Tag: 3BL

May 18, 2023 /3BL Media/ – AEG Presents’ New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell has been awarded Gold certification by the Council for Responsible Sport, in recognition for its outstanding approach to social, environmental, economic and community impact.

The recognition makes Jazz Fest, which hosted some 475,000 visitors across seven days, the largest cultural event to receive certification under the Council’s criteria.

Gold certification was awarded to Jazz Fest for successfully developing a comprehensive approach to minimizing the environmental footprint of the festival, while increasing the inclusivity, economic and social benefits of the event.

The achievement recognized Jazz Fest’s 2022 commitment to a broad range of sustainability and impact goals, as well as its effort to incorporate these methods into day-to-day activity and then track and measure performance consistently.

Some of the highlights included:

Composting 17.56 metric tons of recycling diverted from landfill and 4.37 metric tons of food waste;Collecting and recycling 1.13 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastics waste which was sent to a Nexus facility in Atlanta as part of Shell’s “Plastics Circularity Project;”Recycling 2,500 gallons of cooking oil which is turned into fuel for local shrimping boats;Completing a carbon footprint study, including the offsetting of 7,098 mt of Scope 1 and some Scope 3 emissions;And, implementing the NOLA Supplier Impact Program which strengthened the business sustainability and continuity of Black Female Suppliers in the Greater New Orleans area. The program is focused on increased understanding of how to maintain business continuity and sustainability even in times of uncertainty and providing productive networking and increased connections within the Women’s Business community.

“On behalf of everyone at Jazz Fest, we’re honored to have the festival receive Gold certification from the Council,” said Quint Davis, Producer/Director of the event. “Thanks to our partnership with Shell, the Festival has been able to develop a robust sustainability campaign, which is an important complement to our longstanding commitment to the cultural and socio-economic wellbeing of our community.”

The festival’s efforts were assessed in adherence to the Council’s certification framework using the cloud based ReScore platform, which enables sporting event organizers to measure, track, report, and verify their progress on a broad range of environmental and social indicators.

The Council for Responsible Sport is a 501 (c ) (3) not-for-profit organization with a vision of a world where responsibly produced sports and events are the norm. It has been helping people measure, manage and verify the social and environmental impacts of their events since 2007. The Council provides independent verification and certification of mass participation events in terms of their environmental, social and economic impacts. Many of the hundreds of events that have been certified are among the world’s leading examples of mass participation organizations going beyond the “norm” to generate positive impacts. For more information, and to see certification criteria, please click here.

VestedIn is committed to investing in Philadelphia’s youth and their impact on the future of the city. Often referred to as the “economic engine” of the community, VestedIn serves West Philadelphia’s Empowerment Zone and six additional counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

In addition to providing small business loans in the community, VestedIn has empowered the youngest residents of Philadelphia through WesGold Fellows for 13 years. WesGold Fellows is a vigorous eight-week paid youth entrepreneurship and investing accelerator internship program—now reaching up to 60 students each summer. Fellows are guided through curriculum-based instruction, experiential learning opportunities, uniquely engaging field trips and professional development training.

In the latest installment of Inspiring Conversations, Truist Foundation’s audio series with nonprofit leaders doing the work, Truist Foundation President Lynette Bell speaks with James Burnett, executive director of VestedIn, to learn more about how the community development financial institution (CDFI) is providing resources to youth and small businesses in communities that have been underrepresented and underserved.

To learn more, listen to Lynette’s conversation with James.

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, Truist 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.

Leidos has a track record of leading innovative, impactful work to address climate change. As the effects of climate change accelerate, we continue to support mitigation and adaption efforts as well as assist our customers in setting science-based targets that reduce GHG emissions across their entire value chain.

Leidos environmental engineers, scientists, and program managers have worked with the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to help reduce GHG emissions, improve energy efficiency, reduce energy costs, and track and report emissions and the global costs of GHG emissions. DLA Energy helps provide the Department of Defense, the largest energy user in the federal government and one of the largest electricity purchasers in the country, and other government agencies with comprehensive energy sources.

The U.S. federal government consumes electricity almost exclusively from the power grid, where carbon pollution-free electricity made up about 40% of electricity generated in 2020. Federal agencies are looking to increase that 40%. The cost of carbon, nitrous oxide, and methane are estimates of the monetized damages associated with incremental increases in GHG emissions that are part of the global analysis Leidos provides. Along with GHG reporting and emission inventories, our experts evaluate air quality regulatory compliance and assess pollution prevention design, performance measurement, and evaluations.

Since 2008, Leidos has gathered data about air quality and GHG emissions at four DLA sites, sourcing data from electricity generation, stationary combustion, mobile output, wastewater treatment plants, refrigerant usage, and solid waste. The results feed our experts’ analysis and inform sustainability strategies to provide DLA leadership with facts for decision-making that are based on hard science and awareness of the latest technical options. These innovative strategies empower operational and maintenance changes that not only reduce GHG emissions, but also reduce energy usage and disposal costs. Long-term benefits include changes in net agricultural productivity, human health, reduced property damage from increased flood risk, and the value of ecosystem services.

DLA credits comprehensive energy audits and GHG reduction projects for their four host sites in reducing GHG emissions from all scopes by almost 135K tons of carbon dioxide between 2008 and 2021, resulting in savings the equivalent of more than 312K barrels of oil (per EPA GHG Equivalencies Calculator).

To learn more about this and other projects, please see the most recent version of our Corporate Responsibility Report.

May 18, 2023 /3BL Media/ – As we celebrate AAPI Heritage Month, three entrepreneurs from the SkysTheLimit.org community are pursuing their passions founding their own businesses.

Hailing from Georgia, Washington, and New York, these founders each offer fun ways for people to be part of new, interactive experiences and express themselves.

They are:

Alice Hong, based in Atlanta, GA, is the Founder of Luxardo Entertainment Group LLC, full-service provider that’s revolutionizing the live music and classical music experience through collaborations with artists, corporations, and other fields of expertise to create breathtaking immersive experiences.

“I want to make Atlanta a more musical place, starting with making chamber music experiences more accessible, available, and memorable through unique, curated immersive concert experiences,” said Alice.

As a violinist for Edgewood String Quartet, Alice knows first hand the power of such experiences and how the multi-sensory stimulation provides a sanctuary away from everyday stresses.

Read more about Alice here.

Joan Cristobol, based in Aberdeen, WA, is the Founder of jaDiCee UnLtD, helping 18+ to make their own custom designed clothing in the form of simple, comfortable apparel. As a self-made and self-funded entrepreneur, Joan has taught herself skills by watching social media and YouTube videos.

“I started a t-shirt side hustle and sold tees to friends. It was kind of a hobby because I like to make things. I decided to pursue this seeing the potential it can have. The looks on the customers’ faces when they see their orders! It makes me feel happy creating something that people are pleased with,” said Joan.

For entrepreneurs just starting out, she provided some insight based on her personal journey as a founder. “If there’s a will, there’s a way. When I started, I didn’t know anything, and I was working on a boat so I didn’t have all the resources I needed. I watched a lot of YouTube videos to learn everything I could,” said Joan.

Read more about Joan here.

Nicole Shim, based in Brooklyn, NY is the Founder of Volare Collection, an online jewelry shop with high quality, long lasting, waterproof, hypoallergenic, and handmade jewelry made accessible to everyone worldwide. It was created with the belief that every person is a unique work of art and its goal is to help bring out each individual’s inner masterpiece with its innovative jewelry collection.

“I started this brand because I wanted to showcase my creativity and help people feel good about themselves. My brand was founded with the intention of inspiring people to prioritize themselves and their loved ones through meaningful gifts. Mental health is a cause close to my heart, as I have personally struggled with depression and substance addiction in the past. This brand gave me a renewed sense of hope and excitement, and I’m committed to spreading awareness and giving back by donating 5% of our revenue to Mental Health America and AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention),” said Nicole.

Read more about Nicole here.

Sky’s the Limit offers opportunities for traditionally marginalized entrepreneurs – typically those who identify as LGBTQI+, BIPOC, women, veterans, disabled people, and people from low-income backgrounds – to connect with mentors to come together to foster, grow, and shape modern and future enterprise.

“The mentors that helped me have been giving me everything from resources, knowledge, and guidance to invoices, templates, organization of my business and processes,” said Joan.

For more information about how to get your company involved in mentoring, please visit skysthelimit.org/partnerships.

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About SkysThelimit.org: SkysTheLimit.org is a digital platform that connects young, historically excluded entrepreneurs with one-on-one support from experienced business advisors and mentors, entrepreneurship training, and community-voted startup grants. SkysTheLimit.org is a 501(c)3 nonprofit. 

Kimberly-Clark announced the 62 recipients of its 2023 Bright Futures Scholarships. The Bright Futures program is administered by the Kimberly-Clark Foundation and awards college scholarships to children of Kimberly-Clark employees throughout North America. Recipients are selected based on academic achievement, community service, extracurricular activities, and work experience.

“This year’s scholarship recipients have demonstrated an impressive commitment to academic excellence and community service, and we are inspired by their achievements,” said Jenny Lewis, Vice President of the Kimberly-Clark Foundation. “We are proud to support them as they pursue their goals in higher education and look forward to all they will achieve.”

Each Bright Futures scholarship is worth up to $20,000 ($5,000 per year for up to four years) for full-time students studying at accredited colleges and universities. This year, Kimberly-Clark awarded Bright Futures scholarships totaling $1,240,000 to 62 students in the U.S. and Canada. Since its inception, the program has granted more than $46 million in scholarships to more than 2,300 students for full-time study at accredited colleges and universities.

The average GPA for this year’s Bright Futures scholarship class is 3.97. Awardees will attend leading colleges and universities, including Columbia University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Princeton University, and the University of California Los Angeles. Past scholarship recipients have gone on to pursue successful careers in medicine, education, the armed forces, and engineering.

Click here for more information on this year’s award recipients.

Originally published on Built From Scratch

ATLANTA, May 18, 2023 /3BL Media/ – The Home Depot is partnering with the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (Exchange) to launch its tax-free offering of major appliances to military shoppers. All active-duty service members, dependents, retirees, Department of Defense civilians and retirees, and honorably discharged veterans who have confirmed eligibility at ShopMyExchange.com can make tax-free online purchases from the Exchange through this program.

Major appliances, such as washers, dryers, refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, ovens, microwaves and more will be available for purchase through The Home Depot’s branded online page at ShopMyExchange.com. Major appliance showrooms from The Home Depot are also launching at five post exchanges and base exchanges, including Fort Moore, GA, Fort Cavazos, TX, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, TX, Dyess AFB, TX and Fort Sill, OK. The Home Depot and the Exchange plan to roll out more than 60 Home Depot appliance showrooms across the continental United States.

“The collaboration with the Exchange is another example of The Home Depot’s ongoing commitment to better serving military service members and their families,” said Hector Padilla, executive vice president of outside sales and service at The Home Depot. “Those who serve our country deserve the best products for their homes, and we are happy to be a resource for them.”

In collaboration with the Exchange, The Home Depot will fulfill appliances ordered through ShopMyExchange.com and manage customer service for all deliveries and installations.

To shop or learn more about the Exchange program, please visit ShopMyExchange.com.

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DENVER, Colo., May 18, 2023 /3BL Media/ — KeyBank has named Brianna Adams as vice president, corporate responsibility officer for the financial institution’s Colorado and Utah markets. In this position, she will oversee the philanthropic budget and investment strategies to meet community needs, as well as create and maintain relationships with community-based, charitable and non-profit organizations. In addition, she will oversee KeyBank’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) compliance goals throughout Colorado and Utah. Adams succeeds Debbie Trujillo, who recently retired as CRO after 20 years at KeyBank

“I am thrilled for Brianna to join our KeyBank team and look forward to having her lead and continue growing KeyBank’s robust community outreach efforts,” says Stacy Thompson, senior vice president, corporate responsibility and community engagement at KeyBank.

Most recently, Adams served as associate vice president, community development officer for Independent Financial. There, she identified, developed and maintained partnerships throughout Colorado to meet community need and fulfill CRA service, lending and investment objectives. She serves as a sustainability committee member for Habitat for Humanity of Colorado and an executive advisory board member for Bank On Denver. Adams holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama.

KeyBank has received 10 consecutive “Outstanding” ratings from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for reaching the highest standards of the CRA, one of the only U.S. national banks to be rated “Outstanding” by the OCC for 10 consecutive review periods, since the Act’s passage in 1977.

About KeyCorp 
KeyCorp’s roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $198 billion at March 31, 2023. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.

When we started Trane Technologies just over three years ago, we knew that delivering on our purpose to boldly challenge what’s possible would require a strong culture. But culture can only evolve when it’s paired with a positive employee experience that attracts, grows and retains the very people who will continue to move it forward.

Research shows that companies that invest in delivering great employee experiences outperform the S&P 500 by 122%. Providing a great employee experience can also boost engagement, providing many benefits, including increasing profitability by up to 23%, reducing absenteeism by 41%, and boosting productivity by 17%.

While Trane Technologies has always invested in our people and culture (we’ve had strong annual employee retention and an employee engagement score that consistently falls near the top-quartile of thousands of companies across all industries), we wanted to take our employee experience from good to great. That’s when we started asking ourselves two key questions: Why should employees come … and why should they stay?

This is how we redefined our expectations for how employees should experience our workplace—often referred to as an employee value proposition (EVP). 

Building and nurturing

Developing a strong framework that reflected our EVP took a healthy dose of time and partnering with our businesses and employees. We used a multi-faceted approach to developing and defining our view of a great workplace culture, understanding the expectations and needs of our employees – while also matching our commitment to lead sustainably for our customers, communities and people.

In the development stage, we held listening sessions with employees to get insight into what they needed to be successful in our organization. We conducted surveys, measuring how people feel about the workplace and what we can do to improve. What we ended up with was a clear set of expectations – a framework – that guides our decisions, shapes our offerings and helps us articulate what matters most to our people.

An “always on” approach

Even after defining our employee value proposition and the framework, we dug deeper. We regrouped with employee groups who support our company in different ways, such as our hourly manufacturing employees, to ensure our offerings and promises tied to their expectations and experience. Based on their input, we refined it.

We also hosted an in-person event to assemble the leaders and program owners who work each day to protect and enhance our offerings and help make employee experiences rewarding and sustainable. We brainstormed, learned from each other, and shared how we can lean into different areas of the employee experience and work together to provide a better workplace for our people.

We asked a few leaders to share how their work connects to our employee experiences and the success of our company. Here are their perspectives.

Why people come and stay

Our EVP promises employees a work environment where people uplift one another, make a positive impact on the planet, and can thrive both at work and at home. But an employee experience needs to be more than words on a page. Now that we defined our EVP broadly and for key employee groups, the real work begins.

We’re continuing the work to educate, enable and empower our people leaders so they can uphold the promises we’re making to our employees. We’re also using our EVP as a guide as we consider new programs for our team members. Most importantly, we’re continuing to listen in all directions to make sure that the experience we set out to create is felt across the organization.

The people who work at Trane Technologies are the best representation of who we are—we owe it to them to cultivate a workplace where they thrive because when they do, the business does too. By consistently delivering on our promise and nurturing its health, we are putting ourselves in a position to achieve and benefit from a diverse, inclusive workforce with the best people to achieve our ambitious goals.

May 18, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Armed conflicts are pervasive across geographic regions – creating deeply challenging conditions for companies to navigate through and within. Meanwhile, businesses face growing expectations for conflict-sensitive due diligence, with transparency on their operations, activities and supply chains.

A new GRI publication, Why corporate transparency is critical during conflict, explores this topic, with advice for companies on how to integrate sustainability reporting with their due diligence obligations, including those set out in intergovernmental guidelines by the UN and OECD.

As Peter Paul van de Wijs, GRI Chief Policy Officer, explained:

“There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach – each company will have specific impacts to consider related to the nature of the conflict, their business model and presence of staff in the conflict area. 

Through stakeholder engagement and a comprehensive assessment of what’s relevant in a conflict, the GRI Standards enable organizations to understand their impacts, which is the starting point for a well considered response strategy. Transparency brings accountability; it’s what turns the guidelines on due diligence into powerful tools that facilitate action.”

The paper identifies five essentials for corporate due diligence during conflict:

Due diligence requires continuous communication: Companies need to regularly monitor changes in risks and impacts – from the conflict itself, and through their activities and operations. Maintaining close contact with key stakeholders is essential – such as staff, business partners and local communities. 
 Actions depend on the nature of the company and the conflict: Given that conflicts can emerge or change dynamically, businesses need to be ready to reassess decisions on mitigating measures. For example, national conflicts can go international, or areas of operations might switch from government control to armed non-state groups. That means risk assessment, including human rights due diligence, is not a one-off exercise. 
 Information is needed from multiple external sources: The ability to carry out full, conflict-sensitive risk and impact assessments may be challenging or impossible. Input from civil society actors, such as NGOs or human rights defenders, helps build a picture of the reality on the ground, while highlighting information gaps that need addressed. 
 Recognition that tough decisions can be required: A company may face contrasting demands from different stakeholder groups – such as employees, communities and consumers. For example, how a business balances the international reputational damage associated with their presence in an area of conflict with their responsibilities locally towards those who rely on their goods, services or employment. 
 Exiting a conflict-affected area brings obligations: Reaching a decision to cease operations needs risk assessment that involves and engages employees, local communities and human rights defenders. For example, identifying steps to ensure local staff receive income for the duration of the crisis, or capacity-building to mitigate the loss of employment.

Bringing personal and professional insights from living with conflict in Colombia, Andrea Pradilla, Director of GRI Latin America, shared:

“When you are working in a conflict, or you’re trying to build peace, it’s essential to create wide-ranging, multi-stakeholder partnerships. That takes time and commitment, but it’s the only way forward. 

In Colombia, companies began to see GRI reporting as about more than just ‘a report’. It became a way to communicate with stakeholders and tell the story of how they were navigating this complex context. Reports stopped being a monologue and became a dialogue.”

GRI thanks the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) for their financial support for this project.

In June 2022, GRI, GlobeScan and CSR Europe hosted the webinar Corporate Transparency and Due Diligence in Conflict-Affected Areas as part of Sustainability for Ukraine (S4U), the output of which informed the development of the policy paper. A recording of this session can be accessed online.

The GRI Mining Sector Standard, currently under development, highlights ‘conflict affected and high-risk areas’ among the likely material topics for mining companies to report on.

International guidelines and regulations setting out obligations and expectations for companies on due diligence during conflict include: the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the independent, international organization that helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing the global common language to report those impacts. The GRI Standards, which are provided as a free public good, are the world’s most widely used standards for sustainability reporting.

Yum China, the largest restaurant company in China, is an industry leader when it comes to managing natural resources responsibly. The company does this by implementing concrete measures such as reducing food loss and waste, developing sustainable packaging solutions, and focusing on water conservation, which effectively reduces natural resource consumption in its operations.

The company is working towards its stated 2030 goal of 10% reduction of its food waste per restaurant by 2030 as compared to the 2020 baseline. In working towards to this goal and to reduce food loss and waste, the company has explored innovative ways and partnerships to build green and sustainable business and consumption models in the restaurant industry. The company adopts innovative technology and scientific management methods to reduce food loss and waste across its entire value chain, from purchasing, transportation, and processing, to dispose.

In terms of food purchasing and transportation, Yum China applies AI and IoT to improve ingredient purchasing forecast accuracy and inventory management and has increased the proportion of cold chain transportation. To enhance food processing, the company uses oil-saving fryers and adjusts cooking volume, both in aggregate and on a per batch basis, to avoid excessive cooking. Additionally, the company has bolstered food disposal through recycling of food waste and the promotion of KFC’s pioneering Food Bank Program.

KFC’s Food Bank Program was launched in 2020 with the purpose of distributing surplus food from our stores to nearby residents in need. The program not only helps reduce food waste but also plays an active role in GHG emissions reduction. According to the company’s estimates, each pack of food distributed by KFC results in an average of 596g of GHG emissions reduction. In 2022, the company further promoted the Food Bank Program in KFC stores and guided more of its brands to explore innovative ways to reduce food waste based on their unique characteristics.

To learn more about Yum China’s ESG efforts, please visit its website: http://www.yumchina.com/respIndex