Tag: 3BL

By Nicole Bitette 
Photos by David Williams

Our In the Office With … series, gives Paramount executives the opportunity to reveal a little bit about who they are, how they lead, and what drives them in the day-to-day.

“I thrive off creating new things,” says Crystal Barnes, EVP of corporate social responsibility and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) at Paramount.

For much of her career, Barnes pursued roles that were previously nonexistent. She came to Paramount in 2019, with a focus on expanding its CSR strategy and building on its legacy of supporting underrepresented communities. She established the Paramount ESG team in 2020. And in 2021, she helped to expand BET’s Content for Change initiative companywide, which uses data-driven insights to transform Paramount’s creative ecosystem.

Recently, Paramount announced a partnership with Salesforce to create the Paramount Production Diversity Measurement Infrastructure. The platform furthers the Content for Change initiative by enabling Paramount to track the diversity and gender of its production suppliers. On a larger scale, it aims to redefine how the industry is keeping track of diversity and ensuring representation across all aspects of content creation.

Barnes spoke to the Newsroom about the evolution of CSR and ESG at Paramount and her career.

Nicole Bitette: You started at Paramount (then Viacom) in 2019. What excited you about the position?

Crystal Barnes: When I took this role, I knew we needed to figure out how to lean into our superpower. A natural part of that process meant reviewing our portfolio of community partners and philanthropic giving to refine our strategy and make more strategic decisions with our dollars. It also meant doubling down on key relationships and building new ones in the areas that are most material and relevant to our industry, audiences, communities, and brands. We have a legacy of using our platforms to inform culture and spark conversation on issues that fuel the world – like diversity, civic engagement, mental health, and countless others.

We have children to great-grandparents in our audience. No other media company has that to our extent. What these past three years have displayed is that there is a huge need for multi-generational dialogue in homes around tough topics. No other media company can help facilitate that the way that we can.

Now, we’re here in the moment with Content for Change — that’s our superpower. It’s about infusing different processes, different thinking, diverse backgrounds, diverse mindsets, and different backgrounds into the entire content creation process so that the output of anything we create is through a Content For Change lens. Where we are right now is where I wanted to get to when I first took the role.

NB: How does Content for Change reflect the future you envision for Paramount and the industry?

CB: Content for Change is an outpouring of that opportunity. It builds on the amazing work of our Office of Global Inclusion and centers on understanding the role media plays in where we are today as a society. We’re transparent about our evolution, and we’re doing the work to see where we are in our own journey.

The goal is that diversity, in every form, is woven into the fabric of who we are and how our business succeeds. It’s in our culture. It’s the expectation of our talent when they come to work with us and how we show up at tentpoles. It’s the visuals that you see that represent our organization and the content we produce. It also should be reflected in our suppliers. It’s the ambition that if you’re going to do business with Paramount, we both require and uphold a commitment to progress in this space. Content for Change is a systems approach to change. It will take time and intention but I believe we are on a path to accelerated progress. 

NB: Can you share more about the Paramount partnership with Salesforce?

CB: We realized there’s no database or consistent system across the board that tracks diversity numbers within our productions, which was wild to me. On the corporate side, Paramount is able to track its diversity numbers for its full-time employees, but it becomes much more difficult when you start to look at productions with third-party staff, such as crew, makeup artists, extras, vendors, etc. Various departments were keeping track of this data in spreadsheets, Decks, documents, etc. And at other companies, we were hearing very much the same.

Tanmay Manohar, VP of people analytics and workforce planning, and his team took a Salesforce infrastructure that was custom-built for CBS and built it out so that it can accommodate the DE&I production data across all of our brands. We use it on a few of our TV projects now, and we plan to roll it out across all of our domestic television productions to start.

Our Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Marva Smalls often says what gets measured, matters. This partnership with Salesforce reinforces our commitment to making more data-driven decisions around our content and its creation. Big picture, we’d love for this platform to be adopted by the industry to begin standardizing data collection from productions.

NB: What are we learning from the research part of Content for Change?

CB: Content For Change has two research buckets. The research with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative is around representation. We held the mirror up to ourselves across a slew of programming to figure out where we stand. It’s a sample, but it’s a good start.

The other bucket is the research with Stanford SPARQ on portrayals. We’re trying to evaluate how our representation comes across in juxtaposition to character portrayals on screen. If diverse roles are stereotypical, then the impact is consequential. That’s where I get excited and that’s where I think we’re actually doing things differently. It’s not just about more diverse faces on screen, it’s going deeper to evaluate the speaking roles of those characters and how they are positioned and represented within storylines. It’s about being responsible for the narrative of the stories that we tell. That’s where I think Content for Change is most powerful.

NB: What do you find the most impactful about your work?

CB: The fact that it has real-world application. The team makes great efforts to continue to motivate our employees and help them to feel connected to our purpose as a company. People are doing a job, but they want to know that what they’re doing matters. We help to bring that to life for employees, whether it be through our CSR initiatives like our annual global day of service. Even in the middle of the pandemic when everything was scary, we heard from many people that they didn’t want Community Day to stop because it was a unifier, it fostered connection when we needed it most, and it provided a way to spread love and care to people and communities. That honestly still chokes me up to this day because the world was chaotic and yet people still reached out to our team to say “Don’t stop. Keep doing this. We need it.” And our amazing CSR team stepped up to the challenge.

Those are the things that make me feel like I’m walking in my purpose and in a great position. It’s the humanity of it all that fuels me — and the fact that we are able to bring it to life every single day is both a journey and a dream.

NB: How has Paramount evolved in the ESG space?

CB: The leaders on our ESG team are rockstars. They built an ESG strategy and external reporting structure from the ground up. One of the reasons why I came to Paramount was that there was foundational sustainability work happening across teams, including for decades on our Paramount Pictures lot, however, there was an opportunity to build an ESG team and develop a structure and process for sustainability globally.

We were able to look across the house and gain an understanding of what was happening, give people the credit that they deserve for work already happening, create a strategy around it, and start reporting publicly on ESG. It’s becoming a larger expectation for companies to publicly report and to be transparent about their data.

We published our first ESG report in 2020 and we worked on how we could develop our own narrative as a company. We now have environmental sustainability goals. We have a UK pilot to set greenhouse gas emission targets.

I’m proud of the infrastructure that the ESG team has set up with our partners across the company. Our board and CEO Bob Bakish have charged us with being the leaders of ESG in the media and entertainment industry — and we’re working through defining what that means for us as a company and telling that story externally.

NB: Let’s talk about your career overall. What was your first full-time role?

CB: I started off at Nielsen in a rotational program, doing different jobs in New York, L.A., Tampa, and Chicago. Companies were just starting to do management rotation programs more frequently, and we were Nielsen’s first cohort in quite some time. The irony of me eventually coming to Paramount is that the rotation program was like “The Real World”. Three guys and three girls in an apartment building We came from everywhere with all different backgrounds, but all had some sort of connectivity either to media and entertainment or to data insights and research.

NB: How did that experience evolve into CSR?

CB: While at Nielsen, I worked with a friend and colleague to help to build Nielsen Cares, which was all about using data, research, and analytics to help non-profits accelerate their work. For example, when the Ebola crisis struck, surveyors were dying as they were going to evaluate what was happening on the ground. Nielsen data scientists and researchers helped to map out how to use mobile data and technology to extract and collect the information so that people didn’t have to be physically present to assess what was going on.

Who knew data and research from a media company could save lives? Data for Good was our mission and making that connection for the company was transformative.

NB: What led you to join Paramount?

CB: I wanted to go to a company that had the resources to do great things, a history of doing great things, and an opportunity to make new things. I thrive off of creating new things.

I knew it was a great fit when I interviewed with Julia Phelps, Paramount’s chief communications and corporate marketing officer. I said in my interview: “Listen, this is who I am. I’m always going to be me. I’m always going to be real. I need a runway to build and create because that’s where I find energy.” That’s my mentality and she was fully supportive. When I’m able to find a company or a role with a manager that allows for that flexibility, that’s my sweet spot and how I’m able to lean into my superpower for good.

SMALL TALK

Q: What are the qualities you look for in a hire?

CB: The ability to communicate effectively, willingness to take on challenges, find opportunities and step into them, and be self-sufficient. Another thing: The ability to sell. You need to build trust and sell what we’re doing because, especially on the ESG side, in many cases, you are talking about a topic that is fairly new to most and has become highly politicized. You have to build their trust in your thinking and process because ESG is a team sport – it’s only successful if everyone is on board.

Q: What is your current obsession?

CB: Boxing. I didn’t initially realize the depth that George Floyd’s murder had on my mental health, personally and professionally. Being a mom, a black woman in corporate America, and sitting in this seat you see, hear, and experience the thoughts, opinions, and pain of others alongside your own. So I started boxing in 2020 and I boxed regularly for a year. It helped me to release tension—to take it out on the bag and on my poor trainer.

Q: If you weren’t in this industry, what would you do for a living and why?

CB: I would be helping entertainers and athletes set up credible foundations that are connected to their passions. I always say when I retire, I’m going to do that pro-bono because it’s sometimes just a couple of small tweaks that could personalize their work and take their philanthropy to the next level.to build and create because that’s where I find energy.” That’s my mentality and she was fully supportive. When I’m able to find a company or a role with a manager that allows for that flexibility, that’s my sweet spot and how I’m able to lean into my superpower for good.

O-I Glass is in continuous pursuit of its vision to be the most innovative, sustainable, and chosen supplier of brand-building packaging solutions. While glass packaging is arguably one of the most sustainable packaging materials for food and beverages, the journey to sustainability for O-I is grounded in resilience, innovation, and the drive to transform the glass packaging industry.

To realize its vision, O-I Glass has set ambitious yet attainable goals, including a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts by 2030. The Company is recognized as the first glass packaging company to obtain an approved Science-Based Targets initiative GHG emissions reduction goal (established based on a 2-degree pathway), on its journey to a lower-carbon future.

Reducing GHG emissions is a crucial element of O-I’s sustainability journey, given that glass melting heavily relies on natural gas and electricity, resulting in significant emissions. In fact, over 80% of Scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions for the company originate from fuel consumption and electricity usage in the glass-making process. To address this, O-I is embracing low carbon solutions such as cleaner alternative fuels, utilizing waste heat, and increasing the use of cullet (recycled glass) instead of energy-intensive raw materials. 

The company is also expanding the use of renewable electricity sources to power its operations. And, O-I is updating its energy management system to guide its energy and emission reduction initiatives. In Europe, the company has 16 plants already certified under ISO 50001 for energy efficiency.

In its most recent sustainability report, the company notes increased use of renewable electricity year over year with a global renewable electricity volume of 30 percent – a 16 percent increase from 2020. Thanks to these combined efforts, O-I has achieved an impressive 18% reduction in emissions compared to its 2017 baseline—about a 5% decline from 2021. 

To learn more about O-I’s holistic approach to sustainability and its progress against its goals, visit o-i.com.

A ribbon cutting on Tuesday June 11, 2023 signaled the completion of construction of True Bethel Commons in Niagara Falls, NY. KeyBank Community Development and Lending provided financing for the $15 million adaptive reuse of the vacant former historic Sacred Heart school, rectory and convent buildings on South Avenue.

“True Bethel Commons is already having transformative impact on the neighborhood surrounding the former Sacred Heart school, rectory and convent buildings on South Avenue, bringing safe and affordable housing to this area,” said Michael McMahon, KeyBank Buffalo Market President and Regional Commercial Bank Executive. “We are very proud to have played a role in helping True Bethel Commons become reality and thank all of the partners in the project – Belmont Housing, True Community Development Corp., New York State and the City of Niagara Falls – for their vision and commitment to our community.”

“True Bethel Commons is representative of what we want to invest in, because it is community-based,” said Kate de la Garza, senior relationship manager with KeyBank Community Development Lending. “It came from an on-the-ground vision of True Bethel Baptist Church in partnership with Belmont. So you know that it’s reflective of the neighborhood that it is in.”

The building’s 39 apartments are available to households earning at or below 50 percent of the Area Median Income. Eight apartments are fully accessible and adapted for people with certain physical needs. The project has 24 Project-Based Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers from the city of Niagara Falls.

True Bethel Commons is close to health care facilities, municipal services, schools, retail establishments, grocery stores, pharmacies, a library, and public parks. Its urban location provides direct access to multiple public transportation routes that provide residents direct access to the City of Niagara Falls’ commercial corridors and an array of other services outside of the immediate neighborhood.

The complex in Niagara Falls, which dates to 1889 and was expanded over the years, is listed on the State and Federal Register of Historic Places. As such, the reuse design was required to preserve the character of the buildings, including maintaining the wide school corridors and transom windows, as well as the extensive woodwork and stained-glass windows in the rectory and convent house, and retaining a large portion of the gymnasium.

The project meets Enterprise Green Communities requirements and building amenities include a community room with a kitchen area, playground, bulk storage for bikes and other larger objects, computer room, and laundry. Tenants are responsible for electricity, heat, and gas costs. All apartments include energy efficient ranges and ovens, refrigerators and lighting.

Belmont Housing Resources for WNY, Inc. is the developer in partnership with True Community Development Corporation. Ranked as a Top 4 affordable housing lender for 2022 by Affordable Housing Finance, KeyBank is committed to bringing much needed housing projects to life, and homes to those in need.

Learn more about KeyBank’s commitment to helping clients and communities thrive 
 See KeyBank’s latest Environmental, Social and Governance Report

 

In the second installment of our CSRD series, Mandi McReynolds is joined by Amelia Pan of PJT Partners, an advisory-focused investment bank, and Diana Tidd, formerly of MSCI and the company’s first chief responsibility officer. The group discusses everything from metrics and materiality to integration and data, and how the role of the chief sustainability officer is evolving to meet new demands.

Listen Now

Looking for more? Subscribe to the ESG Talk podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, and YouTube.

In Fifth Third Bancorp’s recently published 2022 Sustainability Report, the Company highlighted recognition received from Jan. 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. The recognition in the sustainability space is testament to the collaborative relationships Fifth Third has with all of its stakeholders as the Bank works to improve lives and the well-being of the communities it serves.

Highlights included:

Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies, 2023.Top 25 of Just Capital’s Ranking of America’s 100 Most Just Companies, 2023.Fortune’s America’s Most Innovative Companies, 2023.

To read the full list of earned recognition in the 2022 Sustainability Report, visit www.53.com/sustainabilityreport.

Climate conditions and climate hazards result from vast, interconnected systems of the atmosphere, ocean, and land. Yet the influence of these huge, complex systems can be felt, sometimes very sharply, at the scale of human life, local infrastructure, or a single logistic component or supply chain link.

Data as Big as the Earth

We must describe the systems of climate, predict their trends, and provide focused insights to the people that need it, across every facet of government, society, and business. This endeavor requires a significant portion of all the data that we, as a species, have ever collected and the very best of our computing, modeling, and communication technologies. This unprecedented combination of scale and specificity is why climate data stewardship, analysis, and services are pushing technological boundaries like no other data challenge in history. And here at Leidos, on the leading edge of those technological boundaries, is the Climate Data Analytics Framework.

With the Climate Data Analytics Framework (CDAF), Leidos provides solutions for climate data operations to government and commercial customers. The CDAF can provide end-to-end solutions for climate data storage, cataloging, stewardship, processing, analysis, visualization, delivery, and reporting. The CDAF is also fully modular, achieved with an interoperable, but de-coupled architecture. This flexibility ensures rapid, secure integration across customers’ existing cloud, multi-cloud, on-premises, and hybrid operations and capabilities.

Providing for the Providers

Climate data providers, such as federal government agencies, must make their datasets available as quickly as possible, alongside actionable insights. Yet climate data providers must also meet standards for data transparency and traceability. Leidos’ CDAF allows data providers to achieve these seemingly disparate goals cohesively, without making trade-offs, giving their users the data they need and can trust. Leidos aims to support climate data providers in overcoming their existing challenges to the availability, accessibility, and usability of climate data across their user communities. CDAF merges isolated data streams, creates opportunities for data fusion, and designs meaningful climate analytic products for informed decision-making. Leidos wants climate data providers to have modern, reliable, and credible operations that protect and improve the circumstances of their users.

Climate Adaptation for Competitive Advantage

When baseline conditions change, those that plan, prepare, and adapt become the leaders of their sectors. Organizations that foresee climate disasters, secure their critical infrastructure, and mitigate impacts on their operations will retain and strengthen their competitive positions. Leidos’ CDAF customers drive their decisions with data, empowering their own data streams with seamless infusions of the very best public and commercial data to become owners of tailored monitoring, reporting, and decision-making tools. As a result, Leidos’ CDAF customers can find climate-driven growth strategies while meeting the challenges of climate conditions and hazards.

TOLLESON, Ariz., July 13, 2023 /3BL/ – Georgia-Pacific has produced its 1 billionth EarthKraft™ recyclable padded mailer. The milestone mailer rolled off the production line at our facility in Tolleson, Arizona, just three short years after the product was introduced. The mailer, and its success, is the culmination of listening to our partners and their consumers’ desire to develop sustainable products that meet and exceed their needs and expectations.

In 2020, we received feedback from Amazon that their consumers were demanding a sustainable alternative to plastic mailers. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, plastic has a recyclability rate of only 8.7 percent. Knowing that plastic poly- and bubble-padded mailers are hard to recycle, consumers wanted mailers that wouldn’t end up in a landfill.

“I’m excited that the EarthKraft™ mailer meets the needs of our customers and end consumers, and that 1 billion fully recyclable mailers have been produced,” Adam Ganz, vice president – eCommerce Packaging. “Creating an innovative and sustainable product that makes it easier for consumers to recycle their e-commerce packaging, and growing to 1 billion this quickly, is a monumental achievement for our team.”

EarthKraft™ mailers are made from 100 percent legally-and-responsibly-sourced wood fiber. The mailer holds the “widely recyclable” label by the How2Recycle® program and is SFI ® Certified1, which means we follow forestry best management practices to protect natural resources. Additionally, the mailers are designed to protect items against damage during transit, reducing the carbon impact that results from needing to replace and reship items.

Customer needs and innovation launched the EarthKraft™ mailer and within three years, 1 billion mailers have been produced – mailers that can be turned into new products rather than end up in a landfill because they’re fully recyclable. Watch below the video celebrating this milestone.

1. SFI-00007 SFI marks are registered marks owned by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc

View original content here.

by Thaddeus Tan

The depletion of the world’s fish species could be prevented thanks to innovative technology that will satisfy seafood lovers’ appetites without hooking more fish from the ocean.

Two award-winning European startups have formed a partnership to showcase cutting-edge 3D printing innovation to help solve the fishing crisis, caused by overfishing, while ensuring there is a plentiful supply of seafood alternatives.

Austrian 3D and food tech firm Revo Foods has collaborated with Swedish fungi innovator Mycorena to ensure the future of seafood is climate-smart, nutritious and resource-efficient.

Revo Foods offers seafood created from 100 per cent plants, aiming at changing the way we consume fish products and protect the ocean. Its goals are to be fully plant-based, offer the best seafood alternatives and help reduce overfishing.

It has teamed up with Gothenburg-based Mycorena to take food innovation to the next level and effect positive change via state-of-the-art 3D food printing technology.

Mycorena uses next-generation fungi ingredients to reach its ambitious sustainability goals which include saving 20,000,000 farm animals, 513,000 tonnes of CO2, 290,000,000 tonnes of fresh water and 342,000 tonnes of food waste.

Recognised as one of the leading food tech firms in Europe, The pioneering Mycorena Fungi Lab focuses on creating protein of the future and is split into three divisions: fermentation lab, food lab and quality & analytical lab. The food lab focuses on texture analysis and 3D printing.

Alternatives to high-value fish fillets and whole-cut steak are proving a challenge to produce; hence attention is focusing on technology such as 3D food printing and the use of healthy vegan, fibrous alternatives such as mycoprotein. However, fibrous behaviour can be limiting for processing methods such as 3D food printing.

Mycorena and Revo Foods are currently exploring the suitability of Mycorena’s previously developed and adapted mycoprotein which is better suited for 3D food printing. It partners the meat-like properties of mycoprotein with the unrestricted shaping possibilities of 3D food printing, to produce a new realistic meat-like product segment.

The companies are aiming to narrow the gap between animal products and plant-based or vegan alternatives, and encourage the wider adoption of meat alternatives in the market. Like Mycorena’s current mycoprotein ingredient Promyc, the printable mycoprotein will have a soft fibrous texture, light colour and neutral taste.

Vienna-based Revo Foods has previously claimed that its plant-based salmon contains more protein, omega-3 fatty acids, dietary fibres, and vitamin B12 than regular salmon.

According to researchers at Our World in Data, production of fish and seafood worldwide has increased four-fold over the past half-century. During this time the global population has more than doubled, with the average person eating twice as much seafood compared to 50 years ago.

This demand has put fish stocks under threat which are now caught faster than they can reproduce, meaning wild fish are not caught sustainably in their current volume.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) shows the fraction of fish stocks sustainably fished decreased to 64.6 per cent in 2019. This is just 1.2 per cent lower than in 2017, but a considerable drop from the 90 per cent reported in 1974.
Climate-conscious savvy consumers are demanding more plant-based alternatives from meat and seafood producers and holding companies to account for their impact on the planet.

According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), 76 per cent of consumers are playing their part when it comes to sustainability and expect brands to do the same, although a mere eight per cent are willing to pay more for sustainable products and believe companies and governments should be paying for necessary changes to be implemented.

Ram Nair, Founder & CEO of Mycorena, said: “Finding next-generation food ingredients that are healthy, climate-friendly, and resource-efficient is necessary to achieve lasting positive change in our food system. Our vision is to build Mycorena into a global leader at the forefront of this change.”

Robin Simsa, CEO at Revo Foods, said: “Mycoprotein is a very interesting ingredient for vegan seafood alternatives, however, we were previously limited in using it in our proprietary 3D food printing process as the fibrous behaviour was altered.

“With this new collaboration with Mycorena, we see huge potential to develop the printable mycoprotein further, which can lift meat/seafood alternatives to the next quality level, necessary for large-scale consumer adoption.”

Kristina Karlsson, R&D Manager at Mycorena, said: “We are very excited to finally reveal our collaboration with Revo Foods. We believe we will create some truly unique products here, making it easy for consumers to enjoy delicious seafood in a healthy and sustainable way.”

Thaddeus Tan, Senior Consultant – Sustainable Business at Acre, said: “I am very eager to observe the growth of the meat alternative segment and its uptake among the public in the coming years. On a larger scope, the issue of unsustainable fishing practices will contribute to severe biodiversity challenges with the importance of key ecosystem services that the ocean provides.

“It is crucial not only for consumers but brands and governments to protect our biodiversity as approximately half or more of the global GDP (2020) is dependent on nature and its services. Nature-related disclosures have started to take importance such as Science Based Targets for Nature, Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), and the EU Taxonomy which requires the private sector to be more accountable for nature-related risks and impacts.

“While these are positive steps forward, large institutions must be proactive in taking bigger and quicker strides in safeguarding our oceans and planet.”

World Ocean Day is on June 8, 2023. For more information, please visit https://worldoceanday.org/

About Acre

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

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

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

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

Acre. Making companies ready for tomorrow.

On May 23, several Quest Diagnostics employees volunteered at the Healthy NewsWorks Spring Celebration, featuring achievements of its student reporters from the greater Philadelphia area.

A Quest for Health Equity (Q4HE) grantee, Healthy NewsWorks has been empowering elementary and middle school students since 200 3to become researchers, writers, and confident communicators who advance health understanding and literacy through their factual publications and digital media. Its program teaches student health journalists how to ask questions, identify factual information, write accurately, think critically, and share what they’ve learned. Their work is published in health-focused newspapers, books, and digital media that are distributed in their schools and communities, and on a health-focused website for all to access.

The special spring program featured student-produced video shorts and live student interviews focused on the connection between health and the environment.

“Before I entered the auditorium for the featured program, I was speaking with one of the students from DePaul Catholic School, and he stated that we are going to be blown away when we see them present in the auditorium. This young man was right,” said Kim George, Patient Services Manager. “What an amazing group of children. The future is in good hands.”

“Seeing the final product that the student journalists worked on all year was my favorite part,” added Ilene Rothblat, QMS Sr. Program Manager, who helped coordinate the event. “I have been involved with Healthy NewsWorks for many years through QuestCAN, and working with their student journalists as they learn about and then communicate health related information is energizing! They are so cool!”

Healthy NewsWorks also published its 2023 Spring magazine – its inaugural issue – reporting on the theme “Caring for Our Earth and Ourselves.” The magazine featured a foreword from Q4HE Senior Director Michael Floyd acknowledging Healthy NewsWorks for its work in addressing youth literacy and health in under-resourced communities, and an interview with Logistics Senior Manager Mike Marquette.

Mike talked to 16 young students at James Logan Elementary School in Philadelphia. The students were excited to learn about the East Region’s electric car strategy and Quest’s overall approach to environmental sustainability, even bringing an electric vehicle to the school.

“Interacting with the third graders during the presentation and seeing their eyes light up with excitement as they got to touch and explore the electric vehicle was absolutely amazing,” said Mike. “Their enthusiasm and curiosity reminded me of the pure joy that comes from hands-on experiences, and it was a delightful reminder of the power of inspiring young minds to embrace green practices.”

Check out the magazine here: Spring 2023 Magazine | Healthy NewsWorks

MITIGATING WILDFIRE RISK

Wildfires can occur because of lightning or human causes. While human causes are the source of over 87% of total fires, lightning accounts for over 54% of total acres burned. The U.S. West has seen an increase in fire size and frequency, driven by drought, excess fuel build up on federal forest ownership, and inaccessible acreage. In the U.S. South, weather, ownership, and access typically enable a more effective wildfire response. As climate change increases wildfire risk, mitigation measures and coordination across ownerships become increasingly important. Wildfire behavior can be influenced by weather, amount of readily combustible fuels, lack of moisture, and topography, and when the conditions are right, fire severity can increase and cause damage to the environment. The strongest tool to mitigate wildfire risk is to reduce the amount of fuel that is readily available in the understory, midstory, and overstory through thinning, prescribed fire, maintained fuel breaks, and strategically placed landscape-level fuels treatments. These timberland management treatments have also been proven to improve forest health and biodiversity benefits. In addition, a forest with age-class diversity reduces available fuels and young forests act as natural landscape fire breaks.

Unmanaged lands typically have overstocked forests that provide significant ladder fuels, increasing the threat of crown fires. Ladder fuels provide continuous vertical fuels for the fire to climb from the forest floor to the canopy and become a crown fire. Insect and disease damage is also more prevalent in overcrowded forests, increasing dead wood which can become readily combustible fuels. Crown fires are extremely challenging to stop using direct firefighting efforts and control is often accomplished through breaking fuel availability in the predicted path of the fire. This can mean the difference between a fire burning tens of thousands of acres in unmanaged timberland, compared to hundreds of acres in managed or working timberland. Efforts are underway to improve the forest health in unmanaged lands. Good Neighbor Authority enables federal land managers to enter into agreements with state governments to implement projects focused around restoring or improving overall forest health through treatments that target reducing hazardous fuels. Idaho Shared Stewardship establishes a policy for shared management by federal land managers with states, tribes, and other landowners to manage fire risk through a set of shared priorities. These include coordination among federal, state, tribal and local assets for wildfire prevention, suppression, and post-wildfire restoration, and for action to be taken to remove hazardous fuels and increase active management. Working forest owners are also engaging in policy solutions to review and update federal wildfire suppression with an eye toward improving interagency coordination and alignment around wildfire suppression, including decisions about initial attack, fire management, and the use of specific firefighting strategies.

In Idaho, we have implemented heightened measures to prevent fires, minimize damage from fires and to protect our timberlands from loss.

WILDFIRE IN IDAHO

“I have gained a unique perspective regarding wildfire over a 30-year career managing timberland in the Pacific Northwest. Serving as the President of the Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association* with wildfire protection responsibility on 1 million acres of private, state and federal property has provided me insight into wildfire funding, prevention, and suppression tactics.” – Rich McMillan, District Forester, PotlatchDeltic

Q: What are some of the challenges you face fighting wildfire in Idaho? 

A: Ownership patterns in Idaho are typically not contiguous, but rather a checkerboard pattern with Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) state, federal, and private timberlands. This creates significant complexities when fighting wildfire. Managed lands do not have the same heavy fuel loads that unmanaged lands carry. When fire starts or moves into unmanaged lands, it can intensify significantly as a result of the fuel load. In addition, firefighters have better access on managed lands than on unmanaged lands through established and maintained road systems.

Firefighting strategies also differ between protecting agency and landowners within checkerboard areas. Cooperative agreements such as the “statewide master agreement” have been established to define protecting agency (state & federal) responsibilities so that the closest resource responds regardless of ownership. This substantially improves fire fighting efficiency and effectiveness.

Obtaining resources during peak fire season can also be a challenge due to firefighters, engines, and aerial resources being committed to other fires. Timberlands sometimes become a lower priority value at risk than urban areas which can result in smaller fires growing to much larger scale. Retaining qualified personnel can also be difficult due to the seasonality of the work and lower pay. The crew foreman and engine bosses require about 3 years to have adequate experience so retaining personnel is important.

Q: How is a fire fought in Idaho timberlands – what techniques work best? 

A: The key to success is to have qualified personnel ready to respond, quick and efficient detection, and aggressive initial attack when fires are still small (helicopter followed by ground resources). It is best to use direct attack techniques, when possible, with thorough and complete mop up. Direct attack is engaging at the fire perimeter with people, equipment, and/or aerial resources. Indirect attack is putting a fire line where you expect the fire to go – through measures like backfires or burnout – and is used when direct attack is too dangerous. The techniques that work include using a helicopter with water bucket, heavy equipment constructing fire lines, and organized ground crews doing direct attack.

Q: How is water accessed? Is retardant used? 

A: Water is drafted from any natural or man-made water body. Helicopters dip from rivers, lakes, and ponds and fixed wing aircraft can skim a lake surface to refill. We have a series of over 275 dip ponds constructed across our ownership and 95% of our Idaho timberlands are within 1 mile of a water source capable of supplying a helicopter or fire engine.

Approximately 5% of fires that IDL fights in North Idaho utilize fire retardant. Fire retardant is more effective in light, flashy fuels such as rangelands and needs to coat the material you are trying to keep from burning. Water is more effective for fighting fires in timber because it penetrates the forest canopy better than retardant.

Q: How will the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the forest service and National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) help? 

A: The MOU will likely result in better protection for 9.5 million acres of participating NAFO member company land and adjacent National Forest System (NFS) land in California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The agreement provides for the use of NAFO member company resources to fully suppress fires in areas along the boundaries of NAFO and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands. This will add hundreds of additional people and firefighting assets to the effort. NAFO member company resources are also authorized to attack fires 24 hours a day and seven days a week if necessary for full suppression. The MOU formalizes an approach of close coordination and planning in advance of fire season and ongoing coordination and communication throughout fire season.

Q: How do you reduce wildfire risks? 

A: Forest management keeps our fuel loads at a more acceptable level and reduces the amount of dead and dying trees and we meet or exceed minimum requirements for hazard disposal after logging. We have installed and maintain a series of dip ponds across our ownership and maintain our road infrastructure for access. Foresters and logging contractors are all trained to assist as necessary. Contractors are required to have water pumpers on site, and we inspect our operations as peak fire season approaches for compliance with our contract specifications regarding fire equipment. We are also a member of the Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protection Association (CPTPA) which gives us a more direct voice in our fire protection.

*Rich has been President of CPTPA for 15 years.

View the full PotlatchDeltic 2022 ESG Report here.