Tag: 3BL

On February 14, 2025, nine inches of rain fell on Eastern Kentucky, leading to massive flooding. Having previously coordinated relief efforts with ScottsMiracle-Gro in 2022, Aaron Thoms with Christian Appalachian Project (CAP), knew exactly who to call. “When Aaron reached out, I was hopeful we could help in some way,” said Katherine Dickens, director of ESG and social impact at ScottsMiracle-Gro. “We had history with the organization and the need was great.”

Unlike a typical disaster response that primarily focuses on food and water, flooding presents a unique challenge; the immediate need for fans and dehumidifiers to combat moisture and prevent mold growth. Fans and dehumidifiers are often in short supply after a flood, and relief agencies typically do not stock them. Because of this specific need, Hawthorne Gardening, a subsidiary of ScottsMiracle-Gro, was able to provide assistance.

“We were more than willing to again deliver dehumidifiers and fans to CAP,” says Alex Grossi, VP, supply chain and administration of Hawthorne Gardening. “We were in a somewhat unique position, as these aren’t items most organizations have on hand. Thankfully, we were able to provide them, when and where they were needed most.”

Soon, three truckloads containing 41 pallets of dehumidifiers and fans were on the way to Eastern Kentucky. In total, 698 dehumidifiers have been distributed to affected families, with a policy of one fan or dehumidifier per family, no questions asked. “If you need help, we’re going to help you,” says Aaron. “We are grateful for partners that allow us to help our neighbors in their time of need. These critical supplies really have a huge impact following a disaster.”

Since 2022, ScottsMiracle-Gro has donated over 6 truckloads, or 90 pallets of fans and dehumidifiers to CAP, helping communities and families after flood events. “You see flood survivors that are emotionally torn up. These fans and dehumidifiers help them begin the long process of rebuilding,” says Aaron. “We are grateful to be able to deliver hope in the midst of turmoil.”

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About ScottsMiracle-Gro
With approximately $3.6 billion in sales, the Company is the world’s largest marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care. The Company’s brands are among the most recognized in the industry. The Company’s Scotts®, Miracle-Gro®, and Ortho® brands are market-leading in their categories. The Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, The Hawthorne Gardening Company, is a leading provider of nutrients, lighting, and other materials used in the indoor and hydroponic growing segment. For additional information, visit us at www.scottsmiraclegro.com. 

At Cisco, we care deeply about innovation and practical effectiveness. When responding to social challenges, we want to be part of solutions that work—and that often means drawing nimbly, as one Cisco, from our entire organizational toolset, regardless of department or domain within the company.

By listening to our nonprofit collaborators and then selecting from our suite of proven interventions as we assemble a customized support package, we can empower our social impact partners to help more people, more efficiently, in a more sustainable way. We look for measurable results, and we love to see our grantees using technology to change more lives for the better.

Uplifting communities through digital skilling

The Chorkor Digital Lab, a project run by Cisco social impact partner BASICS International, exemplifies our integrative and results-oriented approach. BASICS provides education, food, and healthcare for children in the community of Chorkor and surrounding areas in Ghana, West Africa—helping entire communities rise out of poverty. Their new lab is preparing formerly underserved students for dynamic careers in cybersecurity, networking, and more. Supported by Cisco Networking Academy as well as our Technology Grant Program, the lab offers a hub for learning, collaboration, and creativity, where students learn cutting-edge skills that will help them flourish in the digital economy.

BASICS International CEO and founder Patricia Wilkins notes that Chorkor’s reputation as hard to help was exactly what inspired her to dive in and begin unlocking the potential of the community. “We always felt we needed to give children access to technology,” she said. “When we learned about Cisco’s program, where they meet students where they are, and give them the technical skills and computer skills that they need, we got on board.”

Sharing Cisco’s trusted curriculum and technology

Wilkins also manages the BASICS Cisco Academy, ensuring that students get full access to Cisco’s trusted curriculum as they work towards the certifications that will unlock better jobs and futures upon graduation. Cisco Networking Academy is a global, IT skills-to-jobs program, offering digital skills training to prepare students for industry-standard certifications and careers in networking, cybersecurity, and related fields.

“For over two decades, BASICS International has believed in supporting the whole child—combining education, nutrition, mentorship, and life skills to help young people thrive and lead change in their communities.” 

—Patricia Wilkins, CEO and founder, BASICS International

Cisco’s Technology Grant Program provides our own technology to qualifying nonprofit organizations to help them realize significant gains in productivity, security, scalability, and cost efficiency. For the Chorkor Lab, a Technology Grant was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the Networking Academy.

Patrick Verret, who managed the technology grant, explains, “We helped them establish a secure and stable network for students to access Cisco Networking Academy, utilize other online learning materials, and collaborate with others across the internet. Thanks to our Meraki firewalls, switches, and access points, students can connect to the network throughout the building, via both wired and wireless connections.”

Dreaming of—and working towards—careers in tech

Already, the Lab is changing lives. “I wanted to do computer science, but I couldn’t get a chance to do it, because the fees that you have to pay are very high. It has been my dream for so long,” said student Joyce Banahene, who is aiming to find work as a network engineer when she completes her certification.

Also feeling inspired, student Joy Adevu noted, “I’ll be working in any tech company. Probably Cisco, Apple, Samsung—any of them!”

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Nasdaq

According to findings from a poll conducted during a Nasdaq webinar that delved into the current status of the Omnibus Package, 77% respondents indicated that regulatory compliance is the biggest driver of sustainability at their company. Yet, 51% are either concerned or very concerned about their ability to meet regulatory requirements. These findings highlight an opportunity for companies to enhance their regulatory readiness and build a more resilient reporting foundation. Is your company prepared?

Investing in sustainability software can help ensure companies are prepared to navigate this wave of regulatory complexity. Read the article to learn more.

by Rachel Wallenstein

Previously published by Georgia Trend

Our biggest contribution is making our products well and responsibly. We make stuff, and therefore we ship stuff. We buy a lot of stuff to do this and so we employ a lot of people, directly or indirectly. Here in Georgia, we add the most value. We have 15 facilities with close to 8,000 employees and create 23,120 indirect jobs. Since 2014 we’ve made $3.398 billion in capital investments [in Georgia, specifically]. We’re also proud to be one of the country’s biggest recruiters of veterans.

Continue reading here.

Originally published by Mastercard

By Molly Levine – Director, Global Communications, Mastercard

When it comes to the environmental impact of carbon emissions from everyday consumer purchases, Mastercard — with an acceptance network of more than 150 million merchants, thousands of banking partners and 3.5 billion-plus cards in circulation — is in a unique position to inform and enable people to make more conscious choices.

That’s why the company supported the PlanetPoints pilot project with eco-loyalty app Reewild, part of Mastercard’s Start Path startup engagement program. Its app rewards users for making choices that reduce their carbon footprint. In collaboration with University College London (UCL), Reewild tested a theory that gamifying environmentally conscious choices could lead to a change in behavior.

Inside the PlanetPoints pilot

Designed as an “eco-loyalty system,” PlanetPoints was implemented across the cafes and dining halls on the UCL campus. The technology plugged directly into checkout systems to match itemized transaction data with carbon emissions data and displayed it back through the Reewild app interface. This feature also layered in points, corresponding in value to the most sustainable products, that were redeemable for different offers and rewards. By shopping at participating retailers, students could receive points relative to the carbon footprint of the products they bought, and cash those in for things like bike rentals, food delivery discounts, product vouchers, and even entry into raffles with big prizes like tickets to major sporting events – serving as an incentive to buy the lowest impact options available.

The pilot had a sample of 900 students and ran for six weeks. During this period, there was an 18.8% reduction in emissions from hot meals, and a 16.8% drop in emissions from the average basket of items at checkout. Students reported an intentional shift in behavior to shop at locations where they could receive points for purchases. In tracking student purchasing behavior, those with PlanetPoints made 9.8% more transactions per month, with a 5.5% higher value basket. This insight indicates a win-win opportunity for brands to lower their scope 3 emissions while also driving loyalty and sales, thereby decoupling emissions growth from revenue growth.

“The results of the pilot are exciting,” says Malin Berge, senior vice president and global head of sustainability innovation at Mastercard. “What it shows us is that consumers care, and they make more sustainable choices when that information is there for them.

“Mastercard knows loyalty programs,” she continued. “We run some of the most sophisticated and exciting programs around, but when we put the sustainability lens on top of that, like Reewild is doing with Planet Points, we can use our loyalty expertise to help Start Path companies like Reewild scale that much faster.”

Reewild founder Freddie Lintell says the company is rolling out the model to other sites and exploring how it can serve different customers. “We’re also evolving the system to integrate health alongside environmental metrics,” he said, “creating a more powerful, holistic framework to reward healthier, more sustainable purchasing choices, with tangible benefits that support both individual well-being and public health.”

The action-ambition gap in sustainability

Research shows that 92% of consumers say they want to live a sustainable life, but only 16% are actively changing their behaviours. Mastercard’s Sustainability Innovation Lab works with its network of customers, partners and academia to uncover the drivers and the blockers for tipping the majority into action. The Sustainability Innovation Lab is focused on creating commercially viable concepts that both inspire and reward sustainable consumption amongst consumers while also enabling brands and retailers to get a positive return on investment. The PlanetPoints pilot is the latest development, but it won’t be the last.

“As an academic, I am not as concerned with positive ROI as I am about impact,” said Christopher Marquis, a professor at the University of Cambridge during a roundtable on rewarding sustainable food choices during London Climate Action Week. “There have been decades of studies focused on the financial benefits of embracing sustainability, and despite that there still hasn’t been much growth. Where this pilot has impressed me is that it was focused on rigorously showing how multi-sector partnerships can work, and the role of diverse stakeholders from big corporates like Mastercard, to startups, and also universities.”

Tackling the transition to more sustainable consumption A lack of purchase options and transparency into product sourcing have impeded people from consuming more consciously. That is changing. Learn more

Originally published by Mastercard

Follow along Mastercard’s journey to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere.

Driving Sustainability through Innovative Leadership

In the traditionally male-dominated maritime sector, women like Bronwyn Pountney are redefining leadership and reshaping sustainability on a global scale. Originally from Calgary, Canada – a city historically anchored as an energy production powerhouse but increasingly driven by sustainable innovation – Bronwyn has dedicated her career to aligning business growth with environmental responsibility.

As Environmental Manager for DP World’s Canadian business, Bronwyn is responsible for embedding sustainable practices into all facets of supply chain operations. She draws knowledge from extensive experience leading environmental and regulatory operations across prominent Canadian energy and port organizations. Since joining DP World in 2023, she has become a catalyst for change. As part of her responsibilities, she works on supporting ambitious decarbonization initiatives such as DP World’s hydrogen-fueled rubber-tired gantry (RTG) crane , improving transparency through improved environmental reporting, and integrating sustainable practices into the core of terminal operations.

Based in DP World’s Vancouver office, Bronwyn’s leadership has strengthened DP World’s involvement with the Green Marine program, a rigorous certification that sets environmental performance benchmarks across the maritime industry. Bronwyn’s efforts have directly enabled DP World to secure crucial funding to accelerate green innovations and advance the company’s global sustainability goals.

Bronwyn regularly shares her expertise on the global stage. At the 2025 Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, she was featured on the panel “Powering Ports through Electrification and Alternative Fuels,” where she highlighted DP World’s practical achievements in electrifying port infrastructure, developing shore power systems, and investing in alternative marine fuels to advance the maritime industry’s net-zero goals. Similarly, at the GLOBE Forum 2024, Bronwyn spoke on “Achieving Success Through Value Chain Collaboration Models,” emphasizing the importance of partnership and collaborative innovation in reducing supply chain emissions and achieving ambitious decarbonization targets.

DP World Empowers Women 

Bronwyn’s impact goes beyond environmental stewardship, highlighting DP World’s broader commitment to empowering women within its ranks. Recognizing gender equity and diversity as essential components of sustainability, DP World actively invests in mentorship programs, leadership training, and initiatives that elevate women at all organizational levels.

The company’s actions match its commitments. In 2018, DP World launched #MentorHer, a global mentorship program designed specifically to support female employees’ career development through direct guidance from senior leaders. The results were impressive. In 2019 alone, 121 women participated, sharing overwhelmingly positive feedback. Looking forward, DP World aims to have 1,000 women complete the #MentorHer program by 2030, further embedding gender equality into its corporate culture.

The company continues to invest in women-specific training and mentoring programs across the globe, especially in the Americas. For example, in Brazil, the number of female employees has soared by 200%, with a 30% increase in women occupying leadership positions over the past five years. Brazil’s “She in Operations” program trains and mentors women in logistics, leading to success stories such as the country’s first female wharf operator at the Port of Santos.

In Ecuador, the company’s groundbreaking “Operators for the Future” program actively recruits and trains female employees for traditionally male-dominated roles, such as operating heavy machinery and vehicles. This program exemplifies DP World’s proactive approach to creating inclusive workplaces where women can excel and break barriers. In the Dominican Republic, the “Women Forklift Program” trains women to operate heavy port and terminal machinery. The program trained 15 women in 2024 and continues to provide career opportunities previously unavailable to them.

A Vision for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future

Bronwyn’s journey clearly demonstrates that innovation and environmental responsibility are deeply interconnected – each fueling the other. By integrating sustainability into every aspect of DP World’s operations, Bronwyn illustrates how businesses can thrive economically while respecting our planet.

DP World proudly champions women leaders like Bronwyn Pountney, recognizing that a truly sustainable future depends on diverse perspectives, inclusive leadership, and collaborative innovation.

Interested in joining DP World? Check our active job postings here.

Episode Summary

With consumers and investors demanding more sustainable products, the world is paying closer attention to what biodiversity loss means for our planet. Companies around the world are embracing these challenges as protecting biodiversity is key in preserving business success. In this episode, we are joined by 3M to discuss how we can unlock the power of people, ideas and science to drive innovation and reimagine what is possible, all while protecting biodiversity.

Host: Maithreyi Seetharaman
Show Producer: Lisa Desai
Sound Production: Dow Creative Element; PhiLipp Schweidler, Department of Noise
Artwork: Dow Creative Element

Episode Notes

With consumers and investors demanding more sustainable products, the world is paying closer attention to what biodiversity loss means for our planet. Companies around the world are embracing these challenges as protecting biodiversity is key in preserving business success. In this episode, we are joined by 3M to discuss how we can unlock the power of people, ideas and science to drive innovation and reimagine what is possible, all while protecting biodiversity.

A pair of former interns will step into Medtronic jobs with an extraordinary project on their resumes: inventing a first-of-its-kind virtual reality simulator for self-breast exams.

Grace Bonacci and Carrie Nguyen — and their classmates at the University of Connecticut — developed the technology, which could aid in the diagnosis of breast cancer, in just eight months and with little budget (outside of a virtual reality headset, they spent less than $100).

Filling a gap

Not knowing how to perform a self-breast exam — or what to feel for — can be deterrents to performing them at all, said Dr. Leslie Holton, a research and technology innovation director in the Surgical Operating Unit at Medtronic.

Although 40% of diagnosed breast cancers are detected by women who feel a lump, and self-exams are simple and non-expensive, studies show only 32% of women know that self-breast exams are a method to screen for cancer. 

Holton was a graduate student in her early 20s when she lost her own mother to metastatic breast cancer. The experience left her wondering: If women could get hands-on experience to learn what’s normal and what’s not in a self-exam, could it lead to earlier cancer detection?

“I really wanted to create a haptic feedback glove you could use to teach women how to do breast self-exams,” said Holton, whose background is in virtual reality medical education. “Back then, as many ideas are, it was well before its time.”

But when the idea was mentioned in a conversation between Holton and Dr. Krystyna Gielo-Perczak, a professor at the University of Connecticut who shared a passion for women’s health, it gained a second life. Medtronic quickly became a sponsor for a senior engineering design project under Gielo-Perczak’s guidance to turn Leslie’s long-time dream into reality.

“It’s at the time now where there’s the equipment to do this, the technology to do this,” Holton said.

Five students, including Bonacci and Nguyen, eagerly signed up for project, ranking it at the top of their most-desired list.

Unfiltered creativity

To bring it to life, Bonacci and Nguyen’s team of five built a glove partly made up of balloons that used haptic feedback, or technology that relies on a sense of touch. They acquired fake cancerous and non-cancerous breast tissue and took force measurements, translating the balloon’s response to a simulated nodule. 

Wearing the glove, a user can get a sense for what feeling a potentially cancerous nodule in breast tissue feels like.

“As a woman, sometimes women’s health can be underrepresented in the broader medical community, or people are ashamed to talk about it,” Bonacci said. “That’s what drew me to this project.”

Emily Jacobs is a senior principal biomedical engineer at our company and mentored the students on the project. She’s also an intern-turned-employee herself. She helped the students troubleshoot problems, offered guidance about inclusivity for their design and business perspective, sourced materials, and served as a sounding board for their ideas.

“They were very inspired, driven, and independent,” said Jacobs, who earned a doctorate from the University of Connecticut. “It was fun to see them be really passionate about the project and it showed in their work.”

What’s next?

While there are no immediate plans to take the students’ design further, Medtronic walked away with learnings from their work, said Holton, including how they embraced a low fidelity approach.

“The vision that we started with, and that the students continued, was something that could be used in an OB-GYN’s office or on a mobile mammogram truck,” she said.

Among the skills they gained from the senior design project was maintaining a patient-centered mindset, Nguyen said.

“Something that Dr. Gielo-Perczak reminded us a lot while we were working on the project was to always remember and think about the human that’s on the other end of your project,” she said.

In summer 2025, Medtronic welcomed 488 students to its internship program and 97 to its Women in Science & Engineering Early Outreach program. Fifty-seven percent of summer interns from 2024 who were eligible for conversion became full-time employees and 96% of all interns last year reported satisfaction in their experience.

Learn more about Medtronic.

Verizon

Foreign Language Academy in Kansas City builds student confidence through adaptable, tech-forward lesson plans.

Verizon Innovative Learning Schools Coach Abigail Thompson collaborates with colleagues at Foreign Language Academy, teaching them how to implement Verizon Innovative Learning HQ lesson plans in their classrooms using available technology. Photo credit: Nicole Bissey

When Abigail Thompson joined Foreign Language Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, as the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools Coach, she made it her personal mission to inspire teachers and students with technology and share ways that classroom tech could reshape learning.

“I had already been a teacher in Kansas City Public Schools, and I was really interested in technology and how it’s best used in the classroom,” Thompson says. “I like that I still get to work with kids in some capacity, but I love that I get to help other teachers be great.”

In her role, Thompson has helped teachers successfully implement lesson plans from Verizon Innovative Learning HQ, which offers free to all educators more than 450 tech-based lessons, created by partners like McGraw Hill, Discovery Education and Arizona State University. The lesson plans cover subjects from game design to biology and beyond.

Occasionally, Thompson finds an appealing lesson plan that suggests using a tool or app that the school doesn’t have. “The reality is maybe we don’t always have that exact resource,” she says. But because the lesson plans on Verizon Innovative Learning HQ lay out exactly what is needed for each course of study, Thompson says she easily finds smart substitutions. “Exploring what tools we have and can utilize instead has been big for us,” she says.

One of the most popular Verizon Innovative Learning HQ resources at Thompson’s school, for example, is the Stop-Motion Animation lesson, which gives students a fun, hands-on way to be creative while learning core STEM principles. The lesson plan recommends using the Stop Motion Studio app, but Thompson found a substitute app already available on school tablets with the same capabilities.

Students find the technology both easy-to-use and engaging. “After I take all the pictures, I go to the app where you can edit and add effects,” says fifth grader Gabriela. “I feel like I’m learning when I use it. You’re expanding your brain to learn about editing photography and video together.” The lesson also teaches physics (understanding motion and gravity), engineering (designing sets and props) and math (measuring time and frame rates).

Thompson said another lesson plan that’s a favorite across all grades levels is Emoji Design, which recommends using a graphic design software program that the school doesn’t own. Thompson identified five alternate applications that worked with the material, however, giving students several options for creating their designs.

The resulting emojis are as different as the students are. Kevin, a sixth grader, made a sports-themed emoji to symbolize his love of soccer and basketball; eighth grader Maria Jose taught herself how to create a gradient background to use in her design.

The flexibility of the lesson plans on Verizon Innovative Learning HQ brings creative energy to the classroom, giving students the freedom to explore and innovate during lessons, which in turn builds their confidence. For some lesson plans, the students can choose which tools they will use to complete their work, and students will make selections based on their own interests and comfort level. “One of the kids got so excited about [a popular music production app],” says Thompson. “He said, ‘I’m really good at keeping beats, so I’m working in percussion.’ I just love that.”

Having agency and authorship of their learning experience gives the students the confidence to develop new skills. “Using technology for creation rather than consumption in the classroom is so important,” Thompson says. “It helps students see technology as a tool and gives them so many options to show who they are and what they know. Creating choice has given voice to the students. It helps them gain both knowledge and confidence, so I just think that’s awesome.”

The students think it’s awesome, too. “We integrate our own ideas into our work,” says Gabriel, a seventh grader.

Leo, also in seventh grade, puts it more simply: “The lessons are more fun.”

Tim Nash, a STEM and robotics teacher, says that his students are repurposing skills they learned in the Verizon Innovative Learning HQ lessons and bringing them to other subjects. “We have a journalism class that does weekly video announcements using [readily available video production apps],” Nash says. “It’s something new that we’re doing, because the kids now know how to use the tools in ways that can be implemented outside of the classroom.”

Those video announcements are shared school-wide. And, as Nash points out, it’s “pretty cool” that middle-school students are stepping into these kinds of roles, inspired to branch out and apply what they’ve learned in real-life scenarios.

For her colleagues, meanwhile, Thompson fosters ongoing creative usage of Verizon Innovative Learning HQ lessons at the school by sharing resources, lesson examples and project ideas with teachers, partly through a monthly newsletter and partly through one-to-one calls with her co-workers. And just like their students, the teachers are taking the ball and running with it, with creative and engaging results. “The teachers see the resources and take them and they make them their own,” she says.

Verizon Innovative Learning is a key part of the company’s responsible business plan to help move the world forward for all. As part of the plan, Verizon has an ambitious goal of providing 10 million youth with digital skills training by 2030. Educators can access free lessons, professional development, and immersive learning experiences to help bring new ways of learning into the classroom by visiting Verizon Innovative Learning HQ.

Mercedes-Benz Vans, LLC (Charleston, SC) recently assembled the five-millionth Mercedes-Benz AG Sprinter van — and it went to us! The all-electric eSprinter was assembled at the company’s facility in Charleston, South Carolina and handed over to FedEx, a long-standing Mercedes-Benz customer. The eSprinter, which is fully electric, joins our growing global fleet of electric vans used for last-mile package delivery. 

A cool thing about the eSprinter? It doesn’t produce any tailpipe emissions, which helps us work towards our goal of carbon-neutral operations by 2040.

Click here to learn about FedEx Cares, our global community engagement program.