Tag: 3BL

WILMINGTON, Del., August 8, 2023 /3BL/ – The Chemours Company (“Chemours”) (NYSE: CC), a global chemistry company with leading market positions in Titanium Technologies, Thermal & Specialized Solutions, and Advanced Performance Materials, is proud to be Certified™ as a Great Place to Work® in the United States and 14 additional regions where the company operates for the 2023-2024 year.

“Building the greatest place to work for all employees is vital to achieving our vision of creating a better world through the power of our chemistry,” said Susan Kelliher, Chief People Officer at Chemours. “In this year’s survey, safety, community, opportunity, flexibility, and support were just some of the words employees used to describe what makes Chemours a great workplace. This kind of feedback is proof that empowering every employee to be their best self at work and in life makes a meaningful difference. I am incredibly proud that 92% of our global workforce operates in areas with Great Place to Work Certification™, and I want to thank our employees for their feedback. Your voice is essential to ensuring Chemours becomes even more successful and is a place where you are proud to work.”

The Great Place to Work Certification™ is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at Chemours. This is the fourth time Chemours has achieved this milestone in the U.S., scoring above the benchmark for companies as a great place to work. The company’s U.S. scores are summarized on Chemours’ Great Places to Work™ profile, with key highlights including:

78% reported that when they look at what the company accomplishes, they feel a sense of pride83% of employees said that when you join the company, you are made to feel welcome86% shared that they are able to take time off from work when they think it’s necessary78% said that they want to work for the company for a long time

In addition to the U.S., which represents approximately 4,400 of Chemours 6,600 employees, Chemours has received Great Place to Work Certification™ in Belgium, Brazil, Greater China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and Thailand. Chemours is continually looking for talented people to join our team and help us contribute to enabling modern living and more sustainable innovations through Chemours’ chemistry. Visit the careers page to find your next opportunity, https://www.chemours.com/en/careers.

About The Chemours Company

The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC) is a global leader in Titanium Technologies, Thermal & Specialized Solutions, and Advanced Performance Materials providing its customers with solutions in a wide range of industries with market-defining products, application expertise and chemistry-based innovations. We deliver customized solutions with a wide range of industrial and specialty chemicals products for markets, including coatings, plastics, refrigeration and air conditioning, transportation, semiconductor and consumer electronics, general industrial, and oil and gas. Our flagship products are sold under prominent brands such as Ti-Pure™, Opteon™, Freon™, Teflon™, Viton™, Nafion™, and Krytox™. The company has approximately 6,600 employees and 29 manufacturing sites serving approximately 2,900 customers in approximately 120 countries. Chemours is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and is listed on the NYSE under the symbol CC.

For more information, we invite you to visit chemours.com or follow us on Twitter @Chemours or LinkedIn.

About Great Place to Work Certification™

Great Place to Work® Certification™ is the most definitive “employer-of-choice” recognition that companies aspire to achieve. It is the only recognition based entirely on what employees report about their workplace experience – specifically, how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Great Place to Work Certification is recognized worldwide by employees and employers alike and is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. Every year, more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply to get Great Place to Work-Certified.

About Great Place to Work®

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

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

INVESTORS
Brandon Ontjes
VP, Financial Planning & Analysis and Investor Relations
investor@chemours.com

Kurt Bonner,
Manager, Investor Relations
investor@chemours.com

NEWS MEDIA
Cassie Olszewski
Manager, Media Relations & Financial Communications
media@chemours.com

Source: The Chemours Company

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Summary

Companies and their executives give importance to sustainability for several reasons. Sustainability initiatives help increase energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and reduce OpEx. Sustainability initiatives also provide a competitive advantage, add brand value, increase sales and create new opportunities. Companywide business units started with physical server consolidation using virtualization technologies from VMware to reduce their carbon emissions significantly. But to achieve zero carbon emissions, customers need insights into the carbon footprint of their virtual IT infrastructure objects.

As of today, the out of the box VMware Aria Operations sustainability dashboards do not have the following visual representation:

Carbon emissions of virtual infrastructure objects with drill-down capability from vCenter all the way down to an individual virtual machine.

This blog post details a new carbon emissions explorer dashboard for VMware Aria Operations that allows customers to:

Explore carbon emissions at various virtual infrastructure object levels in one page with drill-down capability from vCenter all the way down to an individual virtual machine.Quickly identify and take actions on outliers to reduce carbon footprint.Gain insights into opportunities for right-sizing over-provisioned clusters and over-sized VMs based on their carbon emissions.

Armed with this information, customers can take actions to reduce their IT infrastructure’s carbon footprint.

Carbon Emissions Explorer Dashboard

The carbon emissions explorer dashboard described in this blog uses out of the box metrics, Super Metrics and new widgets/views. This dashboard provides the following insights about the customer’s IT infrastructure:

Trend of their overall carbon emission and their journey in reducing carbon footprint.Near real-time carbon emissions by their IT datacenters.Aggregated weekly carbon emissions by vCenter, datacenter, cluster, host and individual VMs.Top 10 clusters by highest and lowest power consumption.Identification of oversized clusters from which physical hosts can be removed to reduce carbon footprint.Identification of oversized VMs which can be resized to reduce carbon footprint.

Conclusion

The new carbon emissions explorer dashboard in VMware Aria Operations is a significant step towards achieving zero carbon emissions in IT infrastructure. By providing customers with detailed insights into their carbon footprint at various levels, from vCenter down to individual virtual machines, the dashboard empowers companies to make informed decisions and take targeted actions to reduce their environmental impact. The dashboard offers a range of valuable features, including real-time trend analysis of carbon emissions, visibility into datacenters’ carbon footprint, identification of top-performing and underperforming clusters based on power consumption, and the ability to quickly identify and right-size oversized virtual machines and clusters. These features are made possible through the integration of out-of-the-box metrics, custom Super Metrics, and customizable widgets/views.

With VMware Aria Operations and its powerful dashboarding capabilities, customers can track their progress in reducing their carbon footprint and continuously refine their sustainability efforts. By enabling transparency, actionable insights, and the ability to make data-driven decisions, this dashboard supports companies in their journey towards a greener future.

Free Trial!

Sign up for a free trial of VMware Aria Operations and deploy this dashboard in your environment to gain helpful insights and possible cost savings through power reduction while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions.

Additional Resources

This dashboard can be downloaded from the developer exchange. All included assets are bundled in and can be installed in the customer environment. The developer exchange page also provides detailed installation instructions.There is also a short video that goes over the carbon emissions explorer dashboard – the video can be accessed at the following link

To find out more about the Carbon Emissions Explorer Dashboard check out the walkthrough here.

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Daniel C. Roarty, CFA| Chief Investment Officer—Sustainable Thematic Equities

Sarah Tunnell, CFA| Research Analyst—Sustainable Thematic Equities

William Johnston| Portfolio Manager—Sustainable International Thematic Equities; Senior Research Analyst—Sustainable Thematic Equities

Financial companies that help address some of the world’s most pressing socioeconomic challenges deserve attention from sustainability-focused investors.

When investors think about sustainability, environmental objectives and climate change are usually front and center. But social goals are also important, and financial companies play a vital yet underappreciated role in promoting sustainable development.

Financial firms are not often recognized as key players in addressing issues related to sustainability. Yet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight financial systems as targets for achieving important socioeconomic objectives. Oversight of financial markets and institutions, as well as access to financial services, are explicit sub-targets of several SDGs (Display). That’s because properly functioning financial markets are integral to empowering all members of society to increase their participation in the economy and improve their personal economic circumstances.

For investors with an environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus, these SDGs can serve as a roadmap to identifying financial companies whose products and services support sustainable development. Then, by researching their businesses and corporate behavior, we can identify SDG–aligned companies with competitive advantages that underpin attractive return potential. We believe equity investors can access attractive companies that support the SDGs in the following parts of the financial sector.

Financial Exchanges: Leveling the Playing Field

Beneath the surface of every economy and society, financial markets ensure that capital flows freely to and from businesses and people. Academic research has long established the importance of well-developed stock markets in fostering economic growth via improved resource allocation, competition and innovation. Exchanges also help manage risks by reducing volatility of asset price movements that could undermine monetary stability or employment.

When markets are destabilized, everyone pays the price. Banks scale back lending, first to individuals with lower credit health and to small and medium-sized enterprises. Asset prices collapse and payments are delayed. Stock market instability shatters confidence in the financial and economic system, with devastating consequences for people’s savings and pensions. Those with less of a financial cushion to fall back on often suffer most in a financial crisis.

Transparency and liquidity are the foundation of stable markets, creating a level playing field for all market participants, including people who are traditionally underserved or excluded from the financial system. To promote transparency and liquidity, exchanges collect a vast array of data from companies and market participants. In some cases, this information is provided to regulators to help them oversee markets. As an enforcer of rules and regulations, exchanges aim to ensure that market participants behave fairly and ethically, protecting all investors.

Critics might argue that exchanges only serve wealthy investors. We disagree. From individuals seeking a loan to buy a house or car, to a business seeking to access capital for growth, a functioning financial market and economic stability benefit everyone.

Financial Data Providers: Information Supports Inclusion

If transparency and liquidity are the heart of a healthy, functioning financial market for all of society, data are its lifeblood. Better financial data is an essential ingredient to promote financial inclusion.

About 1.4 billion people worldwide still lack access to basic financial services and almost 850 million don’t have official proof of identity according to Experian, the Ireland-based consumer credit reporting company. In Brazil, 63 million people have unmanageable debts that affect their credit ratings. And About 28 million people in the US and 4–5 million in the UK are “credit invisible” because their financial profiles are too limited for lenders to assess them, according to Experian. Without access to affordable finance, people can’t buy homes, secure healthcare, pursue an education or start a business.

Credit bureaus provide information on a borrower’s creditworthiness that enables banks to lend and set appropriate interest rates. Lower-income customers and small businesses often struggle to gain a credit profile because they lack a credit history and are invisible to the system. Yet today, credit bureaus have new ways to help people strengthen their credit profiles using utility bill payments and mobile phone data. Credit bureaus have started to allow individuals to opt in to sharing information about the payments they’re making on time to help build or boost their credit score. This enables individuals to connect to the financial system, access cheaper sources of financing and tap additional services.

Payment Technology: Expanding Access to Financial Services

Using data to improve credit profiles is a step in the right direction toward expanding financial inclusion, but too many people are still left out of the traditional financial system entirely.

Worldwide bank account ownership has improved over the last decade from 51% of adults over the age of 15 in 2011 to 76% in 2021, according to the World Bank. But in lower-income regions and countries, many people still lack access to the system (Display).

Many governments have strategic plans to address the problem. However, like most of the world’s sustainability challenges, financial inclusion can’t be achieved by the public sector alone.

Payment technology companies are critical for those who lack access to traditional bank accounts. In 2021, 57% of people in developing economies used digital payments (Display), which are typically a gateway into other financial services, according to the World Bank. Mobile money is already commonplace in developed markets. These accounts help encourage saving and enable financial inclusion, particularly for lower-income people and women.

Insurance to Microfinance: Supporting the Most Vulnerable

Financial security is a multifaceted objective that must be addressed by a range of financial services firms, each contributing a solution to a distinct part of the problem. Insurance companies help manage threats to health, income and property that can devastate personal finances instantly. Life and health insurers that provide affordable protection and target at-risk segments of the population help families prepare for unexpected financial emergencies. Social finance services support the achievement of positive social outcomes in areas including basic infrastructure, access to essential services, affordable housing, employment, food security and microfinance.

With these examples in mind, we think equity investors focused on sustainability should take a fresh look at the financial sector. Guided by the SDGs, financial firms can be found that address some of the most pressing socioeconomic challenges of our age, which ultimately help reduce poverty, promote gender equality, support upward mobility and improve economic participation.

Ultimately, improved financial empowerment creates a virtuous circle that enhances economic growth and delivers economic benefits to a broader cross-section of society. Quality financial companies with clear competitive advantages and solid business models can allow investors to participate in efforts to empower individuals and small business as they strive to build a better financial future.

The views expressed herein do not constitute research, investment advice or trade recommendations and do not necessarily represent the views of all AB portfolio-management teams. Views are subject to revision over time.

Learn more about AB’s approach to responsibility here

Alaska is a vast state with extremes in weather and terrain. For people living in its 240 remote villages and communities, obtaining lifesaving medicines can be a challenge. And extreme challenges call for innovative solutions.

To help, we teamed up with the University of Alaska, a drone provider, local governments and others to demonstrate the use of drones to increase access to medicines in a proof-of-concept project. The drone was outfitted with thermal protection system packaging for the safe delivery of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals.

Drone technology expands access to medicines where it’s needed most

For our colleague and drone project adviser Leslie Brunette, this is the culmination of work that began more than a decade ago in her hometown of Fargo, North Dakota.

“I was introduced to a young man from a tribal community, and his grandmother had invited me to go and visit him,” said Brunette, who also serves as the global lead for Merck’s Native American and Global Indigenous People employee business resource group. She explained that the young man suffered from a chronic illness, and the remote location of his community meant a trek of two to three hours to be able to access health care. A few years later, he became sick and had to be moved off of the reservation to receive care.

“When he passed away, because of how much we learned about his family and his culture, I knew that more needed to be said and needed to be done. So I made that commitment to continue to try and be a voice that raised and elevated the awareness of indigenous communities across the United States and the world.”

From dog sleds to drone delivery

It’s not the first time we’ve found an innovative way to deliver health care to families in Alaska. The annual Iditarod race commemorates a 1925 sled dog team relay that brought an antitoxin produced by Merck legacy company H.K. Mulford to Nome through blizzard conditions to help fight a deadly epidemic.

We’re proud of our company’s long history of expanding access to medicines and vaccines and working with our partners to create innovative solutions to help people in need.

Learn more about Merck’s Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) approach by visiting merck.com/company-overview/esg.

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By Stacey Faucett

When we share that we work on accessibility and disability inclusion at Cisco, people might think, “That’s nice, but it really doesn’t affect me”—but that’s where they are wrong.

Unlike other identities—such as race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, and veteran status—anyone can suddenly find themselves disabled. In fact, if we’re fortunate to live long enough, each of us will eventually develop some kind of disability, whether it be short-term (something as common as breaking a bone) or something more permanent.

This is why the accessibility and disability inclusion work we do as part of Cisco’s Social Justice Actions is so critical. Because any of us can be—and nearly all of us will be—disabled at some point in our lifetime.

As we commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we reflect on the ways in which we have improved accessibility for our employees, partners, suppliers, and customers, and acknowledge the path we have yet to travel.

Accessibility is the principle that everyone, regardless of their abilities, can access and use the same things—whether that’s a physical location, technology, systems, or content. Cisco’s Social Impact Office looks at accessibility and disability inclusion through each of these lenses, recognizing the many ways in which Cisco engages with humans. This spans the recruiting and employment experience, our products and services, and how we interact with customers, partners and suppliers.

“Unlike other identities—such as race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, and veteran status—anyone can suddenly find themselves disabled.”

In addition to being subject matter experts in accessibility and disability inclusion and consultants to Cisco teams, we work on the Social Justice Action 12 accessibility workstream which relates to human rights in technology solutions. Specifically, we are responsible for assessing the state of accessibility at Cisco, proposing a strategy for improving accessibility throughout the enterprise, and moving that work forward.

To see where Cisco’s accessibility and disability inclusion gaps are, we conducted interviews with more than 100 people across every area of our business, including several focus groups with people who identified as disabled or neurodivergent.

This research confirmed that there is still a tremendous opportunity to make Cisco and all our products truly accessible and inclusive–an effort that requires participation at all levels of the company as well as a mindset shift in how we conduct business.

The business imperative is clear: increasingly, our customers are asking us about accessibility. We have also seen some instances where customers—particularly government buyers, educational institutions, and businesses in regulated industries—have formalized requirements for accessibility. Technology that does not meet these standards won’t be considered.

“Accessibility is the principle that everyone, regardless of their abilities, can access and use the same things—whether that’s a physical location, technology, systems, or content.” 

As leaders of this work, one thing we have been pleased to see is Cisco’s public commitment to focusing on the disability and neurodivergent communities and putting accessibility on the executive agenda through participating in the Valuable 500, a global group of 500 companies working to end disability exclusion. As a part of our Valuable 500 commitment, Cisco has pledged to take action in four areas that support our belief that equal access to our products and workplace is a fundamental human right:

We will design with human rights in mindWe will increase economic opportunities for people with disabilitiesWe will invest in training to support the recruiting, hiring, retention, and promotion of employees with disabilitiesWe will establish a permanent, dedicated accessibility infrastructure that is both resourced and accountable

Cisco’s public commitment to doing this work and holding ourselves accountable for our progress is important to disabled people, but, really, it’s important to all of us. Our purpose is to power an inclusive future for all. This means the technology and services we provide to our customers, partners, suppliers, and employees should be accessible to all. And while we are making progress, we still have work to do.

Learn more about Accessibility at Cisco, and read the 2022 Purpose Report to find out how we’re powering an inclusive future for all through our Social Justice Actions.

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August 8, 2023 /3BL/ – A new report unveiled today finds that the U.S. insurance sector held $536 billion in fossil-fuel related assets in 2019, despite some insurers citing climate-related risk and natural disasters as factors in raising premiums and/or dropping coverage within certain high-risk regions.

The report, Changing Climate for the Insurance Sector, conducted by Ceres, ERM, and Persefoni, reveals that the top 16 U.S. insurers alone held more than 50 percent of the half trillion dollars in fossil fuel-related assets owned by the sector. The quantitative analysis was undertaken using U.S. Insurers’ 2019 assets compiled by the California Department of Insurance, the most complete and recent dataset currently available.

Some insurers are currently moving to curtail climate-related risk, with a growing number ceasing to offer certain policies in some locations. This includes State Farm’s May 2023 decision to stop offering new home insurance policies in California due to wildfire risk, Farmers’ July 2023 announcement that they will stop renewing almost a third of the policies the company has written in Florida, and close to 20 home insurers in hurricane-prone Louisiana either pulling out of the state or declaring insolvency.

Tom Reichert, Group CEO of ERM, said: “As the climate crisis intensifies, the insurance industry is finding itself uniquely exposed to climate-related challenges. Now is the time for insurers to take action to address these risks and opportunities related to their investments and underwriting. This will help to ensure their business models remain resilient and that they can continue to serve their customers effectively, while ultimately accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

Kentaro Kawamori, CEO and Co-founder of Persefoni, said: “This research once again emphasizes that climate risk is financial risk. Insurance companies must continue to evaluate their financed emissions and measure the impact they have through their fossil fuel-related assets. The technology to do this exists and will help the transition to a global decarbonized economy without penalizing businesses and consumers.”

Mindy Lubber, CEO and president of the sustainability nonprofit Ceres said: “Insurance companies are facing increasing climate change risks as the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, floods, and wildfires escalate. This report reveals the urgent need for insurers to address the financial risks of climate change posed by their fossil fuel holdings and take advantage of opportunities to accelerate the transition of their investment portfolios to a clean energy future.”

The report also revealed that the top two U.S. property and casualty companies, Berkshire Hathaway and State Farm Insurance, owned 44 percent of total fossil fuel-related assets owned by the entire sector. Asset ownership among life insurance companies was more broadly distributed, with the top two life insurance companies, TIAA Family Group and New York Life, owning 14 percent of assets owned by companies in that sector.

Notes to editors

This research is based on quantitative analysis of US insurance sector investments in fossil fuel and green bonds and the ways that insurers’ approaches to fossil fuel exposure in investments and underwriting has evolved over the past five years. It was undertaken using data captured in a California Department of Insurance (CDI) database of US insurance companies operating in California, which covers the most recent years of data available (2018/19) and was released in 2022. As insurers reporting to the CDI database comprise 77% of all insurers operating in the US, the dataset is broadly representative of the overall US insurance sector.

The analysis of fossil fuel-related investment patterns in the insurance industry includes the specific types of fossil fuel-related assets (tar sands, coal, oil & gas, and corporate utilities) held. Along with quantitative analysis, the report builds on insight from insurance company investment teams, insurance regulators, and other senior subject matter experts gathered via in-depth interviews and focus groups. Please refer to the full Changing Climate for the Insurance Sector report for further detail on methodology.

About ERM 

ERM is the business of sustainability. 

As the largest global pure play sustainability consultancy, ERM partners with the world’s leading organizations, creating innovative solutions to sustainability challenges and unlocking commercial opportunities that meet the needs of today while preserving opportunity for future generations. 

ERM’s diverse team of 8,000+ world-class experts in over 150 offices in 40 countries and territories supports clients across the breadth of their organizations to operationalize sustainability. Through ERM’s deep technical expertise, clients are well positioned to address their environmental, health, safety, risk, and social issues. ERM calls this capability its “boots to boardroom” approach – a comprehensive service model that allows ERM to develop strategic and technical solutions that advance objectives on the ground or at the executive level. Learn more 

About Ceres 

Ceres is a nonprofit organization working with the most influential capital market leaders to solve the world’s greatest sustainability challenges. Through our powerful networks and global collaborations of investors, companies and nonprofits, we drive action and inspire equitable market-based and policy solutions throughout the economy to build a just and sustainable future. For more information, visit ceres.org and follow @CeresNews. 

About Persefoni

Persefoni’s Climate Management & Accounting Platform (CMAP) provides businesses, financial institutions, and governmental agencies the software fabric for managing their organization’s climate-related data, disclosures, and performance with the same level of rigor and confidence as their financial reporting systems. The company’s software enables users to simplify the calculation of their carbon footprint, identify decarbonization strategies and perform climate trajectory modelling aligned to temperature rise scenarios set forth by the Paris agreement, and benchmark their impact by region, sector, and/or peer groups.

Media Contact: dmay@ceres.org

Originally published by Forbes

Santander CIB has partnered with SAP to expand the digitization of their global transaction banking services. Through the alliance, Santander has become the first bank in the European Union to join SAP Multi-Bank Connectivity, a service connecting banks and financial institutions to corporations across the globe. The partnership prioritizes connectivity and new digital solutions to accelerate client-to-bank services. It provides invisible banking solutions by embedding Santander services within a company’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

“SAP is the most widely used ERP among corporate clients, and it is the perfect partner to co-create distinctive solutions and make invisible banking tangible,” said Calderón.

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RESTON, Va., August 7, 2023 /3BL/ – Bryanna is an 18-year-old cancer warrior, and she loves monkeys more than anything. When Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic’s Operation Dream Maker asked Bryanna what she wanted most, she wished for a behind-the-scenes zoo experience to meet her favorite animal. Thanks to the support of donors, like CACI International Inc (NYSE: CACI), Bryanna was flown to Georgia with her family on an exclusive trip. She was able to meet a menagerie of animals and even got to hold her favorite animal – a monkey.

Operation Dream Maker is a special fund that focuses on granting wishes to children with critical illnesses whose parents and guardians currently serve, or have served, in the military. This program grants wishes to 20 children each year and provides support for military-related wishes of all children.

CACI has a long history of supporting military members, veterans, and their families through its philanthropic arm, CACI Cares. With roughly 40% of CACI’s workforce being made up of veterans, military spouses, or current members of the National Guard and Reserves, CACI Cares strives to honor these communities. As part of these ongoing efforts, CACI has made a donation to the Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic’s Operation Dream Maker to give fighters like Bryanna a chance to experience their wishes.

“CACI is proud to support Operation Dream Maker because we recognize how integral military and veteran families are to our community. We also recognize how impactful and uplifting programs like Operation Dream Maker can be in providing bright spots for children of military families who are battling critical illnesses,” said Gary Patton, CACI Vice President of Veteran and Military Affairs.

To learn more about CACI Cares, visit https://www.caci.com/caci-cares.

ABOUT CACI

CACI’s approximately 23,000 talented employees are ever vigilant in providing the unique expertise and distinctive technology that address our customers’ greatest enterprise and mission challenges. Our culture of good character, innovation, and excellence drives our success and earns us recognition as a Fortune World’s Most Admired Company. As a member of the Fortune 1000 Largest Companies, the Russell 1000 Index, and the S&P MidCap 400 Index, we consistently deliver strong shareholder value. Visit us at www.caci.com.

Corporate Communications and Media:

Lorraine Corcoran

Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications

(703) 434-4165, lorraine.corcoran@caci.com

August 7, 2023 /3BL/ – As part of a cooperative agreement to develop and implement the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, Action for Healthy Kids today announced that it is awarding nearly $30 million in subgrants to 264 school districts across 44 states and the District of Columbia, reaching students in some of our nation’s highest need schools. These funds are being provided by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service.

“Students in every community deserve access to healthy and nutritious meals,” said USDA Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small. “Today’s announcement demonstrates the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to creating healthier, brighter futures for our children. With these funds, small and rural school districts will be able to modernize their operations and provide more nutritious meals, helping students succeed in the classroom and beyond.”

Each small and/or rural school district will receive up to $150,000 to support them in improving the nutritional quality of their meals and modernizing their operations, through efforts which could include:

Innovative staff training programs;Kitchen updates and renovations;Redesigning food preparation and service spaces;Other school-district led efforts to support school meals and school nutrition professionals.

“When we strengthen school meal quality, we strengthen child health,” said USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Stacy Dean. “These grants are the largest targeted investment USDA has ever made for school meal programs in small and rural communities. We want to ensure every child in America has the opportunity to attend a school with high quality, nutritious meals, and this support is a step in that direction.”

An online map features the selected school districts and their grant amounts. The map will be updated on a rolling basis as school districts formalize their grant agreements.

“Offering healthier school meals is key to helping our nation’s kids get the nutrients they need today and for their long-term development,” said Action for Healthy Kids CEO Rob Bisceglie. “Through this historic investment in school nutrition, we will help school districts across the country overcome challenges and develop solutions to provide nutritious foods for the children they serve.”

USDA and Action for Healthy Kids also recently opened applications for the Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards, which celebrate school districts that have made significant improvements to the nutritional quality of their school meals. All school districts in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the United States Virgin Islands are invited to apply. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis through June 30, 2025.

School districts that meet Recognition Award criteria will receive benefits such as national and local recognition; travel stipends to attend a national Healthy Meals Summit; access to diverse best practices, training activities; and more.

Action for Healthy Kids will manage the grants to school districts, Recognition Awards, and Healthy Meals Summits with the support of The Chef Ann Foundation and Rocky Mountain Center for Health Promotion and Education.

USDA’s Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative also includes the School Food System Transformation Challenge Grants, which aim to support innovation in the school meals market by increasing collaboration between schools, food producers and suppliers, and other partners. Applications for the Challenge Grants are expected to open in late 2023 or early 2024.

To learn more about other resources USDA provides to strengthen school meal programs, visit the USDA Support for School Meals webpage.

FNS works to end hunger and improve food and nutrition security through a suite of 16 nutrition assistance programs, such as the National School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs, the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Together, these programs serve 1 in 4 Americans over the course of a year, promoting consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable food essential to optimal health and well-being. FNS also provides science-based nutrition recommendations through the co-development of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. FNS’s report, “Leveraging the White House Conference to Promote and Elevate Nutrition Security: The Role of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service,” released in conjunction with the historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September 2022, highlights ways the agency will support the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Strategy. To learn more about FNS, visit www.fns.usda.gov and follow @USDANutrition.

Action for Healthy Kids is dedicated to improving children’s health and well-being by bringing together and mobilizing educators, families, and other key stakeholders to help children lead healthy lives. Through its core programming and family-school partnerships, AFHK has impacted more than 20 million children in 55,000 schools nationwide to address systemic challenges in underserved communities. To learn more about its growing network of volunteers and champions, visit www.actionforhealthykids.org.

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Energized by Edison

By Gabriela Ornelas ENERGIZED by Edison Writer

B-Roll: All in a Day’s Work for Nature’s Firefighters Footage

It’s an early start for some of nature’s most efficient and hungry firefighters. Their task? Gobbling up vegetation near Southern California Edison’s electrical equipment and power lines. For this hard-working crew of more than 400 firefighting goats, vegetation management comes naturally.

“As you can see, the goats are built for this,” said Sarah Hendrix, senior utility arborist with SCE’s Vegetation Management team. “Goats are agile animals that can navigate the mountainous terrain and eat all the brush they can in sight, basically 24/7 while they’re out here.”

Over the next month, the herd will munch and graze through SCE’s Transmission and Distribution rights of way at Balsam Forebay, near Fresno County’s Shaver Lake. SCE business partner, Chasin Goat Grazing, brings in the farm animals for a roughly 15-acre buffet of nutrient-rich native plant species.

For SCE, it’s a critical step toward reducing the wildfire threat in the Sierra Nevada as part of its 2023-2025 Wildfire Mitigation Plan. The goal of the goat grazing program is to create an essential clearance around energized equipment by consuming green and dry vegetation, ultimately reducing the fuel load and threat of wildfires. Now in its third season, the herd is having lasting impacts.

“We have seen significant results using the goats,” said Hendrix. “They have a low ground disturbance and reduce the impact on the surrounding environmental sensitivities. In comparison, there are more safety risks associated with mechanical and manual methods, which require humans to carry in equipment and carry out brush while hiking in mountainous areas.”

Goats can not only clear brush more quickly, easily and safely in rugged terrain than human arborists, but they also can transform future growth patterns. By consuming nutrient-producing components, the goats can single-handedly reduce vegetation density year after year while encouraging native plant species to flourish at manageable heights.

“Vegetation management operations are vital to protect SCE’s infrastructure from vegetation and reduce wildfire threats, as we ultimately work to create sustainable rights of way so that we can continue providing reliable power to our customers,” Hendrix said.

Throughout the day and night, the goats are left to graze at their own pace between naps and water breaks, all under the watchful eye of guard dogs and herders. As they progress each day, herders gently move the herd to the next acre, where they’ll find fresh vegetation to munch. Unbeknownst to the goats, eating their way through breakfast, lunch and dinner is all in a day’s work protecting public safety. 

To learn more about SCE’s wildfire mitigation efforts, visit edison.com/wildfiresafety.

PHOTO CREDIT: JOSEPH FOULK AND ERNESTO SANCHEZ

VIDEO CREDIT: JOSEPH FOULK AND ERNESTO SANCHEZ