Tag: 3BL

ATLANTA, January 2, 2025 /3BL/ – Georgia-Pacific has completed the upgrades to its Mt. Wolf, Pennsylvania, corrugated facility that began in 2022. The investment totaled more than $18 million and funded new equipment to modernize the plant’s operations.

The upgrades included a new rooftop cyclone, a new corrugator and a state-of-the-art specialty gluer. This new equipment gives the plant improved efficiency, the ability to run digital print, and the capability to handle harder-to-run business.

“This project has been a labor of love for our facility, and we are proud that it is finally complete,” said Mario Williams, area operations leader. “The investment is a testament to the pride our employees have in our plant and in the Mt. Wolf community, and we look forward to sharing that pride with our teams, customers and neighbors for years to come.”

Georgia-Pacific’s Mt. Wolf facility is also continuing their investments in the community. Every year, the plant makes a $5,000 donation to the Eagle Fire Company, $5,000 to the Union Fire Company and $2,500 to Leg Up Farm. These donations help ensure our first responders and those in the community with unique challenges are getting the support they need.

“Part of Georgia-Pacific’s vision is to be good stewards of our communities and help the areas where we operate thrive,” said Daniel Brooks, area general manager. “By contributing to these local organizations, not only are we living up to our vision, but we’re also showing those in the community and surrounding area that we care about what’s happening outside our walls as much as what’s happening inside.”

The Mt. Wolf plant directly employs approximately 100 people. Over the past 10 years, just over $26 million in capital funds has been invested in the facility.

Stay updated on business news from Georgia-Pacific by visiting https://news.gp.com.

Media Contact: 
Lauren Campen 
404-652-8962

# # #

The global supply chain has taken a beating in recent years. From pandemic-induced bottlenecks to geopolitical tensions and climate disasters, supply chains have become a stress test for how businesses adapt—or crumble—under pressure. But as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention, and supply chains are undergoing a technological glow-up of epic proportions.

Enter advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and automation—the holy trinity of supply chain transformation. These tools are not just patching up old systems; they’re fundamentally reinventing how organizations manage demand, mitigate risks, and build sustainability into their operations. To investigate the impact of these tools, DP World and Supply Chain Dive co-authored a report, Supply Chains Prepping for a Greener, More Agile Future, in which we found that almost 90% of supply chain leaders are doubling down on sustainable practices, while adopting digital tools that make their networks more agile and efficient.

So, what’s driving this revolution? Let’s break it down.

Advanced Analytics: Turning Data Into a Crystal Ball

If data is the new oil, then advanced analytics is the refinery. Supply chains generate oceans of data, from inventory levels to delivery schedules, but it’s worthless without the tools to make sense of it. Advanced analytics is stepping in to sift through this digital debris, turning raw data into actionable insights that can predict demand shifts, streamline inventory management, and optimize transport routes.

The numbers speak for themselves. Companies using business intelligence report a 80% boost in operational efficiency, according to Edge Delta. For instance, the manufacturing solutions provider Jabil slashed inventory and time-to-market by 50% while trimming lead times and costs by 30% using analytics-driven strategies. And they’re not alone. Retail behemoth Walmart leverages analytics to reduce stockouts by 16%, ensuring shelves stay stocked and customers stay happy.

Beyond inventory, advanced analytics is also playing a crucial role in sustainability. By integrating tools like digital twins—virtual replicas of physical supply chains—companies can simulate scenarios to reduce waste, optimize resource use, and slash emissions. DP World found that nearly 60% of executives are using analytics to consolidate shipments, shorten transportation distances, and cut energy use in warehouses. The result? A supply chain that’s not just faster, but greener too.

AI: The Brain Behind the Operation

Artificial intelligence has officially graduated from sci-fi to supply chain MVP. Its ability to process complex datasets, learn from patterns, and make real-time decisions has made it indispensable for everything from demand forecasting to supplier management.

Take Microsoft, for example. By embedding AI into its supply chain, the tech giant reduced forecasting errors significantly and optimized operations across the board. According to research from IBM, 50% of companies using AI-powered predictive analytics have cut forecast errors by at least 20%, helping businesses avoid costly overstocking or stockouts. And AI isn’t just about crunching numbers—it’s about action. AI-driven cobots (collaborative robots) are now working alongside humans in warehouses, handling tasks like packing, sorting, and even defect detection.

The impact is staggering. Companies using AI have reported a 15% drop in logistics costs and a 35% improvement in inventory efficiency, according to McKinsey. But perhaps AI’s most exciting application is in risk management. Predictive models can flag potential disruptions—like weather events or supplier delays—before they happen, giving businesses the agility to pivot in real-time. As DP World’s survey highlights, 43% of executives see AI as a game-changer for reducing supply chain risks.

And then there’s the sustainability angle. Generative AI is helping companies track ESG (environmental, social, and governance) metrics, ensuring compliance with carbon reduction goals. In fact, 84% of supply chain leaders now prioritize vendors with strong decarbonization capabilities, cementing AI’s role as both a cost-saver and a planet-saver.

Automation: The Supply Chain’s Silent Workhorse

While AI gets the headlines, automation quietly powers the gears of modern supply chains. From robotic process automation (RPA) in back-office operations to IoT-enabled tracking systems, automation is elevating supply chains to new heights of speed and scalability.

Consider enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, which integrate everything from procurement to logistics into a unified platform. 66% of companies adopting ERP solutions reported improved operational efficiency, according to Oracle. Meanwhile, IoT devices are providing real-time visibility into shipments, inventory, and equipment health. Supply Chain Digital notes that IoT can boost supply chain efficiency, citing the success L’Oréal found managing customer feedback in real time.

But automation isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about resilience. Automated systems can dynamically adapt to demand shocks, reroute shipments, and even preempt equipment failures. Case in point: Business Insider reported how Caterpillar used IoT and predictive maintenance to save costs and cut downtime.

And let’s not forget the environmental benefits. Automated warehouses and fleets powered by electric and hybrid vehicles are slashing carbon footprints while keeping costs in check. DP World’s report found that 38% of supply chain leaders are adopting fuel-efficient driving practices, while 37% are switching to energy-efficient transportation methods like electric trucks. In an era where sustainability is no longer optional, automation is leading the charge toward greener supply chains.

The future of supply chains is bright, fast, and green. Advanced analytics, AI, and automation are rewriting the rules, making supply chains more efficient, resilient, and sustainable than ever before. If you’re ready to dive deeper into how these technologies are shaping the industry, check out DP World’s full report here.

From groundbreaking campaigns to innovative partnerships, in 2024 CARE received accolades that underscore the transformative power of collaboration, storytelling, and purpose-driven work.

CARE has not only impacted communities globally but has also set the standard for excellence in marketing, communications, and partnership-building. As we reflect on the year, CARE has garnered recognition from prestigious awards that celebrate the ingenuity, dedication, and partnerships that promote and fuel our work.

Highlights of our award-winning year include:

Championing Brands That Matter

This year, CARE was named to Fast Company’s Brands that Matter list, placing us in the company of brands including The Female Quotient, Nike, and Sephora. The list highlights companies that demonstrate purpose, are meaningful participants in their communities, and leverage culture to forge a deeper relationship with fans and customers.

This recognition honors our commitment to embedding social impact at the heart of our brand, ensuring that every program, campaign, and partnership reflects our mission.

Fast Company also recognized CARE’s corporate partner Mastercard on the list, in part for their support of Strive Women – a CARE-led program designed to strengthen the financial health and resilience of women-led small businesses in Pakistan, Peru, and Vietnam.

Pioneering campaigns with creative excellence and collaboration 

In 2024, CARE partnered with P&G and celebrity photographer Nigel Barker to capture portraits, interviews, and videos of women in Sierra Leone working alongside CARE and demonstrating the strength and leadership of women around the world. Our campaign, She Leads The World, broke new ground and secured wins for Best Influencer Collaboration and Best Non-Profit Campaign at the 2024 Anthem Awards.

CARE also gained recognition for our 2023 International Women’s Day campaign, Women Know How, securing the ANA In-House Excellence Award in the socially responsible category. CARE’s focus on equity and representation shone brightly in this campaign which secured the Grand Prize in ANA’s 2024 SeeHer GEM Award – a distinction that honors authentic and accurate portrayals of women and girls in media. At Engage for Good 2024, CARE was awarded the Gold Halo Award for Best Social Impact Creative.

Exceptional partnerships with global leaders

Our work with corporate partners including Cargill, P&G, and PepsiCo demonstrates the power of shared purpose and strategic collaboration.

With PepsiCo, CARE earned multiple accolades, including the AMCham Thailand Award, Silver in the Global Good Awards (UK) Partnership of the Year, and Ragan’s 2024 Global CSP and ESG Initiative Award.Our partnership with Cargill also received recognition at the U.S. Chamber Awards, showcasing how aligned visions can drive global change.Both of CARE’s award-winning 2023 and 2024 International Women’s Day campaigns were brought to life with support from P&G.

Excellence in digital storytelling

Finally, CARE News reached new heights with these awards:

2023 Eppy Award for Best Magazine Website, a tribute to our team’s dedication to creating compelling, user-centered platforms that engage and inspire.Communicator Award for Excellence in Writing: This award celebrated the powerful narrative of Mary Kate Wilson’s story, “Lebanon today: seeking a path through years of loss”.

Behind every award is the tireless effort of CARE’s teams who continuously push the boundaries of what’s possible.

As we celebrate this year’s achievements, we remain focused on the road ahead. The recognition we’ve received fuels our resolve to continue delivering impactful work that inspires change. Here’s to another year of CARE, Always There.

Earlier this year, ScottsMiracle-Gro, our Ortho brand, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation and the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association (COBA) opened a new bee yard on our Marysville, Ohio campus to reinforce our commitment to pollinators. To continue our support for pollinators beyond our own backyard, The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in partnership with The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation and additional partners announced grants to conserve monarch butterflies and other insect pollinators in 24 states.

According to NFWF, the projects supported by 17 grants will increase the quality and quantity of pollinator habitat for monarch butterflies, rusty patched bumble bees and other native pollinators. The projects will also enhance outreach and support voluntary conservation efforts on private working lands.

“Pollinators are critical for the success of gardeners and we are proud to partner with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation on these grants to protect and restore their habitats,” said Brian Herrington, president of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation. “Aligned with our Pollinator Promise to help establish and enhance pollinator gardens, we look forward to the continued efforts in conserving and recovering pollinators through the Monarch Butterfly and Pollinators Conservation Fund.”

This is the third year of the partnership between NFWF and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation, supporting the Monarch Butterfly and Pollinators Conservation Fund. Learn more about the ways we GroMoreGood in the world through our Foundation.

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.

View original content here.

Luuna® Mattresses is a Mexican startup that offers a pioneering 100% foam mattress that can be vacuum compressed into a compact box. The brand’s disruptive omnichannel marketing model and vertically integrated production process have made it one of the fastest growing brands in Latin America.

The exceptional quality of the brand’s polyurethane foam mattresses has been endorsed by a Notary Public as the Best Rated Mattress in Mexico.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Developing a quality product to support business expansion

As it ramped up its ambitious expansion plans, Luuna® intended to establish the most vertically integrated model in Mexico which would enable it to develop new foams quickly in response to market demand. To achieve this – it required the brand to find reliable suppliers who would be capable of efficiently delivering high-quality polyurethane formulations.

The reliability and stability of the collaboration was crucial to support Luuna® during a rapid growth phase.

“We are grateful to work with Dow and to rely on Predictive Intelligence. Thanks to Dow, we have the confidence to pursue an aggressive expansion plan, whilst ensuring that we deliver quality and reliability to our customers.”

– William Kasstan, Co-Founder and CMO, Luuna® Mattresses

SOLUTION

Generating reliable, precise formulations – thanks to digital innovation

Since working with Dow, Luuna® has benefited from DOW™ Predictive Intelligence, a digital platform that brings together over 120 years of Dow’s polyurethane formulations.

“Predictive Intelligence is a virtual lab, powered by a unified global data platform for artificial intelligence models, which allows our product development scientists to instantly visualize, analyze, and model thousands of ingredients and properties, significantly reducing development times of new polyurethane formulations,” said Sarah Eckersley, Vice President Research and Development, Dow Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure. “It puts the customer at the center of our processes, enabling Dow scientists to search for the right formulation in days or even hours.”

The precision of the formulation that DOW™ Predictive Intelligence delivers has enabled Luuna® to successfully develop new foams — allowing the company to offer a greater variety of mattresses — in a single production test. This has drastically reduced development time, while lowering the associated costs. As a result, it enables the company to pursue its expansion goals, such as creating the most advanced production center in Latin America which is expected to produce one mattress every 30 seconds.

Fewer production trials also means avoiding emissions from additional trials. Luuna® has reduced scrap to 1% in all production. These benefits help the company on its sustainability journey.

“At Dow, we are transforming the way we collaborate with our customers – combining our materials science expertise with cutting-edge digital technology to significantly improve product formulation and accelerate time-to-market,” said Aylin Tame, General Manager, Dow Mexico. “The success of our collaboration with Luuna® is evidence of the inherent possibilities of Predictive Intelligence.”

Discover more about DOW™ Predictive Intelligence

About the article

This case study was developed by a cross-discipline team representing materials and market expertise across Dow, Inc. in collaboration with our customer, Luuna® Mattresses. The Predictive Intelligence digital capabilities referenced in it have been developed by a team sponsored by Sarah T. Eckersley, Ph.D., R&D vice president of Dow Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure.

Luuna® is a trademark property of KSMV Capital, S.A.P.I de C.V.

Luuna® Mattresses is a Mexican startup that offers a pioneering 100% foam mattress that can be vacuum compressed into a compact box. The brand’s disruptive omnichannel marketing model and vertically integrated production process have made it one of the fastest growing brands in Latin America.

The exceptional quality of the brand’s polyurethane foam mattresses has been endorsed by a Notary Public as the Best Rated Mattress in Mexico.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Developing a quality product to support business expansion

As it ramped up its ambitious expansion plans, Luuna® intended to establish the most vertically integrated model in Mexico which would enable it to develop new foams quickly in response to market demand. To achieve this – it required the brand to find reliable suppliers who would be capable of efficiently delivering high-quality polyurethane formulations.

The reliability and stability of the collaboration was crucial to support Luuna® during a rapid growth phase.

“We are grateful to work with Dow and to rely on Predictive Intelligence. Thanks to Dow, we have the confidence to pursue an aggressive expansion plan, whilst ensuring that we deliver quality and reliability to our customers.”

– William Kasstan, Co-Founder and CMO, Luuna® Mattresses

SOLUTION

Generating reliable, precise formulations – thanks to digital innovation

Since working with Dow, Luuna® has benefited from DOW™ Predictive Intelligence, a digital platform that brings together over 120 years of Dow’s polyurethane formulations.

“Predictive Intelligence is a virtual lab, powered by a unified global data platform for artificial intelligence models, which allows our product development scientists to instantly visualize, analyze, and model thousands of ingredients and properties, significantly reducing development times of new polyurethane formulations,” said Sarah Eckersley, Vice President Research and Development, Dow Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure. “It puts the customer at the center of our processes, enabling Dow scientists to search for the right formulation in days or even hours.”

The precision of the formulation that DOW™ Predictive Intelligence delivers has enabled Luuna® to successfully develop new foams — allowing the company to offer a greater variety of mattresses — in a single production test. This has drastically reduced development time, while lowering the associated costs. As a result, it enables the company to pursue its expansion goals, such as creating the most advanced production center in Latin America which is expected to produce one mattress every 30 seconds.

Fewer production trials also means avoiding emissions from additional trials. Luuna® has reduced scrap to 1% in all production. These benefits help the company on its sustainability journey.

“At Dow, we are transforming the way we collaborate with our customers – combining our materials science expertise with cutting-edge digital technology to significantly improve product formulation and accelerate time-to-market,” said Aylin Tame, General Manager, Dow Mexico. “The success of our collaboration with Luuna® is evidence of the inherent possibilities of Predictive Intelligence.”

Discover more about DOW™ Predictive Intelligence

About the article

This case study was developed by a cross-discipline team representing materials and market expertise across Dow, Inc. in collaboration with our customer, Luuna® Mattresses. The Predictive Intelligence digital capabilities referenced in it have been developed by a team sponsored by Sarah T. Eckersley, Ph.D., R&D vice president of Dow Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure.

Luuna® is a trademark property of KSMV Capital, S.A.P.I de C.V.

ATLANTA, December 30, 2024 /3BL/ – Lenovo, the world’s #1 supercomputer provider, showcased new high-performance innovations that deliver game-changing energy efficiency and accelerated computing to help scientific and industry researchers propel AI-powered transformation at any scale. Unveiled at Supercomputing 2024 (SC24), the new powerful, energy-efficient platforms will help scientists, engineers, and researchers push the boundaries of scientific discovery while making it possible for today’s enterprises to unlock AI’s potential.

As data center infrastructure takes center stage as the heart of producing AI and the digital economy, increasing energy demands must be met responsibly. Long known as the world’s largest gathering of high-performance computing (HPC) and research leaders, SC’s spotlight has grown to attract a wide range of c-level executives from across finance, healthcare, manufacturing and beyond as today’s business leaders aggressively pursue the deployment of AI solutions across their organizations. For today’s enterprises, HPC is part of the core engine that makes it possible to maximize AI’s potential.

Unlocking AI Factories with Cooler Supercomputing for All 

AI and HPC capabilities are unlocking data-driven insights, accelerated outcomes, and advanced use cases, but organizations across every industry are presented with new thermal requirements as they push for ever-increasing levels of capacity to support AI workloads. Lenovo offered insight into the challenges businesses are facing in the AI era while diving into the future of cooling AI factories with the latest partner innovations.

Backed by more than a decade of expertise and 40+ patents for scalable supercomputing, Lenovo 6th Generation Neptune® Liquid Cooling helps tackle this problem by using liquid to remove heat, which is much more efficient than traditional air cooling. The revolutionary new chassis flips servers to a vertical orientation to fit today’s most powerful accelerated computing technologies in a compact system that is 100% liquid cooled, eliminating the need for power-consuming fans and dramatically improving energy efficiency. Designed for industry-standard 19-inch racks, organizations of any size can now leverage the high performance of accelerated computing, one tray at a time, using standard power in an open ecosystem.

“With this design, every data center provider can fit these systems into their rooms without any major modifications. That means no reinforced floors, no specialized power, no specialized doors to get into the room,” said Scott Tease, Vice President of Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, Products. “Through the groundbreaking advancements in Lenovo Neptune liquid cooling, users can take advantage of the highest performance computing that is being delivered now and in the future.”

New 6th generation Lenovo Neptune water-cooled supercomputing servers use the latest processor and accelerator technologies to deliver scalable efficiency that unleashes AI. At the show, Lenovo announced support for the NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell NVL4 Superchip, showcasing the newly available Lenovo ThinkSystem SC777 V4 Neptune.

Featuring the 6th generation open-loop, direct warm-water cooling innovation, enterprise customers of any size can use the Lenovo ThinkSystem SC777 V4 Neptune to run trillion-parameter AI models that bring products to market faster, at lower cost and with higher energy efficiency.  At the core of the SC777, the NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell NVL4 Superchip delivers revolutionary performance by combining four NVIDIA NVLink-connected Blackwell GPUs unified with two NVIDIA Grace CPUs over NVLink-C2C. Customers can achieve massive scale with the choice of NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand or Spectrum-X Ethernet platforms. New Enterprise Reference Architectures with NVIDIA also help joint customers build their own AI factories — high-performance, scalable and secure data centers for manufacturing intelligence.

Also leveraging the 6th generation Lenovo Neptune design, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SC750 V4 Neptune is designed to handle technical computing, grid deployments, and analytics workloads in various fields such as research, life sciences, energy, engineering, and financial simulation. The system supports the new Intel Xeon 6900P-series 500W Granite Rapids AP processors and new 8800 MHz MRDIMM DDR5 memory. Its industry-leading direct water-cooling system ensures steady heat dissipation, allowing CPUs to maintain accelerated operation and maximize compute performance.

Stemming from its continued partnership with NVIDIA, Lenovo also showcased systems that will unleash AI acceleration for mainstream enterprise servers with the NVIDIA H200 NVL platform. For mainstream scientific computing applications across higher-ed, health care and life sciences, energy, and financial services, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 with NVIDIA H200 NVL delivers powerful performance and efficient scaling while enabling flexibility in configuration choice to meet the needs of a broad set of HPC workloads. Enabled across a full-stack AI portfolio, the Lenovo Hybrid AI Advantage with NVIDIA empowers organizations to rapidly turn intelligence into outcomes and bring AI-powered compute anywhere—with speed and ease.

Accelerating Clean Energy Transformation with Water Cooled Supercomputers

Supercomputers are used everywhere—from car and airplane design, oil field exploration, and financial risk assessment, to genome mapping and weather forecasting. Lenovo showcased how its water-cooled supercomputers are enabling accelerated transformation across the globe, reflecting the shift toward accelerated, energy-efficient supercomputing that is accessible to all.

In Italy, ENEA, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, selected Lenovo for the installation of an HPC system at the Portici (Naples) hub to accelerate research activities on clean energy, in particular on nuclear fusion. This new HPC system, consisting of 758 nodes with 2 Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8592+ CPUs, will allow to bring the computational capabilities of CRESCO – Computational Center for Research on Complex Systems – the supercomputing system hosted in the Portici Research Center, from the current 1.01 to over 6.5 Petaflops,1 placing it at the top of the national scene in terms of processing power.

Sustainability was also a crucial factor for selection by ENEA, and Lenovo’s HPC solution guarantees better energy efficiency than in the past. The use of Lenovo Neptune direct water-cooling technology captures up to 98% of the heat produced by the supercomputer while saving the energy used for the fans. Thanks to the greater efficiency, the temperature of the CPUs does not reach critical values, avoiding the reduction of the maximum frequency of the cores.

Also in Italy, Cineca has signed an agreement with Lenovo for the installation of a new High HPC system for the scientific community to research fusion energy. The new infrastructure will be able to perform about 45 million billion operations per second (PFlop/s). It will be installed in the Cineca data center in Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna) at the end of 2024 and will become part of the Bologna Technopole ecosystem. The supercomputer will be dedicated to the numerical simulation of plasma physics and the structural analysis of advanced materials for nuclear fusion.

Cineca is a university consortium, one of the largest computing centers in Italy and one of the most advanced in the world for high-performance computing, home to numerous national and international HPC projects. The Lenovo supercomputer, selected through a competitive public tender, provides high energy efficiency, allowing the reduction of the system’s cooling electricity consumption by 15% through Lenovo Neptune™ Direct Water-Cooling technology.

As the number one provider of supercomputers in the world according to TOP500.org, Lenovo works closely with key industry-leading partners to develop, integrate, and deploy the technologies of exascale-level computing to organizations of all sizes.

Implementing High-Performance Private AI with Liquid Cooled Colocation 

Elsewhere around the globe, for customers who need maximum AI and HPC performance but don’t have liquid-cooling infrastructure, Lenovo partners with leading colocation companies to offer Neptune® ready infrastructure for private AI workloads. These colocation partnerships are helping customers implement high-performance private AI even if they lack the data center footprint. 

Partnering with Lenovo, Digital Realty, built onto its standardized high-density colocation offering with the introduction of Lenovo Neptune cooling technology in more than half its data centers globally, representing a significant leap in addressing the challenges of high-density workloads presented by AI across a full range of high-growth industries. Moreover, Digital Realty’s Private AI Exchange further enhances these capabilities by providing a secure and scalable environment for AI workloads. This exchange facilitates seamless integration and collaboration, ensuring that customers can leverage the full potential of their AI investments.

Recently, in partnership, Digital Realty and Lenovo enabled a global financial services provider to scale and distribute HPC capabilities that enable financial risk management strategies and calculations that are crucial to business success. By leveraging Digital Realty’s PlatformDIGITAL® to expand data center capacity with colocation, the financial services provider avoided the capital expenditure that would be involved in constructing their own data center facility and deployed 6x faster as a result of Digital Realty’s ability to retrofit existing data centers to meet advanced cooling requirements.

Through deploying Lenovo Neptune™ direct liquid-cooling infrastructure with high-density colocation, the company also achieves its goal of engineering the most energy-efficient solution possible with the possibility of critical heat recycling. The result is a 30% improvement in energy efficiency from using direct liquid cooling. 

Explore how Lenovo is creating cooler HPC and delivering transformative solutions that maximize efficiency and unlock the data center as the heart of AI-accelerated transformation at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/servers-storage/neptune/.

ATLANTA, December 30, 2024 /3BL/ – Lenovo, the world’s #1 supercomputer provider, showcased new high-performance innovations that deliver game-changing energy efficiency and accelerated computing to help scientific and industry researchers propel AI-powered transformation at any scale. Unveiled at Supercomputing 2024 (SC24), the new powerful, energy-efficient platforms will help scientists, engineers, and researchers push the boundaries of scientific discovery while making it possible for today’s enterprises to unlock AI’s potential.

As data center infrastructure takes center stage as the heart of producing AI and the digital economy, increasing energy demands must be met responsibly. Long known as the world’s largest gathering of high-performance computing (HPC) and research leaders, SC’s spotlight has grown to attract a wide range of c-level executives from across finance, healthcare, manufacturing and beyond as today’s business leaders aggressively pursue the deployment of AI solutions across their organizations. For today’s enterprises, HPC is part of the core engine that makes it possible to maximize AI’s potential.

Unlocking AI Factories with Cooler Supercomputing for All 

AI and HPC capabilities are unlocking data-driven insights, accelerated outcomes, and advanced use cases, but organizations across every industry are presented with new thermal requirements as they push for ever-increasing levels of capacity to support AI workloads. Lenovo offered insight into the challenges businesses are facing in the AI era while diving into the future of cooling AI factories with the latest partner innovations.

Backed by more than a decade of expertise and 40+ patents for scalable supercomputing, Lenovo 6th Generation Neptune® Liquid Cooling helps tackle this problem by using liquid to remove heat, which is much more efficient than traditional air cooling. The revolutionary new chassis flips servers to a vertical orientation to fit today’s most powerful accelerated computing technologies in a compact system that is 100% liquid cooled, eliminating the need for power-consuming fans and dramatically improving energy efficiency. Designed for industry-standard 19-inch racks, organizations of any size can now leverage the high performance of accelerated computing, one tray at a time, using standard power in an open ecosystem.

“With this design, every data center provider can fit these systems into their rooms without any major modifications. That means no reinforced floors, no specialized power, no specialized doors to get into the room,” said Scott Tease, Vice President of Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, Products. “Through the groundbreaking advancements in Lenovo Neptune liquid cooling, users can take advantage of the highest performance computing that is being delivered now and in the future.”

New 6th generation Lenovo Neptune water-cooled supercomputing servers use the latest processor and accelerator technologies to deliver scalable efficiency that unleashes AI. At the show, Lenovo announced support for the NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell NVL4 Superchip, showcasing the newly available Lenovo ThinkSystem SC777 V4 Neptune.

Featuring the 6th generation open-loop, direct warm-water cooling innovation, enterprise customers of any size can use the Lenovo ThinkSystem SC777 V4 Neptune to run trillion-parameter AI models that bring products to market faster, at lower cost and with higher energy efficiency.  At the core of the SC777, the NVIDIA GB200 Grace Blackwell NVL4 Superchip delivers revolutionary performance by combining four NVIDIA NVLink-connected Blackwell GPUs unified with two NVIDIA Grace CPUs over NVLink-C2C. Customers can achieve massive scale with the choice of NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand or Spectrum-X Ethernet platforms. New Enterprise Reference Architectures with NVIDIA also help joint customers build their own AI factories — high-performance, scalable and secure data centers for manufacturing intelligence.

Also leveraging the 6th generation Lenovo Neptune design, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SC750 V4 Neptune is designed to handle technical computing, grid deployments, and analytics workloads in various fields such as research, life sciences, energy, engineering, and financial simulation. The system supports the new Intel Xeon 6900P-series 500W Granite Rapids AP processors and new 8800 MHz MRDIMM DDR5 memory. Its industry-leading direct water-cooling system ensures steady heat dissipation, allowing CPUs to maintain accelerated operation and maximize compute performance.

Stemming from its continued partnership with NVIDIA, Lenovo also showcased systems that will unleash AI acceleration for mainstream enterprise servers with the NVIDIA H200 NVL platform. For mainstream scientific computing applications across higher-ed, health care and life sciences, energy, and financial services, the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675 V3 with NVIDIA H200 NVL delivers powerful performance and efficient scaling while enabling flexibility in configuration choice to meet the needs of a broad set of HPC workloads. Enabled across a full-stack AI portfolio, the Lenovo Hybrid AI Advantage with NVIDIA empowers organizations to rapidly turn intelligence into outcomes and bring AI-powered compute anywhere—with speed and ease.

Accelerating Clean Energy Transformation with Water Cooled Supercomputers

Supercomputers are used everywhere—from car and airplane design, oil field exploration, and financial risk assessment, to genome mapping and weather forecasting. Lenovo showcased how its water-cooled supercomputers are enabling accelerated transformation across the globe, reflecting the shift toward accelerated, energy-efficient supercomputing that is accessible to all.

In Italy, ENEA, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, selected Lenovo for the installation of an HPC system at the Portici (Naples) hub to accelerate research activities on clean energy, in particular on nuclear fusion. This new HPC system, consisting of 758 nodes with 2 Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8592+ CPUs, will allow to bring the computational capabilities of CRESCO – Computational Center for Research on Complex Systems – the supercomputing system hosted in the Portici Research Center, from the current 1.01 to over 6.5 Petaflops,1 placing it at the top of the national scene in terms of processing power.

Sustainability was also a crucial factor for selection by ENEA, and Lenovo’s HPC solution guarantees better energy efficiency than in the past. The use of Lenovo Neptune direct water-cooling technology captures up to 98% of the heat produced by the supercomputer while saving the energy used for the fans. Thanks to the greater efficiency, the temperature of the CPUs does not reach critical values, avoiding the reduction of the maximum frequency of the cores.

Also in Italy, Cineca has signed an agreement with Lenovo for the installation of a new High HPC system for the scientific community to research fusion energy. The new infrastructure will be able to perform about 45 million billion operations per second (PFlop/s). It will be installed in the Cineca data center in Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna) at the end of 2024 and will become part of the Bologna Technopole ecosystem. The supercomputer will be dedicated to the numerical simulation of plasma physics and the structural analysis of advanced materials for nuclear fusion.

Cineca is a university consortium, one of the largest computing centers in Italy and one of the most advanced in the world for high-performance computing, home to numerous national and international HPC projects. The Lenovo supercomputer, selected through a competitive public tender, provides high energy efficiency, allowing the reduction of the system’s cooling electricity consumption by 15% through Lenovo Neptune™ Direct Water-Cooling technology.

As the number one provider of supercomputers in the world according to TOP500.org, Lenovo works closely with key industry-leading partners to develop, integrate, and deploy the technologies of exascale-level computing to organizations of all sizes.

Implementing High-Performance Private AI with Liquid Cooled Colocation 

Elsewhere around the globe, for customers who need maximum AI and HPC performance but don’t have liquid-cooling infrastructure, Lenovo partners with leading colocation companies to offer Neptune® ready infrastructure for private AI workloads. These colocation partnerships are helping customers implement high-performance private AI even if they lack the data center footprint. 

Partnering with Lenovo, Digital Realty, built onto its standardized high-density colocation offering with the introduction of Lenovo Neptune cooling technology in more than half its data centers globally, representing a significant leap in addressing the challenges of high-density workloads presented by AI across a full range of high-growth industries. Moreover, Digital Realty’s Private AI Exchange further enhances these capabilities by providing a secure and scalable environment for AI workloads. This exchange facilitates seamless integration and collaboration, ensuring that customers can leverage the full potential of their AI investments.

Recently, in partnership, Digital Realty and Lenovo enabled a global financial services provider to scale and distribute HPC capabilities that enable financial risk management strategies and calculations that are crucial to business success. By leveraging Digital Realty’s PlatformDIGITAL® to expand data center capacity with colocation, the financial services provider avoided the capital expenditure that would be involved in constructing their own data center facility and deployed 6x faster as a result of Digital Realty’s ability to retrofit existing data centers to meet advanced cooling requirements.

Through deploying Lenovo Neptune™ direct liquid-cooling infrastructure with high-density colocation, the company also achieves its goal of engineering the most energy-efficient solution possible with the possibility of critical heat recycling. The result is a 30% improvement in energy efficiency from using direct liquid cooling. 

Explore how Lenovo is creating cooler HPC and delivering transformative solutions that maximize efficiency and unlock the data center as the heart of AI-accelerated transformation at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/servers-storage/neptune/.

by Amy Domini of Domini Impact Investments

Did you know that today our nation has a healthy CDFI network that makes financial services accessible and economic prosperity possible for millions? NACDLF, now known as Opportunity Finance Network, which is now celebrating 40 years, and its members have distributed $111,087,489,003 over those four decades. Behind the figures are million new jobs and over 800,000 new businesses in addition to the housing and community services provided to millions. Further, just this past year, CDFIs received roughly $16 billion in federal grants for the development of clean energy, decarbonization of transportation and the built environment and pathways to a clean energy economy by and for disadvantaged communities. All this grew from an initial disbursement of $35 million, thoughtfully handled, from the US Treasury. And the women are still strong in support. OFN CDFI’s women’s network has 1,600 members in 15 local chapters.

Community Development Financial Institutions are an essential component in bending towards justice, and women were essential architects of the field.

Read Amy’s full article featuring an insightful perspective on the Women who nurtured the roots and helped grow CDFIs. All here- https://greenmoney.com/a-history-of-the-women-who-nurtured-the-roots-of-cdfis

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As originally published by GoDaddy’s Venture Forward research initiative

Venture Forward Survey Research Since 2019

4 Countries (AU, CA, UK, US)50,000+ Customers20+ Cities5 Years of Research

US microbusinesses at-a-glance1

Microbusinesses are small: 93% of microbusinesses have fewer than 10 employees

55% are solo entrepreneurs45% have employees

Microbusinesses generate income.

31%: Main40%: Supplemental29%: No Income

41% of respondents in the U.S. turned their supplemental income into their main source of income.

About 1 in 3 currently own more than one business.

Microbusinesses can support a household. 
Also known as “breadwinners”

Over 1 in 3 contributes 51% or more to household income

Marketing and capital continue to rank as top challenges for new businesses1

Ranking of top challenges when first starting a business:

39%: Marketing my business online (social media, ads, promotions, etc.22%: Access to financial capital21%: Marketing my business using traditional media (print, radio, TV, etc.)18%: Getting my business website online effectively15%: Taxes14%: Finding employees, independent contractors or consultants with necessary skills12%: Networking with other business owners12%: Licensing/permits11%:Affordable space10%: Rising costs on wages and materials

Microbusinesses help close equity gaps1

51% Women-Owned

+10% since August 2019

31%: About 3 out of 10 women with a microbusiness are the breadwinners in their home.

Breadwinners contribute 51% or more to their household income

13% of U.S. microbusinesses are owned by a Black entrepreneur, and of those, 73% are owned by Black women.

Motivations may vary, but all microbusiness owners are committed1

“Why did you start your business?”

46%: To be my own boss31%: Support a cause of hobby31%: I can have more success on my own30%: Flexibility with time24%: Make extra money21%: Dreamt of starting a business19%: To contribute to my community17%: Idea for new product/service13%: To have fun13%: Wanted a career change

Microbusiness owners agree: Life is better as an entrepreneur.

66%: Better30%: No Different4%: Worse

Serial entrepreneurs demonstrate resiliency, and it pays off1

75% of business owners who previously closed or sold a business without a profit persevered to create new businesses.

4 out of 10 current business owners who previously didn’t sell at a profit are now the breadwinners of their households.

61%: Household contribution is 50% or less39%: Household contribution is 51% or more

Previous outcomes appear to affect whether to start new ventures full-time or as a side-hustle, but over one-third still jump all-in regardless.

I left my prior job to start my current business

52%: Sold last business for profit34%: Sold last business at no profit or loss

I started my current business while still working elsewhere

33%: Sold last business for profit47%: Sold last business at no profit or loss

Entrepreneurs are betting on themselves and creating jobs for others1

1 out of 4 business owners with a negative outlook on the national economy still plan to hire employees in the next 12 months.

Positive outlook for my business vs. the economy

 Jul’20Jul’21Feb’22Aug’22Feb’23Aug’23Feb’24Business52%69%73%60%73%72%74%Economy28%51%48%37%32%34%39%

People who plan to hire in the next 12 months are driven by their business outlook not their economic outlook.

Positive Outlook

86%: Business46%: Economy

Negative Outlook

2%: Business29%: Economy

The South and Midwest are the most likely to hire additional employees over the next 12 months (28%), while the West is the least likely (20%).

Northeast: (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont) Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, lowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin) South (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia) West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming)

Generative Al (GenAI) is picking up with microbusinesses1

44% agree that GenAl will help them compete with larger businesses.50% tried GenAl tools in the past few months.25% tried GenAl for their business specifically.

GenAI use is connected with confidence and higher recent monthly1 revenue

54%: Confident29%: Neutral17%: Not Confident

Microbusiness owners whose monthly revenue increased in the last six months are more likely to have used GenAl for their business.

Over the last six months, how has your business’ average monthly revenue changed?

My revenue increased

28%: Not used GenAI36%: Used GenAI

My revenue decreased

29%: Not used GenAI24%: Used GenAI

Who is and isn’t using GenAl?1

Business owners tend to use GenAl for business more than personal use.

White

13%: Yes, for personal24%: Yes, for my business 

Black

21%: Yes, for personal33%: Yes, for my business

Asian

22%: Yes, for personal27%: Yes, for my business

Hispanic

14%: Yes, for personal30%: Yes, for my business

Nearly 1 in 3 Black-owned microbusinesses use GenAl for business.

The majority of microbusiness owners who tried GenAl said they experienced a positive impact on their business. Those who haven’t, however, most commonly cite the folowing five reasons for their hesitation:

38%: I’m not familiar with Al32%: My business has no need for it12%: I don’t have time5%: It would take too long to learn for it to be useful3%: It costs too much money

Download the full report.

GoDaddy Venture Forward 2024 Annual Report | U.S. Edition

This report is powered by the latest data from Venture Forward, GoDaddy’s research initiative to quantify the presence and impact of over 20 million global online microbusinesses on their local economies, while shining a light on the entrepreneurs behind them.

We’re here to support entrepreneurs.

Contact GoDaddy Venture Forward at VentureForward@GoDaddy.com

1Source: GoDaddy Venture Forward U.S. National Survey. February 2024 (N=3,565)