Tag: 3BL

by Elysabeth Alfano, VegTech Invest

Did you know – Our global food system accounts for 30% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Included in that is food waste which constitutes 8% and animal agriculture which is 18% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

With the growing concerns regarding producing enough food for a global population using our resource intensive system and the mounting negative impacts from the food system on the planet, blended capital investment (philanthropic, government, venture capital, and public markets) is beginning to flow into food systems transformation. Family offices, governments, and investors around the world — 99% of whom aren’t vegan and have no intention of ever becoming vegan — are looking to make a true impact and understand that protein diversification, complementing animal protein, is a powerful way to do so. Here are three key reasons: 

1) Inexpensive: The World Bank is calling for $450-$650 billion in food systems transformation each year for the next 10-15 years. By contrast, new energy innovation needs $3 trillion a year for the foreseeable future.

2) Easy(ier): A foundation for much of the technology of complementary / diversified proteins already exists. Yes, the innovation curve in plant-based innovation and fermented proteins is constantly improving.

3) Quick Impact: Inexpensive and easy solutions mean faster impact compared to other green sectors. Since diversified proteins innovation means reducing methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, the results will be significant.

Read Elysabeth’s insightful article on how to invest in food system transformation here – https://greenmoney.com/the-growth-and-impact-potential-of-investing-in-food-system-transformation

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Originally published on GoDaddy Resource Library

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your career journey, here at GoDaddy.

Hi! My name is Nataša and I am a WordPress Developer. Throughout my time at GoDaddy, I have been fortunate to work with talented people on innovative projects that have not only challenged me but also allowed me to grow both personally and professionally. I believe in fostering an inclusive and collaborative environment, where each team member feels valued. I am truly grateful for my team’s support, which inspires me to continuously enhance my skills. It is of utmost importance to me to actively contribute to our continuous growth and advancement. I genuinely believe in the work we do and find joy in pursuing my passions and values.

What drew you to join GoDaddy?

Some friends from college who joined GoDaddy shared positive experiences, which inspired me to take GoDaddy WordPress courses and become part of the community, even though I was working as a PHP Developer at the time. The opportunity to collaborate with and learn from talented people aligned perfectly with my career goals. Additionally, the company’s values resonate with my own, making it an ideal place for me to grow and contribute.

What’s the most challenging yet rewarding thing that you’ve worked on during your time here?

Looking back, it was undoubtedly during the coronavirus period. After resolving technical issues, I prioritized responding to each client’s questions and even non-work related concerns with empathy, recognizing the fear everyone was facing. In addition to the various business challenges we face, approaching clients with care and understanding, especially during difficult life circumstances, comes with a significant responsibility. It’s important that we handle these interactions with thoughtfulness.

How has your passion for WordPress evolved over time?

My journey with WordPress originally began at GoDaddy, as I had previously only explored it through courses. My passion for the tool has grown significantly over time as I’ve discovered its versatility and the vibrant community surrounding it. Initially, I was drawn to its user-friendly interface for building websites. However, as I explored more, I became fascinated by the endless customization options, plug-ins, and the opportunity to create unique solutions for diverse needs. This journey has inspired me to keep learning and share knowledge with others, enhancing my appreciation for WordPress even further.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I’m an active sports enthusiast and nature lover. So, I spend my free time outdoors. In the winter, you’ll often find me snowboarding, while in the warmer months, I enjoy running, rollerblading, and camping. When I’m in need of some tranquility, I find solace in painting and reading. I also cherish the time spent with family and friends, as their company brings me energy and unwavering support.

Are you enjoying this series and want to know more about life at GoDaddy? Check out our GoDaddy Life social pages! Follow us to meet our team, learn more about our culture (Teams, ERGs, Locations), careers, and so much more. You’re more than just your day job, so come propel your career with us.

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By Rachel Kirkland

For SAIC Vice President of ESG Integration and DEI Initiatives Jeff Raver, small acts can add up to big impacts when it comes to shaping a company’s culture.

This year, several of SAIC’s employee resource groups have focused on allyship to create a culture of inclusion. One member of the Equality Alliance ERG, and an ally to SAIC’s LGBTQ+ workforce, wears a rainbow ribbon pin on her badge lanyard, he said. The ribbon sparked a conversation with her daughter one day when she returned home from work.

“What resulted was a sincere and heartfelt conversation between a mother and her daughter about what it means to be gay and how the feelings her daughter was experiencing were perfectly normal,” Raver said. “The lesson from this incredible interaction is how even the smallest act of allyship can have an enormous impact on the people around us and how our SAIC commitment to ensuring everyone has the space to be their authentic selves is something our employees can take home with them every day.”

Raver said this conversation is just one example of the many efforts outlined in the recently released Corporate Responsibility Report that make up SAIC’s corporate culture, shaping it into the talent magnet and powerful solutions provider it is.

Read the full article on washingtonexec.com

VS&Co is proud to announce that we have been named to the Forbes list of America’s Best Employers for Women 2024. This prestigious award is presented by Forbes and Statista Inc., the leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider.

VS&Co is committed to being a great place to work for women who want to build careers and be supported in living full and successful lives. We also strive to be a leader in gender equality and a supportive force in improving the health and well-being of all women. We believe it’s important that our workforce be a reflection of the communities we serve and our customer base.

“We are incredibly pleased to be recognized by Forbes as a Best Employer for Women,” said Melinda McAfee, Chief Human Resources & Legal Officer, VS&Co. “With women making up 85% of our overall workforce, we are deeply committed to them and have a responsibility and a business imperative to show up for women in all that we do.”

America’s Best Employers for Women were identified in an independent survey from a vast sample of over 150,000 women working for companies employing at least 1,000 people within the U.S. from all industry sectors.

To calculate each company’s ranking, the research and survey responses were combined into a scoring system, with the more recent data and responses from current employees weighted more heavily than information gathered in previous years or from employees with second-hand knowledge of the companies.

Ultimately, the 600 companies with the highest scores made our final ranking of America’s Best Employers For Women 2024, which is presented here.

To learn more about all VS&Co does for women, check out our 2024 Women’s Impact Report here.

This article is co-authored by Emily Vesling, Director of Sustainability, Trane Technologies and Deidra Parrish Williams, Global Corporate Citizenship Leader, Trane Technologies.

Across our global operations, Trane Technologies team members collaborate to realize our purpose to boldly challenge what’s possible for a sustainable world. Our purpose is our call to action, and it does not stop at our company doors. Every day we amplify our impact on issues from global climate action to local community needs through external partnerships. Our partners help Trane Technologies expand our knowledge, our credibility and our reach, and by working together, our impact grows by magnitudes.

Looking together to 2030 and beyond

Our 2030 Sustainability Commitments guide our partnership choices and actions. These commitments define the way forward through continued innovation, climate action and our culture of impact. By working with like-minded partners, we learn from one another and share best practices. And together we are achieving the system-level change required to transform our industry and the world.

Advancing sustainability

In order to avoid the most destructive effects of climate change, the world must reduce carbon emissions, and the built environment has a huge role to play. Trane Technologies innovates to develop heating and cooling technology that reduces emissions, and we are an important part of the solution. But we are only a part. There are materials, such as steel and concrete, that contain embodied carbon. There are different energy sources that power a building. There can also be local regulations for the built environment. Through our partnerships, we can address every part of the built environment ecosystem, and our voice grows stronger.

Case in point: Trane Technologies engages with the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) to support renewable energy policies. Together we have studied how to optimize the electric grid for intelligent energy demand management and energy storage. One solution is to load-shift electricity demand to times when more renewable energy is available, leading to fewer emissions from fossil-fuel based energy sources. By working together, we can define and promote these solutions–and advocate for better energy policy in our sector.

Another benefit of partnerships is to learn from others about emerging topics. For years, Trane Technologies has been a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and in 2023 we joined the WBCSD Roadmap to Nature Positive working group. Our goal in this engagement is to better understand how we can improve efforts to support biodiversity and nature. In alignment with this working group, we completed our first nature impact assessment for our value chain as well as our manufacturing sites globally. We are excited to use the results to identify key areas of opportunity to reduce our impact as well as to support nature-related engagement at the local level.

In 2023, InfluenceMap recognized Trane Technologies as being in the top 5% of companies evaluated for positive and active climate policy engagements aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Partnerships strengthen credibility 

Another incredibly important aspect of partnerships is credibility. We can only do this work to transform our energy systems and make a positive impact on our communities if people trust that we are operating in good faith. This begins by listening.

Our partners educate us on their communities’ priorities and needs, and our plans evolve. By walking alongside us, our partners demonstrate to our communities that we have a shared goal, that they support our work, and we support theirs. We take these relationships very seriously.

We know our partners carefully evaluate us, and we do the same. Trane Technologies’ progress toward our 2030 Sustainability Commitments is backed by data that is rigorous and transparent, and we seek to partner with organizations who are also working in earnest toward shared goals.

Partnerships in our communities

We know that we thrive as a business when our communities thrive as places to live and work. This belief inspires how we engage as a corporate citizen in our communities. Our 2030 Sustainability Commitments highlight our plans to invest $100 million in building sustainable futures for underrepresented communities and dedicate 500,000 employee volunteer hours in our communities by 2030.

We are experts in our industry. But we are not experts in other needed areas, such as educational programming or curriculum development. For help on topics beyond our expertise, we turn to organizations with a deep history of serving their communities.

In 2023, Trane Technologies donated $18.8 million to philanthropic causes. Our team members volunteered 92, 517 hours – reaching 47% of our 2030 goal.

Our partnership with the Urban League of Central Carolinas

For many years, Trane Technologies has collaborated with the Urban League of Central Carolinas to support their work in helping nontraditional professionals develop stronger career options. We fund a vocational program that provides participants with the credentials they need to become HVAC technicians.

Not only does our company provide financial support to make this program possible, but our team members also share hands-on expertise. They routinely participate in the classes and help students understand the full breadth of opportunity and responsibility that comes with being a technician in the field. We teach customer service and time management skills, plus the technical aspects of this business. Additionally, to prepare soon-to-be graduates for the work world, we help them develop their resume and profiles on social media. Sometimes it’s a student’s first job interview, and we’ll hold practice sessions to get them ready. We’ll also connect graduates with our dealer network for potential job opportunities, and on some occasions, we hire students directly out of the program.

In this partnership, we are constantly working with the Urban League to explore how we can better serve the community. We keep an open line of communication–and an open mind about what is possible. When someone suggests a new idea for this collaboration, our organizations trust one another to thoughtfully consider it and decide together.

Our long-standing culture of collaboration

The work we do today with our partners to build capacity, learn together and advocate for a better future has history at Trane Technologies. When we launched the Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability (CEES) in 2010, we immediately formed an Advisory Council on Sustainability with trusted experts from academia, NGOs and industry – the exact composition of the partners we seek to keep.

Ever since the first gathering of that council, we have been investing in relationships and thinking big. We are trying to change the way the world uses energy. This is no small goal. We know we can’t do it alone, and we’re grateful for our partners who walk alongside us and help us bring others into our movement to take climate action together.

Read our 2023 ESG Report to learn more.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) (also known as “The Biodiversity Plan”) was adopted in Montreal in December 2022 under the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) at its fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP15) and consists of four overarching goals and 23 action targets. This landmark agreement sets out global ambition and policy direction for all signatories.

Governments are now developing their National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to demonstrate how they will contribute to the overarching framework. Businesses will play a critical role in the development and implementation of credible NBSAPs and in the overall success of achieving the GBF.

This report aims to set out the current challenges around business engagement in the GBF, synthesize existing guidance on this topic and provide an indication of the type of actions that businesses can take to support attainment of the 23 GBF targets.

Enabling business contributions to the Global Biodiversity Framework 
A synthesis discussion paper for businesses and policymakers (V0.1)

Download PDF (2.05 MB)

Mapping of Business Contributions to GBF and NBSAPs

Download PDF (1.8 MB)

To view this report on kpmg.com, click here.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) (also known as “The Biodiversity Plan”) was adopted in Montreal in December 2022 under the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) at its fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP15) and consists of four overarching goals and 23 action targets. This landmark agreement sets out global ambition and policy direction for all signatories.

Governments are now developing their National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to demonstrate how they will contribute to the overarching framework. Businesses will play a critical role in the development and implementation of credible NBSAPs and in the overall success of achieving the GBF.

This report aims to set out the current challenges around business engagement in the GBF, synthesize existing guidance on this topic and provide an indication of the type of actions that businesses can take to support attainment of the 23 GBF targets.

Enabling business contributions to the Global Biodiversity Framework 
A synthesis discussion paper for businesses and policymakers (V0.1)

Download PDF (2.05 MB)

Mapping of Business Contributions to GBF and NBSAPs

Download PDF (1.8 MB)

To view this report on kpmg.com, click here.

Originally published by NJ Advance Media on Mosaic.NJ.com

“A lot of the reasons why people died at alarming rates within Black and brown communities was due to pre-existing conditions,” said the Rev. Kimberly L. Williams, Choose Healthy Life’s executive director.

Mike Prevoznik agreed.

“We saw the disproportionate impact that COVID had on underserved populations, and we wanted to do something about that,” said Prevoznik, co-executive sponsor of Quest for Health Equity, a philanthropic initiative of Quest Diagnostics, which contributed COVID-19 tests and funding to support the effort.

Continue reading here

Originally published by NJ Advance Media on Mosaic.NJ.com

“A lot of the reasons why people died at alarming rates within Black and brown communities was due to pre-existing conditions,” said the Rev. Kimberly L. Williams, Choose Healthy Life’s executive director.

Mike Prevoznik agreed.

“We saw the disproportionate impact that COVID had on underserved populations, and we wanted to do something about that,” said Prevoznik, co-executive sponsor of Quest for Health Equity, a philanthropic initiative of Quest Diagnostics, which contributed COVID-19 tests and funding to support the effort.

Continue reading here

November 5, 2024 /3BL/ – AEG Europe has today announced that its 2024 London festival series has achieved coveted certification from not-for-profit sustainability specialists A Greener Future (AGF). American Express Presents BST Hyde Park has been awarded the Greener Festival Highly Commended Certification, with All Points East accredited in the Commended category.

Attended by hundreds of thousands of music fans, and with line-ups featuring legendary global performers including Stevie Nicks, Andrea Bocelli, Loyle Carner and LCD Soundsystem, AEG’s 2024 London festival series at Hyde Park and Victoria Park were the most sustainable yet, with several new initiatives contributing to minimising the environmental impacts across the Capital’s green spaces.

A Greener Future is the founder of the world’s first sustainability standard for festivals and events, and its framework has been used to guide, assess and certify hundreds of events, festivals, and venues worldwide since 2007, providing independent audit and external verification to organisers. AGF’s Highly Commended accreditation awarded to BST Hyde Park signifies a well-managed, environmentally aware festival, which has taken significant steps to reduce waste, reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and engage the audience in sustainability initiatives.

Following a rigorous assessment process, AEG Europe achieved certifications for both London festivals after onsite visits by qualified assessors, leading to detailed analysis of areas of sustainability including transport, energy and power, waste, water usage, local environment, CO2 and food and beverages.

During this summer’s BST Hyde Park and All Points East festivals, a number of sustainable initiatives were implemented including removing carbon emissions with Carbon Char Store and partnerships with fan travel tracking tool, Lowr, and Keep Britain Tidy. An improved waste segregation system and on-site baling of waste at BST Hyde Park also saw AEG able to improve recycling rates year-on-year, demonstrating the company’s continued commitment to catalysing the influence of live entertainment to preserve the planet and safeguard it for future generations.

Speaking to the accreditation, Jim King, CEO of AEG Presents’ European Festivals division, said: “Achieving certification from A Greener Future is more than just a milestone for us; it’s a commitment to our fans, our artists, and the communities we serve. Our fans have always shown us that they care deeply about sustainability, and by meeting these rigorous standards, we’re honouring not only our values, but theirs. I’m incredibly proud of what our team has achieved.”

Upon awarding AEG with its latest sustainable certifications, Natasha Wales-Dixon, Senior Assessor of A Greener Future, said, “BST Hyde Park was notable this year for its efforts to reduce impact through onsite baling of waste, which in turn reduced the impact from vehicles required for transport from site. The improvements made to sorting and compacting waste locally to the site were considered very impressive by AGF assessors and was noted to decrease the impact of the event significantly. These efforts were coupled with excellent communication to the teams onsite, including contractors and volunteers, related to their understanding of why waste segregation is so important and the role they play in it.”

She added: “In addition to the waste segregation, BST Hyde Park implemented a food grading system which analyses the carbon impact of meals served onsite, and whilst in its infancy, this will undoubtedly evolve and offer further improvements in coming years.”

Sustainability is a key driver behind business decisions at AEG, which has seen the company make history with various award-winning ESG initiatives across its venue and festival portfolio. This includes the world-first carbon removed concerts held during The 1975’s residency at The O2 Arena in February 2024.

Acting as the driving force behind AEG Europe’s sustainability directives, Sam Booth, Director of Sustainability, said: “In an industry where it’s tough to bring down emissions, our commitment to sustainability extends beyond rhetoric, to tangible actions that set new benchmarks for the live industry. We’re pleased to see that the teams responsible for driving our sustainable initiatives forward have been recognised by AGF. Accreditations like this demonstrate to both those operating in the live sector, and the fans we entertain, that as a leader in the space we’re helping to not only preserve the planet but also the future of live entertainment.”

Following the AGF certification, AEG’s BST Hyde Park and All Points East festivals have been shortlisted for the coveted UK Greener Festival Award, for demonstrating outstanding success in reducing their environmental impacts and changing the industry for the better.

AEG has recently announced the first headliners for BST Hyde Park 2025, with performances from Noah Kahan, Hugh Jackman, Zach Bryan and ELO. Next years All Points East will also see the reunion of The Maccabees, who will headline Victoria Park in August 2025.