Tag: 3BL

After a fire destroyed a popular playground in Long Beach, California, in July 2021, a community-wide effort took shape to rebuild it, including partners in the public and private sector.Shortly after the fundraising campaign was launched by the non-profit Partners of Parks in 2021, Marathon Petroleum’s Los Angeles refinery committed $250,000 to the project.The new playground will maintain its nautical theme, like the original design, but will feature new inclusive equipment meant to accommodate kids with disabilities or special needs.

Nearly two years after a fire destroyed the playground at Admiral Kidd Park in Long Beach, California, community leaders and partners, including representatives from Marathon Petroleum’s Los Angeles refinery in nearby Wilmington, came together at the site to break ground on a new playground.

“Today’s groundbreaking highlights the important role that partnerships play to overcome big challenges and deliver for our community,” said Rex Richardson, Mayor of Long Beach.

The late March groundbreaking ceremony was a much-anticipated step forward in the process to rebuild the popular gathering spot for children and families on the city’s west side—part of a community-wide effort and fundraising campaign launched shortly after the July 2021 fire.

“Partners of Parks is so grateful we could help bring the community together to meet the funding gap and restore this safe space for kids to play,” Partners of Parks Executive Director Trinka Rowsell said at the event.

“This partnership between the private sector, the city and all of the organizations involved to make this day possible is truly remarkable.”

With a nearly seven-figure price tag, the project was dependent on a variety of stakeholders in the community. One of the first calls Partners of Parks received in the aftermath of the fire was from Marathon, which committed $250,000 to the project.

“Parks and their impact on a community is too often understated,” CP Patsatzis, Vice President of Refining at Marathon Petroleum said at the March 2023 groundbreaking. “This partnership between the private sector, the city and all of the organizations involved to make this day possible is truly remarkable.”

The park was named after Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who was killed in action at Pearl Harbor. He was a Commander in the U.S. Navy who resided in Long Beach. The playground will maintain its nautical theme, like the original design, but will now also feature new inclusive equipment meant to accommodate children with disabilities or special needs. Construction of the project is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2023.

Originally published on bloomberg.com

The Bloomberg Terminal provides access to more than 35 million financial instruments across all asset classes. That’s a lot of data, and to make it useful, AI and machine learning (ML) are playing an increasingly central role in the Terminal’s ongoing evolution.

Machine learning is about scouring data at speed and scale that is far beyond what human analysts can do. Then, the patterns or anomalies that are discovered can be used to derive powerful insights and guide the automation of all kinds of arduous or tedious tasks that humans used to have to perform manually.

While AI continues to fall short of human intelligence in many applications, there are areas where it vastly outshines the performance of human agents. Machines can identify trends and patterns hidden across millions of documents, and this ability improves over time. Machines also behave consistently, in an unbiased fashion, without committing the kinds of mistakes that humans inevitably make.

“Humans are good at doing things deliberately, but when we make a decision, we start from whole cloth,” says Gideon Mann, Head of ML Product & Research in Bloomberg’s CTO Office. “Machines execute the same way every time, so even if they make a mistake, they do so with the same error characteristic.”

The Bloomberg Terminal currently employs AI and ML techniques in several exciting ways, and we can expect this practice to expand rapidly in the coming years. The story begins some 20 years ago…

Keeping Humans in the Loop

When we started in the 80s, data extraction was a manual process. Today, our engineers and data analysts build, train, and use AI to process unstructured data at massive speeds and scale — so our customers are in the know faster.

The rise of the machines

Prior to the 2000s, all tasks related to data collection, analysis, and distribution at Bloomberg were performed manually, because the technology did not yet exist to automate them. The new millennium brought some low-level automation to the company’s workflows, with the emergence of primitive models operating by a series of if-then rules coded by humans. As the decade came to a close, true ML took flight within the company. Under this new approach, humans annotate data in order to train a machine to make various associations based on their labels. The machine “learns” how to make decisions, guided by this training data, and produces ever more accurate results over time. This approach can scale dramatically beyond traditional rules-based programming.

In the last decade, there has been an explosive growth in the use of ML applications within Bloomberg. According to James Hook, Head of the company’s Data department, there are a number of broad applications for AI/ML and data science within Bloomberg.

One is information extraction, where computer vision and/or natural language processing (NLP) algorithms are used to read unstructured documents — data that’s arranged in a format that’s typically difficult for machines to read — in order to extract semantic meaning from them. With these techniques, the Terminal can present insights to users that are drawn from video, audio, blog posts, tweets, and more.

Anju Kambadur, Head of Bloomberg’s AI Engineering group, explains how this works:

“It typically starts by asking questions of every document. Let’s say we have a press release. What are the entities mentioned in the document? Who are the executives involved? Who are the other companies they’re doing business with? Are there any supply chain relationships exposed in the document? Then, once you’ve determined the entities, you need to measure the salience of the relationships between them and associate the content with specific topics. A document might be about electric vehicles, it might be about oil, it might be relevant to the U.S., it might be relevant to the APAC region — all of these are called ‘topic codes’ and they’re assigned using machine learning.”

All of this information, and much more, can be extracted from unstructured documents using natural language processing models.

Another area is quality control, where techniques like anomaly detection are used to spot problems with dataset accuracy, among other areas. Using anomaly detection methods, the Terminal can spot the potential for a hidden investment opportunity, or flag suspicious market activity. For example, if a financial analyst was to change their rating of a particular stock following the company’s quarterly earnings announcement, anomaly detection would be able to provide context around whether this is considered a typical behavior, or whether this action is worthy of being presented to Bloomberg clients as a data point worth considering in an investment decision.

And then there’s insight generation, where AI/ML is used to analyze large datasets and unlock investment signals that might not otherwise be observed. One example of this is using highly correlated data like credit card transactions to gain visibility into recent company performance and consumer trends. Another is analyzing and summarizing the millions of news stories that are ingested into the Bloomberg Terminal each day to understand the key questions and themes that are driving specific markets or economic sectors or trading volume in a specific company’s securities.

Humans in the loop

When we think of machine intelligence, we imagine an unfeeling autonomous machine, cold and impartial. In reality, however, the practice of ML is very much a team effort between humans and machines. Humans, for now at least, still define ontologies and methodologies, and perform annotations and quality assurance tasks. Bloomberg has moved quickly to increase staff capacity to perform these tasks at scale. In this scenario, the machines aren’t replacing human workers; they are simply shifting their workflows away from more tedious, repetitive tasks toward higher level strategic oversight.

“It’s really a transfer of human skill from manually extracting data points to thinking about defining and creating workflows,” says Mann.

Ketevan Tsereteli, a Senior Researcher in Bloomberg Engineering’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) group, explains how this transfer works in practice.

“Previously, in the manual workflow, you might have a team of data analysts that would be trained to find mergers and acquisition news in press releases and to extract the relevant information. They would have a lot of domain expertise on how this information is reported across different regions. Today, these same people are instrumental in collecting and labeling this information, and providing feedback on an ML model’s performance, pointing out where it made correct and incorrect assumptions. In this way, that domain expertise is gradually transferred from human to machine.”

Humans are required at every step to ensure the models are performing optimally and improving over time. It’s a collaborative effort involving ML engineers who build the learning systems and underlying infrastructure, AI researchers and data scientists who design and implement workflows, and annotators — journalists and other subject matter experts — who collect and label training data and perform quality assurance.

“We have thousands of analysts in our Data department who have deep subject matter expertise in areas that matter most to our clients, like finance, law, and government,” explains ML/AI Data Strategist Tina Tseng. “They not only understand the data in these areas, but also how the data is used by our customers. They work very closely with our engineers and data scientists to develop our automation solutions.”

Annotation is critical, not just for training models, but also for evaluating their performance.

“We’ll annotate data as a truth set — what they call a “golden” copy of the data,” says Tseng. “The model’s outputs can be automatically compared to that evaluation set so that we can calculate statistics to quantify how well the model is performing. Evaluation sets are used in both supervised and unsupervised learning.”

Check out “Best Practices for Managing Data Annotation Projects,” a practical guide published by Bloomberg’s CTO Office and Data department about planning and implementing data annotation initiatives.

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DENVER, May 12, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Today, the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²), a technology incubator funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), announced its seventh cycle of Channel Partner Strategic Awards. This year, IN² distributed $970,000 among seven winners to fund innovative and impactful projects that are intended to strengthen and diversify the cleantech and agtech ecosystems.

Winners received funding between $100,000 to $250,000. Applications were reviewed based on their potential for capacity building, with a particular focus on fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion, or supporting pilot and demonstration projects for startups. Selections were guided by a commitment to distribute funds equally across the U.S.

“The IN² Channel Partner Network fosters meaningful connections and provides critical support to a diverse group of industry stakeholders,” said Trish Cozart, IN² Program Manager at NREL. “Leveraging NREL’s ability to bring people and resources together, the Channel Partner Awards aim to drive impact throughout the cleantech and agtech ecosystems to advance a sustainable future for all.”

The 2023 Channel Partner Strategic Award winners are:

AgLaunch (Memphis, TN) will form a Cleantech Pilot & Demonstration Network for Underserved Communities to increase the participation of small and minority farmers in pilots and demonstration projects, who will receive equity in the company they support. They will also develop a similar approach for clean energy innovations in underserved markets in collaboration with the HBCU Clean Energy Initiative.BRITE Energy Innovators (Warren, OH) and the Centrepolis Accelerator (Southfield, MI) will launch a joint program aimed at supporting underrepresented climate tech entrepreneurs in Ohio and Michigan by combining their core programs, increasing access, and helping underserved founders reach commercialization faster.Evergreen Climate Innovations (Chicago, IL) will use the award to expand support for underrepresented founders in the climate tech space, focusing on solutions deployable in historically underserved communities, and offering assistance for pursuing pilot and demonstration opportunities in line with the White House’s Justice40 Initiative.Grid Catalyst (Minneapolis, MN) will use the funding to lead a demonstration cohort for energy and hardtech startups, matching them with Minnesota-based partners for pilot projects, and accelerating the process of initiating these projects within six months of the application process.Launch Alaska (Anchorage, AK) will use the award to support and expand its Tech Deployment Track program, which aids climate tech startups and historically underserved legacy energy communities in Alaska in acquiring demonstration partners and funding, as well as increasing partner diversity and providing travel stipends for rural-based mentors.Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) (Los Angeles, CA) will use the award to enhance its Impact Framework and Equity Earn Back program, which allows its portfolio companies (65% of which are owned by Black, Indigenous, and people of color) to earn back up to 50% of LACI’s equity stake by improving environmental, social, and economic impacts.Urban Future Lab (Brooklyn, NY) will use award funding to host events connecting climate tech startups, investors, and community-based organizations to accelerate pilot project deployments while promoting an equitable transition in the climate economy.

“The transition to a resilient, equitable, and sustainable future requires innovation in climate clean tech,” said Robyn Luhning, chief sustainability officer at Wells Fargo. “The Wells Fargo Foundation is proud to support the diverse group of entrepreneurs who are innovating in this space with this year’s Channel Partner Awards.”

In addition to the Strategic Awards, IN² awarded $19,000 in Connector Awards in January 2023 and is planning to allocate another $16,000 this summer. Connector Awards support Channel Partner events and activities.

IN² launched the Channel Partner Strategic Awards program in 2017 to nurture the Channel Partner ecosystem, which includes more than 60 cleantech and agtech business incubators, accelerators, universities, and industry experts. Since its inception, the IN² Channel Partner Strategic Awards program has distributed more than $6 million, supporting 55 Strategic Awards and 174 Ecosystem or Connector Awards. The nationwide program engages thousands of entrepreneurs, students, investors, mentors, and industry experts. Startups supported by the program have raised $208 million, in addition to $5 million in matched program funding.

In 2021, IN² distributed $350,000 in Channel Partner Strategic Awards specifically to provide entrepreneurial opportunities for historically underrepresented groups in the cleantech industry. The funds delivered through IN2 supported six HBCUs as well as thousands of BIPOC people and organizations including 134 students, 70 farmers, 11 startups, six community partners, and 1,820 businesses.

During the COVID pandemic in 2020, the program provided $900,000 in relief awards. The awards supported 371 startups, generating over $19 million in revenue, 106 new jobs, 1,500 new customers, and $78 million in investments and other funding.

About the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²)

The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²) is a $50 million clean technology program funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). IN² identifies and supports promising cleantech startups, with the goal of commercializing low-carbon solutions in order to achieve the associated social, economic, and climate benefits that are so urgently required. The program aligns creative entrepreneurial solutions with robust resources in order to reduce emissions across the economy, with a focus on minimizing the energy impact of commercial buildings, affordable residential housing, and agriculture sectors. More specifically, IN² helps early- and mid-stage clean technology startups overcome common market barriers by delivering up to $250,000 in non-dilutive funding in the form of research and development support from world-class scientists. Participants also gain access to lab facilities at NREL and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, and connections to a robust, cross-industry network of foundations, investors and other stakeholders. For more information, visit www.IN²ecosystem.com.

Media Contact

Camille Cater 
Antenna Group 
nrel@antennagroup.com

C-Suite executives and investors to hold a virtual roundtable and media briefing with key congressional lawmakers at LEAD on a Clean Economy 2030 

May 12, 2023 /3BL Media/ – C-Suite executives from HASI, Holcim, New Belgium Brewing, and dozens of other companies will converge on Capitol Hill next week for LEAD on a Clean Economy 2030. They will make the economic case for additional federal policies that invest in America and bolster the momentum of the clean energy transition.

The fifth annual LEAD (Lawmaker Education and Advocacy Days) event will feature business leaders across sectors of the economy, who will meet with members of Congress from both parties well as Biden administration officials on May 17 and May 18. LEAD on a Clean Economy 2023 comes one year after the successful passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes historic climate, clean energy, and environmental justice investments. Participants will call for policy solutions with bipartisan appeal that:

Maximize return on investment to create American manufacturing jobs and build an advanced, clean economy.Reform permitting processes to responsibly accelerate deployment of clean energy infrastructure.Craft a Farm Bill that invests in all U.S. farmers, ranchers, and land.

Ahead of the event, C-Suite executives from HASI, Holcim, and New Belgium Brewing will hold a roundtable discussion and media briefing. 

What: C-suite Roundtable and Media Briefing

When: Tuesday May 16, at 10:00 am EST

Who: Michael LeMonds, Holcim Vice President Vice President, ESG and Chief Sustainability Officer; Susan Nickey, HASI Executive Vice President and Chief Client Officer; Steve Fechheimer, New Belgium Brewing; CEO; Anne Kelly, Ceres Vice President of Government Affairs; additional speakers to be confirmed.

RSVP: Helen Booth-Tobin (booth-tobin@ceres.org) for media registration details. This roundtable discussion and media briefing is open to accredited members of the media only.  

For more information on LEAD on a Clean Economy 2023 and a full list of participants, go to: ceres.org/LEAD.

Media Contact: Helen Booth-Tobin, booth-tobin@ceres.org, 617-247-0700 ext. 214

Originally presented before the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development

Good morning, Chairman Owens, Ranking Member Wilson, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. I am Lydia Logan, IBM’s Vice President for Global Education and Workforce Development. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the state of skills development in the United States, the role of employers in providing new skilling opportunities toward career advancement, and the role of government in supporting employer-led programs.

In my role at IBM, I create more effective education and workforce programs by leading our community and university skills initiatives. These programs help fulfill IBM’s pledge to skill 30 million people worldwide by 2030. Today, I will share IBM’s experience leading skills development programs and our perspective about the need for multiple pathways to careers – especially in the technology sector. I will also share some policy recommendations that can holistically expand and scale proven efforts nationwide.

Despite economic uncertainties, the current unemployment rate remains historically low. The U.S. is experiencing a massive skills shortage across industries and employers are competing for workers with the right mix of skills and competencies for available positions. According to a recent report, 77% of employers face difficulties finding qualified talent – a 17 year high.1 At the same time, enrollment at traditional higher education institutions continues to decline. And employers estimate 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted or changed in the next five years, according to a World Economic Forum report.2

To help solve these workforce challenges, targeted skills development programs with on-the-job experience play a vital role. These programs help ensure workers and job seekers obtain the in-demand skills employers seek and ensure longevity in fulfilling careers.

In our experience and research, IBM has found that time and money are two of the greatest barriers for workers as well as businesses looking to create new skills programs. According to a recent study we commissioned with Morning Consult, 60% of students, people seeking new jobs, and people seeking to change careers worry that online learning or obtaining digital credentials may be costly to obtain.3 As a global technology leader, we believe the U.S. must rethink its education and workforce development approach to meet today’s market needs in order to create good-paying jobs and opportunities for more Americans.

To help close the skills gap, we offer a range of education, skills, and career readiness programs to U.S. students and job seekers at no cost. Our programs help Americans get on the path to technology careers by reskilling people in early or mid-career job roles via our registered apprenticeship program or through collaborative partnerships with nonprofit organizations, education systems, and skilling programs. Employee lifelong learning and development have been a hallmark of IBM’s culture since graduating its first class of sales professionals in 1916. Today, we continue to invest in learning and development programs.

Our employees are expected to complete a minimum of 40 hours of professional development annually to continuously build their skills and remain competitive in today’s marketplace. Our employees exceed that mark: In 2022, IBMers completed an average of 88 hours or 22 million learning hours collectively. As a result, 9 out of 10 IBMers now have skills of the future, compared to 3 out of 10 when we started this initiative more than 5 years ago. Credentials, including digital badges, that provide a measure of learning progress and skills acquisition are a vital part of IBM’s robust education and professional development strategy. These credentials provide employees a portable means of carrying their learning achievements along their career journeys.

Nonetheless, we also recognize that more needs to be done and done at scale to ensure our country can remain competitive globally.

Expanding Career Pathways

Several years ago, IBM coined the term “new collar” jobs to describe in-demand, well paying jobs that did not require degrees because for these roles a candidate’s skills matter more. Further, a focus on new collar jobs creates opportunities for new sources of talent with diverse backgrounds and skill sets previously excluded by the lack of a college degree. We speak from experience: rewriting job descriptions and removing the four-year degree requirement in more than half of IBM job openings in the U.S. resulted in more diverse applicants – including a 63% increase in underrepresented applicants – and almost 20% of our U.S. hires joining without a degree.

To further the point: 62% of Americans 25 years of age or older do not have a bachelor’s degree, and traditional four-year degree requirements exacerbate inequality in the workforce, which results in around 79% of Hispanic and 72% of Black applicants being ruled out from consideration for roles with traditional degree requirements. A national skills first – as opposed to degree first – policy would help bridge the gap between job openings and qualified applicants.

IBM Apprenticeship Program

The IBM Apprenticeship program is another way IBM is expanding pathways to meaningful careers in technology. We started our first-of-its-kind technology apprenticeship in 2017, and in its first year it grew nearly twice as fast as expected. Today, we have more than 30 different apprenticeship job roles, from cybersecurity to AI to digital design.

Furthermore, IBM’s technology apprenticeship programs allow people to earn and learn at the same time – participants do not have to choose between education and career. Our apprenticeship programs earned official recognition from the American Council on Education (ACE) for more than 40 college credits, which is approximately 80% of the credits needed toward an associate degree, with no cost for the apprentices. To cite one example, our Application Developer role recently was evaluated by ACE for a recommended 51 credit hours. We are currently working with community colleges to seamlessly transfer these credits and add complementary courses that would lead to an associate degree for the apprentices.

We know this work-based learning model works because it’s positively impacting people’s lives4. As Adrianna – an IBM apprentice graduate who now serves as the IBM Recruitment Professional shared, “My life truly changed overnight. I went from putting out fires all hours of the day and night, to being able to actually enjoy a vacation with my family knowing that my team had my back. That’s time well spent with my daughter, and thanks to IBM, I can do that!”5

IBM Z Mainframe Apprenticeship Program/Franklin Apprenticeship Partnership 

Another example of how IBM is providing non-traditional pathways for Americans to enter the workforce is through our IBM Z Mainframe Employer Apprenticeship Program. IBM is working with over 30 Fortune 100 companies – and mainframe clients – to recruit and prepare ZSystem mainframe administrators for our clients that hire them into Registered Apprenticeship roles.

Currently, 67% of Fortune 100 companies use the IBM Z mainframe infrastructure but find it challenging to identify talent with the right skills to maintain and innovate on the platform. The IBM Z platform is critical to large-scale enterprise success – delivering core services for cloud and hybrid cloud environments and supporting mission-critical financial services transactions. IBM partnered with Franklin Apprenticeship to offer our IBM Z platform clients a solution to getting the talent they need and providing a rewarding career to capable, committed individuals without a technology degree or prior experience. To date, our mainframe clients – banks, large retailers, automakers – have hired close to 200 apprentices across the country. The validity of this program is demonstrated by the fact that our clients are coming back to us for additional talent.

IBM SkillsBuild 

As part of our commitment to skill 30 million people worldwide by 2030, particularly in underrepresented communities, we offer the cost-free IBM SkillsBuild education program to high school and university students, educators, and adult learners. IBM SkillsBuild enables learners to develop valuable new STEM and workplace skills and access career opportunities through customized, practical learning experiences.

IBM SkillsBuild offers over 1,000 courses in up to 20 languages, with the opportunity to earn IBM-branded digital credentials recognized by the market on such topics as cybersecurity, data analysis, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and professional skills. The customized, curated learning experiences include work-based learning projects, direct conversations with IBM’s experts and mentors, and connections to career opportunities. The online version at skillsbuild.org is open to anyone and is flexible in meeting individual learning needs for place, pace, and path. Additionally, we offer an enhanced version of the program through partner organizations.

More specifically, these partnerships provide specialized support to learners during their journey, including connecting to career opportunities. For example, in 2022, IBM announced a partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs6 and now offers enhanced resources through IBM SkillsBuild for transitioning service members in need of skills to pursue high-demand technology roles. Our partnership with the VA also serves as an enhancement and support for the Veteran Employment Through Technology Education Courses (VET TEC) program. As part of this partnership, we also provide IBM experts to support U.S. veterans throughout their job application process. Additionally, one of our partners, CompTIA is engaging with multiple state workforce boards, to explore partnerships for the A+ and IBM SkillsBuild cobranded opportunities.

IBM Digital Credentials help democratize education and boost employability, especially for individuals without college degrees, by providing a way to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities in specific areas of technology. In today’s rapidly changing job market, traditional college degrees are increasingly financially unattainable for most of the adult working population. Digital Credentials offer an alternative, cost-effective approach to workforce development, and provide incremental skills development options to populations in need of upskilling and reskilling.

Bria, an IBM Apprentice graduate was encouraged by her community college instructor to take IBM SkillsBuild courses and learn new skills for an IT career. Now she works as a consultant at the IBM Client Innovation Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She loves her new tech career, and her future is bright. As Bria shared in a recent blog post, “I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for me. In the next five years, I hope to see myself still working in the tech field and at IBM. Having worked on projects that made a difference for people. Being a mentor to others like me to help them see their potential.”7

Policy recommendations

Our nation’s education and workforce systems are not equipped to meet the market demands of the modern, digital economy. And there is no silver bullet to fix that. Instead, we suggest employers, policymakers, education providers, and other stakeholders act collectively to make the most significant impact to help current and future workers.

To that end, IBM recently launched the Skills First Coalition – an advocacy group comprised of businesses and innovative education providers – to advance policies that align education and workforce development with jobs that are in-demand and growing to expand career opportunities for millions of Americans.8 The coalition has a broad membership of employers representing different industries – retail, advanced manufacturing, and technology, to name a few. Still, we all have one thing in common – we all need workers with the right mix of fundamental, durable, and technical skills. As a result, our member companies are committed to delivering innovative workforce development programs to broaden talent pools while engaging in advocacy to make the public workforce system easier to navigate for employers.

As this Committee explores ways to modernize the workforce development system and coordinate programs more efficiently across government agencies, we offer the following recommendations:

Align higher education and workforce development laws to focus on skills attainment. The need for skills-based education is on the rise and higher education is not keeping pace. It’s critical our federal higher education and workforce laws work together to provide the necessary resources to attain indemand skills. We encourage Congress not only to update federal laws, but innovate across the federal landscape and break down programmatic silos.Dedicate Individual Accounts (ITAs) for workforce development. We know that work-based learning works. IBM advises Congress to remove barriers limiting skills attainment within WIOA, including dedicating funding towards Individual Training Accounts, increasing dollar limits on incumbent worker programs, and enhancing work-based learning programs. We encourage Congress to invest in work-based learning opportunities, including earn-whileyou-learn programs, apprenticeships, and internships initiatives.Reform the Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL). More effectively and directly connect the ETPL to the needs of employers with in-demand and growing jobs, ensure flexibility by allowing online and hybrid workforce development programs, and focus on quality and outcome measures. Also, Congress should ensure employers on the ETPL can provide upskilling and reskilling, especially for pre-apprenticeship, apprenticeships, and other on-the-job opportunities.Increase transparency and reviews of outcomes. A recent report9 from Harvard University’s the Project on Workforce showed job-seekers do not have access to complete information to help guide their decision to pursue skills development programs. A vital part of this is the availability of the quality and transparency of outcomes data on critical program measures such as completion and employment rates, credential attainment, and earnings. As such, improved access to quality data will lead to more transparency and help move the system toward high-quality, affordable skilling opportunities aligned with the needs of regional, state, and local employers.

Relatedly, we also believe Congress can encourage the development and coordination of an open, interoperable data infrastructure – rooted in strong privacy and security measures – to support increased transparency and provide insights to learners, employers, and job seekers. Coupled with federal convening and coordination, states should also continue to integrate high quality labor market data tools to better connect learners with education and employment opportunities.

We know this work can be done in a way that unlocks opportunities for all Americans, but it’s going to require us – industry, government, education institutions and other community stakeholders – to shift the way we approach education, skills development, and hiring. We have an unprecedented opportunity before us to transform our education and workforce systems to uplift more Americans and enrich their lives and our society. Thank you again for the opportunity to share IBM’s experience and recommendations with the Committee.

1 https://go.manpowergroup.com/talent-shortage

2 https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2023.pdf

3 https://newsroom.ibm.com/2023-02-14-New-IBM-Survey-Reveals-the-Greatest-Perceived-Barrier-toProfessional-or-Technical-Skill-Development-is-that-the-Programs-are-Too-Expensive

4 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-apprenticeships-can-bridge-the-employment-gap-for-workerswithout-college-degrees

5 https://www.ibm.com/blogs/jobs/reinvent-your-career-with-the-ibm-apprenticeship-program/

6 https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinamilanesi/2022/05/12/ibms-new-partnerships-to-address-cybersecuritytalent-shortages-also-drive-social-impact/?sh=7fea3a1e2fdf

7 https://www.ibm.com/blog/how-ibm-skillsbuild-supercharged-a-community-college-students-career-path/

8 https://www.ibm.com/policy/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Skills-First-Coalition-Letter-to-118th-Congress-1.pdf

9 https://www.pw.hks.harvard.edu/post/publicjobtraining

Applied Materials is honored to be recognized by the U.S. EPA Green Power Partnership (GPP) among the Top 30 Tech & Telecom, the Fortune 500® Partners List, and the National Top 100. Check out the rankings here!

We are proud to be GPP members and of our investment in green power. Read about our 2030 renewable goals here

Georgia Power today announced the completion of hot functional testing for Unit 4 at the Vogtle nuclear expansion project near Waynesboro, Ga. The completion of hot functional testing marks a significant step towards operations and providing customers with a reliable, carbon-free energy source for the next 60 to 80 years. Unit 4 is projected to enter service in late fourth quarter 2023 or the first quarter 2024.

“The energy and enthusiasm at the Vogtle site, and across our entire company, is high with Unit 3 in the final stages of startup testing and Unit 4 making progress towards safely loading fuel,” said Kim Greene, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power. “The team at Unit 4 has been able to take lessons learned from Unit 3 and apply them. That has allowed us to safely complete hot functional testing on Unit 4 in significantly less time than we did for Unit 3. It’s incredible that these new units will provide our state with zero-emissions energy for the next 60 to 80 years, and that’s thanks to the dedication of the teams at the site to getting these units built, and built right.”

During hot functional testing, plant systems achieved normal operating pressure and temperature, without nuclear fuel in the reactor, to demonstrate the systems will operate on an integrated basis as designed. Now, the site team focuses on completing the remaining work necessary to submit documentation to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that all inspection, tests and analyses have been performed and all acceptance criteria, collectively known as ITAACS, have been met on Vogtle Unit 4 as required by Southern Nuclear’s Combined Operating License. Each ITAAC closure notice must be verified by the NRC before fuel can be loaded into the reactor.

The new Vogtle units are an essential part of Georgia Power’s commitment to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy to its 2.7 million customers. Once operating, the two new units, which will be clean energy sources that produce zero emissions, are expected to power more than 500,000 homes and businesses. Southern Nuclear will operate the new units on behalf of the co-owners: Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities.

About Georgia Power

Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America’s premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company’s promise to 2.7 million customers in all but four of Georgia’s 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the company is recognized by J.D. Power as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower), Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power).

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this release is forward-looking information based on current expectations and plans that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements concerning future operations of Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 and the projected in-service date for Plant Vogtle Unit 4. Georgia Power cautions that there are certain factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information that has been provided. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is not a guarantee of future performance and is subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Georgia Power; accordingly, there can be no assurance that such suggested results will be realized. The following factors, in addition to those discussed in Georgia Power’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, and subsequent securities filings, could cause actual results to differ materially from management expectations as suggested by such forward-looking information: the ability to control costs and avoid cost and schedule overruns during the development, construction, and operation of facilities or other projects, including Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4, which includes components based on new technology that only within the last few years began initial operation in the global nuclear industry at this scale, due to current and/or future challenges which include, but are not limited to, changes in labor costs, availability and productivity, challenges with the management of contractors or vendors, subcontractor performance, adverse weather conditions, shortages, delays, increased costs, or inconsistent quality of equipment, materials, and labor, contractor or supplier delay, the impacts of inflation, delays due to judicial or regulatory action, nonperformance under construction, operating, or other agreements, operational readiness, including specialized operator training and required site safety programs, engineering or design problems or any remediation related thereto, design and other licensing-based compliance matters, including, for Plant Vogtle Unit 4, inspections and the timely submittal by Southern Nuclear of the Inspections, Tests, Analyses, and Acceptance Criteria documentation and the related investigations, reviews and approvals by the NRC necessary to support NRC authorization to load fuel, challenges with start-up activities, including major equipment failure, or system integration, and/or operational performance, continued challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic or future pandemic health events, continued public and policymaker support for projects, environmental and geological conditions, delays or increased costs to interconnect facilities to transmission grids, and increased financing costs as a result of changes in market interest rates or as a result of project delays; the ability to overcome or mitigate the current challenges at Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 that could further impact the cost and schedule for the project; legal proceedings and regulatory approvals and actions related to construction projects, such as Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4, including Public Service Commission approvals and NRC actions; under certain specified circumstances, a decision by holders of more than 10% of the ownership interests of Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 not to proceed with construction; the notices of tender by Oglethorpe Power Corporation and the City of Dalton of a portion of their ownership interests in Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 to Georgia Power, including related litigation; the ability to construct facilities in accordance with the requirements of permits and licenses (including satisfaction of NRC requirements), to satisfy any environmental performance standards and the requirements of tax credits and other incentives, and to integrate facilities into the Southern Company system upon completion of construction; the inherent risks involved in operating and constructing nuclear generating facilities; the ability of counterparties of Georgia Power to make payments as and when due and to perform as required; the potential effects of the continued COVID-19 pandemic; the direct or indirect effect on Georgia Power’s business resulting from cyber intrusion or physical attack and the threat of cyber and physical attacks; catastrophic events such as fires, earthquakes, explosions, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and other storms, droughts, pandemic health events, political unrest, wars or other similar occurrences; and the direct or indirect effects on Georgia Power’s business resulting from incidents affecting the U.S. electric grid or operation of generating or storage resources. Georgia Power expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward–looking information.

“Don’t fool yourself: billions more needed to protect tropical forests”, warns a Guardian headline.

Similarly, a recent We Mean Business study revealed that a $4.1 trillion finance gap for nature-based solutions must be bridged to achieve global climate goals. And on Earth Day, millions echoed the rallying cry: #InvestInOurPlanet.

Yet, 93% of companies are neither compensating nor reducing their climate impact: in other words, they are doing nothing to address climate change.

This needs to change.

Climate action requires integrity, innovation, and, most importantly, financing. This raises two questions: firstly, what mechanisms do we have for companies to fund climate action, especially in the window until 2030? And secondly, how can we ensure that the finance is producing the promised impact?

Catalysing climate solutions with the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) 

The VCM provides an effective means for companies to finance activities at a scale that drives the global transition to net zero emissions. And the potential is huge.

If 1,700 high-emitting companies invested just 10% of their emissions in nature-based projects, over $1 trillion could be mobilised by 2030. This finance can support local communities, landowners and NGOs to overcome one of the biggest challenges that they face: securing access to funding.

Why carbon markets you might be thinking to yourself? It’s not the only solution, but investments in land-based solutions are tricky, as they typically involve small and aggregated deals, currency risks and complex ownership structures. Carbon markets, however, treat communities, farmers and land-owners as business partners – as opposed to making a direct investment with an expected financial ROI. Importantly, carbon finance – via the purchase of certified credits traded on carbon markets – is payments for results: it provides a results-based way to finance the implementation of transformative practices that don’t necessarily yield large financial returns, but that lead to measurable positive environmental and social impacts.

Over the next seven years, the VCM could grow by 13X and reduce and remove up to 2.6 GT of GHG emissions. That would account for up to 5% of today’s global emissions.

Promoting effective and transparent use of carbon credits 

For genuine climate impact, companies must adhere to simple, high-level principles. South Pole published their Principles for Carbon Credit Use to support the many companies that want to invest in the planet, and in financing the global transition – but who don’t know how to do it in a credible way.

Set a science-aligned net zero target.Pay for all unavoidable GHG emissions today and on the pathway to net zero.Use high quality carbon credits.Companies should transparently communicate their use of carbon credits.

Delivering high-integrity climate solutions

The VCM ecosystem is made up of many different actors, such as project developers, project owners, landowners and independent auditors; industry bodies like the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA); and architecture, including certification standards and methodologies. While the VCM is not regulated, these actors underpin the market, create standardisation, uphold and continuously update robust principles, and ensure real and measurable impacts from projects operating within the VCM.

On top of purchasing projects from internationally-recognised certification standards, another hallmark of quality are the co-benefits a project delivers. Simply put, co-benefits are the impacts beyond carbon, for example boosting food security, protecting biodiversity, and helping create new sustainable livelihoods. They can also support women with becoming more independent and improve their access to basic services, like water, education and healthcare.

Both Verra and the Gold Standard, leading certification bodies in the voluntary carbon market, have designed much-needed tools and even new standards to measure and certify co-benefits in a more standardised way. Although there is still a way to go in terms of monitoring co-benefits, choosing projects with strong impacts beyond carbon ensures a company is contributing to enhancing local standards of living in the host country and therefore a just transition to net zero where no one is left behind.

Upholding integrity 

Integrity demands meeting high-quality standards in carbon accounting, additionality, social safeguards, project activities, and co-benefits. Standards and methodologies set ever-improving performance standards for the green revolution and provide infrastructure for the market. They are by design nimble and ready to adapt proactively and reactively as new technologies and learnings come into play. It is key that actors advocate for globally accepted, harmonised benchmarking methods, particularly for sensitive scopes like Nature-Based Solutions (NBS).

South Pole has talked extensively about both the complexity as well as the urgent need for REDD+ projects (here & here), which play a critical role in protecting forests, preserving biodiversity and securing irrecoverable carbon to deliver rapid emissions reductions at scale. The VCM architecture integrates baseline updates, technological advancements, and new learnings to evolve in tandem with best practices. This evolution is pushing the envelope of best-practice and it calls for companies to keep directing finance to communities at the forest frontier through the REDD+ mechanism; we can’t let perfection be the enemy of good.

“Each and every project goes through a public comment period for around 30 days, where anyone – regardless whether they are involved in the project or not – can comment. This amount of transparency and stakeholder inclusion is not there in many, if not any, other forms of climate finance” —Chetan Aggarwal, Manager Sustainable Standards and Methodologies, South Pole.

Fostering innovation for a sustainable future

For over 17 years, South Pole has pioneered and scaled various approaches to achieve true climate impact at scale. Some initiatives have offered valuable lessons, while others have led to significant carbon emission reductions and benefits for vulnerable communities. One recent achievement is the NextGen CDR Facility (NextGen), a joint venture between South Pole and Mitsubishi Corporation. It purchased close to 200K tonnes of CDRs from three projects, including the world’s largest technological carbon removal project, demonstrating tangible corporate interest for various CDR technologies that offer long term removal of CO2. These actions are helping to push CDRs over the vital tipping point for them to become readily available at affordable prices. 
 

Conclusion

As global crises intensify and climate change exacerbates the situation, urgent action is needed to reduce global emissions and revolutionise how we can do business within our planet’s limits. Today, more than ever, we are under tremendous pressure to unlock trillions to help businesses, communities, and governments transition to a safe, sustainable future. The VCM is one of the few means for businesses to take responsibility for their impact while they decarbonise, especially in the crucial years we have left until 2030.

Market mechanisms have tangibly demonstrated that they can be part of the solution to financing critical new climate technologies, recognising the value of ecosystem services, and putting a price on emissions. Used effectively, the VCM can deliver finance at scale that helps to move the dial on runaway climate change and ensure tangible, measurable benefits for the people and communities most at risk from climate crisis.

Committed to operating responsibility based on the highest standards of ethics and integrity, Bread Financial today announced that it has been included on Newsweek’s Most Trustworthy Companies in America 2023 list, ranking #20 among other companies in the financial services sector.

“Building trust is one of the most important priorities for any business, but also one of the easiest things for it to lose, which is why I am so proud to receive this third-party validation that represents our culture in action,” said Ralph Andretta, president and chief executive officer, Bread Financial. “We rebranded to Bread Financial just over a year ago, and our inclusion on Newsweek’s list is a noteworthy acknowledgment of our commitment to deliver best-in-class, value-added experiences that build trust and confidence.”

To determine the top 700 most trustworthy companies across 23 industries, Newsweek, in partnership with market research partner Statista Inc., evaluated a pool of 3,100 U.S.-headquartered companies with revenues over $500 million along with a sample of approximately 25,000 U.S. residents who rated companies on three pillars of trust: customer trust, investor trust and employee trust

“Empowering customers in a way that inspires confidence, satisfaction and trust in our brand is rooted in our responsible business practices,” said Dana Beckman, head of sustainability, Bread Financial.  “As we continue to adapt and respond to evolving consumer expectations, our purpose-driven approach and unwavering dedication to operating sustainably remains essential to earning and maintaining the trust of our diverse stakeholders.”

In January, Bread Financial also announced its inclusion on Newsweek’s Most Responsible Companies 2023 list. For more information on Bread Financial’s ESG strategy, visit its sustainability page or download the 2021 ESG Report.

IRVINE, Calif., May 12, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Today, the Taco Bell Foundation announced it is awarding more than $10 million in Live Más Scholarships – the most in the nonprofit’s history. The scholarships will be distributed to 980 students, ages 16-26, eager to ignite powerful change within their community and beyond. This year, the Taco Bell Foundation is giving $2.5 million to Taco Bell restaurant team members and $7.6 million to Taco Bell fans nationwide. Award amounts range from $5,000-$25,000 per recipient.

The Live Más Scholarship is a passion-based scholarship that gives students the tools and resources to boldly pursue their educational dreams. To qualify for the scholarship, applicants must submit a two-minute video describing their passion, a positive change they want to make in the world, and how their education will help them achieve that goal.

This year, the Taco Bell Foundation received its highest number of scholarship applications – nearly 14,000. Recipients include more than 300 fans of the brand, 150 Taco Bell restaurant team members, and over 500 renewal recipients through the Taco Bell Foundation’s renewal application, allowing applicants to renew their scholarships up to three times.

Scholarships awarded to Taco Bell fans are funded 100% by customers who participate in the Taco Bell Foundation’s Round Up fundraiser by rounding up to the nearest dollar, proving change can change lives. While team member scholarships are funded completely by donations from Taco Bell Corp. and Taco Bell Franchisees.

“The Live Más Scholarship is more than a check. It provides a community for these young scholars where they can learn from one another and grow outside of the classroom,” said Jennifer Bradbury, Executive Director of the Taco Bell Foundation. “The Live Más Scholarship opens a door of connections, opportunities, and programs to help students flourish in their passions.”

Check out the stories of two 2023 Live Más Scholars who will be using their scholarships to create a better world for us all:

King A.: King is a passionate animator who is currently studying Art and Business Marketing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). The son of Togolese immigrants, he hopes to one day open his own animation and art studio that will help first-generation American animators, like himself, succeed in the industry. King is a Taco Bell team member and learned about his scholarship during a surprise party at the Taco Bell where he works and where his dad is the Restaurant General Manager.Stacy E.: Born deaf in a Spanish-speaking household, Stacy quickly learned the challenges that come with language barriers. Over time and with the proper resources, Stacy learned American Sign Language and fell in love with Deaf Education. Stacy, now working on her Associate of Arts, is planning to continue her education at Stephen F. Austin State University to pursue a degree in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Studies. With this education, Stacy hopes to return to the classroom as a resource for deaf and hard of hearing youth in order to make a difference in their lives and educational journeys.

Live Más Scholars will have the opportunity to travel to San Diego, California, and attend the Live Más Scholarship Summer of Connection this July. The in-person conference is designed for attendees to cultivate the necessary skills and connections needed to boldly pursue their careers and make a difference in their community.

About Taco Bell Foundation
Taco Bell Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity that helps America’s young people pursue their educational goals and career aspirations. Since 1992, the Taco Bell Foundation has reached more than 5 million young people across the country and has awarded $155 million in grants and scholarships, focused on education and career readiness. For more information about the Taco Bell Foundation, visit www.tacobellfoundation.org.