Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Twin Cities and interning at a U.S. Bank branch in Minneapolis.

“I like being challenged and being a little hard on myself to accomplish more so I can go above and beyond,” said Estudillo-Castillo, who is now a college student studying finance and a U.S. Bank teller. “Being able to fulfill the internship requirement Cristo Rey has at U.S. Bank was a great opportunity to grow and develop before graduating from high school.”

For two years while attending Cristo Rey, Estudillo-Castillo worked alongside René Madrid, the South Minneapolis branch manager, to learn the ins and outs of what it means to be a banker serving a diverse community and to grow as an individual.

“When I first joined the branch, I was a shy and reserved kid,” Estudillo-Castillo said. “When René first showed me the banking systems, I said to myself that I couldn’t do this. Now look at me.”

As he works toward his college degree, Estudillo-Castillo is a peak-time teller at the same branch he interned at while a Cristo Rey student.

“I have no expectation when a student comes in,” Madrid said. “We evaluate where they are, what challenges they might have. For instance, one intern of mine during COVID wasn’t fully engaging. It turned out he was watching his two siblings while doing his schooling. We changed our approach on how best to support him as a U.S. Bank team.”

That hands-on approach and investment in each student’s future is encouraged across the U.S. Bank footprint through partnerships and programming to support and grow young talent in the financial sector. In 2023, U.S. Bank welcomed more than 500 early talent individuals from high schools and colleges as they started their career in banking.

“We want to understand each student’s goals and help them reach them by putting them in front of the right opportunities,” Madrid said. “In Jorge’s instance, he came to me before his graduation from Cristo Rey and asked me what he needed to do to make sure when his internship was up that he could come work here.”

For Cristo Rey, it’s stories like Estudillo-Castillo’s that showcase the positive, long-term impact that partnerships between it and companies in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area can have when working together.

“We want to partner with employers who see potential in our students and with employers our students see potential in,” said Jason Morrison, president of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Twin Cities.

As a school focused on college and work preparedness, an internship is required for all Cristo Rey students to graduate.

“The vast majority of our students who graduate are first-generation students or are the first in their family to enter a professional workforce,” Morrison said. “This is an opportunity for them to build relationships and to network, which will help them find success in fields they might never have been introduced to otherwise.”

The partnership between Cristo Rey and U.S. Bank can affect more than just each intern, with knowledge often being spread out among the broader community.

“When students come back after working at the branch, they share vocabulary, insights and learnings. I’m like, ‘What is all of this?’ It’s amazing,’” said Kesiah Kolbow, director of the Cristo Rey Corporate Works Study Program. “From a knowledge standpoint, there’s a real equity aspect to this partnership between us, the student and U.S. Bank. They are learning how to access a bank and are sharing their financial literacy among their peers and with their families.”

With his college studies underway, Estudillo-Castillo said he plans on staying with the bank, growing his career and looking at what it would take to develop into a mortgage loan officer.

“When I was an intern, I realized René had confidence in me and that was key to helping me grow,” Estudillo-Castillo said. “I needed him to help motivate me, and he was crucial to getting me to where I am today.”

Madrid said that supporting young adults as they prepare to enter the workforce is a highlight of his career and an opportunity to share his own personal journey.

“My favorite thing about my work is how I serve as a role model and coach,” Madrid said. “I started as a peak time teller, and I share that with them. Having them see themselves in myself and my peers is one of my greatest joys.”

Originally published on HARMAN Newsroom

As a global company committed to developing solutions that improve people’s daily experiences, HARMAN has always believed in pursuing ideas, technologies and partnerships that have a profound impact on people, communities and the broader society. Through our global cause initiative, HARMAN Inspired, we invest in empowering the next generation and help them realize their potential through music, education, and community service. This National Philanthropy Day, we’re celebrating the importance of coming together to make a difference, and giving back to the communities where we work and live. Take a look at how our employees do just that, by participating in various activities year-round in collaboration with our HARMAN Inspired partners…

1,000 Dreams Fund: Supporting Women in STEAM 
Our longtime partners at 1,000 Dreams Fund have a mission to empowering the next generation of female leaders who are chasing their dreams of a career in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math (STEAM). For more than five years, HARMAN and 1,000 Dreams Fund have helped shine a spotlight and financially support young women pursuing their dream careers through the New Face of Tech challenge. Since its inception, HARMAN has helped provide more than $180,000 USD in scholarship funding – and submissions for this year’s challenge are still open! Learn how to apply here.

In 2021, 1,000 Dreams Fund and HARMAN also launched the first JBL Quantum Changemakers Challenge to help amplify the voices and further the careers of women in eSports. Winners received a $1,500 grant and the opportunity to be connected with JBL Ambassadors and content creators from JBL partner 100 Thieves for virtual mentorship sessions and additional pop-up opportunities. Three lucky recipients also had the opportunity to visit our HARMAN EXPLORE 2023 showcase and test out our latest additions to the JBL Quantum series.

Music Will: Spreading the Positive Power of Music

With our long history in the music and audio industry, all of us at HARMAN have experienced first-hand the power music has on our lives. Together with Music Will, we’re bringing the benefits of music education to students across the United States in a variety of ways, including instrument and equipment donations to support in-school music programs. This month, we also supported a recent teacher training workshop in Dallas, Texas to showcase the benefits of fostering an appreciation for music.

To further support the music education curriculum, HARMAN and Music Will offer many opportunities for students to gain experience in performing and get recognition for their music through video essay contests, songwriting exhibitions, virtual modern band summits, and more. In fact, during the annual Music Will benefit in New York City, students take to the stage to share what they’ve learned during the school year and realize their passion for performing live music. The live performances offer Music Will students, teachers, and volunteers with a unique stage experience on opportunities for additional recognition.

Community Outreach: Helping Everyone Feel Welcomed and Valued 
Throughout the year, our global teams volunteer with nonprofit organizations in their area that focus on giving back to their communities. For example, in Stamford, Connecticut, HARMAN volunteers cooked and served meals to mothers and families currently experience homelessness with Inspirica, in Budapest, Hungary, our teams led a local mentoring event where they prepared and delivered meals to a women’s shelter in partnership with Foodora, and in Germany, our teams donated headphones to Klasse-Im-Plus, a nonprofit that supports school-age kids with an interest in music. Our employees also volunteer their time surrounding holidays and days of recognition, like our teams in India who hosted a diya painting event with our non-profit partners Sandesh India and AMC in support of adults with special needs, and our teams in Detroit, Michigan, who helped spread positive messages and support during Pride Month.

At HARMAN, we are proud of the ongoing work of our teams to contribute to our broader corporate purpose. As we head into the holiday season, our teams will continue to give back in meaningful ways through the rest of the year and beyond. For a full list of our non-profit partners and more details about HARMAN Inspired, visit: https://www.harman.com/inspired

Originally published in Maximus’ 2023 diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) Report.

Our 2023 DE&I goals have focused on building and sustaining belonging. Two critical components of this goal have been launching three additional employee resource groups (ERGs): VETS (family and friends of Veterans), Prism (LGBTQIA+), and ¡MÁXIMO! (Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx), and expanding MentorU, our premier mentorship program. In the past year, we also leveraged our internal and external relationships to strengthen existing connections and forge new pathways for diverse talent. We launched a collaboration with local colleges and universities, including historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), called the Greater Impact Experience. This effort supports increased access to and awareness of meaningful career experiences and pathways for local university and HBCU students and alumni.

During 2023, we further explored supplier diversity and committed to promoting an inclusive approach to procurement. After gathering feedback from stakeholders across the business and creating a framework for a supplier diversity program, we selected a vendor for a one-year data collection and analysis pilot phase. We maintain an ongoing partnership with our Global Ethics & Compliance team to ensure we follow best practices for building audits and education related to DE&I topics and needs. We have also helped facilitate meaningful education and engagement for supporting Individuals with Disabilities (IWDs) and Veterans, particularly through dedicated Community Conversations.

2023 DE&I Goals

BuildBuild community and foster belonging for recruitment, development, and retention of diverse talent.EngageEngage employees and community organization partners.LeverageLeverage relationships to strengthen existing connections and forge new pathways.OptimizeOptimize how we help employees develop professionally with DE&I support, tools, and resources.NavigateNavigate the supplier diversity space by promoting an inclusive approach to procurement.GrowGrow DE&I equity and inclusion efforts.

 

Read more about Maximus’ commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in its 2023 DE&I report.

Originally published by Mike Vanderbilt on Industry Today

Business Email Compromise – known simply as BEC – often looks like an innocuous email. Yet it’s one of the most financially damaging online crimes.

The FBI estimates BEC has cost companies and individuals more than $50 billion in the last decade. BEC exploits the fact that most companies rely on email to conduct business, and threat actors continue to advance their techniques, now incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their arsenal.

What is BEC?

BEC is a form of cyberattack that targets organizations and individuals who conduct financial transactions via email. BEC attackers use various techniques to impersonate legitimate business partners, suppliers, customers, or employees, and use this access to request fraudulent payments or sensitive information.

Continue reading here

Contact Baker Tilly

Sustainability met speed last week through our latest collaboration with McLaren Racing. 

As the 2023 Official Partner of the McLaren Formula 1 Team, our challenge was to transport the entirety of McLaren Racing’s garage and hospitality units from the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, to the inaugural Formula 1 race in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Specializing in comprehensive global supply chain solutions, we’re known for simplifying and enhancing the efficiency of complex logistics networks. Throughout the 2023 race season, we have been supporting McLaren F1 to drive enhanced efficiency throughout the team’s supply chain to make it faster, smarter, and more sustainable. 

This task, however, presented an unprecedented challenge: achieving not just efficiency but sustainability in transporting McLaren’s equipment. Our solution? A multimodal transport strategy that integrated electric and bio-fueled trucks with diesel-electric rail systems to move 1,500 tons of equipment over more than 120,000 km. This operation marked the inaugural use of such electric trucks in F1 logistics. 

Electric trucks offer a greener alternative, with zero tailpipe emissions and 47% lower lifecycle carbon emissions compared to diesel trucks. Additionally, using biofuel instead of traditional diesel can cut carbon emissions by 75%.

The logistical process kicked off immediately following the Austin Grand Prix on October 22, 2023. Utilizing a carefully planned route that emphasized environmental responsibility McLaren’s hospitality and garage equipment commenced its journey to the next stop in North America’s F1 race calendar. The journey began with the transportation of McLaren’s equipment in bio-fueled trucks from Austin to a warehouse in Houston before continuing on to the Houston railway terminal.

Once at the terminal, the gear was loaded onto diesel-electric trains for a cross-country journey through four states, culminating at a Los Angeles warehouse. The final stages involved bio-fueled truck transport to a Las Vegas warehouse, followed by electric trucks delivering the equipment to the Las Vegas Paddock. This extensive journey spanned over two weeks, ensuring the equipment’s timely, pristine arrival 10 days before the race.

This meticulous and eco-conscious approach ensured flawless, timely delivery to the track, significantly reducing our carbon footprint. Our partnership with McLaren Racing transcends mere logistics; it’s about harnessing every opportunity to promote sustainable transportation. This initiative demonstrates that efficiency and environmental responsibility can coexist, even in the high-octane realm of Formula 1.

Watch the video here. 

This year, 40 Franklin Templeton employees across seven offices read to over 1,200 students as part of Jumpstart’s 17th anniversary of Read for the Record. The annual campaign celebrates the power of reading and supports early literacy by attempting to have most people read the same book on the same day.

On October 26, Franklin Templeton volunteers read With Lots of Love, by Jenny Torres Sanchez and illustrated by André Ceolin, to children across the United States and Canada. The story is about a girl who has moved to the United States from her home in Central America, away from everything she leaves behind and longs for—especially her grandmother As a sponsor of Jumpstart, Franklin Templeton donated over 2,000 copies of the book to students and classrooms. 

Jumpstart hosted a session with employee volunteers in advance to train them in best practices for reading to kids, inform them about the impact of the day and highlight the firm’s support and distribution of books.

About Franklin Templeton

Franklin Resources, Inc. [NYSE:BEN] is a global investment management organization with subsidiaries operating as Franklin Templeton and serving clients in over 150 countries. Franklin Templeton’s mission is to help clients achieve better outcomes through investment management expertise, wealth management and technology solutions. Through its specialist investment managers, the company offers specialization on a global scale, bringing extensive capabilities in fixed income, equity, alternatives and multi-asset solutions. With more than 1,300 investment professionals, and offices in major financial markets around the world, the California-based company has over 75 years of investment experience and over $1.3 trillion in assets under management as of October 31, 2023. For more information, please visit franklintempleton.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

PORTLAND, Ore., November 20, 2023 /3BL/ – KeyBank’s Key4Women program, Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon (MESO), and the Portland Thorns FC announced that local business, L&M Hair Company, is the winner of a business pitch contest for women-owned businesses (WOBs) located in Oregon and SW Washington. The event was held November 16th at Providence Park in Portland.

Owner Melody Brown won the grand prize of $20,000, which will go toward growing L&M Hair Company in Portland. L&M Hair Company is a thriving multi-location textured hair salon. Additionally, they provide mentorship and coaching to young textured hair stylists into starting lucrative careers.

Brown was one of 10 finalists that were selected to compete for cash awards totaling $50,000 from a pool of 210 applicants. MESO worked to review and select entries that satisfied the competition criteria. Businesses were required to include a detailed business plan, mini-market analysis and profit projections for their service or product. The finalists presented a 4-minute pitch, and fielded questions for 6-minutes to a panel of 5 judges. Out of the 10 finalists, there was 5 start-ups and 5 existing businesses. The grand prize winner could be from either category, while the runners-up were chosen from both categories. Other winners include:

Runner Up (Existing)- Ventura Home Loans LLC- $8,000 prizeRunner Up (Start-up)- Prelude, LLC- $8,000 prizeAmza Superfoods- $2,000 prizeBlue Elderberry Farm LLC- $2,000 prizeCrisp NW- $2,000 prizeEl Paraiso 100% Natural LLC- $2,000 prizeYuri’s Certified Childcare- $2,000 prizeSauvie Shrubs- $2,000 prizeBreakaway Bookkeeping & Advising- $2,000 prize

During the application process, MESO held workshops to review application requirements and best practices. Additionally, MESO provided every finalist with a mentor, who supported them during the preparation of their pitches.

“We congratulate Melody and her team at L&M Hair Company on winning the grand prize. Their pitch was inspiring, and we are so glad to help them grow and expand,” said Rachael Sampson, national director, Key4Women. “Women business owners and leaders positively impact our economy and communities in powerful ways every day, which is evident based on the strength and diversity of the applications we received.”

To be eligible, businesses had to be 51 percent owned, controlled, operated, and managed by a woman or women. They must also be headquartered in one of the following Oregon counties: Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Columbia, Hood River, Yamhill, Marion, OR one of the following Washington counties: Clark, Cowlitz, or Skamania.

Final awards were chosen by a panel of five judges, which included:

Candace Beeke, Publisher and Market President of the Portland Business JournalJosh Lyons, KeyBank Oregon and SW Washington Market President and Commercial Banking LeaderDr. Robin Beavers- Director of Community Impact- Portland Thorns FCBriea O’Duinn- Founder and CEO of Beset SPCTiffany Canifax- Vice President and Senior Business Banking Relationship Manager at KeyBank

Criteria used to determine winners included the quality of the presentation, clarity of business vision and mission, economic impact of the idea and the soundness of value proposition.

ABOUT MESO

Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon (MESO) elevates and empowers under-resourced and excluded entrepreneurs to build resilience, equity, and thriving communities through access to capital, tailored business assistance, and education. Founded in 2005 to assist Black-owned small businesses that were experiencing challenges in the wake of gentrification in North and Northeast Portland, the nonprofit now serves more than 600 entrepreneurs and small businesses in Oregon and Southwest Washington each year. MESO is a designated SBA microlender, an IDA fiduciary, and a Certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI).

ABOUT PORTLAND THORNS FC

Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women’s soccer team based in Portland, Oregon that plays their home matches at the iconic Providence Park. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 as one of the founding teams of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) – the top-ranked professional women’s soccer league in the United States. Thorns FC rank among the best globally in attendance across male and female professional soccer clubs. The team has won eight trophies – three NWSL Championships (2013, 2017, 2022), two NWSL Shields (2016, 2021), NWSL Challenge Cup (2021), Women’s International Champions Cup (2021), NWSL Community Shield (2020).

ABOUT KEYCORP 
KeyCorp’s roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $195 billion at June 30, 2023. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.

ABOUT KEY4WOMEN 
Key4Women started in 2005 as a campaign to lend $1 billion to qualified women-owned businesses within three years. The program achieved that in two years and has now generated more than $12 billion in loans to women-owned businesses. Membership in Key4Women is free. In addition to helping women business leaders and owners tap into capital to build and grow their businesses, Key4Women members gain valuable access to a team of local Certified Key4Wome Advisors who advocate, connect and empower women on their journey to financial wellness. For more information, visit key.com/key4women.

SAN JOSE, Calif., November 20, 2023 /3BL/ – Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNS) announced that Fortune magazine and Great Place To Work® have honored the company as one of the 2023 World’s Best Workplaces™ for the eighth time, ranking Cadence #9. These 25 global leaders were selected from organizations that participated in Great Place To Work’s employee survey process, representing the voices of 14.8 million employees worldwide. The 25 World’s Best Workplaces stood out for creating globally exceptional employee experiences, high-trust relationships, and workplaces that are fair and equal for all.

Dr. Anirudh Devgan, president and CEO of Cadence, said, “Cadence is committed to fostering a high-performance, inclusive culture. Cadence being recognized as a World’s Best Workplace for the eighth year in a row is a testament to our employees’ commitment to our One Cadence – One Team culture. Over the past year, our team has created positive change through our Cadence Giving Foundation, ESG goals and our participation in Great Place To Work’s Great Transformation initiative. I want to thank every employee for their unwavering commitment as we accelerate innovation, exceed customer expectations, support our communities and celebrate diversity.”

The Fortune World’s Best Workplaces list is highly competitive. Great Place To Work, the global authority on workplace culture, selected the list using rigorous analytics and confidential employee feedback. Companies were only considered if they were already a Great Place To Work Certified™ organization.

Great Place To Work is the only company culture award in the world that selects winners based on how fairly employees are treated. Companies are assessed on their ability to create a great employee experience that cuts across race, gender, age, disability status or any aspect of employee identity or job role.

“Being a global employer comes with immense responsibility to people and to the planet,” says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. “These extraordinary companies are having an incredible impact, supporting their people and fighting for fairer, safer and healthier communities around the globe. When you empower people to work with purpose, they reward you with innovation and performance—and help create a better world for all of us.”

“This global list followed a rigorous process, one that assures that employees have spoken about what they think are exceptional workplaces where they feel trusted, empowered and energized to do their best work,” says Alyson Shontel, editor in chief of Fortune.

In 2023, Cadence also ranked as a Great Place To Work in Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Korea, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, and in the United States, where the company was named one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. Cadence also achieved regional recognitions as a Best Workplace in Asia and a Best Workplace in Europe. The Fortune World’s Best Workplaces list is available at https://www.greatplacetowork.com/worlds-best-workplaces.

About Cadence

Cadence is a pivotal leader in electronic systems design, building upon more than 30 years of computational software expertise. The company applies its underlying Intelligent System Design strategy to deliver software, hardware and IP that turn design concepts into reality. Cadence customers are the world’s most innovative companies, delivering extraordinary electronic products from chips to boards to complete systems for the most dynamic market applications, including hyperscale computing, 5G communications, automotive, mobile, aerospace, consumer, industrial and healthcare. For nine years in a row, Fortune magazine has named Cadence one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. Learn more at cadence.com.

About the Fortune World’s Best Workplaces

Great Place To Work selected the World’s Best Workplaces by gathering and analyzing confidential survey responses representing 6.2 million employees worldwide at Great Place To Work Certified organizations. Organizations are assessed on their efforts to create great workplaces and positively impact people and communities across multiple countries around the world. Companies must have appeared on at least five Best Workplaces lists in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa, North America, or Australia during 2022 or early 2023, and have at least 5,000 employees worldwide, with 40% outside of their headquartered country. Read the full methodology.

To be considered, companies must use the Great Place To Work Trust Index™ Survey. To earn a place on this list next year, start here.

About Great Place To Work

Great Place To Work is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, it has surveyed more than 100 million employees worldwide and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Its employee survey platform empowers leaders with the feedback, real-time reporting, and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Everything it does is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a great place to work for all.

Learn more at greatplacetowork.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

© 2023 Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Cadence, the Cadence logo and the other Cadence marks found at www.cadence.com/go/trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SAN FRANCISCO, AMSTERDAM and HONG KONG, November 20, 2023 /3BL/ – The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) has become a member of the Sustainability and Health Initiative for Net Positive Enterprise (SHINE) established by the Materials Systems Laboratory (MSL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The project researches product-based and organizational handprint creation and net positive assessment, enabling organizations to pursue the creation of positive sustainability-related outcomes in concert with ongoing efforts to reduce their footprints.

“Net Positive reflects the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s strategic goal of transforming the industry into one that gives more than it takes to people and the planet,” said Amina Razvi, chief executive officer at the SAC. “The work of MIT SHINE aligns with the SAC’s strategic focus on three foundational pillars – combating climate change, ensuring decent work for all, and shaping a nature-positive future. We’re thrilled to join this powerful initiative.”

SHINE @ MIT is a research center dedicated to improving the scientific basis by which NetPositive is assessed at all of these levels: products, activities, companies, economic sectors, individuals, and groups of people. Its work includes the quantitative evaluation of footprints through the science, data, and methodologies of life cycle assessment (LCA). LCAs also provide the basis for estimating the positive impact of innovative products, materials, activities and processes that function with greater efficiency, provide increased benefits, and reduce wastes and adverse effects.

“The idea of Net Positive is conceptually simple,” said Gregory Norris, research scientist and MIT SHINE director. “However, using LCAs to evaluate both the potential good and harm done by apparel with rigor, clarity and credibility is a complex challenge, though it’s one we are devoted to alongside the SAC. We look forward to working with the SAC and accessing the deep well of data presented by the Higg Index suite of tools.”

As a global multi-stakeholder nonprofit alliance that represents about 50 percent of the apparel and textile industry in 36 countries, the SAC facilitates a common approach to measuring sustainability that is grounded in the Higg Index, a suite of tools that utilize LCA data to measure social and environmental impact from materials in products, to how those products are made, to brand practices. Through the continuous evolution of the Higg Index tools, the aim is to provide users with access to the most up-to-date, accurate data against relevant industry standards in order to drive sustainable decision-making across the industry.

“We look forward to collaborating with MIT Shine in our ongoing efforts to provide state-of-the-art tools to support our members in their journey of transformation,” said Jeremy Lardeau, vice president Higg Index. “Initiatives like these help bring the latest academic and scientific developments to the industry in innovative and sometimes disruptive ways, and we look forward to the exciting opportunities for our tools and the value chain impacts they can help drive.”

– ENDS –

About the Sustainable Apparel Coalition:

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is a global, non-profit alliance of over 280 organizations in the apparel, footwear, and textile industry. Initially formed to create standardized sustainability metrics, the SAC has sharpened its focus to driving pre-competitive, collective action across three foundational pillars. As an independent entity, the SAC brings together brands, retailers, manufacturers, NGOs, academics, and industry associations to combat climate change, ensure decent work, and contribute to a nature-positive future. Central to the SAC’s mission is the Higg Index, a suite of comprehensive tools that empower members to measure, evaluate, and improve sustainability performance across the supply chain.

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