Tag: 3BL

Four students from Toronto carefully examined the complicated issue presented by United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 and decided they needn’t be powerless to help ensure the availability of clean energy for all. Knowing that small changes can add up, middle school students Aparajita, Cadence, Devangi and Katrina developed a concept for an app that would:

Reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy productionFree up resources for establishing cleaner sources of electricity and bioenergyLessen people’s and nations’ dependence on fossil fuelsOffer tangible benefits and incentives to usersBe easy to use

The idea behind their app, EcoSuggest, is to make it easy for people to address climate change, home and business economics, and the need for clean energy resources across the globe.

They presented their concept through a three-minute pitch video submitted to the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) goIT Monthly Challenge for July, a global competition presented in partnership with Petronas, a global energy group committed to delivering and optimizing clean energy solutions to empower sustainable societal growth.

Every month, TCS and its SDG Ambassador partners use the goIT Monthly challenge to engage K-12 students across the globe in a STEM competition focused on one of the 17 SDGs. The goIT Monthly Challenge for July invited individual students or teams to create digital innovation concepts that could help create affordable and clean energy options, addressing issues raised by SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy.

Lack of access to modern energy systems is often a constraint to human and economic development, and wasteful use of renewable and non-renewable sources of energy can have a negative impact on climate and health. To address these challenges, EcoSuggest helps people play a role in climate change mitigation and disaster risk reduction. The app is designed to help users set electricity usage limits, send themselves turn-off reminders, and even helps users earn badges as rewards for responsible energy use. As the North American winner for the month, EcoSuggest and its creators will eventually compete for mentoring opportunities, recognition and prizes associated with TCS’ North American and Global Innovator of the Year competitions.

The winners’ submission was accompanied by a statement of concern: “We need to save energy so that we have energy left to use. There are so many kilowatts of energy being wasted each year that could be used in other areas of the world that do not have power and save the average homeowner a lot of money each year.”

The pitch video by Aparajita, Cadence, Devangi and Katrina is available for viewing at the bottom of the TCS goIT Monthly Challenge website.

About goIT Monthly Challenge

TCS’s Go Innovate Together program (goIT) is TCS’ flagship STEM education program. Focusing on digital innovation and career readiness, goIT engages students from diverse backgrounds to bridge the learning curve between Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects and computer science, design thinking and digital innovation. The program offers an industry-developed, customizable curriculum that teaches students the 21st century skills necessary for a career in technology. Lessons cover topics including the innovation life cycle, rapid prototyping, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and more.

Since the inception of the goIT Monthly Challenge in the summer of 2020, thousands of students across the globe have used key principles from goIT to design tech-based solutions and submit a pitch video based on the Challenge’s monthly theme. Each month, TCS co-hosts the event with an SDG ambassador, a globally minded nonprofit and TCS customer. The Challenge has engaged a growing number of teachers and students every month and has explored topics from ranging from gender equality to systemic racism to protecting life under water.

Visit the goIT Monthly Challenge competition website to learn how to get students involved in upcoming challenges at: http://on.tcs.com/goIT-ENG.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., August 24, 2023/3BL/ – Truist Foundation announced a $1 million grant to STRIVE, a national nonprofit that provides free job training and wraparound career support services for people facing barriers to quality employment. Truist Foundation’s support will help STRIVE establish a new site in Birmingham, Alabama, bringing increased access to economic empowerment and mobility to the residents of Magic City most disconnected from career building opportunities.

STRIVE Birmingham has just completed a pilot of its training program preparing students for careers in nonclinical healthcare and office operations and will begin its first full cohort in September 2023. Over time, STRIVE Birmingham expects to serve 100 students annually with onramps to good jobs that help lead to family-sustaining careers.

“This funding will have a phenomenal impact on our local economy and the lives of Birmingham residents, especially in the Black community,” said Quiwintre Frye, executive director at STRIVE Birmingham. “Barriers to mobility have left many of our families disproportionately stuck in the cycle of generational poverty, and many struggle to see a way out. But STRIVE opens doors for people and shows them what is possible despite the obstacles. We are deeply proud to receive this investment and heartened to know that we have so much support to make real change for good in Birmingham.”

STRIVE’s five-pillar model of success includes career readiness, occupational skills, career coaching, job placement assistance and lifetime access to wraparound support services. In addition to job training and certifications, STRIVE connects students to secure housing, childcare and transportation—common factors that pose barriers to employment. Lifetime services for STRIVE graduates also include alumni support groups and workshops and one-on-one check-ins with a dedicated career coach.

“Truist Foundation aims to fulfill Truist’s purpose of inspiring and building better lives and communities, which often begins with helping build pathways to steady employment and financial independence,” said Lynette Bell, president of Truist Foundation. “We believe we can help communities achieve this through increasing access to training, creating professional networks and breaking barriers to employment, especially for those in historically excluded communities, and that is exactly the type of work STRIVE seeks to do in Birmingham and beyond.”

Yesterday, Frye and Bell were joined by STRIVE CEO Phil Weinberg, Truist Financial Chief Teammate Officer and Head of Enterprise Diversity Kim Moore-Wright and Truist Financial Alabama Regional President Burton McDonald to formally announce the grant and the impact it will have in Birmingham.

“We’ve just announced our new Growth Plan, which involves significant expansion of our national impact over the course of the next decade,” said Weinberg. “Our vision is ambitious in terms of both the new cities we will be engaging and the individuals we will be serving annually, with an increased focus on justice-impacted populations. This well-timed grant has arrived during an historic and exciting time for STRIVE and will be a tremendous support as we amplify the STRIVE impact right here in Birmingham, in Atlanta, and next year, New Orleans.”

STRIVE currently operates in 14 cities across the U.S., including recently announced New Orleans, which is currently scheduled to open in 2024. STRIVE Birmingham is the first site the organization has developed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging new knowledge and insights from this expansion process, STRIVE will work to continue advancing growth in other new cities and its existing locations, with an ambitious growth plan to scale its nationwide programs and services over the next decade to expand from serving 2,000 people annually in 2023, to 10,000 people annually by 2033.

About STRIVE

STRIVE (https://strive.org/) is a national workforce development leader that for nearly 40 years has successfully provided services to populations facing significant employment barriers. STRIVE’s proven program model moves students into careers that lead to upward mobility and economic empowerment. Headquartered in East Harlem, New York and with operations in 14 locations, STRIVE has helped more than 85,000 individuals prepare for career success through employment programs geared toward adults, young adults, and those with involvement in the justice system. 

About Truist Foundation

Truist Foundation is committed to Truist Financial Corporation’s (NYSE: TFC) purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities. Established in 2020, the foundation makes strategic investments in nonprofit organizations to help ensure the communities it serves have more opportunities for a better quality of life. Truist Foundation’s grants and activities focus on building career pathways to economic mobility and strengthening small businesses. Learn more at Truist.com/Foundation.

GRI is pleased to announce the release of a new iteration of the Carrots & Sticks (C&S) and an adjoining report on the current state of global sustainability policy. Carrots & Sticks is a free-to-use online database and document repository of both mandatory and voluntary sustainability and ESG public policy instruments that impact organizations worldwide.

The urgency to advance sustainable development in the face of growing inequities and crises around the world is driving the adoption of policies focused on sustainability and ESG issues. As these policies evolve, there is a pressing need for clarity on what the current policies entail and what policy gaps remain. Carrots & Sticks provides clarity on the rapidly advancing world of sustainability and ESG policy, providing an in-depth analysis of 2,463 policies – 259 of which reference or require the use of the GRI Standards – from over 132 countries, nearly 76 international and regional organizations, and in 38 languages.

This tool benefits a wide range of stakeholders including:

Policy Makers, who can gain broad understanding of how their policies fit within the comprehensive global policy landscape, and how their policies can better meet the sustainable development agenda.Capital Market, who can assess their own requirements against those of their peers and better understand their own requirements and expectations within the global sustainability agenda.Businesses leaders, who can gain a global comprehensive overview of their Sustainability and ESG impact and disclosure expectations and obligations. They can better understand their own compliance, either in their own jurisdiction or in others.Academics, who can leverage the data to significantly increase their ability to produce high quality research and draw conclusions.Civil Society, who can gain access to information about the requirements and expectations that have been, or have not been met, and hold the corresponding actors accountable.

The official launch event ‘Aligning Private Sector Disclosures with the Sustainable Development Agenda- Launch of Carrots & Sticks Report’, will take place concurrently with the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the SDG Summit, and Climate Week NYC. The event is co-hosted in collaboration with our long-standing partner and GRI Community member, The Governance and Accountability Institute (G&A), as well as Baruch College.

The launch event will provide insights from the dataset and demonstrate how Carrots & Sticks supports different stakeholders in navigating the complex landscape of sustainability and ESG policies. The formal program will end with a series of reflections and views by key stakeholders on global sustainability and ESG reporting developments from speakers representing policy makers and business. GRI’s International Policy leadership as well as multiple representatives from the growing North American team will be present at the event and throughout other events in New York City affiliated with UNGA, the SDG Summit, and Climate Week NYC.

Due to high interest and limited event capacity ‘Aligning Private Sector Disclosures with the Sustainable Development Agenda- Launch of Carrots & Sticks Report’ is a closed event. You can register interest in joining by filling out this form. GRI North America also invites assorted stakeholders to get in touch to discuss potential opportunities throughout the week of September 17th and other collaborative possibilities by emailing northamerica@globalreporting.org.

New Holland Agriculture, a brand of CNH Industrial, presented the T6.180 Methane Power tractor and their most chosen equipment for the agricultural-livestock sector at the 135th Rural Expo that took place in July.

New Holland’s tractors were exhibited proudly in the blue pavilion. The exhibit also featured a space where families could take pictures and get to know the equipment up close.

“Argentine agriculture and New Holland hold family as a fundamental pillar. Being in the city, Expo Rural represents an opportunity for children to learn about the production processes and take their first steps in the field,” said Tomás Liceda, Commercial Director of New Holland Argentina.

With its commitment to the future of agriculture, New Holland welcomed and advised a group of students studying Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires and the ITBA (Technological Institute of Buenos Aires). “We are very happy to receive again in our stands students from the Faculty of Agronomy of the UBA, house of studies with great prestige and cradle of excellent professionals. New Holland enjoys watching the countryside grow, that’s why we accompany young students on the path of learning,” added Liceda.

The exhibition also featured an immersive 360° experience of the biomethane tractor to learn about the production process. With the T6 Methane Power tractor, what would normally be deemed environmental waste is transformed into an asset. This new tractor prototype affirms CNH Industrial’s commitment to sustainable practice and for building a bright future for agricultural professionals.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., August 24, 2023 /3BL/ – AISES is thrilled to announce that we have been awarded a large, competitive grant from the Spencer Foundation for our project entitled “Leveraging the AISES Archival Database: Mixed Methods Study on Native STEM Success.” The Spencer Foundation grant will provide funding over three years for a total of nearly $500,000.

In partnership with TERC researchers, this three-year project asks the following research question: “What AISES experiences influenced persistence and success in STEM of Native students and professionals as they are related to the impact on their families, communities, and Tribal Nations and with respect to their intersecting identities?” Previous funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Spencer Foundation allowed AISES to establish an archival database of participant data spanning 30+ years. To build up and leverage this work, AISES proposed to conduct analyses of the existing archive and expand the database across time by tracking previous participants’ current outcomes. This multidisciplinary research will provide an in-depth understanding of Native students’ and professionals’ experiences with AISES, and how those experiences have impacted their families, communities, and Tribal Nations. We believe the findings from this study will inform best practices on how to support Native students and professionals in STEM as they combat settler colonial challenges to their persistence and success in their fields and careers.

Stay tuned as we learn from this study. In the meantime, take a look at a project AISES collaborated on entitled “Native STEM Portraits: A Longitudinal, Mixed-Methods Study of the Intersectional Experiences of Native Learners and Professionals in STEM” that investigates the experiences of Native STEM students and professionals in order to make visible how they navigate, respond to, and are changed by the supports and barriers they encounter while trying to persist in STEM.

About AISES

Advancing Indigenous People in STEM since 1977, AISES has focused on substantially increasing the representation of Indigenous peoples of North America and the Pacific Islands in critically needed STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) disciplines. This robust nonprofit currently supports individual student and professional members across the U.S. and Canada through chartered college and university chapters, professional chapters, tribal chapters, and affiliated PK-12 schools. Members benefit from diverse STEM-focused programming that supports careers and promotes student success and workforce development in multiple crucial areas. To learn more, visit aises.org.

About TERC

TERC is an independent non-profit organization focused on STEM education issues. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, TERC is dedicated to inspiring and engaging learners from diverse backgrounds through stimulating research, materials and tool development, and professional development. Today, TERC reaches millions of learners worldwide, embracing educational initiatives in K-12 classrooms, afterschool programs, community colleges, adult education centers, universities, zoos, aquariums, national parks, and research institutions. They closely evaluate and measure the impact of STEM on learning experiences, and in turn, the people and projects they reach. TERC’s staff consists of forward-thinking math and science education professionals, many of whom are nationally recognized in their fields. To learn more, visit terc.edu.

About the Spencer Foundation

The Spencer Foundation has been a leading funder of education research since 1971 and is the only national foundation focused exclusively on supporting education research. They believe education research is integral to improving education, making education systems more equitable, and increasing opportunities to learn across the lifespan. As a part of their core commitments, they support education research that is rigorous, relevant, equitable, collaborative, and transformative. To learn more, visit spencer.org.

This week, the federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) announced a new milestone. Launched nearly two years ago, it has now connected more than 20 million households to the Internet. This is a remarkable achievement and we at Comcast are proud to participate in the program. The ACP provides families with a $30/month benefit, $75/month on Tribal lands, toward their Internet bill.

When applied to Comcast’s Internet Essentials or Internet Essentials Plus tiers, it makes connectivity to the Internet effectively free. However, we still face the challenge of getting millions more ACP-eligible households to enroll. Great progress is being made to close the digital divide, but too many families, in communities across the nation, have yet to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Since day one, Comcast has been working to raise awareness about the ACP, and we are investing in hundreds of non-profit partners because closing that divide cannot be achieved without collaboration. For this reason, we are supporting Digital Navigators – people who teach digital skills at the neighborhood level – because we know they are key to the trust-building necessary for success.

A great example of that kind of partnership is our commitment as a founding partner of the Online For All campaign with Civic Nation and the U.S. Department of Education. Together with other companies and the federal government, this coalition is working aggressively to enroll even more eligible Americans in the ACP.

From our headquarters in Philadelphia, to Houston, Portland, Atlanta, and beyond, I have personally met with dozens and dozens of parents, students, seniors, veterans, and entrepreneurs who have had their lives transformed by an Internet connection, especially one that is home-based.

A high school student who found scholarships to pay for college. A single mother who completed a job training program. A senior who now schedules her own telemedicine appointments from the comfort of home.

What do these three people have in common? They were all connected to the Internet because of the ACP. Here are their stories:

Llulisa – Philadelphia, PA

As a high-school student who was not connected to the Internet at home, Llulisa had to get to school early or stay late to use the WiFi to do her homework. During the pandemic, she worried she might not be able to stay on track and keep her grades up so she could apply to college. Fortunately, Llulisa’s brother heard about Comcast’s Internet Essentials program at a local community center and helped their mom sign up for Internet service at home. The family has since enrolled in the ACP and their home Internet service is now fully covered by the benefit. Today, Llulisa is proud to be the first person in her family to go to college, and she is well on her way to fulfilling her dream of becoming an immigration lawyer.

Alisha – Eastern Shore, MD

As a single mother of two children, Alisha is not only using the Internet to help her sons with schoolwork and college applications, but she’s also using it to pursue her own career growth. Alisha recently completed a healthcare certification course with our partners at Goodwill, in part by using her home Internet connection. Alisha credits the ACP with helping her more effectively juggle raising her children, working, and volunteering in her local community. Not only has the ACP benefited her, but it also helped her son, who is now enrolled at Delaware State University. In her words, “the Internet is as essential as the air we breathe.” Having it at home has helped make a big difference for her and her family.

Gayla – Houston, TX

During a holiday event in Houston, Gayla received a free laptop from Comcast. Instead of keeping it for herself, however, she gave it to her 87-year-old mother and helped her enroll in the ACP. With her new computer and Internet connection, Gayla’s mother can now participate in telemedicine appointments without having to spend hours navigating public transportation to get across town and back. In addition, she can stay in better contact with friends and family from the comfort of her home, which brings her joy every day.

These three individuals are just a few of the millions of students, families, and others who have been positively impacted by the ACP. Whether it’s improving economic mobility through education, accessing telehealth and telemedicine, or simply enjoying all the news, weather, and entertainment the Internet puts at our fingertips, it’s undeniable that having the Internet at home, a computer, and the skills to use it are truly life changing.

Unfortunately, the success of the ACP is causing an emerging dilemma. The $14 billion allocated to the FCC to provide vouchers to eligible households is likely to be exhausted early next year. Congress and the Biden Administration must work together to ensure that the ACP is fully funded – so Llulisa, Alisha, Gayla, and tens of millions of Americans aren’t left without affordable Internet when the initial allocation of funding for the program is runs out.

As FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said today, “We’ve made too much progress in helping families get online to turn back now.”

Broderick D. Johnson is Executive Vice President, Public Policy and Executive Vice President, Digital Equity for Comcast Corporation.

Safety is a core value at PotlatchDeltic. Our team members are our greatest asset, and we focus on their health and safety without compromise. Keeping team members and on-site contractors safe is critical to our success.

Our health and safety commitment is implemented through our Corporate Conduct and Ethics Code, Environmental Health & Safety Policy, Supplier Code of Conduct, and the systems, procedures, and best practices established for our businesses and locations. Our procedures and systems meet or exceed the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and incorporate best practices with a focus on continuous improvement. We strive to continually improve our safety performance, with a goal of zero OSHA recordable injuries at all operations.

Each wood products facility has well-established, site-specific health and safety systems, procedures, and practices to drive full implementation of OSHA and other health and safety requirements and a culture of best practices and exceptional care for people. The safety climate is supported by several division-wide procedures and approaches, which are augmented each year through a focus on continuous improvement. Annual internal and periodic external audits are also used to identify and improve processes. Each facility has an established emergency response plan.

Our timberlands and rural real estate operations use a comprehensive health and safety management system to meet or exceed OSHA requirements, any state requirements, and industry best practices. Each location has emergency response plans for fire, weather, and other emergencies and has annual drills to prepare for these emergencies.

“Creating a safe work environment is not just a job; it’s a commitment to the well-being of our Team Members. Every safety measure we take is an investment in their future and the future success of our Company.”

Stanza Donald 
Manager, Wood Products Divisional Safety, 
PotlatchDeltic

This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as “commitment,” “continually,” “continuous,” “goal,” “strive,” and similar expressions and references to achievement of objectives in the future are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management’s views of future events based on estimates and assumptions and are therefore subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, and are not guarantees of future conduct, results, or policies. Please view the Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information on page 134 of PotlatchDeltic’s 2022 ESG Report.

Gen Blog | Community

By Amanda Davis | Sr. Manager, CR and Environment

India has no shortage of qualified women in STEM. A 2020 World Bank report found that there are more women graduates in the STEM fields in India than in any other developed country.  

Yet, a gender gap in the tech industry remains, with women accounting for only a fifth of the country’s cybersecurity jobs, according to the Cybershiksaa Initiative.  

Gen works with nonprofits to address this disparity, tackling the barriers that exist for women and helping them find the tech jobs of their dreams. The nasscom foundation is one of those organizations, leading two major programs just last year to empower women in rural communities. The first was a large-scale cybersecurity training effort to equip professional women engineers with the skills and experience necessary to take their careers to the next level.  

The program consisted of a 350-hour course—five hours a day, six days a week for 11 weeks—designed to cover advanced cybersecurity, threats and data protection. Each session was designed to help participants position themselves as the best possible candidates for top tech jobs.   

More than 170 women engineers from the Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states completed the training, and more than 80% later started jobs in cybersecurity.

Expanding Economic Opportunities for Women in India

Learning new digital skills benefits women across all industries, not just those pursuing tech careers. Studies have shown that digitalization is a key driver of economic opportunity for women in India.

With this in mind, our funding also supported the nasscom foundation’s training program for women entrepreneurs, particularly those in the agricultural space. For six months, the organization offered digital and financial literacy guidance to help women agri-entrepreneurs launch new ideas, reach new customers and grow their businesses.

More than 200 participants from Latur and Osmanabad completed the 30-hour crash course, brushing up on digital communication, social media marketing, smartphone best practices, e-accounting and e-commerce.

Fostering the Next Generation of STEM Enthusiasts

In addition to our nasscom foundation partnership, we also support the Agastya International Foundation. This year, the organization oversaw the return of the iMobile lab, a traveling van equipped with laptops and science experiments designed to inspire students in grades 7-8.

The iMobile Lab made stops at 15 schools in Tamil Nadu, hosting science fairs, community visits and science camps. These efforts reached an estimated 3,200 students, many of whom attend one of the 75% of schools in India that lack adequate science laboratories.

We believe that everyone should have an opportunity to learn digital skills and land the cybersecurity job of their dreams. For more information on how we support Cyber Safety education and training, read more impact stories on our blog.

Gen™ is a global company dedicated to powering Digital Freedom with a family of trusted consumer brands including, Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender and CCleaner.

At Covia, we greatly value the relationships we’ve built with our communities. Meaningful interactions with neighbors, community members, customers, and partners have helped shape our organization, and will continue to inspire and guide WHERE WE’RE GOING.

Therefore, we remain focused on enhancing engagement with our communities. Our efforts and progress align with UN SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, and 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

TARGET: Develop a robust Community Action Plan (CAP) at 100% of our locations to facilitate effective communication, identify areas for improvement, and best respond to community needs.

2022 Progress: During the year, we introduced our cross-functional CAP Steering Team, which established a formalized policy and process to ensure that all Covia facilities develop and submit an annual plan to engage with their local communities in meaningful ways. This policy requires each site to create a CAP Local Team with annual responsibilities, including determining who the key stakeholders are, and identifying and managing site-specific opportunities related to:

Environmental initiatives;Volunteer efforts;Monetary support and in-kind donations;Education and awareness activities; andGovernance procedures.

Once each site has developed its annual plan, it is submitted to the CAP Steering Team, the Director of ESG, and the site’s respective Vice President of Operations for review and approval. Additionally, sites are required to submit an annual year-end summary detailing the progress they made towards their CAP, any modifications made to the plan, and the rationale for each.

In 2022, this process was rolled out to all mining and processing sites in the four countries in which we operate, representing approximately 75% of all Covia sites. In 2023, we have continued to roll out this process to corporate offices and laboratories, and we look forward to sharing our progress in future reports.

Even though our CAP policy and process was formalized in 2022, Covia has a rich history of actively engaging with the communities in which we live and operate. We believe that by working together, we can create shared value among our stakeholders, and we are proud to contribute to the well-being of our neighbors. Below are two examples of the various ways in which we stayed connected to our communities during the last year, exemplifying our commitment to Act Responsibly.

Covia’s site in Gore, Virginia, demonstrated its active role in the community by addressing several specific needs and providing support wherever possible. The facility provided fill material to the county for a new government-owned site, granted an easement to the Shenandoah Valley Electric Company to improve internet capabilities for the community, and aided in building and maintaining a new road to enable easier access for an elderly community member. Furthermore, through an ongoing partnership with the Virginia State Police, Gore provides a secure location for explosives training, benefiting both bomb squad students and technicians while reducing potential hazards for nearby communities.

“We have been utilizing Covia’s Gore site for over 10 years for safe bomb squad explosive disposals, along with various bomb technician and student training requirements. Thanks to our partnership, we can recreate a real post-blast scene, enhancing our students’ investigative skills to include scene recognition, blast seat recognition, and evidence collection along with laboratory analysis and requirements. I can’t say enough about Covia’s management and Team Members. They have been nothing but exceptional in assisting us in our mission and training requirements as a bomb squad, and we are grateful for their partnership.” – Kevin Newland, Virginia State Police Bomb Squad

Team Members at our Nepheline Syenite Operation (NSO) in Havelock, Ontario, also remained active participants in the community, showcasing their dedication and commitment to education. Each summer, the facility hosts two open houses, inviting local residents, First Nations groups, and local and provincial government groups. The focus of these events is to present the site’s current and future activities, and to address any questions, suggestions, or concerns from the community. Additionally, NSO supports education and awareness by engaging with several schools in the community, ranging from elementary to college and university institutions. These groups visit the site for an educational presentation and tour where they can learn about what we do, our process, and why it is important. NSO also participates in and sponsors the local Celebrate Havelock show each year, providing a networking and educational opportunity for local businesses and community members.

While the needs and interests of each of these communities vary, both sites are committed to providing community members a way to get in touch and continuously engage with Covia Team Members and site leaders. In addition to these efforts, we provide our neighbors at these sites with access to either a 24/7 hotline or the Plant Manager’s cell phone number so they can always reach out with additional questions or concerns.

For more information on our community engagement efforts, please see the Community Impact and Philanthropy section of our 2022 ESG Report.

Originally published on Rayonier.com

WILDLIGHT, Fla., August 24, 2023 /3BL/ – Rayonier Inc. (NYSE:RYN) released its 2022 Sustainability Report, which highlights the actions the Company is taking to ensure the long-term sustainability of its land resources as well as the long-term well-being of its investors, employees, communities, and other stakeholders. This report illustrates Rayonier’s ongoing commitment to transparency around Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors and how they are incorporated into its strategic and operational decision-making.

“We approached our 2022 Sustainability Report with a mindset of continuous improvement, as we remain intensely focused on providing stakeholders transparency into ESG metrics and other sustainability issues,” said David Nunes, CEO. “We believe this approach promotes constructive two-way communication and ultimately drives a better understanding of the benefits of working forests, as well as the advancement of new sustainability-related initiatives critical to a myriad of stakeholders. While we are pleased with our progress, there is still much work to be done.”

Enhancements to the 2022 Sustainability Report include the addition of energy and water consumption metrics, safety-related targets, an overview of our human rights policy, a discussion of the emerging opportunities associated with land-based solutions, and highlights of our employee development programs.

Concurrent with the release of its 2022 Sustainability Report, the Company is also releasing its latest Carbon Report, which quantifies the carbon impacts across the Company’s value chain. In 2022, Rayonier’s forestlands sequestered an estimated 14.6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents from the atmosphere versus corporate emissions of roughly 290,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents. At year-end 2022, the Company’s forestlands stored an estimated 777 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents in total.

“We are committed to further increasing our transparency on ESG-related metrics and look forward to advancing Rayonier’s differentiated sustainability strategy across our broad working forest portfolio,” stated Nunes.

The 2022 Sustainability Report, as well as the latest Carbon Report, can be found on the Company’s Sustainability web page.

About Rayonier

Rayonier is a leading timberland real estate investment trust with assets located in some of the most productive softwood timber growing regions in the United States and New Zealand. As of June 30, 2023, Rayonier owned or leased under long-term agreements approximately 2.8 million acres of timberlands located in the U.S. South (1.91 million acres), U.S. Pacific Northwest (474,000 acres) and New Zealand (419,000 acres). More information is available at www.rayonier.com.

Investors: Collin Mings, investorrelations@rayonier.com, 904-357-9100
Media: Alejandro Barbero, alejandro.barbero@rayonier.com

If you would like to receive an accessible version of any document located on this page, please contact us by calling 1-855-478-5272 or emailing us at accessibility@rayonier.com