Tag: 3BL

Originally published on GoDaddy Life

Listen to the Podcast, here! Transcription provided, below.

Janelle (Host): Hello, and welcome to the Own Your Career podcast. My name is Janelle Jordan and I’m a Program Manager on our talent, Performance and Engagement Team and I’m so excited to be here with you. Throughout this series, you will hear inspiring interviews with employees who have achieved career growth here at GoDaddy through internal promotions and movement. In addition, you will hear tips, best practices and advice to support your career journey. Career management is necessary for a successful journey and we hope that you will walk away ready to Own Your Career. Thank you for spending time with us today. Now let’s jump into the career spotlight with our guest. I’m here today with Felicia, who is a Marketing Project Specialist on the Corporate Events Team, here at GoDaddy. Hi, Felicia! Welcome to the podcast.

Felicia (Guest): Hi, Janelle. Thanks so much for having me.

Janelle: Let’s get to know you quickly. Can you share with us a little about who you are and what brings you joy outside of the office?

Felicia: Hello, everyone. I am Felicia Green. I am a mother of two. I married my middle school sweetheart in 2016. I love the color Army Green, by the way. It was my wedding color. The 90’s early 2000’s hip hop and R&B is my jam. My favorite TV shows are Law and Order SVU, 90 Day Fiancé, and Married at First Sight. Hot and Juicy is my go-to restaurant and my love language is quality time. What brings me joy outside of my work from home office is simply staying busy. Whether I’m scheduling dinner dates with my best friend, spending time with family, grocery shopping, coaching my daughter’s soccer team, or working on a home project, if I am staying busy, it gives me purpose.

Janelle: Thank you so much for sharing. We have a ton in common. 90’s, early 2000’s hip hop is also my jam. Also, love Hot and Juicy and also love coaching my daughter’s soccer team. So can you give our listeners a quick overview of your career journey, including any internal movement that you’ve had here at GoDaddy?

Felicia: Yes, absolutely. My journey started in early 2012 when I became a Hooters girl. I remember the first day I worked there — It was a fight night. I was bringing water on a tray to a large party and spilled the tray of water all over. Thankfully, it didn’t spill on anyone, but still very embarrassing. After that experience, I only carried cups in my hand and never used a tray again. I didn’t care if it was a large party, I would make as many trips as I needed to drop off drinks. Then, the restaurant announced they were closing in November of 2012. So, I quickly became a teller at Wells Fargo and absolutely hated it. I stayed ten long months and went back to Hooters at a different location. While I was bartending and waiting tables at Hooters, one of the regulars would often tell me: “go get your real estate license, you would be so great at it.” So in 2015, I went to real estate school, passed my state and national test. I received my license and didn’t know how to start because they don’t teach you that in school. So, I hung up my Hooters uniform and found an amazing mentor to hold my hand for a few years where I learned how to form a business, network, create relationships and sell real estate. While I was learning the real estate business, I became a wedding bartender on the weekend to generate some quick income, since as a realtor you don’t get paid until the transaction closes. Then, I decided I wanted to get out of the food and beverage industry for good and have my weekends back. So, I took a leap of faith and interviewed for a job at GoDaddy. Mind you, I had no clue how websites function and didn’t even know what a domain was, but my previous coworker from Hooters worked there and she seemed to like it. I started my career with GoDaddy in 2019 and spent most of my time as a Website Specialist II in the Website Design Services Department. As a Website Specialist, I consulted with customers on their website design by providing industry specific knowledge, creative direction, and hand-holding them through the process. I had the pleasure of piloting new processes and updating Confluence articles. My favorite part of the job was when I assisted in onboarding and training our new hires. In 2020, shortly after the Pandemic hit and giving birth to my son, I started my small business Fashion Babe LLC, which is an online woman’s boutique. In 2021, I stumbled across our Community Impact program, Empower, and started volunteering my time, via Zoom, to equip small business owners with the tools and knowledge they need to grow a successful business. Towards the end of 2021, I represented GoDaddy Guides and was selected to participate in a photoshoot. Now my face is featured on the front page of GoDaddy’s website for the Latin America region. In April of 2022, I was lucky enough to be selected to participate in the GROW program as a Marketing Project Specialist on the Corporate Events team. Now, I manage event logistics for the USI team’s Marketing Initiative.

Janelle: There is so much amazing information in the story that you just shared. I’m so impressed with your career journey and so excited to dive a little bit deeper into it. The thing that you said that really just stuck with me was you decided to take a leap of faith and interviewed for a job at GoDaddy, knowing that you had no idea how websites functioned and you didn’t know even what a domain was, but that your coworker worked there and they liked it. And you took that risk and you got the job. Did you get the job the first time?

Felicia: I did!

Janelle: How nervous were you and what interested you about this Website specialist II job? Because I’m sure there were other ones at GoDaddy that you could have applied to.

Felicia: Honestly, I was just excited to get out of the food and beverage industry and start something new.

Janelle: Love that. I love that honesty. As a company whose mission is supporting small businesses, you also are an entrepreneur and have your own small business, which means that you have such a unique perspective of running their own business.

Felicia: Yeah, absolutely. I definitely look at things from the perspective of not only an employee, but also a customer.

Janelle: Fantastic. Was the GROW Program something that you had set in your career goals? How did you stumble upon that and decide to apply?

Felicia: That is such a great question. I had a friend who was previously on my team, and he was actually part of the GROW Program the previous year. So when he explained to me what the program was and what it can mean for my future, I instantly put in an application and interviewed for the position.

Janelle: Thank you for sharing. The next question — what or who has been most impactful to your career growth at GoDaddy and why?

Felicia: Volunteering for our GoDaddy Empower Program jump started my growth. It was important to me to get out of my comfort zone and the opportunity to share my skills and speak in front of a large group of small business owners with Empower was a wonderful opportunity to push myself and help others. I’ve always been nervous about speaking and presenting, but once I received feedback from the attendees on how impactful my info sessions were to their success, I felt empowered to keep sharing my knowledge. Also, the GoDaddy GROW program has been and continues to aid my personal and career growth. Through this program, I have had the opportunity to discover my strengths so that I have a better understanding of how I work best and how to utilize these strengths to help me achieve my goals. The ability to network and develop relationships with leaders, partners, stakeholders, VPs and vendors has been an incredible experience for me.

Janelle: I love this answer. It sounds like, once again, you took a leap of faith when you volunteered with the GD Empower Program to get out of your comfort zone. And it also sounded like you really understood your skills and you really understood where you wanted to grow and where you wanted to improve. And you took this as an opportunity to do both of that because you knew it was going to help power you through your career growth and development. When you were preparing, was there anything that you did to help yourself get ready?

Felicia: Yeah, absolutely. I went ahead and listened to some LinkedIn courses and I had my manager, at the time, help me prepare for interviews.

Janelle: That’s awesome advice that people can walkaway from and implement right away. What do you love about your job?

Felicia: I am a social person, so I love the fact that I can network and create new relationships with so many different departments since each external event is different. Most of all, I love the fact that I can create my own schedule and be a stay at home mom.

Janelle: 100% can relate to that. Last question — what is a common myth about your job, department or field?

Felicia: Well, Janelle, people have this idea that event planners have a glamorous job — that we just have a vision and place orders, when really there’s so much more to that. We manage the project from start to finish. We are the first ones on site and the last ones to leave. We oversee contract negotiations following event deadlines, making sure all packages arrive at the event, and test the audio visual for our team. If we are presenting, we work with our brand team and vendors to order swag giveaways and to create new booths. We have the important task of budgeting — making sure that every single item and detail is captured and that the team stays within that budget. For our GoDaddy employees attending an event, we assist them with travel planning, booking hotel reservations, flights, and setting up their Uber travel. We provide them with all the need to know logistics of the event. We are the ones who everyone comes to to solve issues. We really are all the pieces of a puzzle that get glued together to make an event happen.

Janelle: Could not have said it better myself. All of the different skills and capabilities and project management skills that go into executing the work that you do in your department. Can you help our listeners moving into your department. What kind of skills might they want to work on as part of their career development?

Felicia: Project managing is going to be a huge one. Also just having the ability to organize and brainstorm and having the ability to problem solve.

Janelle: Great advice for our listeners. Well, thank you so much Felicia, for spending time with us today and sharing your personal career story with our listeners. Can you share with us the best way to reach you if they would like to connect for professional mentoring or networking?

Felicia: Yeah, so the best way to reach me is on Slack. It’s Felicia Green. F-E-L-I-C-I-A. Green. Just like the color.

Janelle: Thank you all for listening to the Own Your Career podcast. We aim to inspire, motivate, and empower our employees to meet and achieve their professional goals. If you are interested in being a guest on a future episode of this podcast, please visit the MyCareer Portal Career Spotlight page and complete the interest form. While you’re there, check out the many resources and articles available and reach out to us with feedback, questions and ideas. We would love to hear from you. Thanks everyone, and have a great day.

Are you enjoying this series and want to know more about life at GoDaddy? Check out our GoDaddy Life social pages! Follow us to meet our team, learn more about our culture (Teams, ERG’s, Locations), careers, and so much more. You’re more than just your day job, so come propel your career with us.

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/GoDaddyLifeInstagram — https://www.instagram.com/godaddylife/LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/godaddylifeTwitter — https://twitter.com/GoDaddyLifeTikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@godaddylife?Career Page — https://careers.godaddy.com

April 14, 2023 /3BL Media/ – On April 11, 2023, the LA Galaxy hosted Ivan, a 14-year-old teenager from Sylmar, CA, at the club’s first-team training session at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, CA. Ivan is bravely battling cancer and the LA Galaxy hosted him as an honorary team member for the day. 

Ivan and his family had an eventful day as he signed an honorary contract, received a tour of Dignity Health Sports Park, was gifted LA Galaxy gear and watched Galaxy players, coaches and staff participate at practice. After the training session, Ivan received autographs and photos with LA Galaxy players. 

Additionally, Ivan and his family will be special guests of the LA Galaxy at the club’s rivalry match against LAFC on April 16, 2023, and they’ll have the opportunity to watch pre-game warmups from field level.

Los Angeles Galaxy Foundation (LAGF) aims to advance the game of soccer and use it as a vehicle for positive change throughout Southern California communities. The organization has three main pillars that serve as the core of our granting and programming efforts: improving access to youth sports and health and wellness resources, while serving as champions for inclusion in our communities. To learn more about the LA Galaxy Foundation, please click here.

April 14, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Rayonier grows and manages an abundant and renewable resource that provides many benefits to society: trees. This uniquely positions Rayonier (NYSE: RYN) to offer natural climate change solutions. The trees we manage not only remove more carbon than we emit in our operations, but even after harvesting, help to store carbon through the wood-based products others create from our trees.

In order to quantify the impacts that our global operations have on the environment, we conduct an annual analysis of the carbon sequestration and emissions across our forestry operations and corporate activities. Rayonier calculates the carbon sequestered by our forests, the emissions associated with our operations, and the carbon removed/transferred from our forests through harvest activity. We developed this analysis based on methodologies published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries. When estimating the carbon stored in our forests, we include overstory trees, understory vegetation, coarse woody debris, forest floor, and soil. This analysis demonstrates that our working forests provide a natural climate change solution.

In 2021, Rayonier’s forestlands sequestered an estimated 14.7 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents from the atmosphere versus corporate emissions of roughly 350,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents. Moreover, a significant portion of the carbon contained in the logs we sell to our customers each year remains stored for many decades through their conversion to a multitude of wood products.

For a complete analysis of Rayonier’s carbon footprint in the U.S. and New Zealand, we invite you to explore the latest Carbon Report: https://www.rayonier.com/media/15946444/rayonier-carbon-report-2021.pdf

To learn more about Rayonier’s responsible stewardship, visit our sustainability web page: https://www.rayonier.com/sustainability/responsible-stewardship/.

As our customers and members continue to look for ways to save money and live better, I am excited to announce our plans at Walmart and Sam’s Club in the U.S. to make electric vehicle (EV) ownership more accessible, reliable, convenient and affordable for them across the country. By 2030, we intend to build our own EV fast-charging network at thousands of Walmart and Sam’s Club locations coast-to-coast. This would be in addition to the almost 1,300 EV fast-charging stations we already have available at more than 280 U.S. facilities.

With a store or club located within 10 miles of approximately 90% of Americans, we are uniquely positioned to deliver a convenient charging option that will help make EV ownership possible whether people live in rural, suburban or urban areas. Our goal is to meet the needs of customers and members where they live and open the road to those driving across the country. Easy access to on-the-go charging is a game-changer for drivers who have been hesitant to purchase an EV for concerns they won’t be able to find a charger in a clean, bright and safe location when needed.

What’s more, with our chargers located on site with our Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Sam’s Clubs, we can offer customers and members the convenience of being able to pick up essentials for their families or grab a bite to eat while they charge. And in line with our purpose, we aim to offer Every Day Low Price charging – helping ease transportation costs, still the second highest household cost for much of our country.

At the same time, as more drivers transition to EVs, our network growth will help expand domestic EV charging capacity across states. We see our commitment today as a natural extension of our work to help customers and members live better, easier and more sustainable lives – a big win for busy families and drivers everywhere, our country and the planet.

This plan marks the latest investment in our efforts to transform our business and product supply chains to be more regenerative, in this case helping reduce emissions and increase efficiencies for customers. For example, we announced tests across our supply chain vehicle and fuel classes toward our goal of achieving zero emissions by 2040. And as of last year, many of our W+ customers have already been receiving their deliveries via electric vehicles.

The way vehicle ownership looks is changing fast, and so is our business. Today, we are as known for convenience as we are for Every Day Low Price. We are committed to providing customers, members, associates, suppliers and our communities at large with the services they need and want, in a way that fits their lifestyle – making EV ownership easy and simple is no exception.

Originally published on HARMAN Sustainability Report

HARMAN’s Chakan plant in Pune, India overperformed in just about every area throughout 2021. Exceeding the standards yet again for commitment, quality, and teamwork, the HARMAN Pune factory sets an example for all, prioritizing initiatives that better our planet and improve the communities in which we live and work. Beating out over 350 applicants, HARMAN’s team received the Golden Peacock Environmental Management Award, a coveted and prestigious recognition across public, private, and government enterprises throughout India.

Safety

As ‘One HARMAN,’ we believe environmentally responsible operations are smart operations. Highlighting the team’s commitment to building a safety culture, HARMAN’s Chakan plant achieved a significant milestone by crossing “7 years” without a Lost Time Case (LTC). Holding enormous value for the plant, this achievement exemplifies the team’s commitment to ensuring everyone goes home safely every day through rigorous practices and initiatives.

Sanjeev Kulkarni, Sr., Director- Automotive, HARMAN said, “Our people-first approach led us towards considering safety as the first and foremost focus area at the plant. While the groundwork was laid by ticking all the best practices, the team showed commendable performance by adhering to every parameter agreed upon. We continue to strive towards achieving more such milestones in keeping the team safe and delivering our best.”

Efficiency

Showcasing climate action in motion, our first on-site solar installation came online in Pune, India. The installation is anticipated to produce around 163,200 kWh annually, more than 3% of the Pune site’s total annual energy consumption. This effort alone has the potential to save 119 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equal to the emissions produced after driving almost 1 million kilometers (over 621,000 miles). In addition to the environmental benefit or renewable energy, the Pune installation affords our site increased energy independence, bolstering resiliency in a climate-uncertain future.

Sustainability initiatives like those in Pune perfectly showcase our commitment to environmental stewardship wherever we do business. By 2025, HARMAN has pledged to source 100% renewable electricity across our global manufacturing footprint, in alignment with the RE100 Initiative, an organization of 400 ambitious and influential businesses driving corporate demand for 100% renewable electricity.

To learn more, download the HARMAN 2021 Sustainability report here

Originally published on U.S. Bank Company Blog

When Minneapolis-based pickleball professional Aanik Lohani tried the sport for the first time, he needed three things – a paddle, a ball and a snow shovel.

“It was in March 2020 and a friend told me about the sport,” Lohani said. “I bought a paddle and ball at Target – I was completely new and raw to pickleball. Being March in Minneapolis, the court had snow on it, so we shoveled it off and played a couple games.”

Lohani, who started playing tennis at age 7, said his tennis-playing experience, which included being on his high school varsity and college club tennis teams, helped in the transition to pickleball.

“I found pickleball to be easier on the body than tennis and I also got that competitive mindset with being on the court and wanting to win,” he said.

As the weather in Minneapolis warmed up and snow shovels were no longer required to play, Lohani found the sport had a social aspect that he enjoyed as well.

“Almost anyone can play pickleball,” he said. “You don’t need to spend a lot on equipment to get started and you don’t have to have the most athletic build, so it really caters to a big audience, and that’s how I fell in love with it.”

By the end of 2020, Lohani had stopped playing tennis to focus solely on pickleball. He started playing in local tournaments in 2021 and enjoyed some early successes.

“I did well at local tournaments and kept winning, so I tried higher and higher levels of competition,” Lohani said. “At the end of 2021, I played in a tournament that brought together the best competitors in Minnesota and I won that. From there, I decided to try and compete against the best in the country.”

“Almost anyone can play pickleball. You don’t need to spend a lot on equipment to get started and you don’t have to have the most athletic build, so it really caters to a big audience, and that’s how I fell in love with it.”

– Aanik Lohani 

Lohani turned professional in 2022 and has competed in three pro tournaments, most recently taking seventh place in February during the men’s singles division at the Professional Pickleball Association Indoor National Championship, which brought together 1,200 pickleball players.

“That was a pretty high accomplishment,” he said. “I beat one player who’s ranked in the top 15 internationally.”

He’s now training for the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships being held in April in Naples, Florida.

A data engineer by day

Lohani spends much of his free time on pickleball but remains committed to his full-time job at U.S. Bank, where he works as a data engineer.

“I’m on a team that focuses on analytics and reporting, creating dashboards for KPIs (key performance indicators) and other metrics for the organization,” he said.

One project Lohani has worked on is building a dashboard to help managers track more than 70 different skills across the bank’s technology services group to help employees grow.

“You really have to understand the whole thought process that goes into the business line owners, what they want and the purpose the data serves. Then we format the data and boil it down to a visual representation of what they want to see so they can determine its value,” he says. “I’m a very detail-oriented person and I love to be around data and analyze numbers.”

Being detail-oriented helps Lohani with his pickleball pursuits as well. He’s currently working with an agent to secure sponsors and build a training and nutrition regimen to help him continue improving his game.

“I think coming from the tennis background, I have as much or more talent as the top pros and can compete at their level,” Lohani says. “I’m working on an off-the-court training regimen, doing workouts specific for pickleball so I can be the most fit and in-shape person I can be.”

While some of the professional players have more experience, Lohani said he thinks now is a great time to be joining their ranks.

“I almost feel like I’m joining a startup,” he said. “Pickleball is really in it its infancy and I think it has massive potential to grow. It feels like this is the prime time for me to get in on the sport.”

Dayton REALTORS® has honored Kenya K. Taylor, Corporate Responsibility Officer for KeyBank in Central and Southwest Ohio, with its 2023 Marie Kindrick Fair Housing Award for Community Professional. In her role, Taylor ensures that KeyBank remains true to its purpose of helping the communities it serves thrive. This involves doing business fairly and responsibly, making meaningful investments in the places where we live and work and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, including fair housing principles.

Marie Kindrick, for whom the award is named, was a remarkable woman who, for nearly sixty years, was committed to working for the rights of those who are under-represented. Each year Dayton REALTORS®, in partnership with the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center, pays tribute to Kindrick and honors her vision to work for fairness and equality for everyone by awarding a Community Professional, a Community Volunteer, and a REALTOR® who have “exhibited an outstanding commitment to fair housing principles.”

Taylor is an advocate for community involvement and investment. For more than eight years, she has served as a board member of the Greater Dayton Realtors Association (GDRA). A division of the National Association of Real Estate, the GDRA focuses on democracy in housing, serving the underserved and increasing black homeownership. Taylor regularly partners with local housing agencies including the HomeOwnership Center of Greater Dayton, Miami Valley Community Action Partnership, Miami Valley Fair Housing and others to increase financial literacy and homeownership. She also participates in homebuying seminars, financial literacy classes, and volunteers with many agencies in Dayton at community events.

Since 2017, KeyBank has followed through on community commitments it made with investments totaling more than $187 million in Dayton. This includes more than $38 million in home lending to low-to-moderate income individuals and communities.

Learn more about how KeyBank is bolstering the path to affordable homeownership this Fair Housing Month 
 Learn more about KeyBank’s commitment to helping clients and communities thrive

3M’s 2023 Global Impact Report highlights the progress we’ve have made toward our goals – as well as the actions we took in 2022 to advance our impact in environment, social and governance (ESG). Our new ESG metrics (Excel, 4.6 MB, available in your downloads once clicked) provides a comprehensive summary of related performance data, maps, and charts.

Our actions in sustainability are rooted in our purpose to unlock the power of people, ideas and science to reimagine what’s possible through the actions we take across our Sustainability Framework.

Science for Circular: We see the circular economy as an opportunity to create important solutions, inspire leadership, and implement disruptive change across all industries.

Since 2019, we have reduced water usage by 16.8%, indexed to sales. In addition, we are ahead of schedule in installing state-of-the-art filtration technologies at the largest water use locations globally.
Since 2021, we reduced over 54 million pounds of virgin fossil-based plastic use.
By the end of 2022, 44.9% of 3M manufacturing sites had attained zero waste to landfill status.

Science for Climate: Climate change remains one of our greatest challenges, we continue to focus on driving innovations to help provide climate solutions in our operations, products and communities.

Since 2002, we have reduced our absolute carbon footprint by more than 78%. And since 2019, we have reduced Scope 1 & 2 market-based emissions by 37.8%.
We surpassed our 2025 renewable energy goal of 50% renewable electricity in our operations with 51.9% renewable electricity use in 2022.
As of 2022, we’ve helped our customers reduce their GHGs by 121 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions through the use of 3M products since 2015.

Science for Community: In 2022 alone, we continued to take meaningful steps towards a more equitable future and unlocking the power of diversity, including the launch of our new Equity and Community website.

To advance economic equity, we created over 1 million unique STEM and skilled trades learning experiences for underrepresented individuals.
In 2022, we invested $11.6 million in organizations and schools that promote STEM and skilled trades for underrepresented communities, as well as organizations that assist families and households facing unique challenges from centuries of systemic racism and inequalities that multiply generationally.
We’ve continued to achieve 100% gender pay equity in our global regions.

Throughout the rest of 2023, we will continue to bring our purpose and promise to life through the actions and progress we make on our goals. Join us on our journey of imagining and delivering a better world for everyone.

About 3M
3M (NYSE: MMM) believes science helps create a brighter world for everyone. By unlocking the power of people, ideas and science to reimagine what’s possible, our global team uniquely addresses the opportunities and challenges of our customers, communities, and planet. Learn how we’re working to improve lives and make what’s next at 3M.com/news or on Twitter at @3M or @3MNews.

Media contact:
Tim Post

Despite a very challenging year in 2022, Yum China remained profitable every quarter and expanded our store network, while continuing to make significant progress towards our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. Throughout the pandemic, our commitment to our ESG priorities never wavered, and we stayed true to our purpose by supporting our employees, effectively serving our customers, and giving back to our communities.

We are committed to making continuous progress towards our ESG goals throughout our company. We have incorporated ESG as a key performance evaluation criterion for each leadership team member, as they are accountable for driving progress towards these goals. Beyond that, we are exploring opportunities to elevate the prominence of ESG throughout our organization by incorporating ESG metrics and results into our broader employee incentive program. This will encourage employees at every level to incorporate ESG priorities into their daily work.

In 2022, we made important progress in advancing our ESG agenda in the following ways:

We are actively executing on our plan to decarbonize our business. We have set near-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets that have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). This represents a major milestone on our journey towards achieving net-zero value chain GHG emissions by 2050. We are

committed to reducing GHG emissions by more than 60% by 2035 from a 2020 base year, and we have created a roadmap for achieving a low-carbon future. Our roadmap has three strategic enablers: energy efficiency improvement, renewable energy investment, and supplier engagement.

We are continuously exploring ways to optimize our operations by reducing our reliance on natural resources and increasing our waste recycling. In 2022, we undertook a number of circular economy initiatives: one focused on optimizing packaging and using sustainable packaging materials; another explored recycling and reusing waste as an input where feasible. We initiated a pilot project in Shanghai to fuel our vehicles with B5 biodiesel, a blend incorporating five percent biodiesel made from used cooking oil. We are the first restaurant company in China to recycle used cooking oil in this way. In addition, we have initiated a pilot program in 66 restaurants in Shanghai to recycle packaging waste generated in daily operations. We are actively exploring several new circular economy initiatives.

Food safety is our top priority at Yum China. We have made a substantial investment to build an industry-leading, intelligent, digitalized food safety and quality management system. Utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and real-time data collection and analysis, we have established rigorous control measures across the value chain. We also advocate for a balanced diet and healthy eating habits, offering our customers a wide range of nutritious choices. We offer delicious food and great value through product innovation: we launched more than 500 new and upgraded menu items in 2022, despite the disruption of the pandemic. We also released the Yum China Nutrition and Health Policy, highlighting our commitment to promoting balanced diets.

We adhered firmly to our ‘People First’ philosophy, prioritizing occupational health and safety. This commitment was especially important during the pandemic when we doubled down on our efforts to support our people. We provided job security during tough times by refraining from layoffs, increasing medical coverage for eligible staff and their families, and providing them with food and medical supplies during lockdowns. In 2022, we further upgraded our employee benefits plan and established the ‘Yum China Employee Mutual Aid Fund’ to offer financial assistance to employees in need.

I’m extremely proud of our employees’ heroic efforts throughout the pandemic, especially during lockdowns. Our over 400,000 employees live and breathe our core value of ‘Always Doing the Right Thing’. In 2022, our employees recorded over four million hours of volunteer time to support their local communities. Our flagship One Yuan Donation Program celebrated its 15th anniversary, through it we contribute to poverty alleviation and rural revitalization by improving the diet and nutrition of children in remote areas and enhancing their access to digital education. Over the past 15 years, we have continuously fine-tuned the program to increase its impact. We extended fundraising channels from our stores to our own online platforms such as KFC and Pizza Hut Super Apps, and we rolled out new fundraising initiatives like charity auction livestreams led by our executives.

While many uncertainties may lie ahead, I firmly believe that Yum China is uniquely positioned to thrive as a business – and as a responsible corporate citizen. We are grateful to everyone who has joined us on our ESG journey, and we will continue to foster a culture of creativity and collaboration as we work towards our ESG goals.

Joey Wat

Chief Executive Officer, Yum China Holdings, Inc.

While 80% of garment workers are women, 75% of CEO roles within the textile and apparel sector are held by men. To give ourselves the best opportunity to solve the multiple crises we face, we need more women leaders because gender equity is critical to achieving our long term success as an industry, and will enable us to thrive as a global community.

In her latest blog, Amina Razvi, CEO of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition shares her insights on why an increase in diverse voices across all levels of an organization and thoughts on how we can address the rising trend dubbed the “Great Breakup” that has seen women leaving executive leadership positions in droves.

Read her blog post, titled: It all starts at the top: why the fashion industry needs to embrace equity in the boardroom on the SAC website.