Tag: 3BL

The latest episode of The Sustainable Finance Podcast is now live.

This is the third instalment in a series of episodes sponsored by Acre. If you’re not yet familiar with Paul Ellis and The Sustainable Finance Podcast, it boasts a series of interviews with sustainable finance experts from top companies and global organizations like Schroders, FTSE Russel, The London Stock Exchange Group, Gitterman Wealth Management, and many more.

In this episode of The Sustainable Finance Podcast, your host Paul Ellis is joined by John Holdsclaw IV, President and CEO of Rochdale Capital, Harold Pettigrew, Jr., President and CEO at Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), and Acre’s Gloria Mirrione, Head of Sustainable Finance & Impact Investing to discuss the important role CDFIs are playing in ESG and sustainability-focused economic development.

Listen to the full episode above.

About Acre

At Acre, we work with the most aspirational businesses with potential to make real change; from those who are just starting out to those who are well on the journey to crafting a legacy.

Our 18 years’ experience in sustainability recruitment, combined with our extensive global network, enables us to provide talent solutions that are designed to deliver this change.

Through our unique behavioural assessment technology, we understand the types of people, skills and behaviours required to create impact. We can develop these qualities within your existing teams too.

We find talented people and develop their skills to ensure they make a true impact in ambitious, progressive organisations.

Acre. Making companies ready for tomorrow.

This month, Alkermes acknowledges the important role of family members who are caregivers for their loved ones. We applaud your selflessness, dedication and unconditional love. Your efforts inspire us to continue developing innovative medicines that have the potential to make a meaningful difference. Hear from Steve Schiavo, our Senior Vice President of Human Resources, as he reflects on how we work to support caregiving employees: https://www.alkermes.com/news-and-events/national-caregivers-month-2023

Antea Group was a sponsor of the 2023 Responsible Business Alliance annual conference in Santa Clara, California. It was a well-attended and insightful few days, providing many opportunities for networking and sharing as companies continue to navigate the challenges associated with managing global supply chains and the desire to be good global citizens. In case you missed it, here are a few of the key takeaways.

1. Forced Labor, Climate Change, and Responsible Sourcing remain priority issues 

In the context of increasing urgency for a climate transition and emerging human rights due diligence legislation in the EU and across the globe, Forced Labor, Climate Change, and the Responsible Sourcing of minerals and raw materials continue to be priority issues for companies within the electronics value chain. As the energy transition gains momentum, companies recognize the potential challenges associated with the availability of raw materials and the need for circular systems to mitigate supply pressures.

At the same time, leaders are focused on the need to identify and mitigate upstream human rights and environmental impacts, including mining. To do so, business leaders emphasized the importance of expanding ESG/sustainability collaborative efforts across internal functional teams, through industrywide initiatives and with external partners to drive meaningful change. Participants discussed the need to partner with suppliers on improvement actions and develop mitigation plans rather than immediately shifting to alternative suppliers when issues are identified. To really make the changes requires in-depth supplier engagement, internal capacity building, and financing mechanisms.

2. Uniting diverse industries for forward-thinking, responsible leadership 

The RBA conference once again brought together diverse teams from the technology, consumer industrial electronic, health care, automotive and electronic innovation industries. Not only were the industries diverse, but the team members attending were also diverse, and included PhD scientists and technical engineers, human resources, procurement, and government legislative leaders that all gathered together. Including voices from different sectors and industries encourages forward-thinking and promotes responsible business leadership within the collective.

There was focus on the challenges business leaders face as they strive to operate responsibly throughout the product value chain. A hot 2023 topic was discussion centered around scope 3, decarbonization and business resiliency in light of climate change. While these newer topics got some attention, the continued efforts related to sourcing of materials and substances, thoughtfulness around crucial conflict minerals, green, safer chemicals, and the myriad of human rights issues were still aspects many companies are grappling with. With so many important topics, companies are trying to pull all the pieces together so they can tell their ESG story and be more transparent for their stakeholders.

3. AI as a tool, not a trend 

One very bright spot was Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is enabling more efficient supply chain management strategies. Companies using AI solutions shared how the technology is applied to facilitate compliance monitoring, evaluation, and reporting to meet the increasing regulatory mandates and stakeholder expectations concerning ethical supply chains and procurement practices. By utilizing AI’s capabilities to process large and complex datasets and support unbiased assessments, organizations are able to accurately track environmental degradation through geospatial analysis, automate noncompliance monitoring, identify fake risk-related information on social media, and manage dynamic data for supply chain management.

4. Regulators to scale action 

Businesses attending this event represent those that are actively developing and improving their corporate programs aimed at limiting their impact on people and the environment. However, regulators around the globe recognize that many businesses continue to stand on the sideline. This event provided a forum for regulators to update the business community on current and/or impending regulations. Regulators are making efforts to ensure their various regulations are aligned and do not present conflicting obligations. The OECD guidelines seem to be the table stakes most jurisdictions are looking at as their benchmark. For companies just getting started, OECD guidelines are probably the place to start.

In Summary 

In summary, the 2023 Responsible Business Alliance Annual Conference highlighted several key takeaways for companies navigating global supply chain challenges and responsible business practices. Priority issues such as forced labor, climate change, and responsible sourcing of minerals remain at the forefront of discussions, emphasizing the need for collaborative efforts to address environmental and human rights impacts. The conference united diverse industries, fostering forward-thinking and responsible leadership within a collective of experts, and we look forward to next year’s conference.

To learn more about creating a resilient supply chain, connect with our experts today!

About Antea Group

Antea®Group is an environment, health, safety, and sustainability consulting firm. By combining strategic thinking with technical expertise, we do more than effectively solve client challenges; we deliver sustainable results for a better future. We work in partnership with and advise many of the world’s most sustainable companies to address ESG-business challenges in a way that fits their pace and unique objectives. Our consultants equip organizations to better understand threats, capture opportunities and find their position of strength. Lastly, we maintain a global perspective on ESG issues through not only our work with multinational clients, but also through our sister organizations in Europe, Asia, and Latin America and as a founding member of the Inogen Alliance. Learn more at us.anteagroup.com. 

We are celebrating our latest milestone. We have now ingested more than 900 sources of ESG data.

Our 15 years of work have produced a database of 600 million pieces of ESG data on more than 50,000 entities. This data set supports our mission to use consensus ratings of company ESG performance as a lever to improve corporate sustainability.

Our reach now extends to 156 countries. Of the 53,427 entities we publish data on, 32,648 have received ratings, and 20,779 entities achieved full ratings. For the entities that we have full or partial ratings for, we are now at 9.54 rating sources per entity!

Our coverage has been boosted and the quality of our ratings have been enhanced by the ongoing integration of new data sources. Over the past three years, we have added 97 new sources. They include:

CDP, a global non-profit, manages the world’s environmental disclosure system for entities like companies, cities, and regions. They recently licensed their data to CSRHub for inclusion in our ESG ratings. This data includes participation in CDP’s environmental measurement systems, some of which include CDP’s carbon measurement, water, timber, cattle products, or palm oil systems. CDP is respected globally for its impact measurement approach, and serves as a direct resource for companies, not-for-profits, and government groups to access support in engaging with their initiatives.

GaiaLens, a fintech platform, integrates ESG information from both structured and unstructured sources. GaiaLens produces real-time ESG signals on 17,000 public companies to support investment decision-making. Its data complements and helps complete CSRHub’s consensus ESG performance signal—which is used by corporate managers, investors, consultants, and researchers.

Integrum ESG, which, from inception, has committed to total transparency with their ESG ratings. The data points of each rating are tied to underlying data drawn from company disclosures or information gathered using a natural language processing (NLP) system. The company deems this transparent approach “glass box,” enabling a view through the scores and the ability to scrutinize all underlying raw data themselves.

InvestVerte, a unique ESG ratings source that sets itself apart by catering to investors aiming to enhance their investment returns through ESG data. Unlike many investors who primarily use ESG data for regulatory or marketing compliance, InvestVerte targets those interested in using ESG signals to drive buy/sell decisions. The distinctive aspect of InvestVerte is its approach to analyzing ESG data. It employs machine learning to scour various sources for ESG-related information and enhances results for investment purposes using validation tools, robustness-checking algorithms, and AI techniques.

Lequity Group collects, organizes, and analyzes data from the thousands of federal, state, and local courts and regulatory bodies across the United States. Aggregating legal issue data requires Lequity to interface with and ingest data from disparate, scattered, and inconsistent legal systems. It uses this information to provide informative ESG data about the types, amounts, allegations, and outcomes of lawsuits and regulatory actions filed against companies. The insights we received from Lequity build on our growing dataset of US legal issues.

Ratio Institute is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating measurable sustainability and viability in food retail through expert collaboration, industry resources, and practical tools. It works with food retailers, trade organizations, and other partners to create enterprise-level sustainability solutions that reduce costs, optimize internal practices, and improve overall performance. Ratio Institute consistently evaluated 127 ESG criteria across both 62 publicly-owned and 45 privately-owned entities in their “2022 ESG State of the Industry” report. This extensive analysis of US grocery store ESG performance covered the 107 largest grocery chains in the US, giving us deeper insights into the industry.

Our comprehensive array of over 900 strong, stable, and accurate entities incorporates Big Data aggregation of long-time data sources including Brand Finance, Covalence, ESG Book, GEMMAQ, Ideal Ratings, ISS ESG, Moody’s, MSCI, S&P Global, SIGWATCH. We have over 15 years of credible data history and consensus ratings that support businesses, investors, and stakeholders in making informed decisions and driving positive change within organizations. You can search by these sources using our advanced search feature.

See Both Total Number and Net Sources Have Risen Steadily since 2009

It is important to note that our 900 sources milestone is just a piece of our evolution. CSRHub works hard in consistent source management. With our data growth, many older sources naturally ‘age out’ over time. As we add newer sources to our network and maintain sources who continue to report data, older data sources are phased out to maintain the freshness, credibility, and relevance of the data and ratings we provide. You can see our growth in both total sources and net sources in the above graph.

We take immense pride in this progress and are thankful for your continued support. We look forward to what the future holds as we continue to expand our data coverage and tools.

About CSRHub

CSRHub offers one of the world’s broadest and most consistent set of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings, covering 50,000 companies. Its Big Data algorithm combines millions of data points on ESG performance from hundreds of sources, including leading ESG analyst raters, to produce consensus scores on all aspects of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. CSRHub ratings can be used to drive corporate, investor and consumer decisions. For more information, visit www.CSRHub.com. CSRHub is a B Corporation.

Gen Blog | Community

By: Erin Gallegos, Corporate Responsibility Manager

Technology abuse is an increasingly common part of domestic violence. Many abusers use technology like stalkerware to track their partners’ device activity, location and movements, email and online messages, and browsing histories. Intimate partner violence often involves financial abuse, in which abusers steal their partner’s identity, improperly access online accounts or ruin their credit scores. There is a critical need to ensure survivors and advocates understand tech-facilitated abuse, its impact and how to identify it. They also need digital tools that can help.

Providing Free Products to Domestic Violence Survivors 

Our newest product donation initiative is dedicated to providing survivors with the information and tools to help them lead their online lives safely and confidently.

Through this unique program, Norton, a part of Gen, is donating up to 5,000 free product licenses to survivors of domestic violence to help them recover from financial or technological abuse. These licenses will be distributed by eligible organizations that are members of the Safe Shelter Collaborative and TechSoup will help facilitate the donations, for which organizations can apply online.

Norton 360 Deluxe, one of the products offered through the new donation program, can prevent activity or location tracking, information theft, installation of malicious programs and uninvited changes to devices. We are also offering Norton Secure VPN as a standalone product, which protects a person’s online privacy by hiding the computer’s address from websites visited from any device. Eligible organizations may request up to 100 licenses of each product, which then must be distributed to survivors of domestic abuse.

The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) is another nonprofit partner of ours – which represents the 56 U.S. state and territorial domestic violence coalitions, who in turn represent more than 2,000 local programs and the millions of survivors they serve annually – also collaborated on the new pilot program.

Learning Good Cyber Hygiene 

According to Armin Waiscek, Senior Research Manager at Gen, good cyber hygiene is diligence, care and human judgment, and it’s an important part of an online safety plan. “Security software is extremely important, as is education on Cyber Safety awareness. This involves day-to-day vigilance and learning how to spot the signs that someone has access to, or is trying to access your online accounts, devices or location.”

Waiscek offered tips on how important cyber hygiene is to domestic violence survivors. “Through our work with NNEDV, we have learned survivors often need help to secure their digital assets, remove or stop using shared accounts, and create accounts on clean devices that haven’t been accessed by their abusers,” he said.

Here are a few suggestions to improve cyber hygiene:

Create a list of all platforms, systems and devices that are in use.Change passwords to all accounts or create new accounts.Update any online accounts that are accessible through Facebook, Google, Twitter, or Apple ID log-ins.Use unique passwords that exclude personally identifiable information (i.e., birthdays, names, pet names, etc.).Utilize a (new) password manager to track passwords and to create strong, unique passwords

Maximizing Our Social Impact 

This pilot program exemplifies our continued large-scale effort to align our volunteering, giving and product donation programs for maximum impact. In addition to this program, we have provided training and technical assistance to NNEDV for years. In 2022, we announced a $100,000 grant each year for three years to NNEDV to support the organization’s Safety Net technology abuse response initiative, as well as its Economic Justice program. We are also a founding member of the Coalition Against Stalkerware, which was formed to help keep malicious technology like stalkerware and creepware out of the hands of abusers.

To learn more, visit the new donation program landing page.

BELLEVUE, Wash., November 14, 2023 /3BL/ – T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) today announced a donation totaling $50,000 to five Virginia nonprofit organizations that are making a difference in their communities. The organizations — Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, Children’s Hospital Foundation of Richmond at VCU, H.E.R. – Help and Emergency Response, The Fatherhood Foundation of Virginia, and the United Service Organization (USO) — each received a $10,000 donation. In a show of hands-on support, local T-Mobile employees participated in check presentations and a day of service at each of the organizations. T-Mobile employees in Virginia had the opportunity to select the organizations as part of the company’s Difference Maker Award — a quarterly recognition program launched earlier this year to recognize top-ranked business performance areas across the company.

“T-Mobile is thrilled to contribute to these remarkable nonprofits as we recognize our Virginia employees’ achievements,” said Jon Freier, President, T-Mobile Consumer Group. “These teammates have demonstrated their commitment to making a meaningful impact through the Difference Maker Award, and these donations represent our dedication to building stronger and more vibrant communities throughout the state.”

Here is a closer look at how T-Mobile’s donations are making a difference.

(Arlington, VA) USO — The USO strengthens America’s military service members by keeping them connected to family, home, and country, throughout their service to the nation.

“The USO is grateful for the generous support of T-Mobile. The contributions they make have a direct impact on the lives of our service members and their families, especially during the upcoming holiday season. This can be one of the most challenging times for those who are deployed and separated from their loved ones. These partnerships make such a difference for our service members and their families,” said John Falin, Executive Director of USO Mid-Atlantic.

(Portsmouth, VA) H.E.R. – Help and Emergency Response —Help and Emergency Response, Inc. provides leadership, advocacy, and resources to survivors and communities affected by domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, and human trafficking. The work of Help and Emergency Response, Inc. will create a safe and prosperous future for all through awareness, services, and training for lasting change in the communities we serve.

“We are so thankful to T-Mobile for providing H.E.R. with this $10,000 grant. Without funding like this we wouldn’t be able to provide the lifesaving emergency services that we do to survivors in need. This money will allow us to support over 500 survivors of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Homelessness within the cities of Portsmouth and Chesapeake Virginia. These funds will go into our crisis service programs which provide basic needs, stabilization, empowerment services, and so much more. We could not do what we do without the support of the community. Thank you for supporting our mission of providing leadership, advocacy, and resources,” said Deborah Apperson, Community Engagement Manager, Help and Emergency Response, Inc.

(Richmond, VA) Children’s Hospital Foundation — Children’s Hospital Foundation is dedicated to funding and advocating for pediatric initiatives that improve the status of health care and the quality of life for children in our region. The Foundation provides support for the programs and initiatives of Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU and the more than 70,000 children and families it serves each year. Children’s Hospital Foundation depends on the support of individuals, businesses, and other organizations to help us continue our mission of supporting excellence in health care for children. “Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU relies heavily on our community to ensure all kids receive world-class care right here at home. It’s with partners like T-Mobile that allow us to continue to elevate our care for children in our region and beyond. We are so grateful for the support from T-Mobile this year!” Stephanie Allan, Vice President for Corporate Partnerships at Children’s Hospital Foundation.

(Richmond, VA) The Fatherhood Foundation of Virginia —Fatherhood Foundation of Virginia is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit purpose driven to strengthen men to be better husbands/co-parents and more active fathers for true systemic change in the Commonwealth.

“When I heard the news, I was speechless. A big corporation that is willing to help a grassroots nonprofit organization like ours, not just the big ones everyone has heard of, shows a true commitment to the community T-Mobile serves. We are truly honored.” Chris Beach, Chief Executive Officer, The Fatherhood Foundation of Virginia.

(Verona, VA) Blue Ridge Area Food Bank —The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank and its network of 400+ partners help provide food for people living with hunger across 25 counties and 8 cities throughout the Blue Ridge region. The Food Bank operates four distribution centers in Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Winchester, and Verona.

“With colder months ahead and inflation still very much present, our guests face unfathomable choices between putting food on their table, heating their home, or paying for other critical, daily expenses. Partners like T-Mobile help the Food Bank fill in those gaps and set a place at the table for everyone,” said Millie Winstead, the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank’s Director of Development & Community Engagement.

T-Mobile’s Ongoing Commitment to Virginia 
These donations underscore T-Mobile’s ongoing commitment to making a difference in communities throughout Virginia. Other investments include recent network enhancements, and the Un-carrier’s Hometown Grants program, which provides funding to 100 small towns each year to use towards city beautification projects, public improvements and more. Since launching the five-year program in 2021, four towns in Virginia – Stuart, Staunton, Luray, and New Castle – have already received grants totaling more than $210,000.

In addition, Project 10Million is T-Mobile’s $10.7B initiative aimed at helping close the digital divide in education by offering free internet connectivity and mobile hotspots to up to ten million eligible student households across the U.S. Through T-Mobile’s education programs, the company has connected over 92,000 students, from 80 school districts across Virginia and is also offering school districts free and heavily subsidized data plans and access to affordable laptops and tablets. By the end of 2022, T-Mobile had provided $4.8B in services and connected more than 5.3M students across the U.S. through Project 10Million and our other education initiatives.

Follow @TMobileNews on X, formerly known as Twitter, to stay up to date with the latest company news.

About T-Mobile 
T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) is America’s supercharged Un-carrier, delivering an advanced 4G LTE and transformative nationwide 5G network that will offer reliable connectivity for all. T-Mobile’s customers benefit from its unmatched combination of value and quality, unwavering obsession with offering them the best possible service experience and undisputable drive for disruption that creates competition and innovation in wireless and beyond. Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile provides services through its subsidiaries and operates its flagship brands, T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile and Sprint. For more information please visit: https://www.t-mobile.com

Over the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Women’s Centre of Calgary lost 69% of its volunteers. Many in this group needed to prioritize caregiving in their household, and the number of available volunteers dropped from 800 to 250.

The not-for-profit based in Calgary, AB relies on volunteers to support more than 7,000 women in need every year. From 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. every day, they serve as first point of contact, delivering frontline services in person and over the phone to connect women facing housing challenges and food insecurity with assistance and service providers, including counsellors.

At the same time, the number of women needing help was growing, explains Bo Masterson, WCC’s executive director. And the issues they needed help with were becoming increasingly complex.

“Women were disproportionately affected (during the pandemic),” she says. “They experienced layering of issues—on top of social anxiety or mental health issues, we saw increased instances of domestic violence. We were also seeing increased diversity (among women needing our services).”

As WCC set out to rebuild its volunteer base, the team decided to revamp its volunteer training program.

“We realized our volunteer training just wasn’t sufficient in preparing our volunteers for what women were presenting with,” Masterson says.

“We wanted (our volunteers) to understand what unconscious bias looks like,” she continues, noting approximately 80% of the 7,300 women WCC supported in 2021 belonged to one or more marginalized BIPOC (Black, Indigenous or People of Colour) groups.

“We wanted them to understand how to support people with certain lived experiences or backgrounds in a trauma-informed way,” she adds.

Enbridge provided WCC with a Fueling Futures grant of $10,000 to work with curriculum-development specialists to design the training, which focuses on helping volunteers challenge their unconscious bias, learn about anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and Truth and Reconciliation, and better serve equity-deserving groups (primarily Indigenous, Black, and racialized women).

Each of the three modules is two hours long and includes experiential learning to help volunteers practice deescalating situations with role-play.

The training quickly achieved what Masterson hoped it would—it helped volunteers deliver more sensitive, trauma-informed care when supporting women of diverse backgrounds.

Within 10 months, WCC volunteer numbers were restored to 750—just shy of the centre’s goal of 800.

Now, Masterson says, volunteers are reporting a more positive experience and say they’re better equipped to support women with kindness, understanding, and empathy.

With the new training program, women are “better supported in our centre,” Masterson says. “We’re building skills our volunteers can take outside the centre, too, to see each other as human, not as their specific experience or their ethnicity or their race.”

RESTON, Va., November 14, 2023 /3BL/ – CACI International Inc (NYSE: CACI) announced today that it has received the National Veteran Small Business Coalition’s (NVSBC) Champions Award for exceeding the NVSBC-established goals for subcontracting to service-disabled and veteran owned small businesses (SD/VOSB’s) during the federal government’s fiscal year 2022.

“Receiving the NVSBC Champions Award for the 13th time is an incredible honor,” said Dan Cuviello, CACI Senior Vice President of business development. “Throughout the years, CACI has cultivated long-term relationships with a variety of small businesses, which have greatly enriched our ability to provide their businesses with continuous opportunities to take on new challenges. We are thankful for our esteemed VOSB partnerships, as we continue to address our customers’ most critical mission objectives.”

CACI values the thousands of small business partnerships it has fostered since its founding in 1962 that have led to new capabilities, enhanced skill sets, and innovative technologies. As a proud member of the HUBZone Contractors National Council, National Center for Veteran Institute for Procurement (VIP), and NVSBC, CACI is dedicated to supporting small business growth and advocating for underserved communities. To support these efforts, the company has established the Small Business Advocacy Office, led by Executive Director Wayne Pizer, to identify potential new teaming opportunities and enhance its government contracting capabilities.

“This prestigious award underscores CACI’s benevolent company culture and commitment to expanding its footprint in the federal marketplace,” said Wayne Pizer, CACI Executive Director of Small Business.

“We will continue to build mutually beneficial relationships with diverse small businesses as we approach future national security pursuits.”

In addition to being a 13-time recipient of the Champion of Veteran Enterprise Award, CACI has been honored with the Nunn-Perry Award for excellence twice in recognition of its outstanding performance in the DoD Mentor Protégé Program. Currently, five small businesses are participating in CACI’s Mentor Protégé Program, benefiting from a wide spectrum of management, technical, and developmental support.

Learn more about CACI’s alliance principles and strategies.

ABOUT CACI

At CACI International Inc (NYSE: CACI), our 23,000 talented and dynamic employees are ever vigilant in delivering distinctive expertise and differentiated technology to meet our customers’ greatest challenges in national security and government modernization. We are a company of good character, relentless innovation, and long-standing excellence. Our culture drives our success and earns us recognition as a Fortune World’s Most Admired Company. CACI is a member of the Fortune 1000 Largest Companies, the Russell 1000 Index, and the S&P MidCap 400 Index. For more information, visit us at caci.com.

Corporate Communications and Media:
Lorraine Corcoran
Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications
(703) 434-4165, lorraine.corcoran@caci.com

Originally published in Dow’s 2022 Progress Report

We seek to connect our science and innovation to advance sustainable solutions in the communities where we operate and do business. Investments support Dow’s sustainability goals and include funding for collaborations that address circularity, climate protection and resiliency. One of the ways we do this is through Dow’s Business Impact Fund, which aims to create shared value – unlocking business opportunities to make a social impact.

BUSINESS IMPACT FUND 

Our Business Impact Fund is a competitive grant program that uses designated corporate contributions toward new, business-aligned initiatives that address critical social challenges and advance sustainability solutions. In 2022, Boston College recognized the fund with a Corporate Citizenship Innovation Award as the Social-Impact Changemaker.

Funding proposals come from our employees worldwide, and projects utilize Dow products, technology and expertise, often in partnership with our customers. Selected 2022 projects addressed circularity and waste transformation initiatives, as well as climate protection, water conservation and biodiversity.

Since its launch in 2016, the Business Impact Fund has supported 51 projects totaling $9.87 million in investments and spanning 21 countries, resulting in:

1,644 jobs

45,061 acres of land protected or improved

13,182 metric tons of recycled materials

256,138 people experiencing improved health

Project REFLEX Addresses Barriers to Flexible Packaging Recycling in Africa 

In 2022, Project REFLEX expanded into Egypt and Guinea after a successful pilot phase in Nigeria. Supported by Dow’s Business Impact Fund, the initiative aims to divert flexible plastic waste from the environment by establishing a market for recycled content in Africa. In addition to providing technology, expertise and funding, Dow and project partner Wecyclers also seek to demonstrate the value of the recycled materials and provide income opportunities through collection, sorting and recycling. The project specifically targets flexible packaging, such as plastic water sachets, to show how they can be collected and recycled into new packaging applications. The project has reached 103,424 people and created 50 jobs, with a 50% increase in additional income for at least 25,000 waste collectors. A total of 599 metric tons of materials were recycled or diverted from landfills.

Read more

Covia is the responsible steward of over 80,000 acres of land across our footprint. Planning for responsible land use is embedded throughout the life cycle of our operations – from our careful approach to early development and operational planning, to our production phase, all the way through our collaborative reclamation process aimed at protecting, restoring, and nurturing the land and biodiversity. With the help of key partners, we have helped restore a variety of ecosystems, including wetlands, forests, ranchlands, shorelines, prairies and more.

One such partner is the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC). Our partnership spans more than 30 years, demonstrating Covia’s long-standing commitment to conservation and making us WHC’s partner with the fourth-longest consecutive tenure of working together. Partnering with WHC continues to help us align our land use and management efforts with best practices for biodiversity and ecological balance.

For more information on our WHC partnership, please watch this video.