Tag: 3BL

DES MOINES, Iowa, March 28, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Principal Asset ManagementSM, through its dedicated real estate investment team, has been named an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year: Sustained Excellence award winner for the sixth consecutive year. Principal has also been named a Certification Nation Premier Member, a special one-time recognition in celebration of the EPA program’s 30th anniversary for organizations that certified 15 or more buildings in 2022.

“The consistent recognition Principal receives as an ENERGY STAR award winner underscores our long-standing commitment to corporate stewardship and responsible property investment,” said Jennifer McConkey, managing director of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and operations, real estate, Principal Asset Management. “We strive to deliver positive financial and ESG outcomes for our clients and our strong performance over the past six years is a testament to that work. We are especially proud to receive this accolade and be named a Certification Nation Premier Member on the anniversary of the program.”

Principal has been an ENERGY STAR partner since 2009 and has earned Partner of the Year status for eight years. Principal continues to integrate energy efficiency into its Pillars of Responsible Property Investing, the overarching ESG platform for the firm’s dedicated real estate investment team. ENERGY Star certified buildings use an average of 35% less energy than similar buildings nationwide and have been shown to have higher occupancy and rental rates.1 From 2008-2020, Principal Real Estate achieved 15.2% energy savings, avoided more than $51 million in cumulative energy costs, and prevented more than 130 thousand metric tons of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions.2 Now, Principal is working towards 2035 targets to reduce emissions by 40% and energy by 20% (over a 2019 baseline). In 2022, Principal achieved:

ENERGY STAR certification at 37 properties.An average ENERGY STAR score of 87 for certified properties, meaning these properties perform within the top 13% on average of peers across the country.

Each year, the ENERGY STAR program honors a group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy achievements. ENERGY STAR award winners lead their industries in the production, sale, and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services, and strategies. These efforts are essential to fighting the climate crisis and protecting public health.

Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2023 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.

Learn more about the Principal commitment to responsible property investing.

1 Top 8 Reasons to Pursue ENERGY STAR Certification

2 The information provided is based on data input by individual property teams as of October 2021 into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, with select review and validation.

About Principal Asset ManagementSM 
With public and private market capabilities across all asset classes, Principal Asset ManagementSM and its investment specialists look at asset management through a different lens, creating solutions to help deliver client investment objectives. By applying local insights with global perspectives, Principal Asset Management identifies distinct and compelling investment opportunities for more than 1,100 institutional clients in over 80 markets.1 

Principal Asset Management is the global investment solutions business for Principal Financial Group® (Nasdaq: PFG), managing $501.5 billion in assets1 and recognized as a “Best Places to Work in Money Management2” for 11 consecutive years. Learn more at www.PrincipalAM.com.

[1] As of December 31, 2022 
[2] Pensions & Investments, “The Best Places to Work in Money Management”, December 12, 2022. 

About ENERGY STAR

ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500®—rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs and achieve more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR’s impacts.

©2023 Principal®, Principal Financial Group®, Principal Asset Management, and Principal and the logomark design are registered trademarks and service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a Principal Financial Group company, in various countries around the world and may be used only with the permission of Principal Financial Services, Inc.

Oerth’s unique PROTAC® protein degradation technology is expected to be a new, game-changing generation of more sustainable crop protection products / The agreement recommits to the combination of Oerth Bio’s specialized expertise designing PROTAC® degraders for agriculture with Bayer’s global infrastructure testing, developing and commercializing leading crop protection technologies / Collaboration builds on the company launch in 2019 as a Leaps by Bayer joint-venture with Arvinas and has proven successful, meeting initial targeted milestones

MONHEIM, Germany and DURHAM, N.C., March 28, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Bayer and the agricultural biotech company Oerth Bio today announced a new collaboration seeking to develop the next generation of more sustainable crop protection products. The unique protein degradation technology used by Oerth Bio has the potential to generate products that support Bayer’s sustainability objective to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture, via lower application rates and favorable safety profiles.

Oerth Bio was founded in 2019 by Bayer’s impact investment arm, Leaps by Bayer, and Arvinas (NASDAQ: ARVN), a clinical-stage biotechnology company leading the way in the development of targeted protein degradation therapeutics. Initially developed to fight human diseases like cancer and other difficult to treat diseases, Oerth’s patented PROTAC® (PROteolysis TArgeting Chimera) protein degradation technology provides an innovative pathway to entirely novel crop protection and climate resilient farm solutions. Oerth Bio remains the first and only company researching agricultural PROTAC® solutions.

“The world’s farmers need dependable and sustainable solutions to crop protection challenges, and PROTAC protein degradation technologies show an increasingly promising path toward a new way to develop tailored technologies,” said Dr. Robert Reiter, Head of R&D at Bayer’s Crop Science Division. “We expect protein degradation technology, already used in medicine, to be an important cornerstone for the development of new crop protection products that reduce the impact on the environment significantly. Oerth Bio’s work has proven to be promising, and we are looking forward to what the next phase of our work together will bring.”

Oerth Bio’s targeted protein degraders offer the capacity for high-precision product development, low application rates, and paths to overcome biological resistance. Oerth molecules are designed to interact with only one target protein, and safeguard off-target/beneficial organisms. These attributes combine to offer a very attractive pathway for the development of novel crop protection products that are sustainable, and highly effective. PROTAC® molecules activate a specific naturally occurring process within target species. The impact is expected to be precise and limited to interrupting the specific targeted processes in weeds, diseases or insects that impact crops negatively.

“This collaboration further emboldens our ambitions for first-in-the-world farm centric protein degrader solutions,” said John Dombrosky, Oerth Bio CEO. “It’s a real tribute to Bayer’s leadership and vision, as they significantly invest in breakthroughs that could change farming and the world for the better.”

Oerth Bio is simultaneously developing several novel agricultural applications in nascent crop efficiency and plant resilience segments, ensuring PROTAC® technology can be utilized to its full potential, and provide maximum utility to farmers and the greater food system.

About Bayer 
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2021, the Group employed around 100,000 people and had sales of 44.1 billion euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 5.3 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

About Oerth Bio 
Oerth Bio’s protein degrader technology for agriculture aims to combine powerful efficacy with next-generation environmental sustainability. The technology is designed to deliver unparalleled safety of food and feed, while achieving superior field performance for farmers.

The core technological innovations driving Oerth Bio’s progress are:

PROTAC® Molecules 
PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras (PROTAC) compounds are biologically enabled molecules designed to induce the modulation of specific proteins via the ubiquitin- proteasome system. Each region of the PROTAC molecule plays a role in its specificity and potency.AttuneTM Platform 
AttuneTM is Oerth Bio’s proprietary R&D platform for developing PROTAC molecules for agriculture. Through a rational target-based design process, the platform creates and optimizes molecules for specific crop applications and outcomes.

PROTAC® is a registered trademark of Arvinas Operations, Inc., and is used under license.

About Leaps by Bayer 
Leaps by Bayer, a unit of Bayer AG, leads impact investments into solutions to some of today’s biggest challenges in health and agriculture. The investment portfolio includes more than 50 companies. They are all working on potentially breakthrough technologies to overcome some specific challenges such as, e.g. develop sustainable protein supply, reducing the environmental impact of agriculture, preventing or curing cancer, and others. For more information, go to leaps.bayer.com.

Follow us on twitter.com/bayer

Forward-Looking Statements 
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

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Southwire’s 12 for Life® is pleased to partner with the Independent Electrical Contractor’s (IEC) Atlanta and Georgia Chapters to provide a Skills-Based Electrical Installer Program to its students.

12 for Life, a collaborative partnership that began between Southwire and Carroll County Schools in 2007, provides classroom instruction, on-the-job training, key work and life skills, mentoring and employment opportunities. Through the program, students are motivated to stay in school, graduate and move ahead to become successful, productive members of the communities in which they live. Due to its growth and success in the west Georgia area, a second site for 12 for Life was added at Southwire’s campus in Florence in 2010.

Students who participate in the IEC Installer program will receive 36 hours of in-person, hands-on training that will prepare them to qualify for employment in an electrical wiring occupation after graduating from high school.

“This partnership is a practical way for us to connect electrical contractors with a trained workforce. According to IEC, there’s a need for at least 10,000 electricians across the United States, and many of those electricians are needed here in west Georgia,” said Joel Grubbs, 12 for Life site supervisor for Carroll County Schools. “Jobs in manufacturing may not be readily available when they graduate, so this training will give them an additional opportunity for employment.”

The certification program consists of nine days of training that are focused on interactive learning and includes hands-on activities. At completion of the training, each student will receive a course completion certificate, an OSHA 10 certification and a first aid card. Students will also qualify for the IEC’s Electrical Apprenticeship Program.

“The IEC’s Atlanta and Georgia Chapters are proud to work with Southwire and the Georgia Industry Foundation for Training (GIFT) to implement our Basic Skills Installer Training in the 12 for Life program through the Carroll County School System,” said Niel Dawson, executive director of IEC Atlanta and Georgia Chapters. “The program will provide ongoing basic skills training in the electrical field and expose them to a high-paying skilled trade that has the potential for a meaningful career. We look forward to this program continuing for years to come and the expansion of it in other school systems.”

Southwire has a long-standing relationship with IEC, a trade association representing more than 3,300 members with 50 chapters nationwide. Both organizations remain dedicated to providing training for aspiring electricians, teaching a variety of skills like general tool safety and demonstration, electrical theory, pipe bending and more.

“The success of getting this program off the ground for our 12 for Life students is a testament to the partnership Southwire has with IEC. What started with just an idea almost a year ago has turned into a great success to add value to our students after graduation,” said Bill Fowler, senior training instructor at Southwire and board member for IEC GIFT. “We have also accomplished a way to help the industry and the IEC with qualified talent to enter the electrical industry.”

To learn more about 12 for Life, click here. For more Southwire news, visit www.southwire.com/newsroom.

Kaylee’s story, and that of many more inspiring Indigenous People from northern Alberta to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador and places in between, can be found in the 2022 edition of Suncor’s Pathways magazine. Our Pathways magazine is a representation of our ongoing commitment to the Journey of Reconciliation. Visit Suncor.com to read more stories.

For Kaylee Welsh, receiving a Belcourt Brosseau Métis Award (BBMA) was more than just financial support for university—it was a key step on her journey to discover her family’s culture and history.

Kaylee, who is pursuing a dual degree in chemistry and business management at Concordia University in Edmonton, Alta., was selected as a recipient of the scholarship award in 2019.

The BBMAs, which have been supported by Syncrude since 2007, were created in 2001 by Orval Belcourt, Dr. Herb Belcourt and Georges Brosseau to help Métis Albertans realize self-sufficiency through post-secondary education and skills development. So far, the BBMAs have provided over $11 million in funding to over 1,500 Métis students, making it the largest non-government source of funding for Métis students in Canada.

“My connection to my local Métis community is very important to me,” says Kaylee. “Being able to receive this award and attend the ceremony where I received a sash and blessings from an Elder were really powerful. It helped connect me to my roots even more and embrace my culture as a Métis person.”

In addition to receiving a BBMA, Kaylee also secured a work placement with the Métis Nation of Alberta, which gave her hands-on experience with Métis heritage.

“I found learning about the history of Métis people in Canada one of the most interesting aspects of my work placement,” explains Kaylee. “Learning about Métis traditional land claims and why we have them was eye-opening.”

While Kaylee’s connection to her Métis roots may be new, it was present in her creative expression for some time. Growing up, she spent many hours beading with her grandmother in Fort McMurray, Alta. After several years of receiving compliments on her beadwork, she launched her own business, Connections Beadwork, selling traditional Métis beadwork with a modern twist.

Creating accessories from sparkling earrings to pop sockets for cell phones and various other crafts, Kaylee’s beading highlights the beauty of this traditional artwork. And the response has been overwhelmingly positive, allowing her to attend her first craft market as a small business owner. Kaylee says balancing her time between school and the business has been tough; however, seeing the positive response makes it all worth it.

Kaylee’s story, and that of many more inspiring Indigenous People from northern Alberta to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador and places in between, can be found in the 2022 edition of Pathways magazine. Visit our Pathways magazine page to read more.

Originally published on The Nielsen Foundation

The Nielsen Foundation envisions a more equitable world where everyone counts and everyone has opportunities to succeed. Our mission is to support organizations that give voice and opportunities to historically under-represented groups and communities.

To advance this mission, the Nielsen Foundation provided more than $2.0 million in grants to 53 nonprofit organizations in 2022 across our priority areas of representation in media and technology, educational access and persistence, and economic mobility and well-being. This included:

$1.19 million in Community Grants to 44 organizations strengthening diverse communities across the United States through education, economic mobility, and media and technology programs$522,500 in continued support for Discover Data and the TechDiversity Accelerator, our two Signature Programs promoting data education and economic mobility$250,000 in Data for Good grants to support organizations using data in innovative ways to advance representation in media and technology$64,000+ in Volunteer Grants across more than 1,000 Cause Cards from Nielsen employees who logged 12+ volunteer hours in a quarter and/or recently joined the company

Advancing representation in media & technology

Through the 2022 Data for Good Grants Program, we funded five creative projects using data to drive greater representation in media and technology. Grantees include: Ghetto Film School, Pathos Labs, The Trevor Project, The USC Norman Lear Center Media Impact Project and Wiki Education Foundation.We supported Inevitable Foundation in publishing the first-of-its-kind Cost of Accommodations Report, providing a roadmap for talent and producers to create more equitable working environments for disabled talent in writers’ rooms and on set.We provided continued support to grow and develop diverse students and leaders building careers in the media industry, in collaboration with the International Radio and Television Society (IRTS) Foundation, National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Leadership Foundation, and the Advertising Research Foundation’s WIDE initiative.

Encouraging educational access & persistence

The Discover Data education initiative, a collaboration with Discovery Education and the National AfterSchool Association, has reached approximately ~772,000 students to date with resources to improve student learning with data and interest in data careers. In 2022, Discover Data added curriculum on timely topics including social media and environmental justice, added Spanish language resources, and launched a new Q&A tool for students to connect with data experts.Our three-year grant to Teach For America continued to support the next generation of equity-oriented education leaders. Through the grant, TFA is developing a more rigorous, holistic evaluation process to directly assess the skills and experiences that enable a positive impact on students,

Promoting economic mobility & well-being

We expanded our support through a new multi-year grant for the TechDiversity Accelerator at Tampa Bay Wave, which promotes diversity and inclusion in the tech startup industry. Since 2018, cohort companies from across multiple countries have raised an average of $3.1M more and added 9 more jobs, compared to startups in other accelerator programs.Through our support of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) since 2020, direct relief grants and capacity building programs reached approximately 823 Black-owned small businesses. The grant supports organizations that have limited access to traditional business financing in historically disinvested neighborhoods in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and the Twin Cities.In 2021 and 2022, Year Up served thousands of students nationwide. Our three-year grant to Year Up continued to connect young adults with living wage careers through an evolving menu of new, innovative program models that have reached approximately 1,200 young adults over the past two years.

View the summary here to learn more about the Nielsen Foundation’s 2022 grantmaking.

Wesco has been named to the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) for the fifth consecutive year. The GEI serves as a touchstone for companies seeking to track their progress in gender inclusion and how the implementation of diversity policies shape company performance across five pillars, including female leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and pro-women brand.

Companies included in the index scored at or above a global threshold established by Bloomberg to reflect disclosure and the achievement or adoption of best-in-class statistics and policies. Wesco was one of 484 companies in the United States and one of 20 industrial companies included in the index this year.

John Engel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Wesco, said, “An inclusive and diverse work environment is essential to our ongoing business success. We value the unique talents, perspectives and experiences that our 20,000 associates around the world bring to work each and every day. We are very pleased that Wesco has again been recognized for our efforts in advancing gender equality by being named to Bloomberg’s distinguished index for the fifth consecutive year.”

To learn more about Wesco’s commitments to Inclusion and Diversity, click here.

“We don’t hire people to bake brownies. We bake brownies to hire people.”

Greyston, a for-profit benefit corporation, is committed to unlocking the power of human potential through inclusive employment, one person at a time. Founder Bernie Glassman built Greyston bakery to hire people who faced barriers to employment. His solution was simple: Anyone with a desire to work would be added to a list and called when there was a position available. No interviews, no background checks, and no resumes required.

More than 40 years later, Greyston has benefited thousands of workers, their families, and communities through open hiring. And the company isn’t stopping there. Its new ten-year vision is to impact 100,000 people by helping other organizations implement inclusive hiring practices.

We invited Joseph Kenner, President and CEO, to speak to the present and future of Greyston and how inclusive hiring can benefit your organization.

Listen for insights on:

Why open and inclusive hiring won’t compromise professionalism and efficiencyOrganizations that have successfully adopted open and inclusive hiring practicesThe business impact of open and inclusive hiring

To listen to this episode and others, visit Purpose 360 Podcast.

250-MW plant now online in Navarro County, TexasThree companies purchased output under 15-year VPPAs

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 14, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions (DESS), a nonregulated commercial brand of Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), is now operating its largest solar power plant ever – the 250-megawatt (MW) Pisgah Ridge Solar project in Navarro County, Texas.

“We’re excited to continue to grow our Texas solar portfolio,” said Chris Fallon, president of Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions. “This project demonstrates how we can continue to expand our renewable energy resources while providing unique sustainability solutions for commercial customers.”

Charles River Laboratories International Inc., a leading provider of critical research tools and integrated support services that enable innovative and efficient drug discovery and development, has a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) for 102 MW of the project over the next 15 years.

This commitment will address the entirety of the company’s North American electric power load with clean, renewable energy by 2023.

“Charles River has committed to sourcing 100% of our global electricity needs through renewable sources by 2030,” said Gregg Belardo, executive director of EHS & sustainability at Charles River. “Our VPPA with DESS provides coverage for our North American facilities and moves us significantly closer to that global goal. We are proud to partner with Duke Energy and are excited that Pisgah Ridge is now online.”

Midwest retailer Meijer signed a separate 15-year VPPA agreement for 83 MW of solar energy generated by the Pisgah Ridge Solar project. One other company has a third 15-year VPPA agreement. Together, the three agreements account for more than 90% of the facility’s output.

All three VPPAs associated with the site will settle on an as-generated basis tied to the project’s real-time energy output.

“Lessening our impact on the environment through a continued commitment in reducing carbon emissions is an issue that is important to us and our customers,” said Erik Petrovskis, director of environmental compliance and sustainability at Meijer. “We’ve made significant progress over the years, but this project with Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions puts us on the right path to making an even bigger impact.”

The engineering and construction for the project was performed by Moss, while Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions will own and operate the project.

Currently, the company operates nearly 1,500 MW of wind, 750 MW of solar and a 36-MW battery storage facility in Texas.

The project employed around 300 workers at peak construction. Along with indirect economic benefits that accompany solar project development, such as increased local spending in the service and construction industries, the Pisgah Ridge Solar facility will also have a positive economic impact on the local community by providing significant tax revenues for the Corsicana Independent School District.

Helping the Community

The Duke Energy Foundation has given the city of Richland, Texas, in Navarro County, a $50,000 DESS grant to support the revitalization of Richland Community Park. The grant was used to replace existing playground equipment with a new playscape and park benches and enhance landscaping around the new equipment.

The Foundation also awarded two grants to the Richland Volunteer Fire Department totaling $37,000 to help the department maintain the critical safety services it provides to local businesses and residents in Richland, Texas, and surrounding Navarro County.

Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions

Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions is a leader in sustainable energy, helping large enterprises reduce power costs, lower emissions and increase resiliency. The team provides wind, solar, resilient backup power and managed energy services to over 1,000 projects across the U.S., with a total electric capacity of more than 5,100 megawatts of nonregulated renewable energy.

Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions is a nonregulated commercial brand of Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company and one of the largest energy holding companies in the U.S., headquartered in Charlotte, N.C.

The brand includes the following subsidiaries of Duke Energy Corporation that are registered to transact business in various states and may be branded as Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions for marketing purposes: Duke Energy One, Inc.; Duke Energy Commercial Enterprises, Inc.; Duke Energy Renewables, Inc.; Duke Energy Renewables Commercial, LLC; Duke Energy Renewable Services, LLC.; Duke Energy Renewables Storage, LLC; Duke Energy Renewables Wind, LLC.; Duke Energy Renewables Solar, LLC.; and REC Solar Commercial Corporation.

# # #

Contact: Randy Wheeless 
24-Hour: 800.559.3853 
Twitter: @DE_RandyW

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Today’s energy-intensive processes are looking to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, including machine learning (ML), to help deliver smart automation capabilities needed to decrease machine downtime, expand asset utilization, and unlock immediate insights into real-time process optimization.

Organizations with a “digital-first” mindset understand the potential ML offers to vastly increase daily decision-making accuracy, speed, and flexibility. According to a recent study, 84% of C-suite executives believe AI is necessary to achieve their growth objectives, yet 74% concede that significant barriers to implementation exist.

Core constraints to building automated analytics into automation and control applications are a lack of access to technical skills, diversity in domain expertise, and deployment tools.

Numerous organizations, including Schneider Electric™, have found that a fundamental enabler of successful and ground-breaking ML deployment is to team up with expert outside partners. Dynamic collaborations can significantly enhance the skills and abilities of cross-functional and interdisciplinary teams. Such cooperation is the core philosophy behind our Partnerships of the Future program, an initiative designed to develop mutually beneficial professional relationships to speed innovation and generate superior business outcomes for customers and partners alike.

A collaborative approach to digital development strategy pays off

With valuable input from specialists at Alkhorayef Petroleum, Schneider Electric was able to develop edge analytics-enabled AI capabilities into the EcoStruxure™ Autonomous Production Advisor platform for oil and gas production facilities. It’s one example of the several successful digital co-innovation efforts Schneider is currently executing across multiple industrial segments. The goal of both partners was to build an AI-based solution incorporating ML and pattern recognition models that could detect anomalies in the Oil and Gas extraction process and positively impact several key challenges, including:

Harnessing and replicating the insights and expertise of the most proficient well operators so their abilities could be automated and deployed across a broader range of production conditions.Actively managing equipment lifecycles to optimize well intervention schedules and generate maximum value from the physical asset base.Monitoring and reacting to downhole conditions in real-time to optimize petroleum production, reduce unplanned downtime, maximize oil volumes, and improve safety.

Because traditional automation architectures and strategies wouldn’t deliver the required capabilities, particularly for remote oil and gas wells, a new cooperative development approach was undertaken. Together, the team was able to leverage Schneider’s expertise in IIoT-enabled control systems and AI-based process optimization with Alkhorayef Petroleum’s knowledge and expertise of electrical submersible pumps to create novel techniques to capture and automate expert knowledge.

Cloud computing and edge analytics combined

EcoStruxure Autonomous Production Advisor merges the power and flexibility of cloud and edge computing with the value-generating capabilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning. In conjunction with remote terminal units (RTUs), the platform runs on industrial-grade edge controllers that combine supervised and unsupervised ML models running directly at the edge.

Replicating the actions of highly skilled human operators, the AI monitors the pump operation, assesses production variables, and analyzes the interactions and relationships between them, to identify anomalous operations. As a next step, the AI model classifies the detected anomalous events (such as sand intrusion, interfering gas, or mechanical problems) as specific issues. Continuous validation of the AI model’s event classifications by operators and experts helps to retrain the model, developing increasingly accurate diagnostic and predictive abilities.

The implementation of machine learning models in industrial applications forms an exciting new area because they can be trained to optimize operations and asset performance in a variety of important areas, such as:

Identification of asset deteriorationEarly detection of abnormal behaviorPrediction of equipment failure and smart alarmingAsset performance management (digital twin)

An additional benefit of AI models is that such a solution can be trained for image recognition, enabling it to be an automation aid for several applications, including:

Product qualityMan down and intrusion detection and alarmingLeakage detection and contactless flow measurementMachine vision and object and shape detection

Vendor-agnostic hardware enables the platform to be deployed to existing architectures without requiring significant modifications.

Co-innovation delivers tangible results

In offshore and onshore wells in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, the EcoStruxure Autonomous Production Advisor model training process has proven to be very effective at capturing the skills and expertise of the most senior operators and having the system automate and reproduce them. In one use case run by Schneider Electric, the customer reported a 13% increase in production and a 33% reduction in energy consumption.

Innovation isn’t just about technology; there’s no “one size fits all” strategy for partnering to invent new solutions that deliver major dividends. Success depends on nurturing conditions for a dynamic, mutually beneficial partnership. With a depth of co-innovation experience unrivaled in the smart control systems and process automation space, Schneider Electric is ready to work with true partners looking to overcome our greatest challenges.

Click to learn more about EcoStruxure™ Autonomous Production Advisor and Alkhorayef Petroleum.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Comcast’s award-winning Lift Zones program provides free WiFi and digital resources in more than 1,250 neighborhood community centers nationwide.The Sanneh Foundation’s Conway Center – which offers students supervised online schooling and learning support – was the first Lift Zone.Lift Zones are part of Project UP, Comcast’s $1 billion commitment to advance digital equity and help build a future of unlimited possibilities.

At the height of the pandemic, Comcast began its Lift Zone program so that more students, who were unable to participate in remote education at home, could access free WiFi inside neighborhood community centers.

In the Twin Cities area, we partnered with The Sanneh Foundation, an organization that for more than 20 years has empowered youth through educational after-school and summer programming, to install free WiFi at its Conway Center in 2020. It was Comcast’s first Lift Zone in the country.

Later, in 2021, after The Sanneh Foundation suffered a devastating fire that forced it to shut down, our teams worked quickly to install free WiFi at a second location so that the families and students could continue to stay connected. This new location, The Sanneh Foundation’s Seton Center, also marked the 1,000th Lift Zone milestone for our program.

Partnerships with community-based organizations are at the heart of our work to advance digital equity and to help create a world of unlimited possibilities through our $1 billion initiative, Project UP. Even though nearly all schools have now returned to in-person classes, there remains a need for community learning spaces with free WiFi where people can learn digital skills or even get one-on-one technical support or instruction.

That’s why we’re going even further to help by funding an AmeriCorps Community Technology Empowerment Program (CTEP) member at The Sanneh Foundation. This trusted, local resource – called a digital navigator – will expand the scope of digital literacy skills classes offered to youth, help seniors connect with loved ones, and assist community residents with job searches and application submissions.

Thanks to this support from Comcast, students will be able to increase their computer skills that lead to higher paying jobs and careers in technology, and the digital navigator will be available to senior community members who are looking for basic instruction on how to set up computers, create email accounts or even connect with their grandchildren.

TONY SANNEH

Founder and CEO, The Sanneh Foundation

In addition, we are supporting the St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), the local Twin Cities organization that manages AmeriCorps’ CTEP, by providing funding for operations and member support. This builds on our nationwide effort to create and scale a network of digital navigators who are trained to help people learn how to get online, use devices, and acquire digital skills.

Digital navigators are critical to closing the digital divide and reducing socioeconomic inequalities. A Comcast-supported study by the Boston Consulting Group found that with the support of these digital case workers, Internet usage climbed significantly, access to basic needs like healthcare increased, and 1 in 3 users found a new job or earned a higher income.

The need for connectivity has never been greater. By working with partners like The Sanneh Foundation and SPNN to expand broadband adoption, we can help close the homework gap, advance economic mobility, and achieve digital equity.

KALYN HOVE

Regional Senior Vice President, Comcast Twin Cities Region

We know from years of experience that no single company, nonprofit, or government program is ever going to close the digital divide alone. At Comcast we therefore partner with thousands of local community-based organizations like The Sanneh Foundation and SPNN. We share a mutual and deep commitment to coalition building because working together, we know we can make sustainable and meaningful change.

Broderick Johnson is Executive Vice President, Public Policy & Executive Vice President, Digital Equity.

Lift Zones and digital navigator programs, as well as partnerships with organizations such as The Sanneh Foundation and SPNN are part of Project UP.