Tag: 3BL

September 19, 2023 /3BL/ – Every year, Duke Energy recognizes suppliers who have distinguished themselves by driving safe work practices, local economic impact, supplier diversity, and environmental stewardship. As the company executes the largest energy transition in the nation, this intentional focus on corporate responsibility in the supply chain drives increased resiliency and more value and benefits for customers.

Three supplier excellence awards were presented during Duke Energy’s 2023 Supplier Exchange Forum for Corporate Responsibility, Supplier Diversity and Environmental Health and Safety.

“Our suppliers are key partners in Duke Energy’s clean energy transition, and we recognize and value those who go beyond the supply of goods and services to create long-term value and establish a competitive advantage for our customers and communities,” said Dwight Jacobs, Duke Energy’s Chief Procurement Officer.

Recipients of Duke Energy’s 2023 Supplier Excellence Awards included:

MasTec, Inc. – Diverse Supplier of the Year: Duke Energy’s business with the Hispanic-owned infrastructure services company has grown significantly over the last several years, now spanning across most business units and reflective of their exceptional service.Quanta Services LLC – Corporate Responsibility Supplier of the Year: Quanta consistently performs to the highest safety, quality and sustainability standards for Natural Gas, Customer Delivery and Transmission projects at Duke Energy and maintains an intentional focus on doing business with diverse suppliers.The SEFA Group – Environmental, Health and Safety Supplier of the Year: The SEFA Group performed roughly 184,000 hours of ash handling and disposal and waste removal services for Duke Energy with zero OSHA recordable injuries – helping both protect local communities and ensure employee safety.

“Duke Energy’s corporate responsibility strategy focuses on strengthening the vitality of our local communities, diversity, and the environment where we live and work,” said Jacobs. “We are pleased to congratulate and thank MasTec, Quanta and The SEFA Group for their valuable contributions to Duke Energy.”

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Contact: Madison McDonald
24-Hour: 800.559.3853

New Holland Agriculture, a brand of CNH Industrial, understands the importance of technology, artificial intelligence, and connectivity in the field. At the start of 2023, the CR.790 Intellisense combine and the T6.180 Methane Power tractor were presented. Tomás Liceda, Commercial Director of New Holland, recently spoke at Agro Summit about these products, where vital communicators in biotechnology, finance, AgTech, and managers of institutions participated.

The CR 7.90 Intellisense combine harvester stands out for its built-in artificial intelligence, its harvesting capacity, precision, and quality. It has integrated sensors and technologies and has a data reading every 20 seconds, making preventative adjustments as harvest conditions change. With this innovation, the producer can achieve yield goals and reduce loss more efficiently than ever.

“Today, precision agriculture, connectivity, satellite imagery, are demands of any user of agricultural machinery. At New Holland, we are working with augmented reality glasses and virtual reality headsets to train our dealers and technicians without the need to disassemble a machine and to remotely support our customers when there is a malfunction. I think that today technology has been put in a central place within the agro-industrial chain,” said Liceda.

This new technology provides the best results for customers through precision technology and sustainably reduces carbon emissions via the Methane Power tractors. With its presence at Agro Summit, and through the presentation of its most technologically advanced products, CNH Industrial demonstrates its firm commitment to sustainable innovation and for a bright future for farming.

Originally published in Owens Corning’s 2022 Sustainability Report

Throughout his career, Gustavo Cavini has taken an active role in promoting safety wherever he works. Previously, he has worked as a safety manager, where he became very familiar with safety laws and regulations in his region. Upon arriving at Owens Corning nearly five years ago, Gustavo began applying his in-depth expertise to the global reinforcements plant in Rio Claro, Brazil. In his new role as plant leader, Gustavo continues to make safety central to the facility’s operations, and his dedication to the people who work with him every day comes through as he discusses the importance of maintaining a safe work environment.

”Safety is not just an EHS responsibility — it’s everybody’s responsibility. As a plant leader, I need to give everyone the resources needed to eliminate risks.“

On defining safety within the Owens Corning culture 

Safety is a value, not a priority. Priorities can change every day or every month, but we always keep safety first in everything we do at the plant. At the Rio Claro plant, in our daily management, we have several meetings and huddles. We start each meeting talking about the safety results of the last day — the risks that we identified and the near misses that we had — and we discuss an action plan to treat them and avoid new occurrences. So regardless of the subject of the meeting, we start by talking about safety. Owens Corning treats safety as a value too. The importance of safety at Owens Corning starts from our leadership. We have all the resources we need here because our leadership team understands safety as a value.

On integrating TPM into our safety protocols

TPM offers a good methodology for how we need to perform our work. TPM brings us a lot of standards and controls needed to keep our performance and maintain our safety. For example, TPM has an important tool called safety tags, which we train everybody on. Everybody is responsible for identifying any kind of issue any kind of risk that they have in their areas. As a plant leader, I need I need to give everybody the resources to solve the tags and eliminate the risks. TPM’s focused improvement approach is important to investigate an incident or to investigate an unsafe act and safety behavior. We need to stratify the data in order to eliminate the root causes.

On why safety truly matters 

When we talk about safety, we are talking about people’s lives. We cannot look at safety without looking at people. Here in the global reinforcements plant, I am responsible for 420 people. That’s 420 families that are expecting their family member to come back home when they start off to work each day. So, safety for me is about people. I love to work with people and give them what they need to do their work safely. The rest — their performance, their efficiency, the quality of the product — is a consequence of a person feeling safe in their daily work.

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On September 6th, Covia held our annual Safety Day at all our locations, which is designed to raise awareness among our Team Members about critical safety and health issues. This year’s theme is “Emergency Preparedness.” This is an area we must continue to focus on to ensure that Covia Team Members are exceptionally well prepared to respond to an emergency, whether it’s work-related or not. In addition to hands-on activities, Andy O’Brien, Covia’s Vice President of Safety & Health, hosted a virtual session that focused on our key Safety and Health metrics and goals. He reviewed Covia’s safety performance on Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) and Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR). In addition, Andy shared information on how we continue to implement programs that promote S&H awareness and education. These include regional S&H workshops and boot camps, as well as predictive decision-making tools.

The following are just a few examples of how Covia’s plants raised awareness during Safety Day 2023.

Roff, Oklahoma Plant

Roff, Oklahoma is located in Pontotoc County along State Highway 1. The area is mostly flat plains and sits right in the middle of Tornado Alley! As such, the topic of emergency preparedness is particularly relevant to the facility. Therefore, the team focused on staging areas, tornado shelter locations, verification of who is on site once at the staging area, and communication. This is especially important because the Roff plant operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Plant

Covia’s Tuscaloosa plant is conveniently located close to a rail line. However, it also poses a challenge because the railroad crosses the plant’s entrance and exit. As a result, Team Members focused on evacuation in the event that a train were to block their way out. They practiced several different scenarios. These scenarios required Team Members to find different ways to exit the facility. Team Members also walked the entire site, looking for potential hazards and ensuring they were addressed. To ensure the highest level of safety, the team made notes or comments when maintenance or upgrades were needed.

Lugoff, South Carolina

Team Members at Covia’s Lugoff facility hosted a safety simulation. The scenario was a Team Member being electrocuted by contact with a live wire. The Team Members were tasked with assessing the situation and determining the immediate next steps to get the injured person to safety. In addition, the team conducted a tornado drill to ensure that Team Members would be able to get to the group assembly area in a safe and timely manner.

Fostering a safe work environment is paramount to everything we do. From our plants to our office locations, safety is critical for the well-being of not just our Team Members, but our customers, communities, and the environment. For more information about Covia’s Safety and Health commitments, visit our 2022 ESG Report.

The Albertsons Companies’ team in Homer, Alaska is committed to bettering their community.

Through a partnership with the State of Alaska Department of Transportation, our Homer, AK Safeway team adopted two miles of highway, and cleans along the road annually. This year’s cleanup was a huge success. 

The term ESG is fine, according to a recent poll of 1,000 Americans. Despite continued polarization related to the acronym, which stands for environmental, social and governance, the majority of Americans believe it’s the best way to describe a company’s approach to improve business, society and the environment. Before we get to the data, though, it’s important to understand why we asked this question in the first place.

How did we get here?

Over the past year, a rising chorus of conservative U.S. voices have claimed that ESG is “woke capitalism,” or corporate virtue signaling about social and environmental concerns which they see as beyond the bounds of business.

The issue drew President Joe Biden’s first presidential veto in March of this year, defending legislation related to ESG investing and bringing the issue into the national spotlight. ESG is facing such a significant backlash that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, long one of the financial industry’s staunchest proponents for purpose and ESG, doesn’t even want to use the term — though BlackRock’s policies around society, the environment, and business governance remain unchanged.

It’s also important to establish that whatever you call them, sound ESG practices are not new, and are indeed vital to operating a responsible, ethical, and profitable business. As Fortune sustainability reporter Eamon Barrett observed, “major corporations documenting their environmental, social, and governance policies for investor scrutiny is actually a decades-old process.” At its core, ESG is a means to broaden the lens on what constitutes key drivers of business value, accompanied by efforts to measure and report on what matters for individual company operations via standardized reporting frameworks. 

Americans say ESG is a-okay

We partnered with Purpose Collaborative member Reputation Leaders, a global research and thought leadership consultancy, to ask Americans what term they feel best describes “the approach companies take to improve business, society and the environment.”
ESG and sustainability are tied for the top, at 23 percent each. Corporate social responsibility is second, at 21 percent, followed by purpose (11 percent), corporate citizenship (8 percent), stakeholder capitalism (7 percent) and stewardship (5 percent).

Across demographic groups, ESG and sustainability are the favored terms among men, while women prefer “corporate social responsibility,” a phrase that connotes a sense of obligation. ESG is also the top choice for younger audiences, particularly those aged 25 to 34, while consumers aged 55 to 64, prefer the term “sustainability.” There are regional differences, as well. People living in the Northeast prefer sustainability, while their Southern and Midwestern counterparts prefer ESG.

Reputation Leaders also analyzed the tone of media coverage related to Americans’ top three terms: ESG, CSR and sustainability. CSR garnered the largest share of positive sentiment at 37 percent, with sustainability in second place at 32 percent and ESG trailing at 20 percent. ESG was the only term to have a significant amount (10 percent) of negative sentiment.

What now?

This study can help support companies in exploring the terms they will use to discuss the impact their business has on society. It is important to develop a clear, shared perspective and take a long-term view.

From the United Nations to the World Economic Forum, global leaders are advocating for businesses to embed a net-positive approach into their operating models to accelerate innovation and impact. Increasingly, employees, customers, supply chain partners, and others are asking about the ESG commitments of the companies they work for or with. Business leaders need to have answers and a strong point of view on which issues are most important to their business, and why. Our best advice? Don’t worry about what you call it — stick to your organization’s long-term, strategic commitments to stakeholders, society and the environment.

When it comes to communications, here are three ways to help depolarize the conversation:

Be clear about the goals of ESG. ESG is not about imposing a set of values on business. It provides a framework for companies to assess and optimize their value and impact. Increase transparency around ESG data and metrics. This will help to ensure that investors and other stakeholders are making informed decisions.Embrace standardized reporting frameworks. This will make it easier to compare companies’ ESG performance — think: the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

Yes, the polarization will continue, especially as the 2024 presidential election nears. As the world continues to endure climate impacts from extreme heat and flooding to record-breaking wildfires, there also will be greater demand for businesses to address environmental challenges.

Scores of studies suggest that ESG — done right — drives sustainable competitive advantage and can accelerate organizational growth over the long-term. An impressive 80 percent of investors believe that companies with strong ESG practices can generate higher returns and make for better long-term investments, according to research from Morgan Stanley.
 
By continuing to show a link between ESG issues and the business, we can help to make the debate around ESG more constructive and less polarizing. This will ultimately benefit businesses, investors and society as a whole.

Reputation Leaders is a global thought leadership consultancy. Our people are passionate about business as a force for good, believing that profit and purpose can co-exist by aligning brand purpose with responsibility towards the environment, society and corporate citizenship. Reputation Leaders Ltd managed the study which ran with 1,000 nationally representative respondents in the U.S. in July 2023.

The Purpose Collaborative is a global group of 45+ firms and subject matter experts in 20+ countries with 500+ professionals, all developing breakthrough work to help organizations accelerate their purpose, ESG, and sustainability commitments. Member capabilities include research and data analytics, employee engagement, sustainability strategy and reporting, digital marketing, creative programming and storytelling, and video production. Learn more here. 

Image credit: blacksalmon/Adobe Stock

Originally published in Dow’s 2022 INtersections Progress Report

At Dow, we are committed to turning the tide on plastic waste and meeting customers’ increasing demands for more sustainable and circular products through our materials science expertise and our investments in circular innovations and partnerships – from designing for recyclability at the beginning of a product’s life to building materials ecosystems that will help turn plastic waste into a valuable resource that can be used to create new products.

OUR APPROACH 

In 2022, we announced that we will accelerate the sustainability targets the company set in 2020 by expanding our Stop the Waste target to a new Transform the Waste target. This new target aims to transform plastic waste and other forms of alternative feedstock to commercialize 3 million metric tons of circular and renewable solutions by 2030. To reach our target, we are collaborating with other stakeholders across value chains to build materials ecosystems to collect, reuse or recycle plastic waste. This, in turn, will enable Dow to return more plastic waste into the circular system, and scale our production of circular and low-carbon-emissions solutions.

Our Transform the Waste target expands and elevates Dow’s focus from supporting reduction in plastic waste leaks into the environment and designing for recyclability to the continued transformation of our plastics franchise.

ACCELERATING OUR ROADMAP TO TRANSFORM THE WASTE 

To support our expanded target, as well as increase accountability and robust decision-making around transforming our plastics franchise, we formed a new business platform, Circular & Renewable Solutions (C&RS), aligned within our Packaging & Specialty Plastics operating segment. There is substantial demand for recycled plastics and, through C&RS, we will continue to collaborate across the value chain to improve recycling rates. This, in turn, will enable Dow to scale our production of circular and low-carbon-emissions solutions and help our customers around the world meet their sustainability goals.

OUR ACTIONS – TRANSFORM THE WASTE 

By investing in industrial ecosystems to collect, reuse or recycle waste and to produce recycled or renewable feedstocks, we are helping address plastic waste and meet customers’ increasing demands for more sustainable and circular products.

MECHANICAL RECYCLING 

In response to growing consumer demand and government directives, most major brand owners working with Dow have targets to include at least 30% post-consumer recycled (PCR) content in their products or packaging by 2030. We are helping them achieve these targets and meet the strong demand for PCR-based products, including collation shrink and stretch wrap films, detergent packaging, heavy-duty shipping sacks and even artificial turf.

2022 Actions 

Our global line of mechanically recycled plastic resins, branded REVOLOOP™ Recycled Plastics Resins, offers a family of products that can be used in either flexible or rigid plastic packaging applications and is our first PCR product to incorporate up to 70% of recycled plastic. In 2022, we commercialized 12 product grades of REVOLOOP™ resins, with applications ranging from rigid bottles and collation shrink to e-commerce bags and protective packaging, in addition to other market offerings across the globe.

ADVANCED RECYCLING 

We are on track to launch Dow’s first advanced recycling polymer in 2023 – an investment in advanced recycling technologies in which mixed-use plastic waste that otherwise would be incinerated or landfilled is broken down into its basic elements and repolymerized into the equivalent of virgin plastic.

2022 Actions 

Announced an agreement with Mura Technology to construct multiple world-scale advanced recycling facilities in the United States and Europe, collectively adding as much as 600 kilotons (KT) of annual capacity by 2030.Investing to build the largest single hybrid recycling site in France, managed by Valoregen, by 2025. The site will bring together mechanical recycling and newer, advanced recycling processes in one place, which will increase energy efficiency by enabling greater yield.

BIO-BASED MATERIAL 

Bio-based materials are produced from renewable feedstocks, deliver comparable performance to non-renewable materials and can lower carbon footprints.

2022 Actions 

Launched ENGAGE™ REN, an innovative and more sustainable brand extension to the ENGAGE™ range of high-performing POEs, and commercialized the elastomer with Crocs in their Croslite™ material. Crocs is the first company to use our bio-based materials for its manufacturing process, which have an even lower CO2 impact than their current Croslite™ material and provide a more sustainable choice for Crocs’ customers. ENGAGE™ REN is enabled by our ECOLIBRIUM™ technology, which offers a viable alternative to virgin petrochemical products by utilizing responsibly sourced bio-based waste and byproducts, such as used cooking oil, and converting them into feedstocks with a lower carbon impact.

Risk Assessment of Single-Use Plastic Bans to Dow

Transitioning to a circular economy model to address plastic waste requires joint effort and commitment. Through Dow’s leadership position in manufacturing and materials technology, we are actively advancing and supporting the development of the circular economy. Together with leading industry participants, we have invested in new product technology, value chain partnerships, business models and waste management infrastructure to discover and scale sustainable solutions that extend the useful life of materials and the resources that go into making them. Dow is taking action to address the reduction of single-use plastics and advance related sustainability measures by enabling products that are easier to recycle, advancing recycling technology for use in a broader array of products and supporting improvements in plastic waste recovery.

While we continue to focus on recycling and circularity, including the increased use of recycled plastics, we also are closely watching the wave of single-use plastics bans that are being considered or adopted around the globe – most often for items such as plastic bags, straws, stirrers and takeout clamshells.

Industry data demonstrates that Dow will not be materially impacted by contemplated plastics bans since single-use applications currently targeted by bans account for 3.5% or less of total plastics demand.1 Given that Dow’s Packaging and Specialty Plastics business will only be partially impacted and would not otherwise be disproportionately impacted by such bans, even if all the plastics bans under consideration were to come into effect, the estimated result would be less than 2% of Dow’s total sales based on 2022 revenue. Further, the materials identified as “single-use plastics” targeted by these bans do not include essential products in which Dow materials can be found, such as food packaging or medical supplies.

Single-Use Applications Currently Targeted by Bans Account for Less than 5% of Total Demand

Note: The Chemical Market Analytics information referenced herein (the “Dow Jones Materials”) is the copyrighted property of Dow Jones or its affiliates (“Dow Jones”) and represent data, research, opinions or viewpoints published by Dow Jones, and are not representations of fact. The Dow Jones Materials speak as of the original publication date thereof. The information and opinions expressed in the Dow Jones Materials are subject to change without notice and Dow Jones has no duty or responsibility to update the Dow Jones Materials. Moreover, while the Dow Jones Materials reproduced herein are from sources considered reliable, the accuracy and completeness thereof are not warranted, nor are the opinions and analyses upon which they are based. To the extent permitted by law, Dow Jones shall not be liable for any errors or omissions or any loss, damage or expense incurred by reliance on the Dow Jones Materials or resulting from any omission. No portion of the Dow Jones Materials may be reproduced, reused, or otherwise distributed in any form without the prior written consent of Dow Jones. Content reproduced or redistributed with Dow Jones’ permission must display all legal notices, disclaimers and attributions of authorship. Source: Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS. © 2022 Oil Price Information Service, LLC.

INVESTING IN WASTE TRANSFORMATION THROUGH MULTI-DIMENSIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

We have invested more than $200 million over the last three years into impact funds, recycling infrastructure, venture capital, R&D and key technologies to transform waste into solutions that support a circular economy. We are accelerating progress through global partnerships with organizations and investors, such as the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, The Recyling Partnership, Circulate Capital and Closed Loop Partners.

2022 Progress 

Our investments are focused on collaborations with varied partners with localized knowledge to pilot approaches that decrease plastic waste in the environment and increase the social value of recycled materials in that region.

United States 

Launched a new collaboration with WM to improve residential recycling for hard-to-recycle plastic films by enabling consumers in select markets to recycle these materials directly in their curbside recycling.

Kenya 

Invested in Mr. Green Africa with an agreement to codevelop more traceable, fair and high-quality PCR resins that can be used in the production of new flexible plastic packaging – helping brand owners and other plastics manufacturers achieve their goals toward sustainable packaging solutions.

India 

Continued to provide our materials science and application development expertise to Lucro Plastecycle to develop and launch polyethylene (PE) film solutions using PCR plastics.

Brazil 

Consolidated production with Boomera LAR of a PCR high-density polyethylene resin for both rigid and flexible packaging applications to offer more sustainable options to the packaging industry and, in turn, help local companies play a greater role in furthering circularity.

Europe 

Participated in R-Cycle – a cross-company initiative to develop an open, globally applicable traceability standard for sustainable plastic packaging.

France 

Announced an agreement with French recycling company Valoregen to help build the largest single hybrid recycling site in France.

Nine Dow Sites Receive ISCC PLUS Certification 

We received the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS recognition at nine of our largest global manufacturing facilities for our compliance with rigorous tracking of sustainable feedstocks use. The certification was awarded following an independent, external audit to ensure product supply chains are fully traceable and that Dow and our suppliers are adhering to and accelerating sustainable practices.

OUR ACTIONS – CLOSE THE LOOP 

In support of, and in collaboration with, our value chain partners and customers, we are aligning our innovation and application development programs so our products are recycle-ready at the outset or enable circularity in our customers’ products and processes. Designing for circularity at the molecular level expands the possibilities for recycling across a variety of applications, and ultimately lessens the environmental impact of our customers’ products. In 2022, we enabled 87% of packaging applications we sell into to be recyclable or reusable.

HELPING CUSTOMERS DESIGN FOR RECYCLABILITY 

Dow’s unique product portfolio, such as RETAIN™ polymer modifier, ELITE™ AT enhanced polyethylene resin, INNATE™ polyethylene resins and more, is driving conversions toward recyclability. In 2022, we tracked the transition to recyclability of 22 packaging applications in our industry that were previously considered unrecyclable. Below are examples of how we’re helping our global customers design for recycling:

ASIA-PACIFIC: Enabling Recyclable Packaging for Online Shopping 

Challenge: Typical e-commerce packaging consists of boxes as the outer packaging, with difficult-to-recycle, multi-material air-cushion bags or bubble wrap to protect and stabilize items during delivery.

Solution: Developed by Procter & Gamble and enabled by Dow’s high-performance PE resins, the aircapsule packaging innovation has a mono-material structure that supports recyclability, while delivering benefits such as 40% less material, an easy-toopen design and a unique air cushion to protect against delivery impact.

EUROPE: Unlocking Pet Food Bag Recycling with MDO-PE 

Challenge: Machine direction orientation (MDO) technology is critical to creating high-performance films at the thinnest gauge. However, maintaining the packaging’s production efficiency and final qualities while using only one material to enable recycling is challenging, especially with wide formats such as pet food packaging.

Solution: Through new technology, resin and machinery innovation, we worked with leading machine manufacturers W&H and B&B to develop a recyclable wide-format MDO-PE bag for pet food packaging using our ELITE™, INNATE™ and AFFINITY™ high-performance resins and sealants, in combination with our partners’ state-of-the-art machinery technologies.

LATIN AMERICA: Keeping Coffee Fresh and Packaging Recyclable 

Challenge: The typical use of mult-imaterial structures used in coffee packaging to keep it fresh often makes this packaging non-recyclable.

Solution: We worked closely with a packaging equipment supplier, film producer and coffee brand owner in Colombia to deliver a recyclable film structure composed of 95% PE, using our AFFINITY™ polyolefin plastomers and ELITE™ AT enhanced polyethylene resins to provide a water vapor barrier and stiffness.

UNITED STATES & CANADA: Innovating a Recyclable HighSpeed Packaging Solution for Candy Bars, Cookies and Tissue Packs 

Challenge: Horizontal flow wrap runs at high packaging-line speeds and requires packaging films with high stiffness and excellent sealability but is often made from a combination of non-recyclable flexible materials.

Solution: Working closely with industry-leading original equipment manufacturers and printing partners, we used enabling technologies of ELITE™ enhanced polyethylene resins, INNATE™ precision packaging resins, and AFFINITY™ polyolefin plastomers to demonstrate that moving to a recyclable all-PE flow wrap structure does not require modification of packaging lines or a reduction in productivity.

1 Dow is continuously improving measurement of its Close the Loop and Transform the Waste metrics. These metrics, and Close the Loop in particular, are in the very early stages of their maturity within Dow and across the broader industry. The Close the Loop metric is based on secondary market research data and a set of internal assumptions that estimate the regional breakdown of packaging applications, the polyethylene market size of each application and compliance with regional recyclability guidelines. While polyethylene on its own is recyclable, it is often incorporated by our customers into multi-material structures that may not be recyclable. That is why we are committed to helping our customers and brand owners redesign and create packaging solutions that are both high-performance AND recyclable. Dow’s methodology counts an application as being “enabled” to be recyclable based on Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics polyethylene product developments AND public announcement or commercialization of a new packaging format (with or without Dow involvement). The Close the Loop metric accounts for global industry polyethylene and does not take into account other materials sold into packaging by Dow or other industry participants.

1 Chemical Markets Analytics by OPIS, a Dow Jones Company.

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Choosing between menstrual products or being able to put food on the table, unfortunately, is a financial decision many are faced with.

As many as 26% of people who menstruate report having struggled to afford menstrual products for themselves or their dependents. United Way British Columbia is working to put a stop to the lack of access. Period.

“Everyone who’s menstruated has had a time in their life where they haven’t had products available to them when they needed it,” says Chelsea Ingram, Campaign Manager for United Way BC’s Thompson-Nicola-Cariboo region.

“When you don’t have access to menstrual products, how do you go out into the community and continue to live your life?”

The Period Promise Campaign was created in partnership with CUPE 1816 and tackles physical and psychological barriers that come with period poverty, such as buying product for free distribution, educating organizations and presenting on the topics of menstrual equity and period poverty, and lobbying governments to adopt policies that improve overall access to product.

One such policy that organizations can sign today is the United Way’s Period Policy Promise Agreement, which commits to providing free and accessible products in the workplace or office.

“We’re really just trying to spread awareness around menstruation and get as many organizations to sign the agreement as possible and be part of the solution,” says Ingram.

In each of 2022 and 2023, Enbridge made $2,500 Fueling Futures donations to United Way BC as part of our commitment to establishing vibrant and sustainable communities near our operations. Funding supports the purchase of menstrual products, and this year was dedicated to the Thompson-Nicola-Cariboo region to support the Period Promise campaign in the Kamloops area.

Enbridge also supports the campaign via a product drive.

United Way BC’s 2023 Period Promise Campaign was particularly successful, raising more than $53,000 to support the initiative and collecting more than half a million menstrual products at 73 collection sites across BC.

Ingram says the Period Promise campaign is her “favourite” campaign to work on.

“I love being able to support people who menstruate within our community. Every donation raises awareness, reduces stigma, and tackles the vulnerability and isolation caused by period poverty,” she says.

“We held an awareness campaign in a mall recently, and it was so cool to see girls come up and talk to us about periods so openly—it’s changed so much even from when I was a younger girl, but we still have a long way to go.”

Representing nearly 19% of the U.S. population, Hispanic Americans are a core part of our economy, culture, and workforce. This Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the diversity of the Hispanic community and honor the generations who have shaped our history and will continue to enrich our lives every day.

Embracing a culture that values and elevates different viewpoints is integral to our success as a company. As pioneers at heart for the good of generations, our people and their contributions to fostering an inclusive environment at Henkel are paving the way for a more equitable workplace and society.

Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) help us give voice to multiple cultures and experiences, and build community inside and outside of Henkel. Members from our ¡Unidos! ERG share how their Hispanic culture and heritage have helped shape who they are today, why representation is so important and how to join in the celebration!

Originally published by World Economic Forum on weforum.org

By Gunther Rothermel Senior Vice-President, Co-General Manager and Chief Product Officer, Sustainability, SAP and Sophia Mendelsohn Chief Sustainability and Commercial Officer and Co-General Manager, SAP America

With cutting-edge solutions and a new mindset, finance and sustainability experts, as well as data analysts, can make carbon accounting a reality and advance profitable and low-carbon sustainable business transformation.

Conventional carbon tracking tools often fall short, however. Relying on spreadsheets and semi-automated methods that yield generic averages will not suffice. These outdated tools consume valuable employee time and result in inaccuracies, leading to overestimation and consequently excessive expenditures over time.

That’s why businesses need sophisticated carbon accounting systems that mirror the rigour of financial accounting.

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