Tag: 3BL

DP World in Ecuador is expanding its investment in local education with the launch of the Global Education Program, an initiative designed to strengthen opportunities for young people while introducing them to the world of trade and logistics.

Developed in partnership with Enseña Ecuador, part of the global Teach For All movement, the program will benefit over 150 students in their junior and senior years of high school from the Luis Fernando Vivero and Jorge Yunes Huesped public educational institutions in Posorja and El Morro.

Through a combination of educational resources, practical learning and employee mentorship, the program aims to help students build skills that can support their transition from school to higher education and the workforce.

Connecting Education With Employability

For young people preparing to take their next steps after high school, technical knowledge is only part of the equation. Communication, teamwork, leadership and the ability to navigate new professional environments can also play an important role in creating opportunities.

The Global Education Program is designed with those needs in mind. Students will participate in sessions focused on employability, leadership, teamwork, effective communication and socioemotional skills, providing opportunities to develop capabilities they can apply at school, in their communities and eventually in the workplace.

The program will also introduce participants to trade and logistics, helping students living in communities connected to DP World’s operations better understand the industry and the range of professional pathways within it.

Backed by an investment in educational resources and learning tools, the initiative combines classroom learning with practical experiences intended to support students’ personal and professional development.

DP World Employees Step Up as Mentors

DP World employees in Ecuador are central to the program’s approach.

Through employee volunteering, DP World team members will serve as mentors to participating students, sharing their professional experiences and providing guidance throughout the learning journey. By connecting students directly with people working in the logistics sector, the program gives participants an opportunity to learn about professional life from those experiencing it firsthand.

Employees will also help students recognize their own strengths, explore future possibilities and understand how skills such as collaboration, communication and leadership translate into the workplace.

The mentorship component reflects a broader goal of the program: going beyond the transfer of knowledge to help young people develop the confidence and practical capabilities to pursue their potential.

Turning Learning Into Community Impact

Students will have an opportunity to put those lessons into practice as the program progresses.

The first group completed its learning journey in August, culminating in the presentation of group projects, where students applied the knowledge and skills developed during the program to projects intended to generate positive outcomes for their schools.

This hands-on component allows participants to move from learning about teamwork, leadership and communication to applying those skills together around a shared objective. It also encourages students to consider how their ideas and abilities can contribute to the communities around them.

Investing in the Next Generation

For DP World, the Global Education Program represents an investment not only in individual students, but also in the long-term strength of the communities surrounding its operations.

By working alongside Enseña Ecuador and mobilizing employees as volunteers and mentors, DP World is connecting education with professional experience and helping students develop skills that can remain relevant well beyond the program itself.

The initiative builds on DP World’s commitment to supporting education, developing local talent and expanding opportunities in its communities of influence.

As the first students complete the program and bring their projects to life, the effort demonstrates how collaboration between businesses, educators, employees and young people can help translate education into opportunity — while preparing a new generation with the skills to participate in an increasingly connected world.

Originally published on CVS Health Company Newsroom

WOONSOCKET, R.I., September 10, 2026 /3BL/ — CVS Health® (NYSE: CVS) announced that updated 2026-2027 COVID-19 vaccines are now available at CVS Pharmacy® and MinuteClinic® locations for patients at no-cost with most insurance plans. Appointments are available at CVS.com, MinuteClinic.com and through the CVS Health® app, and walk-ins are accepted at CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic.

“We know patients value having convenient access to the vaccines and preventive care services they need,” said Amy Compton-Phillips, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, CVS Health. “With updated COVID-19 vaccines available at CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic, we’re making it easier for people to get vaccinated close to home and on a schedule that works for them.”

CVS Pharmacy offers COVID-19 vaccinations for eligible patients based on state regulations*, while MinuteClinic provides vaccinations for patients beginning at 18 months of age. Pharmacists and MinuteClinic providers are available to answer questions and help patients make informed decisions about vaccination based on their individual health needs.

Flexible scheduling for families and caregivers

Vaccination appointments are available seven days a week, including evenings and weekends. Patients can schedule appointments at CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic for up to four people at the same time, helping families and caregivers get vaccinated together. If eligible, patients can also receive multiple recommended vaccinations during a single visit, including flu, RSV and other routine immunizations.

The updated COVID-19 vaccine is available at no-cost through most insurance plans. For those who are uninsured, the cost at CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic varies depending on product type and eligibility.

###

About CVS Health

CVS Health is a leading health solutions company simplifying health care one person, one family and one community at a time. As of June 30, 2026, the Company had approximately 9,000 retail pharmacy locations, more than 1,000 walk-in and primary care medical clinics and a leading pharmacy benefits manager with approximately 87 million plan members. The Company also serves an estimated 37 million people through a broad range of health insurance products and related services. The Company’s integrated model uses personalized, technology driven services to connect people to simply better health, increasing access to quality care, delivering better outcomes, and lowering overall costs.

Media contact 

Amy Thibault
401-318-2865
Amy.Thibault@CVSHealth.com

Roslyn Guarino
781-974-3962
Roslyn.Guarino@CVSHealth.com

_{*CVS Pharmacy is actively monitoring vaccination requirements in Arizona, Louisiana and Oregon. Patients can check CVS.com, MinuteClinic.com or the CVS Health app for updated availability.}

Verizon
By Frances Moffett

At a glance

• Small business benefits from free AI courses: Verizon’s free skill-development programs for small-business owners helped Destynee Turner build AI and digital capabilities that supported her business’s growth.
• AI skills help save time, drive repeat customers: Turner used AI-enabled automation to reduce manual work, including inventory tasks and appointment reminders, saving time and encouraging repeat business.
• Application of AI creates revenue growth: Her new skills contributed to an approximate 20% revenue increase and gave her the insight for improved budgeting, seasonal planning and growth for her small business.

Destynee Turner became an optician because she loves helping people see. But growing The Optical Experience, her boutique optical shop in West Palm Beach, Florida, demanded business skills no opticianry program taught her.

To fill that gap, Turner took advantage of Verizon’s free skill-development program, Verizon Small Business Digital Ready, which offers 60+ courses, mentoring, networking and grant opportunities. Those events and courses gave her new strategies to tackle her biggest challenge: working too hard in her business, rather than on it. She applied what she learned, specifically around customer retention, to support her small business’s growth, driving an approximate 20% increase in revenue. Through the program, she also expanded her knowledge of artificial intelligence (AI).

Turner’s story shows how practical AI skills can help small-business owners save time, strengthen customer relationships and support growth. Small-business owners can explore Verizon’s free AI courses and resources and the new 12-week immersive Verizon Small Business AI Accelerator to discover new ways to put AI to work.

Driving small-business growth through personalized service

Working with clients was Turner’s motivation for launching her own business. After years in large-scale optical retail, where the fast pace left little room for personalized attention, she wanted to practice the kind of care she believed in. She started a mobile eyewear service in 2018, visiting clients at home and bringing the equipment to them.

In 2022, Turner opened The Optical Experience, designing the experience around one-on-one attention. She pre-selects frames based on each client’s preferences, and eye exams are conducted on-site via telehealth with a licensed optometrist. “I’ve literally created my own lane,” Turner says. “There are people who have mobile opticals and there are other opticians who have shops, but they’re nothing like mine.”

How AI-powered automation saves hours of busywork every month

Part of creating her own lane meant exploring tools she’d never used before, such as AI. When a shipment of frames arrives, Turner snaps a photo of the SKU numbers and uses AI to generate an inventory spreadsheet in seconds—work that used to eat up time she’d rather spend with clients. “I wouldn’t have been as comfortable with AI if I hadn’t taken the Verizon courses,” says Turner, who also uses business internet and phone services as a Verizon Business customer. “I’ve taken other courses, but the Verizon ones were more hands-on, actually showing you how to use it.”

Another new strategy Turner learned was to automate annual checkup reminders through an AI-powered platform, instead of managing them manually using spreadsheets. This shift saved her about three hours a month and increased revenue by keeping existing clients coming back.

Putting new digital skills to work beyond AI

In addition to AI, other Verizon courses have increased Turner’s business acumen. During an in-person event, she received a budgeting framework she uses to manage her business finances. Previously, Turner used accounting software, but was just logging expenses without knowing how much of her profit should go to operations, inventory or her own pay. The event showed her how to categorize spending and apply general rules, such as taking 20%-30% of profit as pay. From there, Turner built a custom budget, which helped her see where she was overspending: networking events that weren’t moving the business forward. Now, she only invests in opportunities directly tied to her growth.

Seasonal planning was another shift Turner made. Early on, the shop’s slow summers caught her off guard. “The Verizon courses helped me to strategize and think, ‘Okay, these are my off-months of the year. How do I plan for this?’” she says. Now, she launches promotions that help drive business in the summer and also uses that time to recharge with her family.

Now pursuing her doctorate in optometry—with about five years of schooling ahead—Turner plans to keep her shop open while she studies and to eventually open a second location in her community. The business skills she picked up through Verizon helped sharpen that ambition. “It’s really cool when you implement the knowledge from these courses and can actually see things changing and growing. Having these tools, with all these experts willing to share this information, is gold.”

Discover free AI courses and resources designed to help small-business owners put AI to work.

2025 marked a proud moment for DaVita as we met our goal to power 100% of our global operations with renewable energy. We achieved this by securing multiple virtual power purchase agreements in the US and Europe over the past five years — offsetting our global energy consumption with renewable solar and wind power.

This milestone was one of multiple environmental goals DaVita established five years ago and has met in the time since. This marks an important step in DaVita’s long-term sustainability journey.

Our Journey to Net Zero
In addition to our near-term, self-identified goals, we are committed to net-zero scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2050. These are emissions related to DaVita’s operations. We call this commitment our Journey to Net Zero, and have focused our action plan in three critical areas:

Science-Based Climate Goals
A review by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) verifies our climate targets are in line with the scale of reductions required to keep global warming from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels. Our many energy efficiency initiatives and clean energy investments have driven notable progress to date.

81% reduction of scope 1 and 2 emissions, as of December 31, 2025, as compared to a 2018 baseline.

Meeting Our Renewable Energy Goals
2025 marked a proud moment as we met our goal to power 100% of our global operations with renewable energy. We achieved this by securing multiple virtual power purchase agreements in the US and Europe over the past five years. Through these agreements, we now offset our global energy consumption with renewable solar and wind power.

Energy Efficiency
DaVita has been focused on energy efficiency improvements for over a decade. These include efficient LED lighting systems and smart building controls. We also upgrade water heaters and HVAC units to high-efficiency systems whenever replacements are required. As a result of our systematic approach to upgrades, the majority of our U.S. centers now have these energy efficient features.

Continued Progress in Electrification
In 2023, we were proud to announce the launch of our first ever net-zero dialysis center featuring all electric systems and solar power. In 2025 we continued to build on this progress by replacing gas-fired roof top HVAC units with heat pumps in select facilities — another step toward scaled adoption of higher-efficiency equipment.

Vendor Engagement
DaVita encourages its suppliers to set meaningful climate goals. By the end of 2025, 71% of vendors, by emissions, had publicly stated science-based targets.

Water Stewardship
Access to clean, fresh water is essential to the dialysis process, and we are committed to being good stewards of this resource. In 2025, we utilized a targeted Top Water Users reduction program to identify and address areas with the greatest room for efficiency improvement. We also continued ongoing work to upgrade reverse-osmosis water purification systems to newer, more efficient models to reduce water consumption in our clinics.

Through these initiatives, we saved more than 90 million gallons of water in 2025 and 468 million gallons from 2021 to 2025, greatly surpassing our publicly reported goal of saving 240 million gallons of water from 2021 to 2025.

External Recognition as a Sustainability Leader
Our sustainability leadership has earned recognition from leading institutions and publications.

• USA Today America’s Climate Leaders
• Dow Jones Best-in-Class Indices¹
• RE100 member
• Green Power Partnership Fortune 500® Partners List
• Newsweek America’s Greenest Companies

We report environmental data aligned with recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), a leading authority on environmental reporting. Details on our environmental footprint and supporting data can be found in our TCFD Report and Data Tables in the second half of this document.

Teammates United for a Healthier World
Recognizing that our teammates play an important role in sustainability, we encourage involvement through Earth Day, events at our offices and Green Action challenges.

In 2025, teammates logged nearly 67,000 Green Actions, which are defined as intentional actions or behaviors that support positive environmental change.

Over our entire 5-year reported goal period, our dedicated teammates logged 135,400 Green Actions in total.

¹Previously known as Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. Renaming effective February 2025: https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/client-services/currenttransitions/sp-dow-jones-indices-announces-renaming-of-some-sustainability-indices/ 

Key Takeaways

• The most important aspect of your GHG emissions calculations is their defensibility. Your organization needs to demonstrate the methodologies, record-keeping, and assumptions that underpin the data. 
• Evolving regulatory requirements add a sense of urgency to the need for independent assurance. 
• After-the-fact documentation can be much more time-consuming, challenging, and expensive to gather after an inventory is already in the process of being developed. 
• Impartial review is critically important—a consultancy that prepares an organization’s GHG inventory cannot also provide assurance of their own work. 

If your company has been reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for years but has never had the inventory independently assured, the first assurance engagement can feel like a major hurdle. 

Perhaps surprisingly, the emissions calculations themselves usually aren’t the hard part.  The real challenge comes down to documentation and traceability—being able to demonstrate where the data came from, why certain methodologies and assumptions were used, and whether the record keeping behind the inventory can stand up to independent review. 

A GHG assurance engagement benefits from practitioners who deeply understand GHG accounting—not just the auditing process. Utility bills, fuel records, refrigerant logs, renewable electricity purchases, changing facility boundaries, emission factors, estimates: these are the complexities and details behind a corporate GHG inventory. An advisory team that works with that kind of data every day knows where gaps are likely to be. For many companies, there are multiple reasons to start looking for those gaps now.

1. The Data You Are Collecting Today May Be the Data That Gets Assured Tomorrow 

California SB 253 is an obvious driver. Companies will be required to obtain limited assurance over FY26 Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions for 2027 reporting, making independent GHG assurance a brand-new requirement for many organizations.  

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is another driver for companies within its evolving scope, while other organizations are pursuing assurance in response to customer, investor, or voluntary reporting expectations. 

Whatever the reason, the point is the same: Don’t wait until the assurance engagement starts to determine whether the underlying data are ready for it. 

For companies preparing for California SB 253 in particular, the first assurance cycle will involve emissions data being collected before the assurance engagement itself. Waiting until later can mean trying to reconstruct utility records, track down fuel data, explain an old estimate, or remember why a particular emission factor was selected months after the fact. 

That is harder, more time-consuming, and potentially more expensive than getting the documentation right while the inventory is being developed.

2. Assurance Is More Than Checking Calculations 

A limited assurance engagement is a risk-based evaluation designed to determine whether reported emissions are free from material misstatement. It isn’t a review of every invoice or every individual data point. Instead, the assurance provider will look at where material errors are most likely to occur and will gather evidence to support a conclusion about the reported emissions. 

That may include evaluating whether: 

• Organizational and operational boundaries are clearly defined and consistently applied 
• Activity data are complete, traceable, and supported by appropriate records 
• Emission factors and calculation methodologies are appropriate and consistently applied 
• Estimates and assumptions are reasonable and documented 
• Sufficient evidence exists to support reported emissions

This is where first-time assurance can reveal issues that weren’t necessarily visible when the goal was only to complete the annual inventory. It’s very common for a calculation to be perfectly reasonable but lack the documentation behind it. 

Consider some real-world examples: Perhaps operational control of a facility changed during the reporting year, and the treatment of that facility was never formally documented. Maybe refrigerant data are incomplete. Maybe someone used an estimate for a few months of energy consumption because a utility bill wasn’t available but only jotted it down on a sticky note. Or maybe the person who built the inventory knows exactly how everything works—but that knowledge is available only through that person, not documented in an Inventory Management Plan. None of those situations means the inventory is incorrect, but they can make assurance much harder in ways that are avoidable.

3. Good Preparation Makes First-Time Assurance Much Easier 

The focus shouldn’t be to create a flawless inventory before assurance. That isn’t realistic, and it isn’t even the purpose of assurance. 

The goal is to make the inventory defensible. 

Can you explain your boundaries? Can you trace material data back to source documentation? Can you explain your assumptions and estimates? Are your methodologies documented? If someone unfamiliar with the inventory reviewed the files six months from now, could they understand how you got from the source data to the reported emissions? 

Those are the questions to start asking. 

For organizations that aren’t confident in the answers, an assurance readiness review can be useful before formal assurance begins. A readiness engagement looks at the inventory through an assurance lens—identifying documentation gaps, methodology issues, data-quality concerns, and other areas likely to draw attention during independent review. 

Importantly, independence and impartiality matter. A consultancy that prepares a company’s GHG inventory cannot provide independent assurance over their own work. The consultant can, however, help that organization prepare for assurance by another provider. If the inventory was developed internally, through software, or by another advisor, the consultant may be able to provide the independent limited assurance engagement.

Prepare Now for a Smoother Assurance Engagement 

First-time GHG assurance does not need to be overwhelming. Spend the time now to look at the data trail—or simply be sure you’ve got one. Document the decisions. Make sure assumptions and estimates can be explained. Identify areas where the data are messy—and address what you reasonably can. 

Across corporate GHG inventories, one thing has remained remarkably consistent: Good GHG accounting is much more than getting the calculation right; it’s about being able to explain and support how you got there.  

Questions about how to prepare for your first GHG assurance engagement? Contact Antea Group’s GHG Assurance Readiness team to discuss the process and how we can support your organization.  

Watch Season 6 Episode 1 – Built Differently: The New Rules of Data Center Design

As AI rapidly transforms data centers, the challenge is designing data center cooling and infrastructure that can keep pace with rising compute demands, increasing heat loads and long asset lifecycles.

In this episode, Oakley Roberts, President of Data Centers at Trane Technologies, discusses how teams are adapting through climate-responsive cooling strategies, the balance of liquid and air cooling, lower water use and modular system design, while Michael Winterson, Secretary General of the European Data Centre Association, explores the broader implications of Europe’s expanding data center capacity, including grid constraints, energy demand, regulation and decarbonization.

Together, they highlight a fundamental shift in data center design: building systems that balance speed, repeatability and flexibility while adapting to evolving technologies, local conditions and infrastructure needs.

Key Moments

• 0:00: Why the era of the standard data center is over
• 03:26: How AI is changing data center cooling
• 06:45: Rethinking data center water usage
• 11:36: Europe’s ambitions for the digital decade
• 19:52: How data center innovation benefits the whole economy

Featured in this Episode:

Hosts:
Dominique Silva, Marketing Leader EMEA, Trane Technologies
Scott Tew, Vice President Sustainability and Managing Director, Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability, Trane Technologies

Guests:
Oakley Roberts, President, Data Centers, Trane Technologies
Michael Winterson, Secretary General, European Data Centre Association (EUDCA)

About Healthy Spaces

Healthy Spaces, a podcast by Trane Technologies, brings together engineers, innovators and industry leaders for bold conversations at the frontier of sustainable technology.

In Season 6, we zero in on the moment when innovation becomes infrastructure – when breakthroughs move beyond the lab and start transforming industries.

From pioneering AI research and next-generation data center cooling to climate-resilient cities and pathways to decarbonization, each episode explores the innovations at the cutting-edge of sustainable technology.

Designed for leaders, builders and anyone with a stake in the future of sustainable technology, the series offers a front-row seat to the ideas and innovations shaping what comes next.

The challenges are real. The solutions are being built now.

Listen and subscribe to Healthy Spaces on your favorite podcast platforms:

Apple Podcasts 
Spotify 
YouTube 
Amazon Music

Nokia
By Kurt Raaflaub

Improving access to artificial intelligence (AI) in rural markets is one of several topics I look forward to discussing at DISTRIBUTECH International 2026 in San Diego. How big is this new business opportunity for power utilities?

Governments, power utilities and telecommunication providers are racing to close the digital divide. Broadband is no longer optional because it underpins education, healthcare, economic development and social participation.

But connecting rural markets takes more than last-mile fiber. It requires resilient, modern optical transport networks that can support today’s digital services and tomorrow’s AI-driven applications as their data travels from the network core to your door.

Utilities and the rise of fiber-powered networks

Utilities are increasingly deploying fiber along transmission and distribution corridors to enable real-time grid monitoring, secure substation control and corporate WAN connectivity. Some are also extending this fiber to deliver broadband services.

These fiber-powered networks must be scalable, simple, secure and highly resilient. Advances in coherent optics, compact hardware, switching, automation and encryption now make this possible. Modern optical systems efficiently aggregate mission-critical operational technology (OT) traffic, AI-heavy IT workloads and growing broadband traffic across middle-mile networks.

DCI-MOFN: A new revenue opportunity for utilities

One of the most promising opportunities for utilities is data center interconnect (DCI). As AI workloads surge, enterprises need massive amounts of low-latency transport between data centers. Utilities, which are already positioned with the requisite power supply and near-long-haul fiber routes, can address this need by offering 100, 400 or 800 Gb/s DCI as a managed service.

These managed optical fiber networks (MOFNs) can serve cloud and AI providers and large enterprises that are looking for dedicated connectivity. As data centers are distributed closer to the network edge, they can better support consumer and enterprise AI inference use cases. This results in increased demand for higher capacity, lower latency and stronger data sovereignty interconnect options.

AI acceleration: A network load few expected

Rapid AI adoption is reshaping network demand. Enterprises are deploying agentic AI to automate operations, while major tech companies are investing heavily in compute capacity. According to Goldman Sachs, AI spending will exceed $US500 billion next year. Deloitte estimated that power demand from AI data centers in the US could grow more than 30-fold by 2035. McKinsey says up to 70% of data center capacity demand will come from AI by 2030.

This rapid expansion places unprecedented pressure on optical transport and DCI networks and creates an urgent need for them to be modernized.

Why data centers are moving to rural areas

Urban regions face power and land shortages. Some, like those in the state of Virginia, have multiyear waits for new data center hookups. Rural areas offer lower land costs, renewable energy, greater water availability, cooler climates, lower disaster risk and proximity to major fiber routes. Cloud and AI providers such as AWS and Microsoft are building more facilities in these regions.

Building AI-ready multiuse networks

Today’s optical platforms are compact, modular and energy efficient. Programmable pluggable versions of coherent optics deliver 100G to 800G data rates across thousands of kilometers without needing costly regeneration.

These technologies bring utilities the benefits of lower power per bit and smoother migration to emerging 800G-enabled routers, along with the advantages of open, multivendor environments. Utilities can use them to create unified networks that support broadband aggregation, middle-mile transport, IT/OT network convergence and DCI/MOFN business models. These networks will have smaller footprints and lower cost than legacy systems and offer the automation and protection mechanisms of modern systems.

The bottom line

Rural markets and power utilities have a unique opportunity. Broadband expansion remains essential, but the rise of AI is creating new demands and value. Many rural regions already have the land, power and fiber access required for next-generation data centers. By strengthening rural optical transport networks with modern, high-capacity technologies, utilities can play a key role in helping rural communities participate and prosper in the digital- and AI-driven future.

I’m looking forward to learning and sharing more with you at DISTRIBUTECH International 2026. If you can’t make the conference, please follow us for future thoughts and news.

PURCHASE, N.Y., September 9, 2026 /3BL/ – The PepsiCo Foundation today announced the recipients of its 2026 Community Impact Awards, recognizing 100 nonprofit organizations across the United States and Canada with $500,000 USD in grants to help advance their missions and expand opportunity. Nominated by PepsiCo associates who know their work firsthand, the organizations are helping address some of the most pressing needs in their communities, from expanding access to food and safe water to creating pathways to employment and supporting farming livelihoods.

Now in its fifth year, the Community Impact Awards put local perspective at the center of community investment. PepsiCo associates nominate nonprofit organizations they know and trust, helping identify organizations that are making a meaningful difference every day. Since launching in 2022, the program has invested more than $3.7 million USD in community grants across North America.

Each recipient organization will receive a $5,000 USD grant to support its mission and continue serving its community.

“Across North America, there are organizations showing up every day for their communities, often without recognition and with limited resources,” said Monica Bauer, SVP, Social Impact, PepsiCo, and President of the PepsiCo Foundation. “The Community Impact Awards help shine a light on organizations that are creating opportunities, solving local challenges and making a real difference in people’s lives. What makes this program special is that the recognition comes from PepsiCo associates who know these organizations firsthand and have seen their impact up close.”

Local Organizations, Community-Led Solutions

The 2026 recipients reflect the power of local organizations to respond to the unique needs of their communities. Whether serving families, supporting young people, strengthening local economies or creating new opportunities, these organizations are helping improve lives in meaningful and lasting ways.

From Hunger Resource Network in Northbrook, Illinois, which will use its grant to help provide more than 22,000 meals across the Chicago area, to Friends of Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center in Westchester County, New York, which advances sustainable agriculture, environmental stewardship and community education, this year’s recipients demonstrate how locally rooted organizations are turning community knowledge into action. Each organization was nominated by a PepsiCo associate with a personal connection to its work, whether through volunteering, community involvement or firsthand experience.

“I’ve always admired the Hunger Resource Network’s approach to address food insecurity across the Chicago area, which is why I wanted to nominate them,” said Matthew Hester, Finance Sr. Director at PepsiCo. “I really appreciate having the opportunity through the Community Impact Awards to further support organizations that are doing important work in our local community.”

The Community Impact Awards extend beyond grant funding. By Spring 2027, each recipient will work with the PepsiCo associate who nominated them on a volunteer activity aligned to the nonprofit’s mission and community needs, turning recognition into continued action and engagement.

Behind each of the 100 awards is an organization working to solve a problem, create an opportunity or meet a need in its community. Together, this year’s recipients reflect the impact that local leadership can have when people step up for their neighbors, and the powerful role community organizations play in helping communities thrive.

2026 PepsiCo Foundation Community Impact Awards Recipients

United States

• 360 Communities
• 4Roots Foundation, Inc.
• A New Day Foundation Inc
• Abilityfirst
• Alliance For Children
• Any Step Community Services
• Be A Little Too Kind
• Better Way New York Inc.
• Beyond the Ball NFP
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana Inc
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana Inc
• Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago
• Bonton Enterprises
• Boys and Girls Club of Benton County
• Boys and Girls Clubs in Texas
• Bread of Life Food Pantry – Lake Oconee Lutheran Church
• Brighter Days
• Broadway Community, Inc
• Capital IDEA Houston
• Center on Halsted
• Change Course
• Chicago Youth Centers
• Claremont Neighborhood Center
• CLiCK
• Clifton Education Foundation, Inc.
• Denmark Community Cupboard
• District Alliance for Safe Housing
• Elmwood Neighborhood Farm
• Emma’s Torch
• Empower the Voice
• Every Day Action
• Feed My Starving Children
• Florence-Firestone Community Organization
• Food Lifeline
• FoodSphere Inc
• Future Founders
• Generations Grow Network Inc.
• Grace at the Green Light
• Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank Inc
• Harlem Grown, Inc.
• Hawkeye Area Community Action Program Inc
• Hendrick Scholarship Foundation
• Hope for the Cities
• Hunger Resource Network
• Idaho Foodbank Warehouse, d.b.a. The Idaho Foodbank
• Interfaith Food Pantry, Inc.
• Jobs for America’s Graduates
• Junior Achievement of Chicago
• Junior Achievement of Dallas Inc
• Kitsap Community and Agricultural Alliance
• LA’s BEST
• Ladies of Virtue
• Matthew 25
• McKinney Little Free Pantry – Sanchez Charities
• Meals for Unity
• Minds Matter NYC
• My New House
• Neighbors Nourishing Neighbors
• Neptune Middle School
• New Friends New Life
• Pitney Meadows Community Farm
• Plate and Pathways
• Prairie Fire Foundation
• Project 150
• Project Cultivate LLC
• Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC
• Second Helpings Inc
• Sloatsburg Food Pantry
• Soundwaters Inc
• St. Vincent de Paul Society Food Pantry
• Tackle Hunger
• The Concilio
• The Friends of Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center Inc
• The Friendship Center
• The Nashville Food Project (TNFP)
• The Salvation Army
• The Table Community Foundation
• Three Square
• Together We Thrive
• Train Up a Child NOLA
• United Way of Central KY
• United Way of Tri-County
• United Way of Westchester and Putnam, Inc.
• Water Is Basic
• Weissman Children’s Foundation
• YMCA of Central Florida
• Young Mens Christian Association of Rome and Floyd County GA Inc.
• YWCA Central Maine

Canada

• Ducks Unlimited Canada
• Halton Down Syndrome Association
• Hamilton Out of the Cold
• Kamloops Food Bank Society
• Kawartha Food Share
• Kings County Family Resource Centre
• La Bouchée Généreuse
• Lethbridge Food Bank Society
• The Harris Brand Foundation
• The Local Community Food Centre
• Y.E.S.S.: Youth Emergency Shelter Society of Edmonton

About the PepsiCo Foundation

The PepsiCo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of PepsiCo, works to support positive change for people and the planet by expanding access to essential resources that help meet immediate needs and unlock pathways to opportunity. Guided by PepsiCo Positive (pep+), our philanthropic investments focus on four key areas: food access, safe water access, farming, and workforce development. Through collaboration with nonprofits, community organizations and global partners, the Foundation works to strengthen food systems, support farmers, expand access to nutritious food and safe water, and advance workforce development to build lasting economic resilience. Learn more at www.pepsicofoundation.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Ghilianie Soto
201.618.4959
Ghilianie.soto@pepsico.com

Originally published on CVS Health Company Newsroom

WOONSOCKET, R.I., September 9, 2026 /3BL/ – New survey findings commissioned by CVS Health® (NYSE: CVS) reveal that many Americans face persistent barriers accessing preventive health screenings. Nearly one in four adults have delayed speaking with a health professional about health concerns because of barriers related to access, cost or availability, and one-third were unaware that community screening programs exist.

“People aren’t telling us that preventive health screenings don’t matter; they’re telling us that accessing them can be harder than it should be,” said Jenny McColloch, Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President of Community Impact, CVS Health. “This survey reinforces what we’ve seen over the past 20 years through Project Health: when screenings are convenient, accessible and offered in places people already know and trust, they’re more likely to take that first step. That’s why we’ve continued to bring preventive health services directly into communities and help people better understand their health.”

As Project Health marks its 20th anniversary, the program continues to demonstrate the impact of community-based prevention. Since launching in 2006, Project Health has helped millions of people better understand and manage their health through convenient, accessible screenings and health education resources.

The program plays an important role in improving access: Today, four in 10 adults say affordable screenings are difficult to find in their community, while also reporting challenges securing timely appointments. Yet nearly three-quarters (72%) say a program offering screenings with no appointment or insurance requirements would make health screenings easier to obtain. The findings underscore why Project Health, CVS Health’s free community health screening program, has spent the past 20 years bringing preventive health services directly into communities through more than 6 million free screenings at CVS Pharmacy locations, mobile sites and community events.

Since launching in 2006, Project Health has:

• Delivered nearly 20,000 community screening events
• Reached 1.8 million people across the U.S. and Puerto Rico
• Provided more than 6 million no-cost preventive health screenings
• Offered screenings with no appointment and no insurance required

Barriers Continue to Keep Many Americans from Preventive Screenings

Many U.S. adults face a combination of awareness, access and affordability challenges that can prevent them from getting recommended preventive health screenings.

Among adults who report barriers to obtaining routine screenings:

• Nearly one in four (24%) have delayed speaking with a health professional about a specific health concern.
• 19 percent have relied on internet searches instead of speaking with a health professional.
• 17 percent have reduced spending on essentials such as groceries because of health-related costs.
• 15 percent have used savings or taken on debt to cover health expenses.
• 15 percent have lost income after taking time away from work to address health-related needs.

One Screening, One New City, One Important Reminder

For Cheryl Jones, Project Health arrived at exactly the right time.

When Cheryl Jones retired and relocated from New York to Houston in late 2025, she was still getting settled and had not yet established local health resources. After a planned trip back to New York for appointments was canceled, she found an unexpected opportunity close to home: a Project Health mobile screening event outside a nearby CVS Pharmacy.

“I had just moved to Houston and didn’t know anyone yet,” Jones said. “The team was so inviting that I decided to stop and take the screening.”

What began as a routine screening provided valuable insight into her health. Jones learned that her cholesterol and A1C levels had increased, giving her information she may not have discovered for months.

“It wasn’t necessarily surprising, but it was the reminder I needed,” Jones said. “The experience encouraged me to pay closer attention to my health and be more consistent about monitoring it.”

For Jones, the experience highlighted the value of bringing preventive health services directly into communities.

“For someone new to a city without an established doctor, it gave me a way to stay informed about my health instead of waiting until something became serious,” she said.

Building Trust Through Community Presence

Over the past two decades, Project Health has evolved alongside the communities it serves. Screenings are offered at CVS Pharmacy locations, mobile sites and community events, making it easier for people to access preventive health services in places that are convenient and familiar.

Each participant receives:

• No-cost preventive health screenings
• One-on-one consultations with health professionals
• Information to help understand screening results
• Connections to local resources and online health education, including access to the Project Health app

The survey suggests these are exactly the types of services Americans value most. Respondents said trained health professionals, convenient locations, walk-in availability and help understanding results are among the most important factors in building trust in community screening programs. These findings closely align with Project Health’s approach of providing convenient community-based screenings while helping participants understand their results and connect to additional health resources when needed.

Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted online by Morning Consult between July 16–20, 2026, among 2,062 U.S. adults, with additional samples in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas. Results have a margin of error ranging from +/- 2 to 4 percentage points.

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About CVS Health

CVS Health is a leading health solutions company simplifying health care one person, one family and one community at a time. As of March 31, 2026, the Company had approximately 9,000 retail pharmacy locations, more than 1,000 walk-in and primary care medical clinics and a leading pharmacy benefits manager with approximately 88 million plan members. The Company also serves an estimated more than 37 million people through a broad range of health insurance products and related services. The Company’s integrated model uses personalized, technology driven services to connect people to simply better health, increasing access to quality care, delivering better outcomes, and lowering overall costs.

Media contact

Rebecca Ferrick
FerrickR@CVSHealth.com

September 9, 2026 /3BL/ – The Georgia Department of Transportation (Georgia DOT) and The Ray have partnered to establish monarch butterfly pollinator meadows at nine Georgia DOT highway right-of-way sites across the state. The nine meadows represent Georgia DOT’s first installed acres banked through the Nationwide Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) for the Monarch Butterfly on Energy and Transportation Lands, a voluntary conservation initiative that encourages transportation agencies to create, maintain, and manage monarch butterfly habitat on transportation lands. 

“Monarch butterfly populations have been declining in recent years, and these pollinator sites demonstrate how transportation infrastructure and environmental stewardship can create meaningful conservation opportunities,” said Georgia DOT Commissioner Russell R. McMurry, P.E. “The Ray has long been a valued and trusted partner of the department, and we are pleased to continue our collaboration to help protect and preserve monarch butterfly habitats.”

Through this collaborative effort, Georgia DOT prepared the roadside sites and implemented conservation mowing practices, adjusting mowing schedules to allow native vegetation and flowering plants to grow and provide habitat and nectar for monarch butterflies and other pollinators. The Ray coordinated the planting and evaluation of the habitats, monitoring plant growth and coverage, pollinator activity, and how well native vegetation performs under different roadside conditions. 

“Installing these meadows across Georgia gave us the opportunity to take what we’ve learned through years of roadside research on The Ray Highway and apply it at a much larger scale,” said Josh Weaver, Ph.D., Natural Capital Manager at The Ray. “Each site presents different soils, slopes, and growing conditions, so this work is about more than planting wildflowers. We’re demonstrating how Georgia’s highway rights-of-way can be intentionally managed to provide meaningful monarch and pollinator habitat while also evaluating native vegetation as a practical tool for slope stabilization, erosion control and long-term roadside management.”

Georgia DOT and The Ray will continue monitoring the nine meadow sites as the plantings become established. Information gathered from the project will help partners evaluate the use of native vegetation for roadside habitat and slope stabilization and identify opportunities for future work.

To learn more about Georgia DOT and The Ray’s work to protect monarch butterfly habitats, please click the link below to listen to the podcast.