Tag: 3BL

Originally published by Solar Power World

“Domestic content compliance is determined off of the manufacturer’s actual production cost of a piece of equipment,” said Tony Ollmann, principal in charge of construction risk services and compliance at Baker Tilly LLP. “It’s not what the owner pays for it; it’s not what the contractor pays for it. You have to go all the way back to the manufacturer, and they have to share their confidential cost book in order to calculate domestic content. That’s a little bit like someone asking to see your W2 before they make you an offer on your next job.”

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Watch Baker Tilly’s on-demand webinar to learn more about the domestic content bonus requirement.

Communities need a lot of things to grow: access to essentials like healthy food and a strong economy, and also intangibles like connection and purpose. Charlotte-based social entrepreneur Zack Wyatt saw a way to connect them all.

The Carolina Farm Trust (CFT) is a non-profit dedicated to strengthening our local food systems by working alongside partners, farmers, markets and consumers to increase access to healthy food. Their vision is to make the Charlotte region a global leader in local food production. Trane Technologies is proud to be a founding partner.

Organic Growth: The Carolina Farm Trust and Trane Technologies – Watch the video here.

Sustainable and resilient food systems

CFT is an innovative and holistic model, truly working from farm to market to table to support people every step of the way. The non-profit offers programming to support local farmers, supports land conservation efforts and operates an urban farm and a market.

At the Urban Farm at Aldersgate, CFT director of urban agriculture Mariah Henry and her team grow a dozen varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers. They offer a neighborhood market on Fridays, and host educational tours for students and volunteer opportunities for community members. A classically trained chef with a passion for community engagement, Mariah sees Aldersgate as a blueprint for sustainable, equitable and profitable urban farm systems.

The team at CFT is also in the process of building the CFT Market, a new concept that combines a commercial kitchen, event space, meat processing facility, culinary education center, and wholesale and retail for produce, dairy, meat and prepared foods. Located in East Charlotte, CFT Market will offer farmers, butchers, bakers, chefs and neighbors a place to come together to build community and support the local food economy.

Walking alongside our partners

Trane Technologies is proud to walk alongside our partners at CFT. In addition to financial support, we share our expertise in a range of functions, from finance to marketing and operations. Our employees volunteer at Aldersgate and CFT Market, and CFT provided catering and joined in the conversation for our Purple Teams Summit this year, the gathering of our global employee-led volunteer network. Our shared goal is to increase community access to fresh, healthy food and agricultural jobs and education.

Trane Technologies Director of Global Citizenship Deidra Parrish Williams and her team members Amy Younger and China Antoine volunteering at the Urban Farm at Aldersgate.

What began as a conversation over breakfast between CFT founder Zack Wyatt and Trane Technologies VP of Sustainability Scott Tew two years ago has grown into a strong partnership between two organizations that believe in the power of transforming systems to make a positive impact on our communities.

Learn more about the Carolina Farm Trust.

Learn more about Trane Technologies’ corporate citizenship and community engagement work.

Want to be a part of a company that believes in the power of community engagement? Explore careers at Trane Technologies.

Resources to be focused on critical areas of need: small business assistance, housing and infrastructure

Truist to engage community partners to help identify highest-impact investments

CHARLOTTE, N.C., November 20, 2024 /3BL/ – Truist Financial Corporation (NYSE: TFC) today announced a new initiative, Truist Cares for Western North Carolina, a three-year, $725 million commitment to support critical small business, housing and infrastructure efforts in Western North Carolina as communities impacted by Hurricane Helene recover and rebuild.

The commitment will include new, dedicated capital for local small businesses, residents and municipalities, impact capital from Truist Community Capital, philanthropic giving from Truist Foundation and additional on-the-ground humanitarian support from Truist teammates to help establish long-term resiliency in this devastated region. To optimize this new initiative, Truist will work closely with community partners, including key civic and business stakeholders, and disaster response organizations, to help assess specific needs in the region and tailor programs in direct response to community feedback. These program resources are expected to be available beginning in December 2024.

“Western North Carolina, a community Truist has proudly served for decades, has begun the journey to recovery, and today, we are sharing the depth of Truist’s long-term commitment to supporting those efforts,” said Truist Chairman and CEO Bill Rogers. “Our purpose is to inspire and build better lives and communities. Through this new initiative, Truist will address areas of critical need in Western North Carolina, including a focus on small businesses as well as housing and infrastructure projects. By listening to the needs of the community and leveraging our expertise, capital and partnerships, we believe we can make a meaningful difference.”

Truist Cares for Western North Carolina will include the following dedicated support over three years:

$650 million in new, dedicated capital to support rebuilding and resiliency, including:$340 million in dedicated lending for qualified small businesses, residential mortgages, and commercial real estate$310 million in low-cost, tax-exempt municipal lending for infrastructure projects$50 million in loans and/or investments in Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) by Truist Community Capital$25 million in philanthropic grants to local and national nonprofit organizations from Truist Foundation through trusted disaster response partnersRallying Truist teammates to serve the community with a challenge to volunteer 10,000 hours

The regional need for small business, housing and infrastructure support over the long term is clear. Small businesses contribute immensely to the economic backbone and social vibrancy of Western North Carolina and are particularly financially vulnerable in the recovery period of a natural disaster. Additionally, Hurricane Helene caused billions of dollars in home and property damage, while also devastating critical infrastructure including roads, bridges and water systems.

To express interest in participating in the Truist Cares for Western North Carolina initiative, nonprofits, local small businesses, government offices and consumers can call 844-4TRUIST, contact their relationship manager or visit their local Truist branch. More information can be found at Truist.com/TruistCares.

About Truist

Truist Financial Corporation is a purpose-driven financial services company committed to inspiring and building better lives and communities. As a leading U.S. commercial bank, Truist has leading market share in many of the high-growth markets across the country. Truist offers a wide range of products and services through our wholesale and consumer businesses, including consumer and small business banking, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth management, payments and specialized lending businesses. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Truist is a top-10 commercial bank with total assets of $523 billion as of Sept. 30, 2024. Truist Bank, Member FDIC. Learn more at Truist.com.

About Truist Foundation

Truist Foundation is committed to Truist Financial Corporation’s (NYSE: TFC) purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities. The foundation, an endowed private foundation established in 2020 whose operating budget is independent of Truist Financial Corporation, makes strategic investments in a wide variety of nonprofit organizations centered around two focus areas: building career pathways to economic mobility and strengthening small businesses to ensure all communities have an equal opportunity to thrive. Embodying these focus areas are the foundation’s leading initiatives — the Inspire Awards and Where It Starts. Learn more at Truist.com/Foundation.

About Truist Community Capital

Truist Community Capital, LLC (TCC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Truist Bank with a diversified set of debt and equity capital products that are designed to improve and revitalize communities across the bank’s footprint. As an investor in the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program, TCC has invested in over $4 billion of Qualified Equity Investments (QEIs). Its subsidiary, Truist Community Development Enterprises LLC (TCDE), is a certified Community Development Entity (CDE) with the CDFI Fund, a division of the U.S. Treasury, and has been granted 12 awards of NMTC allocation authority, totaling $768 million and generating new jobs and enhancing access to critical services for low-income persons and low-income communities.

SOURCE Truist Financial Corporation

Media Contact: Kyle Tarrance, media@truist.com

Written by Erin Gallegos |Corporate Responsibility Manager

Gen Blog | Community

Technology abuse is an increasingly common part of domestic violence. Many abusers use technology like stalkerware to track their partners’ device activity, location and movements, email and online messages, and browsing histories. Intimate partner violence often involves financial abuse, in which abusers steal their partner’s identity, improperly access online accounts or ruin their credit scores. There is a critical need to ensure survivors and advocates understand tech-facilitated abuse, its impact and how to identify it. They also need digital tools that can help.

Providing Free Products to Domestic Violence Survivors 

Our product donation initiative is dedicated to providing survivors with the information and tools to help them lead their online lives safely and confidently.

Through this unique program, Norton, a part of Gen, is donating up to 5,000 free product licenses to survivors of domestic violence to help them recover from financial or technological abuse. These licenses will be distributed by eligible organizations that are members of the Safe Shelter Collaborative and TechSoup will help facilitate the donations, for which organizations can apply online.

Norton 360 Deluxe, one of the products offered through the new donation program, can prevent activity or location tracking, information theft, installation of malicious programs and uninvited changes to devices. We are also offering Norton Secure VPN as a standalone product, which protects a person’s online privacy by hiding the computer’s address from websites visited from any device. Eligible organizations may request up to 100 licenses of each product, which then must be distributed to survivors of domestic abuse.

The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) is another nonprofit partner of ours – which represents the 56 U.S. state and territorial domestic violence coalitions, who in turn represent more than 2,000 local programs and the millions of survivors they serve annually – also collaborated on the new pilot program.

Learning Good Cyber Hygiene 

According to Armin Waiscek, Senior Research Manager at Gen, good cyber hygiene is diligence, care and human judgment, and it’s an important part of an online safety plan. “Security software is extremely important, as is education on Cyber Safety awareness. This involves day-to-day vigilance and learning how to spot the signs that someone has access to, or is trying to access your online accounts, devices or location.”

Waiscek offered tips on how important cyber hygiene is to domestic violence survivors. “Through our work with NNEDV, we have learned survivors often need help to secure their digital assets, remove or stop using shared accounts, and create accounts on clean devices that haven’t been accessed by their abusers,” he said.

Here are a few suggestions to improve cyber hygiene:

Create a list of all platforms, systems and devices that are in use.Change passwords to all accounts or create new accounts.Update any online accounts that are accessible through Facebook, Google, Twitter, or Apple ID log-ins.Use unique passwords that exclude personally identifiable information (i.e., birthdays, names, pet names, etc.).Utilize a (new) password manager to track passwords and to create strong, unique passwords

Maximizing Our Social Impact 

This pilot program exemplifies our continued large-scale effort to align our volunteering, giving and product donation programs for maximum impact. In addition to this program, we have provided training and technical assistance to NNEDV for years. We also announced a $100,000 grant each year (2022-2024) to NNEDV to support the organization’s Safety Net technology abuse response initiative, as well as its Economic Justice program. We are also a founding member of the Coalition Against Stalkerware, which was formed to help keep malicious technology like stalkerware and creepware out of the hands of abusers.

To learn more, visit the new donation program landing page.

Written by Erin Gallegos |Corporate Responsibility Manager

Gen Blog | Community

Technology abuse is an increasingly common part of domestic violence. Many abusers use technology like stalkerware to track their partners’ device activity, location and movements, email and online messages, and browsing histories. Intimate partner violence often involves financial abuse, in which abusers steal their partner’s identity, improperly access online accounts or ruin their credit scores. There is a critical need to ensure survivors and advocates understand tech-facilitated abuse, its impact and how to identify it. They also need digital tools that can help.

Providing Free Products to Domestic Violence Survivors 

Our product donation initiative is dedicated to providing survivors with the information and tools to help them lead their online lives safely and confidently.

Through this unique program, Norton, a part of Gen, is donating up to 5,000 free product licenses to survivors of domestic violence to help them recover from financial or technological abuse. These licenses will be distributed by eligible organizations that are members of the Safe Shelter Collaborative and TechSoup will help facilitate the donations, for which organizations can apply online.

Norton 360 Deluxe, one of the products offered through the new donation program, can prevent activity or location tracking, information theft, installation of malicious programs and uninvited changes to devices. We are also offering Norton Secure VPN as a standalone product, which protects a person’s online privacy by hiding the computer’s address from websites visited from any device. Eligible organizations may request up to 100 licenses of each product, which then must be distributed to survivors of domestic abuse.

The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) is another nonprofit partner of ours – which represents the 56 U.S. state and territorial domestic violence coalitions, who in turn represent more than 2,000 local programs and the millions of survivors they serve annually – also collaborated on the new pilot program.

Learning Good Cyber Hygiene 

According to Armin Waiscek, Senior Research Manager at Gen, good cyber hygiene is diligence, care and human judgment, and it’s an important part of an online safety plan. “Security software is extremely important, as is education on Cyber Safety awareness. This involves day-to-day vigilance and learning how to spot the signs that someone has access to, or is trying to access your online accounts, devices or location.”

Waiscek offered tips on how important cyber hygiene is to domestic violence survivors. “Through our work with NNEDV, we have learned survivors often need help to secure their digital assets, remove or stop using shared accounts, and create accounts on clean devices that haven’t been accessed by their abusers,” he said.

Here are a few suggestions to improve cyber hygiene:

Create a list of all platforms, systems and devices that are in use.Change passwords to all accounts or create new accounts.Update any online accounts that are accessible through Facebook, Google, Twitter, or Apple ID log-ins.Use unique passwords that exclude personally identifiable information (i.e., birthdays, names, pet names, etc.).Utilize a (new) password manager to track passwords and to create strong, unique passwords

Maximizing Our Social Impact 

This pilot program exemplifies our continued large-scale effort to align our volunteering, giving and product donation programs for maximum impact. In addition to this program, we have provided training and technical assistance to NNEDV for years. We also announced a $100,000 grant each year (2022-2024) to NNEDV to support the organization’s Safety Net technology abuse response initiative, as well as its Economic Justice program. We are also a founding member of the Coalition Against Stalkerware, which was formed to help keep malicious technology like stalkerware and creepware out of the hands of abusers.

To learn more, visit the new donation program landing page.

November 20, 2024 /3BL/ – Ceres released comprehensive guidance to help the U.S. insurance industry reimagine its future in a climate-changing world, offering a clear roadmap for maintaining insurance availability, affordability and the industry’s long-term health amid escalating and costly climate disasters.

The severity and frequency of record-breaking hurricanes, wildfires, and other unnatural catastrophes continues to destroy entire communities and economies. The U.S. faced $92 billion in economic damages in 2023, and 2024, already predicted to be the warmest on record, faces $100 billion in losses, with Hurricanes Milton and Helene expected to cost more than $50 billion each. This has caused insurers to retreat from high-risk markets and raise insurance premiums.

Ceres 10-Point Plan for the Insurance Industry presents a new vision for how insurance can navigate this reality, issuing a set of recommendations for insurance companies, regulators, and other industry stakeholders, including investors and governments. Ceres’ plan addresses the multifaceted approach needed from insurers and regulators to address increasing climate risks and build a more resilient and sustainable insurance sector.

“The insurance industry stands at a critical crossroads,” Jaclyn de Meddici Bruneau, Director of Insurance at Ceres. “By leveraging their deep risk management and economic influence, insurers and regulators can and must do more to adapt to our increasingly changing climate. Our 10-point plan offers a clear path for their longevity and growth while strengthening the communities they serve with actions to help improve climate mitigation and resilience.”

Ceres’ 10-point plan calls for:

Supporting Mandatory Climate Risk Disclosure: Require medium and large businesses to report climate risks and mitigation strategies.Utilizing Predictive Climate Modeling and AI Integration: Integrate AI and real-time climate data to improve risk assessment and pricing accuracy.Supporting Innovative Insurance Products: Develop parametric insurance and emerging financial instruments that can provide faster, more flexible coverage.Incentivizing Climate Mitigation Efforts: Offer premium discounts for properties and businesses implementing climate resilience measures.Incorporating Climate-Adjusted Pricing Models: Create flexible, forward-looking pricing strategies that account for long-term climate projections.Considering a Federal Climate Risk Reinsurance Program Form a commission to evaluate the feasibility of a federal reinsurance program to provide stability during unprecedented climate catastrophes.Implementing Climate Transition Action Plans: Adopt, publish, and implement a transition plan detailing your decarbonization strategies.Updating Climate-Resilient Building Codes: Work with state and local officials to implement strict, regionally tailored construction standards.Fostering Equity and Accessibility Measures: Develop targeted programs to ensure insurance coverage for vulnerable communities.Leveraging Insurers as Investors: Leverage the industry’s $8 trillion in assets to support climate transition and resilience.

Ceres has issued a number of reports on the insurance industry and its response to a changing climate. Earlier this year Ceres released, Navigating Climate Risks: Progress and Challenges in U.S. Insurance Sector Disclosures, analyzing the insurance industry’s annual climate-related financial risk disclosures. In 2023, Ceres, in partnership with the California Department of Insurance and Manifest Climate, released the first systematic review of U.S. insurance companies’ climate risk strategies.

About Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets 

The Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets is center within Ceres that aims to transform the practices and policies that govern capital markets by engaging federal and state regulators, financial institutions, investors, and corporate boards to act on climate change as a systemic financial risk. For more information, visit ceres.org/accelerator.

November 20, 2024 /3BL/ – Ceres released comprehensive guidance to help the U.S. insurance industry reimagine its future in a climate-changing world, offering a clear roadmap for maintaining insurance availability, affordability and the industry’s long-term health amid escalating and costly climate disasters.

The severity and frequency of record-breaking hurricanes, wildfires, and other unnatural catastrophes continues to destroy entire communities and economies. The U.S. faced $92 billion in economic damages in 2023, and 2024, already predicted to be the warmest on record, faces $100 billion in losses, with Hurricanes Milton and Helene expected to cost more than $50 billion each. This has caused insurers to retreat from high-risk markets and raise insurance premiums.

Ceres 10-Point Plan for the Insurance Industry presents a new vision for how insurance can navigate this reality, issuing a set of recommendations for insurance companies, regulators, and other industry stakeholders, including investors and governments. Ceres’ plan addresses the multifaceted approach needed from insurers and regulators to address increasing climate risks and build a more resilient and sustainable insurance sector.

“The insurance industry stands at a critical crossroads,” Jaclyn de Meddici Bruneau, Director of Insurance at Ceres. “By leveraging their deep risk management and economic influence, insurers and regulators can and must do more to adapt to our increasingly changing climate. Our 10-point plan offers a clear path for their longevity and growth while strengthening the communities they serve with actions to help improve climate mitigation and resilience.”

Ceres’ 10-point plan calls for:

Supporting Mandatory Climate Risk Disclosure: Require medium and large businesses to report climate risks and mitigation strategies.Utilizing Predictive Climate Modeling and AI Integration: Integrate AI and real-time climate data to improve risk assessment and pricing accuracy.Supporting Innovative Insurance Products: Develop parametric insurance and emerging financial instruments that can provide faster, more flexible coverage.Incentivizing Climate Mitigation Efforts: Offer premium discounts for properties and businesses implementing climate resilience measures.Incorporating Climate-Adjusted Pricing Models: Create flexible, forward-looking pricing strategies that account for long-term climate projections.Considering a Federal Climate Risk Reinsurance Program Form a commission to evaluate the feasibility of a federal reinsurance program to provide stability during unprecedented climate catastrophes.Implementing Climate Transition Action Plans: Adopt, publish, and implement a transition plan detailing your decarbonization strategies.Updating Climate-Resilient Building Codes: Work with state and local officials to implement strict, regionally tailored construction standards.Fostering Equity and Accessibility Measures: Develop targeted programs to ensure insurance coverage for vulnerable communities.Leveraging Insurers as Investors: Leverage the industry’s $8 trillion in assets to support climate transition and resilience.

Ceres has issued a number of reports on the insurance industry and its response to a changing climate. Earlier this year Ceres released, Navigating Climate Risks: Progress and Challenges in U.S. Insurance Sector Disclosures, analyzing the insurance industry’s annual climate-related financial risk disclosures. In 2023, Ceres, in partnership with the California Department of Insurance and Manifest Climate, released the first systematic review of U.S. insurance companies’ climate risk strategies.

About Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets 

The Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets is center within Ceres that aims to transform the practices and policies that govern capital markets by engaging federal and state regulators, financial institutions, investors, and corporate boards to act on climate change as a systemic financial risk. For more information, visit ceres.org/accelerator.

Written by Kim Allman | Head of Corporate Responsibility and Public Policy

Gen Blog | Community

Technology is evolving at such a rapid pace that it can feel difficult to keep up with how to stay safe online. As we discussed in our most recent Threat Report, the threat landscape is accelerating quickly. But it’s important to remember that there are simple, effective ways to reduce our exposure to digital dangers and make our time online more secure. That’s what this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month is all about.

Every October, Cybersecurity Awareness Month educates people all over the world about online safety and empowers them to protect their data from cybercrime. Companies, nonprofits, government agencies and more come together to raise awareness of common and emerging cyber threats, as well as the steps we can take to keep our personal information out of harm’s way.

Simple Steps to ‘Secure Our World’

This year’s theme for Cybersecurity Awareness Month is “Secure Our World,” focusing on the top four ways to protect yourself, your family and your business from online threats. These include:

Using strong passwords and a password managerTurning on multi-factor authenticationRecognizing and reporting phishingUpdating software

Password security is also about more than choosing the right combination of letters and numbers. Petra Dlabalová is an alum of one of the training programs at Czechitas, an organization helping women in Czechia build digital skills and transition into the tech industry. Petra reminds us that threats to our passwords can emerge in the physical world, as well.

To learn more about how to protect yourself, your family and your business online this Cybersecurity Awareness Month, check out blog posts on two-factor authentication, spotting phishing, identity theft and data privacy from Norton, LifeLock and Avast three of our trusted Cyber Safety brands.

Diversifying the Cybersecurity Workforce

One of the ways we make sure that Cyber Safety skills are in the hands of as many people as possible is by promoting women in tech. Czechitas is just one example of the leading global nonprofits we partner with to expand Cyber Safety education. We also work closely with Women4Cyber, with whom we recently pledged to help close the gender gap in Europe’s cybersecurity industry through extended support of their mentoring programs.

Nikola Groverová, Senior Data Scientist, recently joined a panel on AI at the second annual Women4Cyber Conference at the Louwman Museum in The Hague, a prominent hub for cybersecurity expertise.

We also partner year-round with nasscom foundation, an organization doing similar work across India, including in rural communities. We recently heard from Chandana and Meghna Nerella, twin sisters who completed nasscom foundation’s Upskilling Women Engineers in Cybersecurity program, supported by Gen. They spoke about not only the impact of the program but also the core themes of Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

“The Cybersecurity Program has been a turning point for both of us,” they said.

For more information on our Cyber Safety education and training efforts, read our 2024 Social Impact Report.

CASE Construction Equipment, a brand of CNH, is providing essential support in the wake of Hurricane Helene and Milton’s devastating impact to the southeastern region of the U.S.

Equipment such as compact track loaders with grapple attachments, wheel loaders and crawler excavators have been sent to help Team Rubicon with the heavy-duty work of clearing trees, mud and debris.

As part of a recently launched CNH Disaster Response program, CASE is dedicating six compact track loaders with grapple attachments as a fleet that will be devoted to Team Rubicon efforts. The CNH Disaster Response program is a new effort designed to quickly deploy equipment to disaster-stricken communities.

In addition, CASE is deploying equipment to communities in need through its extensive dealer network. To date, CASE and the CASE dealer network have loaned 10 machines to the effort and is in daily communication with Team Rubicon to address needs as they arise.

“Building communities, and rebuilding them when disaster strikes, is core to what we do at CASE,” said Terry Dolan, Vice President — North America, CASE Construction Equipment.

When it comes to disaster response, volunteers from the veteran-led nonprofit Team Rubicon are some of the first to arrive. Also known as “Greyshirts,” Team Rubicon volunteers include sawyers and heavy equipment operators who clear trees and debris from roads so emergency crews can access impacted communities.

“Hurricanes Helene and Milton definitely created a tremendous amount of need,” said Jeff Byard, Vice President of Operations, Team Rubicon. “We’ve already served 45+ communities across five states and have multiple response operations in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. Our strengths as an organization are our deep ties within local communities and the nationwide network of Greyshirt volunteers who provide no-cost services to better the lives of disaster survivors.”

In addition to deploying machinery for use during disasters, CNH and its charitable foundation over the years have supported Team Rubicon’s mission by providing financial support. Also, CASE and the CASE dealer network have made space available to execute critical heavy equipment operating training for Team Rubicon volunteers. In the past two years, CASE has expanded training support from one to nine locations across the U.S. and Canada.

For more information about how CASE Construction Equipment and CNH support Team Rubicon, visit Team Rubicon | CASE Construction Equipment (casece.com). To donate to Team Rubicon’s Hurricane Helene relief efforts, visit https://donate.teamrubiconusa.org/donation/helene24.

Southwire’s Cofer Technology Center, a hub for Research & Development (R&D) initiatives, installed an innovative heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system using geothermal heat pump technology.

Since becoming fully operational in November of 2023, the system has enabled significant energy and cost savings for the Cofer Technology Center, resulting in an approximately 40 % decrease in electricity consumption for the whole building.

“Southwire’s R&D initiatives are at the forefront of innovation,” said Axel Schlumberger, Senior Vice President of Research & Development. “As we invest in the development of products that support renewable energy, electric vehicles and more, we equally strive to showcase sustainable innovation throughout our facility.”

For most areas in the United States, soil temperatures are usually warmer than the air in winter and cooler than the air in summer. Geothermal heat pumps take advantage of these underground temperatures to efficiently heat buildings in the winter and cool buildings in the summer.

With the new system installed, the Cofer Technology Center uses 40% less heating/cooling capacity than it used before. In addition, the former system relied on energy-intensive resistance heaters. Many of these resistance heaters have since been removed, further reducing the building’s monthly power bill.

The closed-loop piping system connects 67 wells in a central location where water is piped throughout the building to each air handler, then back into the well field where the heat is transferred 400 feet into the ground below.

Southwire recently announced an expansion of the Cofer Technology Center, which showcases the company’s commitment to product innovation and sustainability. The expansion was designed with LEED certification in mind as well as a focus on engineering with sustainable components.

To learn more about Southwire’s sustainability initiatives, visit https://www.southwire.com/sustainability.