Tag: 3BL

ATLANTA, May 17, 2023 /3BL Media/ – At Georgia-Pacific, we know that natural resources are entrusted to our care and we are proud to make products that customers and consumers need in a responsible and sustainable way. This Earth Day, we are highlighting our investments in one of our many innovative and sustainable solutions – recyclable padded mailers.

The growing customer and consumer demand for sustainable and efficient packaging drove our innovation efforts for producing packaging that could be recycled. Our EarthKraft™ mailers are made from 100% legally and responsibly sourced wood and are a paper-based alternative to plastic poly and bubble-padded mailers.

As of 2022, over half a billion mailers have successfully been shipped and are on track to reach over one billion in 2023.

EarthKraft™ mailers are SFI ® Certified which means we follow forestry best management practices to protect the land, habitat, and drinking water.

Not only do our mailers create less waste, they also have a 96% re-pulpability rate which means they can be turned into more mailers (or even boxes).

Place them in any paper or corrugated recycling collection point, which for most consumers is their curbside recycling bin!1

Want to know how our mailers are made? Journey through one of our three mailer facilities to see the process.

Gppackaging.com/mailers

1 Subject to local curbside recycling availability

View original content here 

International Girls in ICT Day is a global movement encouraging girls and young women to pursue science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) education and careers.

Cisco hosts events through our Women Rock-IT program, which began in 2014 and has seen more than two million participants, with over half enrolling in one of our Cisco Networking Academy courses as a result.

On Girls in ICT Day, we heard from women who are working on critical environmental issues like climate change and learned how developing digital skills now can help protect our planet! You can find past episodes in our on-demand library.

This is a guest blog from one of our speakers, Brent Davies, President of VP Data Commons. Brent has 25 years of experience in forest restoration and protection, leading multiple collaborations of public-private-Tribal entities to identify shared priorities, develop long-term, science-based strategies, secure resources, and implement targeted conservation solutions. She has co-created a series of ecosystem service finance opportunities for climate-smart land managers; these include a tropical butterfly farm, certified timber cooperative, carbon offset methodology, watershed restoration fund, and Tribal forest bank. Brent’s work involves integrating data and technology in applied conservation projects and expanding access to new technologies for underserved landowners.

The scale of need for forest restoration and protection today means that technology is central to our success. Yet it was not always so, as my winding career demonstrates.

I grew up in Portland, Oregon hiking the trails of nearby Mt. Hood National Forest and exploring the City’s arboretum on weekends. This is where I first learned how quickly our forests were disappearing and how we could take action in our forests at home to help slow and even reverse the devastation.

I started my career far from the technology-centered data commons I lead today. Working for the Xerces Society and the Zoological Society of San Diego, I started out teaching a group of women how to raise and sell butterfly pupae for profit at the mouth of the Rio Colorado River that enters the Caribbean on the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. We did not use much high tech but did create a successful butterfly farm that generated income for the women’s cooperative that ran the farm and split the proceeds with the adjacent school.

Realizing that tropical butterfly conservation may not directly translate into a job back home in the Pacific Northwest, I went to graduate school to study Forest Ecosystem Analysis at the University of Washington. That’s where I first experienced how powerful technology combined with forest science can be! Students and faculty were using new modeling software to predict the state of forest health under a variety of management and climate scenarios. Yet, we were still using Mylar plastic sheets on top of topographical maps to sketch watershed restoration projects. Low-tech indeed.

Then I went to work for a community group focused on environmental education and salmon habitat restoration at the mouth of the Columbia River—another rural area dependent on forests. There, I learned how to incorporate fish and wildlife population data to identify priorities for habitat restoration and protection. Where do we find juvenile Coho and Chinook salmon, for example, and how do we extend protections from their “anchor habitats” up to the ridge tops? Current and historic satellite, Lidar along with ground-truthed and collected data is how I answered these questions.

A watershed moment

As I worked on larger watersheds, I learned to use data science and to partner with experts in computer modeling. We started prioritizing the scarce resources of my nonprofit organization and targeted our efforts in the places that would have the most impact on threatened and endangered species and rural economies. We overlapped dozens of data layers to map areas and find strategies that would, for example, increase local jobs while improving salmon productivity.

When we collected the data and did the calculations per county, we found that for every million dollars invested in watershed restoration, an average of 19 jobs were created, compared to an average of 5 jobs for every million dollars invested in the oil and gas sector.

Larger landscapes

As I shifted my focus to larger landscapes, my work centered on the historical, current, and potential carbon sequestration and storage capacity of regional forests. We saw the potential for so much additional carbon storage in forests, especially if we were able to shift away from the dominant industrial style of management. By lengthening the time between harvests (known as harvest rotations), we found that forests can store substantially more carbon while still delivering wood to the market. We wrote the first Improved Forest Management methodology for carbon offsets (Verra’s VM0003) that focuses on extending harvest rotations and includes a requirement for additional oversight by the Forest Stewardship Council. Given the recent controversy over forest carbon offsets, requiring an extra, internationally respected oversight of any credits issued feels like the right decision to have made more than a decade ago.

Now we can use remote sensing technology to monitor and verify forest carbon offset, restoration, and protection claims. We track and quantify the degradation of forest loss and forest recovery over time using satellite technology. We are daylighting the current leadership of Native American Tribes using technology to quantify timber outputs, carbon storage, and ecosystem impact over time compared to neighboring state, federal, and private forests.

After 150 years of excluding Indigenous stewardship—on top of decades of fire suppression and intensive natural resource extraction—many forests in the western United States are highly susceptible to wildfire and other devastating impacts. The analysis we conducted, built on the underlying satellite and analytical technology, makes the case for Indigenous stewardship to protect and restore forests.

Yet as forest restoration has become more sophisticated, the associated data management, curation, and analysis have not kept pace. Finding and accessing data and filling gaps for scientific research and planning for ecosystem health and resilience is currently an arduous, often multi-year task. Data is housed in multiple locations, collected according to different standards, and at different temporal and geographic scales. This lack of easy-to-access, consistent, conformed, transparent, current data is an impediment to addressing ongoing and worsening climate change by slowing restoration initiatives and impeding innovation in the natural climate solutions space.

Data integrity and accessibility

That’s why I’m now focused on sharing the best and most reliable data on forest and watershed health and making it easily accessible from the VP Data Commons platform. By providing relatable examples of the applied use of data and immersive educational experiences that help connect people to forests, we will reach new audiences and inspire more action and support for forest restoration and protection.

From cultivating butterflies in tropical forests to leading a high-tech data commons, my career path has followed a long arc. Through that time, one central point has emerged clearly:

The scale of need for forest restoration and protection today puts technology at the center, to help forest stewards prioritize scarce resources, move more quickly, and have a greater positive impact.

View original content here

March is Women’s History Month, and I am excited to celebrate it at VMware. This year, our Women’s Power of Difference (POD)* community wrote and performed a song that celebrates this community building, and listening to it, I cannot stop smiling because it demonstrates what Women’s History Month is all about: community, empowerment and joy!

Personally, I make it an opportunity to talk to my two young daughters about the history of trailblazers who paved the way for gender equality. I emphasize that it was a hard-won struggle by courageous champions who have become our role models.

A notable example is Gloria Steinem, the American journalist and social-political activist who is a key figure in the Women’s Rights Movement in the U.S. A few years ago, I had the privilege to meet and talk with her at VMware, and I tell my girls that it is our responsibility to continue and to expand the work that Gloria and so many others have done.

We love to read The Little Feminist and Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black Historybooks and talk about what it means to identify as a girl as well as other intersectional aspects of identity.

In these past years watching my girls grow up amidst ongoing societal conversations around women’s rights, Women’s History Month has become not just a reminder to me that we have made great progress, but a call to action to continue championing for the next generation.

It is significant to me that like Women’s History Month, VMware’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) celebrates progress while recognizing there is more progress to be made.

At VMware, we reflect on our DEI journey that we started here in 2014 when women identified as 22.6% of our workforce. Now, in 2023, women constitute almost 30% of our workforce. Another marker on our DEI journey for women is pay equity, which means equal pay for equal work. I am proud that we have remained committed to pay equity over the years and we continually analyze compensation globally, accounting for multiple factors that influence pay such as job, grade, tenure, time in job, geographic location, and performance.

Our most recent data analysis by a third party shows that at VMware, women earn 99% of their male counterparts’ salary globally and racial and ethnic minority employees earn 100% of their white counterparts in the U.S. We are proud of these results and remain strongly committed to pay equity and equal opportunity across gender and racial lines.

The theme for Women’s History Month this year is Embrace Equity, which I think is a timely opportunity to highlight the difference between equality and equity. Equality is about giving the same resources and opportunities without considering individual experiences and abilities. Equity goes further by recognizing systemic barriers and unique needs. It commits to investments that equalize the playing field. Understanding the difference between equality and equity will not only help us seek inclusion for all, but it will go a long way in identifying and calling out discrimination and drawing attention to bias, which has long held back women and other underrepresented communities from access to opportunities, representation and advancement.

We’ve spent a lot of time at VMware through our DEI Learning Journey talking about unconscious bias as an example of a barrier to representation and advancement that women and underrepresented groups may face; from isolation to stereotypes that promote incorrect yet commonly held perceptions about who is a good leader or how an employee performs. While we may strive towards the ideal of meritocracy, that concept can ignore the fact that women and underrepresented groups are judged by and held to different standards. Systemic barriers can make it consistently harder for equally qualified and ambitious women and those who identify as members of underrepresented groups to get ahead.

Research shows that when companies think they are meritocratic, there is more evidence of bias. Instead, we encourage VMware employees to commit to an inclusive culture where we strive toward a diverse representation of people and equitable processes that block systemic bias, and where inclusion is embedded into all aspects of an employee’s career journey, including hiring and promotion.

DEI—A Strong Business-Led Initiative

Our DEI strategy is focused on a business-led and outside-in approach. This means we enable everyone to drive DEI – not just HR (Human Resources) or the DEI team – and we connect our strategy directly to outcomes that align with the business needs. We are aiming for key outcomes such as retention, employee sentiment, and leadership effectiveness, which are critical levers for business transformation.

As a Deloitte consulting alum, I am indebted to the knowledge that I gained from their DEI maturity model. VMware started with a leader-led approach to DEI, but going forward, the new phase of our work will focus on moving to a fully integrated approach. This signifies a shift in DEI from being a part of how we lead and manage our people to having DEI fully integrated in how we do business. We have already seen movement into the fully integrated approach with efforts such as our Inclusive Terminology initiative, led by our Chief Technology Officer. This project identifies and eliminates insensitive terms in code, internal communications and marketing collateral that do not reflect our values. But this is just a start as we work to enable the businesses to identify where they can directly drive DEI efforts as part of their own processes. We provide coaching, enablement, and support for business leaders to develop strong business-led DEI initiatives that they will implement, champion and promote.

Keeping the Momentum Going

I am keenly aware that culture matters, now more than ever. As we move forward as a community at a company, we are empowering our leaders to cultivate an inclusive culture and support our talent, especially those who are underrepresented. As we shift from a mindset of DEI is a people-only opportunity to DEI is a more comprehensive business-led opportunity, we will ignite exponential acceleration of our efforts. To support this acceleration, it is crucial to connect and measure the vital correlation between progress in DEI and business outcomes, including meaningful employee engagement, talent retention, and team stability.

My mother is an educator and committed feminist and my father, a lawyer. They inspired me to contribute to a just and fair world. My parents’ influence guided my career path and continues to inspire me each day. As we celebrate Women’s History Month and our progress in DEI, I am fortunate that at VMware, I can help keep the momentum going toward a workplace and world where everyone can thrive.

*At VMware, we collectively refer to our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) as Power of Difference communities or PODs. Learn more!

Click here to view the original content.

CNH Industrial India has received ‘The Economic Times Best Organizations for Women 2023’ award for the second year in a row.

The award is given to businesses that have demonstrated a commitment to promoting diversity and inclusivity in the corporate sector. It recognizes the companies that have created a supportive work environment for women, provided them with opportunities for growth and development, and are dedicated to creating a workplace where gender equality is encouraged.

CNH Industrial was evaluated on the real-world difference its diversity and inclusion work is making. Judging criteria included: female representation across the entire organizational hierarchy, a low attrition rate of female employees and a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment.

Additionally, the company was acknowledged for providing equal training and development opportunities for women to enhance their skills and increase their representation in the workforce.

This accolade is proof of CNH Industrial’s continued commitment to improve diversity and inclusion across the company – and the agriculture and construction industries as a whole.

CNH Industrial

CNH Industrial (NYSE: CNHI / MI: CNHI) is a world-class equipment and services company. Driven by its purpose of Breaking New Ground, which centers on Innovation, Sustainability and Productivity, the Company provides the strategic direction, R&D capabilities, and investments that enable the success of its global and regional Brands. Globally, Case IH and New Holland Agriculture supply 360° agriculture applications from machines to implements and the digital technologies that enhance them; and CASE and New Holland Construction Equipment deliver a full lineup of construction products that make the industry more productive. The Company’s regionally focused Brands include: STEYR, for agricultural tractors; Raven, a leader in digital agriculture, precision technology and the development of autonomous systems; Flexi-Coil, specializing in tillage and seeding systems; Miller, manufacturing application equipment; Kongskilde, providing tillage, seeding and hay & forage implements; and Eurocomach, producing a wide range of mini and midi excavators for the construction sector, including electric solutions.

Across a history spanning over two centuries, CNH Industrial has always been a pioneer in its sectors and continues to passionately innovate and drive customer efficiency and success. As a truly global company, CNH Industrial’s 40,000+ employees form part of a diverse and inclusive workplace, focused on empowering customers to grow, and build, a better world.

For more information and the latest financial and sustainability reports visit: cnhindustrial.com

For news from CNH Industrial and its Brands visit: media.cnhindustrial.com

Southwire is proud to announce that it has been selected as a 2023 US Best Managed Company for the fourth year in a row. The company has also been recognized as a Gold Standard winner for maintaining this achievement for four years. Sponsored by Deloitte Private and The Wall Street Journal, the program recognizes outstanding U.S. private companies and the achievements of their management teams.

“At Southwire, we’re committed to being an employer of choice, and this recognition is a testament to those efforts,” said Rich Stinson, Southwire’s president and CEO. “Receiving this recognition four years in a row is truly a reflection of our team members – The People Behind the Power™ – for their hard-work and dedication. It’s a great time to be in the electrical industry, and it’s an even better time to be at Southwire. Our goal is to remain generationally sustainable for the next 100 years and beyond, and I’m proud of the steps we are taking to meet the needs of the markets and communities we serve, today and in the future.”

The 2023 designees are U.S. private companies that have demonstrated excellence in strategic planning and execution, a commitment to their people and fostering a dynamic culture, as well as strong financials. Designees propelled their businesses forward and remained true to their purpose and values by investing in their people, creating advantage through digital transformation, taking measurable action on sustainability and demonstrating their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“Creating value in everything we do is critical at Southwire, and this sustained success and recognition is a reflection of our four key values – empowerment, trust, consistency and inclusion,” said Fernando Esquivel, executive vice president and Chief People & Culture Officer. “We are committed to foster an environment where respect and inclusion are at the forefront, an environment where equal access and opportunity to learn, grow and succeed are available to everyone.”

Applicants are evaluated and selected by a panel of external judges focused on assessing hallmarks of excellence in four key areas: strategy, ability to execute, corporate culture and governance/financial performance. They join a global ecosystem of honorees from more than 46 countries recognized by the Best Managed Companies program.

About the Best Managed Companies Program 
The Best Managed Companies program is a mark of excellence for private companies. U.S. designees have revenues of at least $250 million. Hundreds of private companies around the world have competed for this designation in their respective countries through a rigorous and independent process that evaluates four key criteria in their management skills and practices — strategy, execution, culture and governance/financials. U.S. program sponsors are Deloitte Private and The Wall Street Journal. For more information, visit http://www.usbestmanagedcompanies.com.

For more Southwire news, visit http://www.southwire.com/newsroom.

May 16, 2023 /3BL Media/ – The largest point-of-sale fundraising efforts by American retailers collected $749 million in consumer donations in 2022, a 24% increase from 2020, according to the biennial Charity Checkout Champions study released today by Engage for Good.

The sixth edition of this study of $1 million+ campaigns found 77 programs that reached that revenue level, up from 76 in 2020.

“This impressive growth is a testament to consumers’ continued willingness to chip in for a wide variety of good causes in partnership with retailers,” said Engage for Good’s Alli Murphy who led the research effort. Collectively these leading programs have raised more than $6.7 billion over the last 30 years.

The five largest US-based point-of-sale fundraising campaigns in 2022 were produced by:

eBay — $107 million (supporting a wide variety of nonprofits)

Albertsons — $67 million (supporting hunger relief, Ukraine aid and other charities)

Walgreens — $50 million (supporting Comic Relief)

Costco — $49 million (supporting Children’s Miracle Network Hospital)

PetSmart – $46 million (supporting PetSmart Charities)

Changes in the formats of checkout charity programs were a major factor in their growth, said Engage for Good President David Hessekiel. Integration of fundraising into electronic point-of-sale systems (as opposed to completely relying on human cashier asks) grew by 45% from 2020 to 2022. And the percentage of campaigns that allowed shoppers to round up their purchases to a whole dollar amount increased to 67%, a 43% increase from 2020.

The entire study is available for free download at https://engageforgood.com/meet-americas-charity-checkout-champions-2023/

The report provides a detailed list of the 77 $1 million+ programs and delves into topics such as consumer behavior, program formats, the impact of macro factors like inflation and program success strategies.

About Engage for Good  
Engage for Good is a professional development organization that helps corporate social impact leaders at businesses and nonprofits access the resources and community they need in order to build a better world and the bottom line. While best known for its annual conference and the Halo Awards, Engage for Good provides year-round resources, trainings and events to help corporate social impact professionals advance their careers, campaigns and organizations. A wealth of information on cause marketing, corporate social impact programs and Engage for Good’s offerings can be found at http://www.engageforgood.com

Media Contact  
Alli Murphy  
Director, Events & Program Development  
am@engageforgood

Originally published by Ericsson

Welcome to the latest edition of our Diversity & Inclusion News Round Up. Today we are talking about toxic workplace culture, the latest on Spotify’s diversity fund, workplace anxiety during layoffs, and a new campaign for elderly in need.

Culture

According to research, women are 41% more likely to experience toxic culture than men. Interesting MIT Sloan article about toxic workplace culture and the impact on women (and their retention) – worth reading!

Workplace anxiety

According to new research, workplace anxiety is increasing – and this anxiety impacts remote employees more than people working hybrid or full-time in the office, especially during layoffs. Interesting article offering strategies for managers of remote employees to reduce anxiety, and help them feel more connected. Read more here.

Generation

Age UK is a UK-based charity supporting elderly people with challenges they might face, including mental health issues, or monetary problems. This new campaign was just launched to raise awareness among the public, and to offer help.

Diversity

In February 2022, Spotify established a $100 million fund to promote diversity in music and podcasts, following a scandal involving a podcaster. A new report revealed that, so far, Spotify has spent less than 10% of the fund, due to “suffering from shifting priorities”. Read more here.

ATLANTA, May 16, 2023 /3BL Media/ – For the second consecutive year, Southern Company has been named the top company for Black Executives by DiversityInc as part of that organization’s rankings of the top Companies for Diversity. Southern Company also ranks number 24 on the overall 2023 list. This is the third straight year Southern Company has earned an overall ranking in the top 25.

For eight consecutive years, Southern Company has been recognized as a Top 50 Company for Diversity, and for its efforts to hire, retain and promote women, minorities, people with disabilities, LGBTQ and veterans.

“We remain focused on advancing diversity, equity and inclusion across our businesses,” said Sloane Drake, executive vice president and chief human resources officer of Southern Company. “We believe our workforce should reflect the communities we serve. That means having a diverse workforce and an inclusive workplace where all groups are well represented and treated fairly within all levels of our organization.”

In addition to its overall ranking, Southern Company was recognized on four other specialty lists:

No. 1 – Top Company for Black ExecutivesNo. 3 – Top Company for VeteransNo. 5 – Top Company for Supplier DiversityNo. 14 – Top Company for Executive Diversity Councils

These rankings are based on 2022 company-submitted data in six key areas: 1) leadership accountability, 2) human capital diversity metrics, 3) talent programs, 4) workforce practices, 5) supplier diversity and 6) philanthropy.

View the entire Top 50 Companies for Diversity list.

About Southern Company 
Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is a leading energy company serving 9 million customers through its subsidiaries. The company provides clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy through electric operating companies in three states, natural gas distribution companies in four states, a competitive generation company serving wholesale customers across America, a leading distributed energy infrastructure company, a fiber optics network and telecommunications services. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and affordable prices below the national average. For more than a century, we have been building the future of energy and developing the full portfolio of energy resources, including carbon-free nuclear, advanced carbon capture technologies, natural gas, renewables, energy efficiency and storage technology. Through an industry-leading commitment to innovation and a low-carbon future, Southern Company and its subsidiaries develop the customized energy solutions our customers and communities require to drive growth and prosperity. Our uncompromising values ensure we put the needs of those we serve at the center of everything we do and govern our business to the benefit of our world. Our corporate culture and hiring practices have been recognized nationally by the U.S. Department of Defense, G.I. Jobs magazine, DiversityInc, Black Enterprise, Forbes and the Women’s Choice Award. To learn more, visit www.southerncompany.com.

About DiversityInc 
DiversityInc’s mission is to educate the workforce and bring clarity to the business benefits of workplace fairness, equity, and inclusion. The organization has evolved to become the preeminent source of human capital data, education, and advice. DiversityInc is a VA-certified and veteran-owned business. The organization is led by a Black woman CEO. For more information visit https://www.diversityinc.com/

For information about the Top 50 overall model with a Cronbach Alpha Reliability score of .93 visit www.diversityinc.com/methodology.

Covia Canada consists of mining and manufacturing operations in Quebec and Ontario. Covia’s largest Canadian operations – Blue Mountain and Nephton are located in Peterborough, Ontario in the Kawartha Lakes region. These two operations are Covia’s only hard rock mining facilities, mining and processing Nepheline Syenite, a coarse-grained high alumina feldspar with no crystalline silica-producing product for the glass, paint, and polymer industries.

Nephton and Blue Mountain’s commitment to ESG is particularly noteworthy. For the past ten years, in partnership with the local Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry office, these facilities have worked to protect local turtle populations, including species at risk, living in the adjacent wetlands. The annual turtle nesting is currently taking place and Covia Team Members travel the haul road and other high traffic areas such as plant entrances to search for and gather turtle eggs. The eggs incubate in the Customer Service area and are monitored and maintained weekly. Covia Team Members also receive annual Turtle Training which highlights the importance of turtles in the ecosystem. Over the past few years, they have collected more than 900 eggs, with a 70% hatch rate. This important program supports the mission of the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre “to protect and conserve Ontario’s native turtles and the habitat in which they live.”

Recently, Covia was featured in Rubber World with a published white paper, Nepheline Syenite as the Smart Alternative to Crystalline Silica Fillers in Silicone Elastomers. Covia Team Members and co-authors Scott VanRemortel, Application Technology Manager, and Kysle King, Application Technology Manager, explore the importance of Nepheline Syenite as a smart alternative for the polymer and elastomer markets. To view white paper in its entirety, visit https://rubberworld.com/february-2023/.

We’re proud of the Blue Mountain and Nephton facilities. They are great examples of Covia’s commitment to quality products, partnership, and the environment.

—Funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation, Venture Fellows is supported by the County of Los Angeles Chief Sustainability Office, Miami-Dade County, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Include Ventures—

LOS ANGELES, May 16, 2023 /3BL Media/ — Larta Institute (Larta), a non-profit organization accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship to feed, fuel and heal the world, today announced the inaugural cohort of startups that have been selected for its Venture Fellows program. The cohort of 14 startups, drawn from applicants based in Los Angeles and Miami, will receive support for their innovative concepts to enhance urban climate resilience. The Venture Fellows program is funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and is supported by the County of Los Angeles Chief Sustainability Office, Miami-Dade County, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Include Ventures and others.

The Venture Fellows program underscores Larta’s commitment to advancing innovative approaches to combating the effects of climate change in underserved communities. The nine-month program is designed to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically Goal 13: Climate Action.

Supporting organizations will provide Venture Fellows with guidance and technical assistance for their projects, connections to potential sources of capital, insights related to business strategy and operations and opportunities to grow their networks. Representatives from supporting organizations constitute the Venture Fellows Steering Committee. As part of the program, the startups will pilot their innovation in targeted communities. 

“Every member of the first cohort of our Venture Fellows program has an engaging story to tell about their cities and how their innovations are working to address the impacts of climate change in their communities,” said Rohit Shukla, founder and CEO of Larta Institute. “Ninety-three percent of the cohort are women- and minority-led businesses. We are honored and privileged to help these inspiring and innovative founders advance their ventures and make a positive impact on their communities.”

The 2023 Venture Fellows initiative supports a wide range of innovations, such as sourcing clean water, transforming urban land for community access, eliminating food deserts, countering urban heat islands, facilitating fresh produce consumption in communities, enhancing coastal resilience, providing clean energy to underserved neighborhoods, developing vertical gardens and harnessing symbiotic ecosystems for urban farming.

“Los Angeles and Miami are two cities where climate change will continue to have a major impact on underserved communities,” said Jenny Flores, head of small business growth philanthropy at Wells Fargo. “The Venture Fellows selected for this inaugural cohort are entrepreneurs who are ready to address some of the challenges these communities face, such as accessing clean water, reducing the impact of sea-level rise and improving the livability of urban spaces.”

The Venture Fellows program is being piloted in Los Angeles and Miami and plans to expand to additional cities. To learn more about the 2023 Venture Fellows, visit: larta.org/venture-fellows-2023-cohort

To learn more about the Venture Fellows program, visit: Larta.org/Venture-Fellows

For more information about the reach and aspirations of Larta’s Venture Fellows program, including plans to expand to additional cities in the years ahead, please contact:

Christina Lila Wilson
Senior Manager
Larta Venture Fellows Program
cwilson@larta.org

About Larta Ventures

Larta Ventures, a subsidiary of the non-profit organization Larta Institute, invests in promising founders and startups who are working to feed, fuel and heal the world. Through our Venture Fellows program, we invest in diverse innovators to pilot good ideas that help communities become more resilient in response to the impacts of climate change. Our co-creation studio model invests resources and expertise in sustainability-focused ventures to prepare them for seed or Series A funding. We invest capital into impact-driven startups alongside our active funding network. For more information visit: Larta.Ventures

About Larta Institute

Larta Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship. Our mission is to foster science and technology innovation for a sustainable planet.

Our planet is experiencing significant global problems created by human behavior and policies affecting the environment, food, education, energy and healthcare systems. New science and technology play a critical role in transforming how we sustainably feed, fuel and heal the world.

LARTA was founded in 1993 and funded by the State of California as a Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance to stimulate the economic development of technology-based enterprises. Now known as Larta Institute, the organization has become a national partner for numerous federal government agencies — including DARPA, NIH, DOE, NSF, NIST, NOAA and USDA — to commercialize novel research and innovation.

Today, Larta Institute’s innovation platform and ecosystem accelerate new science and technology from idea to sustainable enterprise by providing a unique combination of connections, resources and funding. 

We have helped over 4,500 startups, and our alumni have raised more than $7 billion in funds.Together, let’s feed, fuel and heal the world. To learn more, visit: Larta.org