An employee-led idea the help remove waste from the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is delivering visible results.
Operating around the clock, the trash skimmers have removed thousands of pounds of waste and debris from the harbor in two years.
By helping clean the water, the trash skimmers are benefiting wildlife and the broader port community at one of the nation’s busiest seaports.
What began as an idea from employees at Marathon Pipe Line’s (MPL) Long Beach Terminal 2 facility to help reduce trash and litter in the harbor has become a proven success story. Two years after the local team installed two electric trash skimmers at the Port of Long Beach, the program continues to deliver measurable results for one of the nation’s busiest seaports and the surrounding waterways.
Since launching in May 2024, the skimmers have removed nearly 14,000 pounds of trash from the water, roughly the weight of an adult African elephant. The devices have also filtered nearly 50 million gallons of water, equivalent to more than 75 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
“It’s incredible to see what this program has accomplished in just two short years,” said Tim Hayes, MPL’s Operations Director for the Pacific West Region, whose local team manages the effort. “What started as a simple idea has grown into something that’s making a visible difference in the harbor every day, and we’re all very proud of that at Marathon.”
“Together, we are building the Port of the Future – a clean, efficient, zero-emissions port that proves to the world we can create jobs, serve the community and operate sustainably.”
The skimmers operate around the clock, collecting floating debris before it can spread throughout the harbor or pose a threat to marine wildlife. By removing trash from the water, the program helps create a cleaner environment for birds, fish and other species that depend on the harbor. While the skimmers are located at Marathon’s Terminal 2 facility, they help remove debris from a shared waterway that supports numerous businesses, vessels and communities throughout the region.
The program has also strengthened Marathon’s collaboration with the Port of Long Beach, which supports the effort by helping facilitate debris disposal.
“We thank Marathon for partnering with us to reduce operational impacts on more than 1,000 species of marine life thriving in the San Pedro Bay,” said Port of Long Beach CEO Dr. Noel Hacegaba. “Together, we are building the Port of the Future – a clean, efficient, zero-emissions port that proves to the world we can create jobs, serve the community and operate sustainably.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 14, 2026 /3BL/ – Truist Financial Corporation (NYSE: TFC) today announced that its Small BusinessOnline and Mobile Banking platforms earned the No. 1 overall rank by Barlow Research, a leading financial services market research firm.
The recognition highlights Truist’s continued investment in digital banking capabilities for small businesses, including tools that improve cash flow visibility, enhance security, and simplify payments. According to Barlow Research, Truist moved up three positions in Online Banking—from No. 4 in 2025 to No. 1 overall—while earning recognition for functionality and features that are most important to small businesses.
Barlow Research recognized Truist as a leader across several critical categories:
Online Banking: account security and fraud protection, cash flow management, and card management.
Mobile Banking: security and profile management, cash flow management, receiving payments, and card management.
“Small businesses deserve digital banking experiences that match their ambition,” said Sherry Graziano, head of digital, client experience and marketing at Truist. “This recognition reflects our investments to simplify financial management, strengthen security, and give business owners confidence and control so they can spend more time growing, serving, and creating opportunities.”
“Earning the No. 1 ranking in both Online and Mobile Banking demonstrates how we’re delivering experiences that are both digitally empowering and deeply relational,” said Claudia Davis Adamson, head of small business banking at Truist. “By combining intuitive digital capabilities with strong client relationships, we’re helping small business owners manage their finances more effectively and scale with confidence.”
Truist serves approximately 1.2 million small business clients and continues to invest in digital tools, online banking, and mobile banking solutions that help business owners run and manage their operations.
Truist Financial Corporation is a purpose-driven financial services company committed to inspiring and building better lives and communities. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Truist has leading market share in many of the high-growth markets in the U.S. and offers a wide range of products and services through wholesale and consumer businesses, including consumer and small business banking, commercial and corporate banking, investment banking and capital markets, wealth management, payments, and specialized lending businesses. Truist is a top 10 commercial bank with $549 billion as of March 31, 2026. Truist Bank, Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. Learn more at Truist.com.
Responsible purchasing practices (RPP) are not just a “nice to have” in the textile industry — they are where climate ambition succeeds or fails in practice.
When buyers cancel orders, push down prices, change timelines, or create volatility, the impacts ripple through supply chains in ways that undermine labor rights and environmental outcomes.
Recent U.S. tariff disruptions show what happens when commercial risk is pushed down the supply chain.
An investigation earlier this year found that paused orders and cancelled purchases following new U.S. import tariffs contributed to labor risks in garment factories, as suppliers operating on already low margins struggled to absorb sudden cost shocks. These are not isolated side effects of market disruption — they are predictable outcomes when commercial risk is pushed down the supply chain.
Volatility is not the issue. Risk transfer is.
Commercial strain weakens supplier resilience — and resilience is essential to climate action. Better Buying’s supplier-reported data consistently shows that when pressures build, suppliers have less room to absorb shocks, less ability to plan, and less capacity to invest in the operational improvements that climate progress requires.
But here’s the good news: where there’s an impact, there is potential to influence.
This is the part often missing from climate conversations: suppliers cannot decarbonize in unstable commercial environments. Commercial predictability changes the game. Because when factories are managing last-minute changes, reduced margins, delayed payments, or unpredictable order volumes, they are not operating from a position of resilience. That’s a position of reactivity. And resilience is what makes long-term investments in cleaner production, efficiency, and emissions reductions possible.
The problem is not disruption itself, but how buyers anticipate it. When buyers respond to uncertainty by changing terms, cutting prices, or cancelling orders at short notice, the burden of adaptation falls on suppliers and workers, and climate progress becomes harder to sustain.
RPP challenges the characteristic race to the bottom that has long shaped the apparel industry.
It links climate ambition to real economic decisions. Climate strategies are harder to deliver if purchasing teams are incentivized to prioritize short-term cost savings over long-term stability. Fair terms, predictable planning, realistic timelines, and consistent communication are not sustainability add-ons — they are the commercial conditions that make decarbonization possible.
Tariff uncertainty makes the case even clearer. As further trade disruption looks likely, buyers will either reinforce or undermine supplier resilience. Embedding RPP now is one of the most direct ways companies can protect workers, stabilize supply chains, and support long-term climate goals.
Responsible purchasing practices are a critical part of building more resilient supply chains — and supplier feedback is essential to understanding where change is needed.
Explore Cascale’s Better Buying to learn how supplier insights are helping companies strengthen purchasing practices and support more resilient supply chains.
Katie Hess is head of product at Cascale Better Buying
The report traces the evolution of social impact from its roots in the English Poor Law of 1601 through key historical friction points. It evaluates how corporate giving moved from legal uncertainty during World War I—the first large-scale wave of coordinated corporate donations to organizations like the Red Cross and YMCA—to formal validation under the Revenue Act of 1935. The study also analyzes how the sector matured despite intellectual resistance, such as Milton Friedman’s landmark 1970 essay rejecting CSR in favor of pure shareholder returns. And it also looks at how businesses repeatedly mobilized resources to drive tangible community impact during national crises, including the $2.8 billion corporate response following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
“Looking back at the historical milestones of American philanthropy reminds us that corporate community investment is not a modern add-on, but a core element woven into the fabric of our economic system,” said Leah Battin, Manager, Strategic Advisory, CECP. “As we navigate rapid technological change and shifting workforce expectations, companies have both a distinct advantage and a clear responsibility to align their community investments with a deeper corporate purpose. True innovation happens when business goals and community resilience advance together.”
Data analyzed within the report from Giving USA, Blackbaud, CECP, and the IRS highlights the massive growth and institutionalization of the social impact ecosystem. Key findings show:
Sector Growth: The U.S. nonprofit sector has expanded exponentially, growing from just over 82,000 501(c)(3) charitable organizations in 1975 to nearly 1.55 million in 2024.
Corporate Giving Durability: According to Giving USA 2025 data, corporate contributions reached US$44.4 billion in 2024. While individual giving dropped from 80% of total contributions in 1984 to 67% in 2024, corporations have consistently accounted for 5% to 7% of total giving over the last 40 years.
Meeting the Moment: Long-term data from CECP’s 20-year matched-set of companies reveals that median Total Community Investment (TCI) grew from US$98.3 million in 2005 to $120.2 M in 2024. Intermittent spikes—such as a jump to US$174.7 million in 2020—demonstrate that corporate giving regularly rises to meet changing moments of economic, political, and social dynamics.
The Matching Gift Standard: Highlighting the deep integration of workplace giving, the report notes that since the GE Foundation launched the first 1:1 corporate matching-gift program in 1954, the benefit has become a standard practice, offered by 93% of companies by 2024. According to CECP’s Giving in Numbers® data, the median total community investment per company sits at US$21.5 million.
“Overtime, the right technology turns manual, localized giving into scalable, data-driven global impact,” said Dale Strange, president, Corporate Impact, Blackbaud. “By utilizing automated matching-gift platforms and digital grants management, companies are streamlining their operations and removing barriers to employee engagement. This technological shift not only clarifies success metrics for corporate leaders but also provides nonprofit partners with the efficient, transparent support necessary to address modern societal needs.”
Looking ahead, the report notes that contemporary CSR is increasingly shaped by technology and employee choice. Case studies featured in the report illustrate how modern enterprises leverage digital grants management and workplace giving platforms to streamline global impact, automate matching gifts, and capture clearer data metrics.
As workforce trends shift, future strategies must balance digital enablement with an authentic employee voice. With 71% of Americans believing it is vital for the country to provide opportunities for prosperous lives, but only 19% believing it does so effectively, the report concludes that integrated corporate purpose will remain paramount to building healthy, resilient communities over the next decade.
The full report, featuring historical milestones, data trends, and future-looking insights from CSR leaders, is available for download here.
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About Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP)
Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose® (CECP) is the only nonpartisan business counsel and network dedicated to driving measurable returns on purpose. We promote responsible purpose-driven business as it increases customer loyalty, builds employee engagement, improves brand trust, attracts top talent, connects with strategic investors, and contributes to the bottom line.
More than 200 of the world’s leading companies seek to improve their return on purpose through access to CECP’s solutions in insights and benchmarking. With our companies, we harness the power of purpose for business, stakeholders, and society.
The 30th annual American Chemical Society Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference gathered educators, students, and industry professionals in San Antonio with a shared goal: advancing sustainability in chemistry and reducing the environmental impact of science. As a champion of both efforts, MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, supported the conference as a sponsor, with experts contributing to and leading sessions. Company experts also shared practical insights on the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and related sustainability topics.
This included a focus on science communication, helping attendees understand why it matters and how to do it effectively. Supporting the annual student and postdoc workshop, Jeffrey Whitford, Vice President of Sustainability & Social Business Innovation at MilliporeSigma, shared insights shaped by more than 20 years of experience in science communication and sustainability, to nearly 100 attendees.
In the first session, “From Bench to Breakthrough: The Art and Science of Communicating Chemistry,” Whitford and workshop participants explored the fundamentals of effective science communication, analyzed real-world case studies and practiced their skills through mock media interviews. In the second session, “Crafting an Authentic, Credible and Standout (ACS) Personal Brand as a Research Chemist,” Whitford examined MilliporeSigma’s branding evolution, how the organization externally reframed sustainability as a business strategy, helped attendees identify their own personal brands and conducted an exercise to update their LinkedIn profiles.
Throughout both sessions, Whitford emphasized why communication is more important than ever in science: if scientific discoveries are not communicated effectively, they may not be understood, delaying action and impact. Through a mix of educational and hands-on activities, attendees left better equipped to serve as advocates for science and Green Chemistry.
AMSTERDAM, HONG KONG, OAKLAND, Calif., July 14, 2026 /3BL/ – The apparel alliance (Apparel Impact Institute, Cascale, Textile Exchange, and ZDHC Foundation) today announced the launch of Version 2 of the Supply Chain Taxonomy, an updated harmonized framework designed to improve consistency, transparency, and collaboration across the textile, clothing, leather, and footwear (TCLF) sectors of the broader apparel industry.
“Shared definitions are not just administrative; they help the industry make better decisions, improve data quality, and work from the same understanding of the supply chain. Clarifying that wet processing is accounted for across all tiers, not just Tier 2, gives the industry a more accurate picture of where emissions sit and where action is needed most.” — Alma Palacios, senior sustainability reporting coordinator at Aii
“When facilities, products, and processes are classified consistently, the whole industry benefits, from more reliable data and clearer reporting to stronger collaboration on the work that matters most. The updated Supply Chain Taxonomy is foundational infrastructure for a more aligned and effective sustainability ecosystem. It reflects what’s possible when organizations commit to alignment, and we’re confident it will support more effective progress across the value chain.” — Joël Mertens, director of environmental impact methodologies at Cascale
“Aligning on a shared language for the supply chain is fundamental to driving credible, system-wide progress. This updated taxonomy helps bring greater clarity and consistency to how materials, processes, and impacts are understood and reported, enabling more effective collaboration and accelerating the industry’s transition to preferred production systems.”— Luca Mosca, director of impact data and reporting at Textile Exchange
“No single organisation can drive industry transformation alone. Shared language is a crucial foundation to enable collaboration within the ecosystem of like-minded partners. Bringing more depth to the Supply Chain Taxonomy with this new update strengthens the common foundation of the apparel alliance to enhance clarity for the wider value chain actors as well as unlock new opportunities to create a more interoperable system.” — Maria Arroyo, sector partnership lead at ZDHC
Building on its initial release in November 2024, the updated taxonomy addresses key challenges in the original framework, including overlapping processes, undefined boundaries, and classification gaps. The result is a clearer, more detailed structure that supports consistent classifications across the TCLF value chain and future alignment across apparel alliance work and joint initiatives.
The Supply Chain Taxonomy supports the apparel industry by:
Creating a shared framework and common language across stakeholders.
Improving transparency and reporting through more consistent disclosures and supply chain visibility.
Supporting compliance and risk management through clearer process ownership and environmental boundaries.
Reducing duplication and aligning efforts across organizations.
Enabling better benchmarking and supporting collective sustainability initiatives.
The Supply Chain Taxonomy is a jointly developed and maintained resource of the apparel alliance organizations (Apparel Impact Institute, Cascale, Textile Exchange, and ZDHC). Designed as an evolving framework, planned annual updates reflect stakeholder feedback, emerging materials and technologies, and ongoing regulatory and industry developments. While not exhaustive, the taxonomy provides a practical foundation for classifying the most common processes and products across the value chain.
ABOUT THE apparel alliance The apparel alliance is a collaborative industry working group uniting four global organizations: Apparel Impact Institute, Cascale, Textile Exchange, and ZDHC Foundation. Since its inception in 2020, the apparel alliance has worked to align sustainability tools, programs, and industry initiatives while reducing duplicative efforts across the apparel and textile sector. By combining complementary expertise, global networks, and shared goals, the apparel alliance aims to accelerate industry decarbonization and achieve a minimum 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 across the global supply chain.
ABOUT Aii Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) is a nonprofit collective founded in 2017 by four industry leaders: the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) and Target Corporation. The organization emerged organically as a result of a real need that apparel brands and retailers self-identified. Gap Inc., PVH, Arvind Mills, HSBC, GIZ, Stichting Doen and Schmidt Family Foundation joined the founders in the first three years of start-up and organizational development. Aii identifies, funds, and scales proven quality solutions to accelerate positive impact in the apparel and footwear industry. Aii programs focus on areas that result in positive environmental impact from the production of apparel and footwear products to improve the industry.
ABOUT CASCALE Cascale is the global nonprofit alliance driving systemic transformation to combat climate change and support decent work in the consumer goods industry. Formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Cascale unites a diverse, worldwide ecosystem of over 300 retailer, brand, manufacturer, supplier, service provider, government, academic, and nonprofit members.
Our alliance catalyzes pre-competitive collaboration for maximum impact, anchored by our stewardship of the Higg Index frameworks — implemented through the Worldly technology platform — and recent acquisition of the Better Buying and Sustainable Furnishings Council tools. While these methodologies are central to our work, they are part of a broader strategy to mobilize collective action, challenge industry norms, and build an industry that gives back more than it takes to the planet and its people.
ABOUT TEXTILE EXCHANGE Textile Exchange is a global non-profit driving beneficial impacts on climate and nature across the fashion, textile, and apparel industry. It guides a growing community of brands, manufacturers, and farmers towards more purposeful production from the very start of the supply chain.
Its goal is to help the industry to achieve a 45% reduction in the emissions that come from producing fibers and raw materials by 2030, while keeping its focus holistic and interconnected and seeking to improve the state of our freshwater, soil health, and biodiversity too.
For real change to happen, everyone needs a clear path to beneficial impact. That’s why Textile Exchange believes that approachable, step-by-step instruction paired with collective action can change the system to make preferred materials and fibers the accessible default, mobilizing leaders through attainable strategies, proven solutions and a driven community.
At Textile Exchange, materials matter. To learn more, visit TextileExchange.org.
ABOUT ZDHC The ZDHC Foundation oversees the implementation of the Roadmap to Zero Programme and is a global multi-stakeholder initiative of more than 350 Signatories within the fashion and footwear industry. Its vision is widespread implementation of sustainable chemistry, driving innovations and best practices to protect consumers, workers, and the environment. ZDHC uses collaborative engagement to drive a holistic, industry-focused and practical approach to sustainable chemical management. ZDHC guidelines, platforms and solutions drive large-scale industry-wide implementation that advances the industry as a whole towards the zero discharge of hazardous chemicals.
Cleft lips and cleft palates affect far more than a child’s appearance. They can impact feeding, nutrition, speech, hearing, dental development, emotional wellbeing, and long-term healthcare from the moment a child is born.
Comprehensive cleft care is coordinated treatment provided by a multidisciplinary cleft team from infancy through adulthood. Depending on a patient’s needs, this care may include feeding and nutrition support, cleft surgery, speech therapy, dental and orthodontic treatment, hearing care, and psychosocial support. Together, these services help people with clefts eat, speak, hear, smile, and thrive.
What Treatments Are Involved in Comprehensive Cleft Care?
Comprehensive cleft care is not a series of isolated interventions. Around the world, cleft experts recognize multidisciplinary team care as the gold standard for treating cleft lips and palates because it is an integrated, multidisciplinary approach where each specialty strengthens the next, creating a continuum of care that supports children throughout every stage of life.
Major areas of comprehensive cleft care include:
Feeding and nutrition support for newborns
Safe cleft surgery
Speech-language therapy
Orthodontic and dental treatment
Ear and hearing care
Emotional and psychosocial support
These services are most effective when they are coordinated through a multidisciplinary cleft team. For example, good nutrition can help prepare a child for surgery, surgery can improve speech outcomes, and hearing care can support language development. Comprehensive cleft care recognizes that each stage of treatment influences the next.
How Long Does Cleft Lip and Palate Treatment Last?
Cleft treatment often extends across many years and may continue into adolescence or adulthood. While every patient is unique, many people with clefts receive care at multiple stages of life as their needs evolve.
Feeding and Nutrition Support for Babies with Clefts
Cleft-related feeding challenges can make it difficult for infants to receive the nourishment they need to grow and thrive, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where access to specialized support may be limited. That’s why feeding support is often the first cleft intervention a baby receives and may begin within days of birth.
A 2022 peer-reviewed study commissioned by Smile Train in partnership with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation found that more than 45,000 children under the age of five died from cleft-related malnutrition between 2000 and 2020.
By expanding access to early feeding interventions, nutrition counseling, and specialized support, Smile Train helps local multidisciplinary cleft care teams address these challenges from the start — saving lives, improving surgical readiness, and laying the foundation for better long-term health outcomes.
Early feeding and nutrition support can help babies with clefts grow stronger and prepare for surgery
Smile Train empowers local nutritionists to help families navigate these early challenges through:
Breastfeeding and bottle-feeding guidance
Safe cup-feeding techniques
Specialized feeding equipment when needed
Nutritional monitoring and support
2025 Impact
25,500+ nutritional interventions supported across 35+ countries
A Warrior at Heart
At one month old, Mirian weighed just four pounds. Five months later, with the support of our local partners, she had transformed into a happy, chubby baby.
Surgery is a transformative milestone in the cleft treatment journey. It not only treats the cleft itself, it lays the foundation for other aspects of comprehensive cleft care to succeed.
Cleft palate surgery is particularly important. By closing the opening in the palate, it can improve feeding, support healthy growth and development, and enable other interventions — including speech therapy, dental and orthodontic care, and ear and hearing care — to be more effective.
Cleft surgery is just one facet of the comprehensive cleft care journey, and Paulwin’s smile reflects years of care and support
How Many Surgeries Do People With Clefts Need?
The number varies by individual. Some children may need only one or two surgeries, while others may require additional procedures. Common surgical milestones include:
Optimal Age
Procedure
3-6 months
Cleft lip surgery
9-18 months
Cleft palate surgery
7-9 years
Alveolar bone graft surgery
Adolescence through adulthood
Additional procedures as needed
While these milestones represent the ideal timeline for most children, it is never too late to seek treatment. Cleft surgery can meaningfully improve health, function, and quality of life at any age. Through Smile Train’s sustainable local model, children and adults alike can access the care they need, when and where it is right for them.
2025 Impact
94,400+ cleft surgeries supported across 75+ countries
Recipient of Our 2 Millionth Surgery Witnesses a Generational Transformation
For many children with clefts, learning to communicate clearly is one of the most time-intensive stages of the treatment journey. Structural differences in the lip and palate can affect how speech sounds are produced, making it more difficult to develop clear and understandable speech.
Children with clefts may experience:
Delayed speech and language development
Difficulty producing certain speech sounds
Hypernasal speech
Air escaping through the nose during speech
Voice and resonance challenges
Early access to nutrition support, surgery, and hearing care can help reduce some of these challenges. However, many children will still require ongoing speech therapy to develop the communication skills necessary to fully participate in school, relationships, and everyday life.
The impact of speech difficulties extends beyond communication. Children who struggle to make themselves understood may also face stigma, social isolation, bullying, and reduced self-confidence. That makes speech outcomes among the most important measures of long-term treatment success, and speech-language pathologists core members of multidisciplinary cleft teams.
Smile Train’s model recognizes this. By funding speech therapy for cleft-affected children in need while training speech-language professionals to deliver high-quality, cleft-specialized speech therapy in areas where it had never been available before, the organization is making sure this critical service is available to children now and well into the future.
Speech therapy is a vital part of comprehensive cleft care, supporting communication long after surgery
The Mentoring Alliance for Global Speech (MAGS) is an excellent example. This structured virtual mentorship program connects Smile Train partner mentors — from regional leaders and trainers to global experts in cleft speech therapy — with Smile Train partner mentees in low- and middle-income countries. These specialists work with cleft-affected patients every day but may not have access to specialized guidance on the more complex cases they encounter.
The MAGS program has trained over 150 speech-language professionals across 34 low- and middle-income countries in just four years, delivering more than 1,000 hours of mentorship to date.
Smile Train has also developed free speech therapy apps for families and providers and offers multilingual educational resources to help caregivers practice speech exercises at home.
Dental and Orthodontic Care for Children with Clefts
Children with clefts are more likely than their peers to experience oral health challenges such as:
Misaligned teeth
Missing or extra teeth
Delayed eruption of permanent teeth adjacent to the cleft
Tooth decay and gum disease
Jaw and bite irregularities
These issues are about more than appearance. Oral health plays a critical role in a child’s overall cleft care journey, influencing speech development, nutrition, readiness for future procedures, and confidence in social settings.
Because comprehensive cleft care is a connected system of support, dental and orthodontic specialists work alongside surgeons, speech therapists, nutritionists, and other providers to help children achieve the best possible outcomes. Each intervention strengthens the next, creating a foundation for lifelong health and overall well-being.
What Specialized Oral Health Care Do Children with Clefts Need?
Children with clefts often require specialized care that evolves as they grow. Smile Train’s local model allows patients to access the support they need close to home from infancy through adulthood.
This care may include:
Pre-surgical infant orthopedics, including nasoalveolar molding devices
Long-term orthopedic/orthodontic treatment
Preventive dental care
Ongoing oral health monitoring and follow-up
By investing in local expertise and long-term care, Smile Train helps strengthen oral health systems while ensuring children with clefts have access to the specialized treatment they need throughout their lives.
Specialized dental care supports lifelong oral health and strengthens the broader comprehensive cleft care journey
Advancing Oral Health Around the World
Expanding access to cleft-specialized dental and orthodontic care requires collaboration. Smile Train works alongside leading oral health organizations and advocates to build local capacity, share expertise, and advance standards of care globally.
Key partners include:
Dentsply Sirona, a global leader in professional dental technologies and education
Together, these partnerships help equip cleft teams with the tools, training, and resources needed to deliver high-quality care and create healthier futures for children around the world.
2025 Impact
25,700+ orthodontic interventions provided across 30+ countries
Dental Care for Those Who Need it Most
It broke Dr. Meza’s heart to see his patients with clefts struggle to eat, speak, sleep, or even feel good about themselves because of poor dental health. So he partnered with Smile Train to do something about it.
The ability to hear clearly is fundamental to how children learn, communicate, and connect with the world around them. For children with cleft palates, access to hearing and ear, nose, and throat (ENT) care is an especially important part of comprehensive cleft care.
How do clefts affect hearing?
Cleft palates can cause fluid buildup in the middle ear (otitis media with effusion), putting affected children at significantly higher risk of chronic ear infections and hearing loss. Without timely intervention, these challenges can affect speech development, educational outcomes, social connections, and overall well-being.
Because hearing is deeply connected to communication and learning, investing in hearing care helps create opportunities for children to reach important developmental milestones and participate fully in their communities.
Ear and hearing care helps children with clefts develop speech, language, and learning skills
What Specialized Ear and Hearing Care Do Children with Clefts Need?
Comprehensive cleft care addresses hearing health early and throughout childhood to help prevent long-term complications and support healthy development.
Smile Train’s local model empowers partner specialists to provide cleft-specific services such as:
Hearing evaluations and monitoring
ENT consultations
Ear tube placement procedures
Audiology support before and after cleft surgery
These interventions help identify challenges early, improve hearing outcomes, and support children’s ability to develop speech and language skills.
A Team-Based Approach To Better Outcomes
Hearing care does not happen in isolation. Audiologists and ENT specialists work closely with surgeons, speech therapists, psychologists, nutritionists, and other members of the multidisciplinary cleft care team to ensure every aspect of a child’s development is supported.
This collaborative approach reflects the core principle of comprehensive cleft care: when specialists work together, children receive more effective, coordinated care. By investing in multidisciplinary teams and strengthening local expertise, Smile Train is helping build healthcare systems that can support children with clefts throughout their lives — ensuring they have the opportunity to learn, communicate, and thrive.
2025 Impact
1,500+ hearing and ENT interventions provided across 9 countries
Destiny’s Journey from Silence to Song
A story of the miracles you make possible for World Hearing Day
Emotional and Psychosocial Support for Cleft-Affected Children and Families
Research shows that children with clefts and their families face higher rates of stigma, bullying, social isolation, anxiety, and depression. These experiences can affect confidence, relationships, educational outcomes, and overall quality of life.
That is why psychosocial support is a critical component of comprehensive cleft care. Just as surgeons help restore function and speech therapists help children find their voice, mental health professionals help children and families build resilience, confidence, and a sense of belonging.
Care Rooted in Trust
Support is most effective when it is delivered by people who understand the communities they serve.
Smile Train’s local model allows children and families to receive care from providers who share their language, culture, and lived experiences. The organization has built these trusted relationships over years to create a foundation of continuity and support that extends far beyond a single appointment or procedure.
When families know their care team will be there throughout their journey, they are more likely to seek support, remain engaged in treatment, and feel empowered to face challenges with confidence.
Creative programs, like art therapy, can help children with clefts and families build confidence, connection, and belonging
What Mental Health Resources Are Available To Children with Clefts and Their Families?
Smile Train supports a range of programs designed to strengthen emotional well-being, foster connection, and create supportive communities for children and caregivers, including:
Counseling and mental health services
Parent and caregiver support groups
Camps and peer connection programs
Art therapy and recreational activities
Online support communities
Together, these services help children develop confidence, build meaningful relationships, and see new possibilities for their future.
Healing is not measured only by surgical outcomes. It is also measured by a child’s ability to participate fully in school, connect with others, pursue their goals, and feel a sense of belonging in the world around them.
2025 Impact
1,300+ patients received psychosocial interventions across 8 countries
Monica’s Inner Strength Shows in Her Smile
Monica has been through more than any child should, but today she shines bright.
A cleft lip or palate cannot be fully treated in a single day or with a single surgery.
From feeding support in infancy to speech therapy, oral health treatments, ear and hearing care, and emotional support, children with clefts often require years of coordinated, interdisciplinary care.
Smile Train is helping make this vital comprehensive cleft care accessible, sustainable, and safe for children around the world through our local model and unparalleled global network of medical partners.
Because every child deserves access not only to surgery, but to the full spectrum of care needed to eat, speak, hear, smile, and thrive.
In this episode, host Angie Dickson (President Inogen Alliance) is joined by David Wiley (Tonkin + Taylor, New Zealand) and Sofiane Kessouar (Baden Consulting, Switzerland) to explore the growing importance of energy resilience for businesses operating in an increasingly complex global landscape. The discussion examines the challenges posed by rising energy costs, grid instability, climate change, decarbonisation pressures, and increasing demand driven by emerging technologies such as AI.
Drawing on perspectives from Europe, New Zealand, and global markets, the guests discuss how organisations can strengthen resilience through energy efficiency, distributed generation, renewable energy adoption, advanced storage technologies, and smarter energy management systems. The conversation highlights the need for organisations to balance sustainability ambitions with operational reliability while embracing innovations that improve both resilience and long-term profitability.
00:00:00 – Introduction: Why energy resilience matters
00:01:17 – Rising energy costs, climate impacts, and growing demand
00:02:54 – Europe’s energy transition and regional differences
00:05:42 – New Zealand’s renewable energy journey and emerging challenges
00:07:34 – Business risks and operational resilience
00:08:27 – Distributed generation and taking control of energy supply
00:09:31 – Regulatory considerations and ownership challenges
00:11:12 – Conservation and energy efficiency strategies
00:12:16 – Why there is no one-size-fits-all solution
00:14:24 – IoT, real-time monitoring, and demand-side management
00:16:32 – Emerging storage technologies and battery innovation
00:17:25 – Floating solar, waste heat recovery, and smart grids
00:18:56 – Decarbonisation goals versus operational requirements
00:21:54 – Community energy projects and local resilience initiatives
00:23:26 – Balancing sustainability, reliability, and cost
00:24:34 – Emerging technologies shaping the future of energy
00:25:14 – Battery innovation, virtual power plants, and AI-driven optimisation
00:28:38 – Heat pumps and energy efficiency opportunities
00:31:07 – Key trends and practical advice for organisations
00:33:14 – Closing reflections and future outlook
Guest Quotes
David Wiley:
“The cost of renewables is dropping much faster than most people realise, and the cost of battery storage is dropping at a pace that many clients don’t realise either.”
Sofiane Benhaddou:
“The biggest challenge is that there is absolutely no one-size-fits-all solution. You are dealing with a fragmented world.”
The race to build AI infrastructure is accelerating, but adding capacity is only part of the equation. As investment pours into new data centers around the world, industry leaders are increasingly recognizing that the biggest challenge isn’t demand; it’s coordinating the many systems required to bring projects online successfully.
In a new Fast Company Executive Board article, Glen Clark, CEO of DP World in the U.S. and Regional Head of Contract Logistics, argues that AI infrastructure has entered a new phase. Success now depends on synchronizing power, logistics, workforce, permitting, and equipment across multiple projects, rather than simply building individual facilities.
AI Infrastructure Is an Execution Challenge
As organizations scale AI deployments, project complexity is growing alongside demand. Bringing data centers online requires multiple interdependent systems to move in lockstep – from utility connections and specialized equipment to construction schedules and regulatory approvals.
Rather than isolated bottlenecks, leaders are managing a network of dependencies where delays in one area can ripple across entire deployment timelines.
Coordination Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
Today’s AI infrastructure projects depend on more than technology. Global logistics, energy availability, skilled labor, and community engagement all play a role in determining how quickly new capacity comes online.
Organizations that can better coordinate these moving pieces will be positioned to accelerate deployment while reducing schedule risk and improving operational resilience.
Read the Full Perspective
As AI investment continues to reshape global infrastructure, execution is becoming just as important as innovation.
GENEVA, July 14, 2026 /3BL/ –The Tire Industry Project (TIP) today announced that the Thailand Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (TATMA) has joined TIP as its ninth Affiliate Member, expanding TIP’s global reach into Southeast Asia, an important tire manufacturing region.
Affiliate Members support TIP in delivering on its mission to anticipate, understand, and address global environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues relevant to the tire industry and its value chain. The regional perspectives they bring are particularly important, strengthening TIP’s ability to monitor and anticipate global industry trends in Southeast Asia.
Thailand is strategically important to the tire industry’s sustainability efforts as the world’s second-largest tire-exporting country by volume. The country is also seeing a circular economy ecosystem emerge across the tire value chain, creating valuable opportunities for TIP and TATMA to exchange knowledge and insights around end-of-life tire (ELT) management and circularity topics. As the membership organization of tire manufacturers based in Thailand, TATMA’s work encompasses trade promotion and industry coordination, as well as ESG matters including quality standards, manufacturing practices, and environmental compliance.
“We are pleased to welcome TATMA to our network,” said TIP Executive Director Larisa Kryachkova. “The tire trade associations’ local insights inform our global sustainability-related activities. Through our expanding and diverse membership, we are strengthening our shared vision of a sustainable tire value chain.”
“We recognize TIP as the global platform for addressing key ESG challenges facing the tire industry, particularly in the areas of tire and road wear particles, ELT, and sustainable raw materials,” said Keeratisuda Khakhong, Secretary General of TATMA. “Through this partnership, we look forward to active knowledge exchange, sharing best practices, and engaging with global affiliates to support the tire industry toward a more sustainable future.”
TIP’s Affiliate Members are tire trade associations selected based on criteria including the economic significance and ESG footprint of the tire industry in their respective geographies. They include the Australian Tyre Industry Council (ATIC), the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association of India (ATMA), the British Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (BTMA), Tyres Europe, the Japan Automobile Tyre Manufacturers Association (JATMA), the Korea Tire Manufacturers Association (KOTMA), the Tire and Rubber Association of Canada (TRAC), and the United States Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA).
About the Tire Industry Project (TIP) Formed in 2005, TIP is a voluntary CEO-driven initiative with a mission to anticipate, understand and address global environmental, social and governance issues relevant to the tire industry and its value chain. TIP acts by commissioning independent research of the highest standards, collaborating on sectoral solutions and engaging with external stakeholders. TIP currently brings together 10 leading tire companies that represent more than 60% of the world’s tire manufacturing capacity. TIP operates under the umbrella of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
About the Thailand Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (TATMA) Thai Automobile Tyre Manufacturers Association (TATMA) is a non-profit association that aims to promote the automobile tire industry. It does so by formulating and informing policy measures and by conducting research to improve the safety and environmental and economic effectiveness of tires. TATMA supports the automobile industry’s contribution to the sound development of Thailand’s industry and economy and the improvement of consumers’ welfare. Its member companies include Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop (Sumitomo), Goodyear, Maxxis, Michelin, and Yokohama.
