Tag: 3BL

Schneider Electric

Emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach to sustainability, and of cross-industry collaborationCompany executives on the ground to discuss sustainable business practices and new initiatives on decarbonization underscoring commitment to sustainabilityResearch from Sustainability Research Institute unveils the importance of integrating sustainable practices in building design and material selection

NEW YORK, September 23, 2024 /3BL/ – Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, today shared details on its active participation at Climate Week NYC 2024. Under this year’s theme, “It’s Time,” the company is set to unveil significant decarbonization initiatives, and share insights on the urgent need for progress, to meet the global goal of tripling renewable capacity and doubling energy efficiency, with a just transition in mind.

“Electrification and digitalization are at the heart of our strategy to accelerate decarbonization. The energy landscape is rapidly evolving, offering businesses unprecedented opportunities to reshape business models, improve efficiency, and enhance resilience,” says Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman, Schneider Electric. “At Climate Week, we’re eager to showcase how embracing innovative technologies, such as artificial intelligence, can drive sustainability without compromising business goals.”

Accelerating Impact in the New Energy Era

During Climate Week NYC, Schneider Electric will showcase initiatives to accelerate decarbonization for businesses. The company advocates for a holistic approach to sustainability, prioritizing business value and leveraging the power of technology and collaboration across industries: from data centers and transport to grids and supply chains. Schneider Electric’s new publication, “Artificial Intelligence for Energy Transition,” released during the event, explains the technology’s pivotal role in driving efficiency and sustainability across sectors, from industrial processes to home management systems.

The event will also see the company underline the importance of tax credit transfer agreements, enabled by the Inflation Reduction Act, as a strategic and powerful tool for accelerating corporate investments in clean energy technologies. The transfer and exchange of tax credits help companies worldwide achieve their sustainability goals while realizing significant tax savings. Throughout the week, Schneider Electric plans to release updates on electrifying transportation infrastructure and decarbonizing supply chains, as well as tax credit transfer deals.

Decarbonization and Beyond: New Research on Sustainable Building Design

Schneider Electric, recently named world’s most sustainable company, will also address the potential of the decarbonization of buildings, both new and retrofits. Schneider Electric’s Sustainability Research Institute will unveil a new study on sustainable practices in building design and material selection. Analyzing over 550 buildings, the research demonstrates that significant reductions in embodied carbon, water use, energy consumption, and ecotoxicity can be achieved through strategic design choices. The study underscores how digital technologies are crucial for the construction sector to realize these environmental impact reductions.

Schneider Electric at Climate Week

Schneider Electric will have a robust presence on the ground at Climate Week, including at the following events:

Forbes Sustainability Leaders Summit on Tuesday, September 24th from 2:40 – 3:00 p.m. EST where Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman of Schneider Electric, will speak on accelerating impact in the new energy era through partnerships with industry leaders.UN Global Compact Leader’s Summit on Tuesday, September 24th from 4:30 – 5:00 p.m. EST where Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman of Schneider Electric, will speak on “Impact at Every Level: Schneider Electric’s journey to sustainability.”2024 Climate Capital Summit on Wednesday, September 25th, where Scott Harden will discuss climate trends, from software and real asset infrastructure to private and public markets.UN Global Compact CMO Forum on Friday, September 27th, where Chris Leong will share insights on two panels: “Dialogue Round Two: Transformative Innovation” and “Facilitated Insights Exchange”.WEF Sustainable Development Impact Meetings 2024 during the week of 23-27 September., where Mike Kazmierczak, on Tuesday, September 24th, will take part of the session “Potential Unlocked: Transforming Energy Demand for a Sustainable Future”.Climate Group Executive Series 2024 on Monday, September 23rd from 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. EST, Thomas Kwan will discuss holistic impacts and taking a systems approach on “Climate Group x McKinsey – Advancing the energy transition in the built environment”.World Biodiversity Summit on Thursday, September 26th, from 5:10 – 5:35 p.m. EST, where Vanessa Miler-Fels will discuss the essential role businesses can play in advancing global biodiversity and climate agenda.

Further Schneider Electric executives from across the business will be on hand to discuss the company’s latest news, the next phase of global decarbonization, and how the private sector can act on their sustainability ambitions. These executives include:

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, ChairmanCaspar Herzberg, Chief Executive Officer, AVEVA, and member of the Schneider Electric Executive CommitteeChris Leong, Chief Marketing OfficerAparna Prabhakar, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Sustainability, Secure Power & Data CenterJeanie Salo, NAM Chief Public Policy OfficerJohn Powers, Vice President, Global Cleantech and RenewablesVanessa Miler-Fels, Vice President, Global EnvironmentMike Kazmierczak, Vice President, Digital EnergyThomas Kwan, Vice President, Sustainability Research InstituteJuan Macias, CEO at AlphaStruxure

As part of Climate Week, Schneider Electric and its partners will have several other announcements related to decarbonization, which will be shared via the company’s global and U.S. online newsrooms.

For media inquiries, or to schedule an interview with Schneider Electric executives during Climate Week, please contact Luis Davila at luis.davila@se.com.

September 23, 2024 /3BL/ – Action Against Hunger today announced the new Renewable Energies for Assisting Communities Tool (REact) at a NY Climate Week event. REact is a free web tool that makes it easy for any nonprofit manager to assess their program’s energy needs and design renewable solutions. REact is the first tool of its kind and was developed by Action Against Hunger with input from 40 NGOs and UN agencies. It is available at no cost to users.

Action Against Hunger announced the tool today at a NY Climate Week event entitled “The Challenge of Greening the Humanitarian Response.” The session addressed the challenges involved in reducing emissions within the nonprofit sector, particularly in challenging settings like disasters and conflict zones, and the potential for tools like REact to help humanitarian organizations shift to more sustainable sources of energy. Panel speakers included: Cristina Ruiz Martinez, Energy Manager, acciona.org Foundation; Carmen Ruiz Garrido, REact Energy Expert, acciona.org Foundation; Ibrahim Mustafa Chico, REact Project Manager for Action Against Hunger.

“Together with our partners, we set out to solve a paradox within our sector. Today, cash-strapped NGOs are working to promote health and sustainability, while running on fossil fuels that are costly, worsen the climate crisis and generate air pollution, which harms human health,” said Ibrahim Mustafa Chico, Action Against Hunger’s Climate Change and Energy Expert and REact project manager, who will speak during the NY Climate Week event. “Yet, planning renewable energy systems can be highly complex, particularly in rapidly changing contexts like disasters and refugee camps. REact is a no-cost, turn-key way to address the challenge.”

REact helps even non-technical managers rapidly assess the energy needs of humanitarian programs and provides technical designs for renewable energy solutions that can meet anticipated demand. The web app handles the calculations and equips users with straightforward guidance tailored to their region’s geography and sector, including health, education, shelter, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

While originally developed for mission-critical emergency response operations, the software also can help with planning at the community level. For example, it can be used to design community solar systems or a way to switch from open-fire cooking to electric stoves for vulnerable populations in refugee camps. With the tool, NGOs can easily accelerate efforts to decarbonize everything from hunger relief in Afghanistan to cholera prevention in Zambia. The tool will be fully released at the end of October. The current web version works as a Beta, with some features still under development.

“Using REact can help humanitarian operations reduce greenhouse gas emissions while cutting costs and improving energy reliability since fossil fuels can be unavailable or extremely costly in conflict and disaster zones, for example,” Chico said. “Decarbonising humanitarian programmes also can help to mitigate the harmful effects of local environmental pollution from generators which can be harmful for groups with specific vulnerabilities, who are often most in need of humanitarian assistance.”

Action Against Hunger is piloting REact in Colombia and Mauritania.

About Action Against Hunger

Action Against Hunger leads the global movement to end hunger. We innovate solutions, advocate for change, and reach 21 million people every year with proven hunger prevention and treatment programs. As a nonprofit that works across 59 countries, our 8,900 dedicated staff members partner with communities to address the root causes of hunger, including climate change, conflict, inequity, and emergencies. We strive to create a world free from hunger, for everyone, for good.

WHAT: Join the International WELL Building Institute for a regional summit in London, England, where UK and European industry leaders and community members will discuss the future of healthy buildings, organisations and communities – using the WELL Standard as a framework.

This year’s programming will be centred around strategies to embed ESG and social sustainability practices into an organisation’s DNA, building resilience and the future of healthy workplaces. Attendees will hear about WELL trends across industries and sectors – including commercial office, residential, education and coworking, as well as inspiring stories about WELL’s impact on their businesses and lives, presented in the visually compelling, fast-paced PechaKucha format.

The event will also feature a fireside chat with Professor Liz Towns-Andrews OBE from the University of Huddersfield and Rachel Hodgdon.

Panel topics include:

The ESG Landscape & People-First PlacesBuilding ResilienceWhat’s Next in Healthy Buildings?Healthy Homes: WELL for Residential

WHO:

Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO, IWBIAnn Marie Aguilar, Senior Vice President, EMEA, IWBI

Speakers include:

Prof Liz Towns-Andrews OBE, University of HuddersfieldBeata Kepowicz, Chief Finance and Operations Officer, CMSÖmer Döne, Global Head of Sustainable Workplace, SanofiGiulia Mori, Health and Wellbeing Lead, CBREWojciech Tworek, Senior Associate Strategic Advisory, ColliersSam Pickering, Executive Director, Sustainability, The Instant GroupDr Madi Hanc, Senior Researcher, LeesmanRachel Vig, Founder, SADAOlga Turner, Managing Director and Co-Founder of EkkistSam Allen, Associate Director Global Sustainability, M Moser AssociatesEmily Hamilton, Chief Sustainability Officer, Savills IMHarry Boyd-Carpenter, Managing Director Climate Strategy and Delivery, EBRDPaul Crayford, CRE Executive Director UK and EMEA, AONWill Procter, Founding Director, Forstå ProjectsLinda Jarnhamn, Founder, flow2thrive

WHEN: Tuesday, October 15, 1 – 5:30 pm GMT+1

WHERE:

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 
5 Bank Street, London E14 4BG 
United Kingdom

To attend and arrange on-site interviews with executives (subject to availability), please email kristen.coco@wellcertified.com to coordinate and/or confirm credentialed media attendance.

WELL 2024 | Recharge is energizing the movement to people-first places. IWBI’s global event series will convene the greatest minds and industry innovators across the world to shift the paradigm and advance the conversation around place and human health. Our regional summits take place across the globe and empower community activation on a local level. Every event will be centered around providing expertise that is tailored to regional needs and perspectives, while still advancing the global movement.

Originally published on Built From Scratch

Every September, Workforce Development Month celebrates the contributions of workforce professionals and raises awareness around skilled trades. As national conversation spotlights the construction industry as a career path for high school graduates, The Home Depot and The Home Depot Foundation remain committed to providing aspiring skilled tradespeople with the tools they need to be successful in the industry.

There are currently more than 400,000 open jobs in fields like carpentry, plumbing, electrical and HVAC. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the home improvement trades are projected to grow to more than 3.9 million open jobs on the market in the next decade. While these may be daunting statistics, it creates a great opportunity to invest in the next generation of skilled talent.

The Home Depot Foundation has announced more than $2 million in new grants to address the skilled labor gap in the United States.

Skilled Trades Training 
The Foundation and trades training nonprofit partner Home Builders Institute (HBI) launched a partnership with 100 Black Men of America, Inc. to increase skilled trades training and career opportunities for youth in 2021.

Now, through more than $500,000 in additional funding, the organizations will continue to provide HBI’s Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training curriculum, mentorship and training in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Oakland while expanding the program to students in Las Vegas.

Earlier this year, the Foundation awarded a $710,000 grant to HBI to advance existing programs to train separating service members, youth and more in the skilled trades.

Trade School Scholarships

The Foundation is investing more than $1 million to award over 300 scholarships to students seeking to further their trades education through partners SkillPointe Foundation and Folds of Honor, which provides scholarships to the spouses and children of fallen and disabled service members.

About Path to Pro 
Since 2018, The Foundation’s Path to Pro program has introduced more than 245,000 people to the skilled trades and trained more than 43,000 youth, high school students, underserved communities and separating U.S. military servicemembers.

Apart from The Foundation’s work to bridge the skilled labor gap, The Home Depot has enabled tens of thousands of jobseekers to connect with Pro customers looking to hire through the online labor marketplace, the Path to Pro Network. Thousands of participants have graduated from the Path to Pro Skills Program, a free, on-demand program that gives participants the necessary training to secure entry-level positions in the skilled trades.

For more information and to see trade resources available in English and Spanish visit PathtoPro.com.

Originally published on Gracenote (a Nielsen company) Insights

Diversity and inclusion have become increasingly important media buying considerations in recent years, especially during the lead up to each new fall TV season. Pinpointing the right investments, however, has become more challenging amid the busy landscape, but the outlook for diverse TV content premiering this year looks promising.

With more than 1.2 million unique video titles1 available to U.S. audiences alone, media buying has never been more complex, especially through the lens of inclusivity. Diverse-owned media plays a critical role here, but premium original content presents new opportunities for media buyers looking to be more inclusive with their ad spending. A recent analysis of new TV series premiering this year, for example, found that 85 out of 124, or 68.5%, have BIPOC2 representation in their primary casts.

Zeroing in on the inclusivity of specific programming can help media buyers looking to identify the right content matches for their value propositions and messages. That’s because aggregated inclusivity levels in content don’t change much across linear, cable and streaming programming on a year-over-year basis. The abundance of content also tends to overshadow the increasing inclusivity that has taken place in recent years.

The average share of cast3 for Asian and Pacific Islanders in broadcast programming, for example, increased from 5% in 2022 to 5.2% in 20234. While informative, averages like these mask true ad buying opportunities. Comparatively, share of cast inclusivity for Asian and Pacific Islanders within NBC programming increased from 5% to just under 8% last year, which is higher than this group’s percentage of the U.S. population (6.8%).

Marketers have been pledging to be more inclusive with their ad spending in recent years, and most efforts have been largely reliant on finding media that’s owned by minority, LGBTQ and women owners. In addition to advancing their investments in diverse-owned media, brands and agencies have access to datasets that can increase the inclusivity of their broader spending. These datasets can be particularly useful in programmatic buying as audiences continue to increase their CTV5 usage.

With an understanding that TV audiences 18 and older spend approximately 54% of their total time with TV watching live programming6, Gracenote’s analysis of this year’s premiering TV highlights the increasing diversity and inclusion in upcoming premium original programming.

Here are some highlights:

BIPOC representation is above 50% across all major U.S. streaming services.Netflix has the most streaming originals in 2024, and more than 30 have BIPOC representation.All Disney streaming services have BIPOC represented across the company’s premiering content on Disney+, Hulu and Freeform.Apple TV+ and Amazon each have more than 75% BIPOC representation in their new 2024 series.New programming across traditional TV networks remains low following the strikes that took place in 2023, but NBC, FOX and Paramount all have programs debuting in 2024 that feature BIPOC representation in their top cast lineups.

While streaming services will have more new programming this year than traditional, linear channels, the pivot among streaming publishers to offer ad-supported tiers and subscription plans means that advertisers and agencies have ample opportunities for their fall TV spending across all TV programming. This is particularly relevant now that 75% of U.S. audiences 18 and older5 have CTV devices to stream video on.

And as CTV usage and programmatic spending rise, advertisers can leverage new and emerging datasets to better reach and engage with specific audiences through relevant content. And that will help foster a greater sense of inclusion across the broader media landscape.

Notes

Gracenote Global Video Data; May 2024Black, indigenous and other people of color.The percentage of an identity group that is part of a program’s recurring cast members.Gracenote Inclusion AnalyticsCTV refers to any television that is connected to the internet. The most common use case is to stream video content.Nielsen National TV Panel; Q4 2023

For additional insights, download Gracenote’s 2024 inclusive ad spend report

The AMD University Program (AUP) empowers academics with AMD technologies to enhance teaching, enrich learning, and advance state-of-the-art research. Through strategic collaborations with academic institutions, the program creates a vibrant, global ecosystem with students, researchers, and educators at its core.

Academic communities around the world benefit from a wide range of resources from AMD experts, including software development tools, hardware products, training, and technical support. The AUP program keeps professors up to date with the latest developments, ensuring they can deliver curricula that prepare students for the evolving needs of industry and society.

We take pride in our partnerships with academia and remain committed to the continuous advancement of teaching and research through our University Program. For example, our engagements with the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland date back more than 20 years. Recently the AUP-sponsored the RFSoC textbook, authored by Professor Bob Stewart’s team, has been downloaded more than 6,000 times by readers in more than 90 countries worldwide.

In India, the Special Manpower Development Program, also known as the Chips to Startup (C2S) Program, is a five-year program run by India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The program reaches the top 100 academic institutions in India and aims to train 85,000 specialists for the workforce by incorporating System-on-Chip (SoC) and System Level Design at the bachelor’s, master’s, and research level, thereby catalyzing the growth of fabless design startups. We have worked closely with our academic partner CoreEL Technologies Bengaluru and our sales organization to proliferate AMD technologies throughout academia in India. In 2023, the Indian government’s C2S program procured 5,000 AMD Vivado™ software licenses and almost 3,000 development systems, targeting AMD adaptive compute devices.

We also co-developed the Urbana development system with Real Digital, our academic board development partner, and academic colleagues at the Digital Systems Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The three partners collaborated to make the board and course material open source for broader university adoption.

The Urbana development system is a low-cost, FPGA-based educational platform designed to host a wide range of project-based learning in digital systems and microprocessor design. The system comprises the Urbana board and a fully featured version of AMD Vivado professional design tools for design entry, simulation, synthesis, and FPGA programming, at no additional cost. The related course covers a broad range of topics, including combinational and sequential logic, timing analysis, microprocessor design, software/hardware co-design, and system-on-a-chip methodology.

In 2023, we also released Riallto, a new exploration framework for AMD Ryzen™ AI PCs. Through a set of opensource materials, Riallto introduces students, educators, researchers, professional engineers, and hobbyists to the newly emerging AI topics of spatial computing and neural processing units (NPUs) to help them develop a conceptual understanding of these exciting ideas and a strong intuition for how they work and what they can do.

Additionally, we collaborated with the GPU Technologies and Engineering Group to donate AI laboratory equipment to the College of Electrical and Computer Engineering at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) and the College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), in Taiwan. The donations will establish the Pervasive AI Computing and Communications (PACC) Lab that showcases our company’s unique range of server-to-edge AI technologies. AMD is well positioned to power the end-to-end infrastructure enabling AI solutions that support a wide range of innovative teaching and research in academia.

Learn more about the AMD University Program at https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/university-program.html.

Originally published in AMD 2023-24 Corporate Responsibility Report.

Complimentary Webinar

How to Modernize your Environmental Monitoring Programs

October 3rd, 2024 | 12:00PM ET/9:00AM PT

REGISTER

In this webinar, we will explore the importance of developing a risk-based environmental monitoring program that focuses on verifying the effectiveness of your sanitation and being able to make key decisions for improvement. You will hear from Denise Webster, VP of Food Safety at SCS Global Services who has 28 years of developing, implementing addressing food safety programs and Melissa Calicchia, Chief Science Officer of eBacMap who has over 40 years of experience as a leading microbiologist and industry expert in issue resolution.

What you will takeaway from attending this webinar: 
• Regulatory importance of environmental monitoring programs (EMP) 
• Learn how to develop a robust EMP that is tailored to your facility and products produced 
• Use of advanced systems to map, track and trend your environmental pathogen testing results 
• Best practices on how to address non-conforming results and reduce your exposure to potential risks

Register today to secure your spot!

REGISTER HERE FOR THE WEBINAR

By registering, you will get access to the webinar recording.

For inquiries, contact:

Shyama Devarajan 
Senior Marketing Manager, SCS Global Services 
sdevarajan@scsglobalservices.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C., September 23, 2024 /3BL/ – Futurelab+ – an educational initiative from Discovery Education and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group – presents new, free capstone project resources for students in grades 9-12 that can be used to apply knowledge of biotechnology to real world scenarios. Futurelab+ strives to increase the number and diversity of students receiving a quality biotech education through digital resources and industry and community connections.

Futurelab+ offers a comprehensive biotechnology curriculum for high school students that includes groundbreaking content addressing health equity and the importance of advancing inclusivity and representation in clinical research. The capstone resources provide students and teachers with a variety of tools supporting the creation of projects that demonstrate student knowledge and skills as they are applied to a real-world problem in the field of biotechnology.

Resources include a project management guide, a student capstone journal, project starters, rubric, and project exemplars. Included in the resources are 13 in-class activities for students to explore topics of microbial bioremediation, antibiotic sensitivity testing, biomedical engineering design challenges, and many more. Beginning in October, educators will also have access to a Masterclass video series designed to support the implementation of a capstone year of study for biotechnology or any career and technical education course of study.

“Student-led, independent research projects that challenge students to select topics and synthesize learnings prepares them for success beyond graduation. With the new Futurelab+ capstone project, students anywhere can apply STEM learning to solve real world problems,” said Ragnar von Schiber, Director, Employee and Community Engagement at Genentech.

In addition, Futurelab+ now features a new table of contents site navigation to make finding the Futurelab+ resources easier, as well as fully editable student capture sheets in English and Spanish to support the comprehensive biotech curriculum. Accompanying instructional materials are designed to meet national education and industry standards to focus on in-demand skills and career pathways across biotechnology.

Futurelab+ builds upon Genentech’s successful Futurelab, a program for schools in South San Francisco launched in 2015 to support students’ pursuit of STEM careers. The initiative focuses on historically-excluded groups, with the goal of ultimately building a more representative scientific and medical workforce that reflects the diversity of the people it serves. Genentech has invested more than $35 million in Futurelab since 2015, and the program currently supports all 8,000 K-12 South San Francisco students and their teachers. Futurelab+ is made possible through a collaborative network of partners led by Genentech and Discovery Education and supported by Bay Area Bioscience Education Community, Jobs for the Future, Ignited Education, The American Institutes for Research, and the California Academy of Sciences.

“With Futurelab+, students dive into hands-on science, unleashing their curiosity and building career-ready skills. We are proud to partner with Genentech to ensure all students have the opportunity to explore biotechnology and related fields,” said Amy Nakamoto, Executive Vice President of Corporate Partnerships at Discovery Education. “These capstone resources expand the strength of Futurelab+ as a go-to resource, empowering students to demonstrate learning in contextual ways.”

Learn more about Futurelab+ at futurelabplus.com or within Discovery Education Experience.

For more information about Discovery Education’s award-winning digital resources and professional learning solutions visit www.discoveryeducation.com, and stay connected with Discovery Education on social media through X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

###

About Discovery Education 
Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. Through its award-winning multimedia content, instructional supports, innovative classroom tools, and corporate partnerships, Discovery Education helps educators deliver equitable learning experiences engaging all students and supporting higher academic achievement on a global scale. Discovery Education serves approximately 4.5 million educators and 45 million students worldwide, and its resources are accessed in over 100 countries and territories. Inspired by the global media company Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Discovery Education partners with districts, states, and trusted organizations to empower teachers with leading edtech solutions that support the success of all learners. Explore the future of education at www.discoveryeducation.com.

Contacts 
Grace Maliska 
Discovery Education 
Email: gmaliska@dicoveryed.com

NEW YORK, September 19, 2024 /3BL/ – Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. (G&A), a leading corporate sustainability consulting and research firm, today announced the findings of its 2024 Sustainability Reporting in Focus research on trends in the 2023 publication year for companies in the S&P 500® Index and the Russell 1000® Index. The research shows substantial increases in sustainability reporting for both large-cap and mid-cap U.S. public companies [1], as the U.S. regulatory environment moves to follow Europe on required ESG reporting. The latest edition of G&A’s annual research report is available here.

G&A’s 2024Sustainability Reporting in Focus report provides detailed data and findings from its research into U.S. company reports on sustainability (also called ESG, corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, or social impact reports). G&A’s team analyzes corporate report content including reporting frameworks and standards used – such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) — as well as alignment with initiatives such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), trends in external assurance, and CDP reporting. For the first time, G&A’s 2024 research includes sector-specific analysis of reporting trends within all 11 sectors of the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), to provide additional insights into reporting behavior per industry sector.

Key takeaways from G&A’s most recent research include:

A record 93% of Russell 1000 companies published a sustainability report in 2023 – an increase from 90% in 2022.The smaller half by market cap of the Russell 1000 (mid-cap companies with approximately $2 billion-$4 billion in market cap) had the greatest increase in reporting in 2023, reaching 87% compared to 82% in 2022.The larger half by market cap of the Russell 1000 (i.e., the S&P 500) are nearing 100% reporters with 98.6% publishing a report in 2023 – a slight increase from 98.2% in 2022.SASB continued to be the most widely used sustainability standard, with 81% of Russell 1000 reporters aligning with SASB in 2023 – up from 78% in 2022.GRI reporters remained fairly consistent among the Russell 1000 with an overall annual increase from 54% to 55% in 2023, with the increase being led by the smallest half of the Russell 1000 moving from 40% to 42% in 2023.Alignment with TCFD continued to increase, with 60% of Russell 1000 reporters following TCFD recommendations in 2023, compared to 50% in 2022 and only 4% in 2019.

Click here to view a graphical representation of the data noted above.

Louis Coppola, G&A’s Executive Vice President and Co-Founder, commented, “The shift to mandatory reporting offers an unprecedented opportunity to enhance investor confidence, stakeholder trust, and operational resilience. This is the moment to “grab the bull by the horns” and embrace the future with clear-eyed determination. This is an era where leadership in sustainability will define success. Sustainability is no longer a sideline issue; it is at the heart of what makes a business thrive in today’s economy.”

Hank Boerner, G&A’s Chairman, Chief Strategist and Co-Founder, added, “The G&A team is encouraged by the increased volume and more comprehensive nature of sustainability reporting by U.S. companies, especially since it is still voluntary. When ESG disclosures are eventually mandated, which we expect will occur soon through pending and proposed measures, we believe companies reporting today will be well ahead in meeting these requirements. While many of the changes in ESG reporting standards and frameworks are being shaped by the European Union, we expect U.S. regulators and investors to continue to push for increased disclosure on important non-financial information.”

ABOUT G&A’s 2024 SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING IN FOCUS 
This new report marks the 13th annual edition in G&A’s annual research series tracking the publication of sustainability reports by the largest U.S. publicly-traded companies. In 2012, G&A published its first annual research on 2011 sustainability reporting trends of the S&P 500 companies, which at the time showed just 20% of these companies were publicly reporting on sustainability. In 2019, G&A expanded this research to include all companies in the Russell 1000 Index, and in 2024, it further expanded to provide detailed analysis by the 11 GCIS sectors.

G&A proudly recognizes our research team of talented analysts who made significant contributions to this study:

G&A Research Supervisor: Elizabeth Peterson, Vice President of Sustainability Consulting 
G&A Research Team Leader: Natali Alsunna, Sustainability Analyst 
G&A Intern Analysts:

Emma Haynes, Intern Team LeaderMadeline BlankenshipKeira CampbellJake NachmanYadira Aguilar

For more information on our team of research analysts please click here.

ABOUT G&A INSTITUTE, INC. 
Founded in 2006, Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. (G&A) is a sustainability consulting and research firm headquartered in New York City. G&A helps corporate and investor clients recognize, understand, and develop winning strategies for sustainability and ESG issues to address stakeholder and shareholder concerns. G&A’s proprietary, comprehensive full-suite process for sustainability reporting is designed to help organizations achieve sustainability leadership in their industry and sector and maximize return on investment for sustainability initiatives.

Since 2011, G&A has been building and expanding a comprehensive database of corporate sustainability reporting data based on analysis of thousands of ESG and sustainability reports to help steer strategy for our clients and improve their disclosure and reporting.

More information is available on our website at ga-institute.com.

ABOUT THE S&P 500® 
The S&P 500 is widely regarded as one of the best gauges of large-cap U.S. equity market performance, measuring the stock performance of approximately 500 large-cap companies covering approximately 80% of the total U.S. equity market capitalization. For 2023, S&P Dow Jones Indices estimated that US$16.0 trillion in assets was indexed or benchmarked to the index. More information is available here.

ABOUT THE RUSSELL 1000® 
The Russell U.S. indices are market-weighted indices that serve as leading benchmarks for institutional investors to track current and historical market performance by specific market segment (large/mid/small/micro-cap) or investment style (growth/value/defensive/dynamic). The Russell 1000 Index includes the largest publicly-traded U.S. companies by market cap, which make up approximately 93% of the total U.S. equity market capitalization. The indices/benchmarks are provided by FTSE Russell, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). More information is available here.

CONTACT: 
Louis D. Coppola, Executive Vice President & Co-Founder 
Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. 
Tel 646.430.8230 ext. 14 
Email: lcoppola@ga-institute.com

[1] Definitions of market cap sizes: https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/market-cap

Read the 2024 Wesco Sustainability Report here

Health and Safety

Dedication to Safety Excellence

We work hard to keep each other safe. It is the first tenet in our core value of commitment to our people. In our commitment to health and safety, we strive 
for zero incidents and continuously work towards reducing associated risks. This dedication is reflected in our comprehensive approach to improvement, encompassing dedicated programs, employee best practice sharing, and extensive training initiatives.

Health and Safety Management System

At the core of our safety efforts is a robust health and safety management system covering all internal work- related functions across our facilities, customer locations and corporate offices. This systematic approach involves assessing risks, implementing controls, evaluating their effectiveness, and acting on identified trends through preventative and responsive measures. Our tracked metrics provide valuable insights for the ongoing performance of our health and safety program. They include near miss reporting, training completion statistics, injury rates and data from key initiatives like ergonomic wearable feedback.

The oversight of our health and safety management system is entrusted to our global corporate safety team, ensuring a cohesive and standardized approach. Every employee plays a pivotal role in contributing to our enterprise-wide safety performance objectives, with individual contributions and actions being closely measured. Aligned with OHSAS-18001 and ISO-45001 guidelines, our health and safety program include the following.

Social Goals

Target: Achieve a 15% reduction in Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) by 2030 from a 2020 baseline.

Progress: Met in 2022; 2023 TRIR was 0.5 (6% increase from baseline)*

Target: Provide 425,000 hours of safety training and development to our employees by 2030.

Progress: 292,033 hours of safety training completed

*While our TRIR increased 6% from the baseline, it is favorable to the industry average.  Data available by NAICS code for 2022 shows the applicable industry average TRIR of 2.3; Wesco’s TRIR of 0.5 is favorable to the industry benchmark.

Monitoring and Continuous Improvement

The vigilance of our global corporate safety team is maintained through performance reviews with key leadership, daily interactions with operations leaders, routine KPI reviews, and regular facility audits to verify compliance. Further reinforcing our commitment, each location benefits from a dedicated regional health and safety advisor responsible for overseeing local leadership, ensuring compliance, conducting routine facility audits, evaluating training needs, planning training calendars, and tracking, trending, and reporting on health and safety metrics.

In 2023, Wesco relaunched our Safety Committee initiative featuring an updated charter and Safety Committee member training. Safety Committees have been implemented at all Regional Distribution Centers, with a target to include all Regional Distribution Centers and Branches in 2024.

Management and Supervisory Responsibilities: Define specific protocols for management to support involvement with the program.Employee Responsibilities: Outlines the health and safety rules employees are expected to follow.Accident Investigation Processes: Establishes process to be followed in the event of an accident or near miss.Enforcement Procedure: Provides a system of actions and outlines steps to be taken if health and safety policies aren’t followed.Reporting of Safety Concerns: Offers a means for employees to provide input to the health and safety program suggesting any preventative considerations.Safety Committee Systems: Outlines the framework of a site safety committee, including the layout of an agenda, membership and method for taking minutes.New Employee Orientation: All employee’s complete health and safety training as part of their orientation and introduction to their facility.Regulatory Compliance: Ensures we communicate relevant information on legal and other requirements to our employees and other interested parties.

Risk and Incident Management

We employ a robust risk management process to eliminate potential hazards before anyone becomes sick or injured while at work. Our employees assess work areas for hazards or safety risks and when identified, promptly report them, enabling rapid rectification of potential risk or hazards by supervisors. All employees have the right to challenge any unsafe work situation, and they can do so anonymously. When unsafe work conditions are reported, an evaluation is conducted, and the employee is notified of the action taken to address the situation.

At each location, monthly safety inspections are conducted using a checklist of key hazards and risks. This checklist is regularly updated to include new hazard awareness trends as they emerge. Meanwhile, managers are informally inspecting working activities for safety hazards on an ongoing basis. When a near-miss occurs, reports are used to create awareness of the conditions or behaviors that can be corrected to prevent future incidents. Lastly, an emergency action plan is reviewed and updated regularly. The plan includes current contact information, logged drills and facility response. In the event of an incident—no matter how minor—we require that it be reported promptly to the frontline supervisor for investigation and evaluation.

Since every incident includes a sequence of contributing risks, it may be possible to avoid a repeat of the first event by recognizing and eliminating these risks. The removal of even a single risk may prevent a recurrence. Our supervisors are trained in incident investigation procedures and techniques, such as the “five whys”— the practice of asking why repeatedly to discover the root cause of an issue—to begin gathering data and understanding what hazards existed and what controls may have failed or may not have existed. Robust documentation protocols ensure event information can be fully vetted and reviewed by business leadership and the location’s health and safety advisor, with a strong focus on corrective action plans. Once the contributing factors and/or root causes have been determined, the corporate health and safety advisor will communicate a global safety alert with the corrective actions taken to prevent the occurrence in any other facility. Corrective actions may address risk assessments, standard operating procedures, design changes for working conditions, ergonomics, engineering controls, retraining for equipment and hazards knowledge, and ensuring compliance with regulations and standards.

Site Inspections and Audits

Facility managers conduct workplace inspections at least once a month and cover all areas where employees, visitors, or contractors could be expected to access. Managers or supervisors at each site also informally observe work activities for safety hazards. They do so as part of their daily safety Gemba walks—a workplace walkthrough aiming to identify potential risks—as a routine function of their daily activity.

Safety – Branch and Distribution Center

A large portion of Wesco employees work in branch locations or distribution centers. Their primary duties are receiving, picking, packing and shipping materials. The high-risk elements of our business identified through the analysis of historical safety data and internal risk assessments are forklift tasks, ergonomic risks from manual material handling and slips, trips and falls.

To minimize the risk of injury, we have implemented innovative technologies, such as wearable devices. The utilization of wearable technology has resulted in a significant reduction in hazards per hour related to manual work stressors.

Wesco has improved our employee safety education systems, format and content to address these hazards going forward. We require all warehouse employees to undergo targeted training on safe lifting techniques, ergonomically safe lifting limits, mechanical assistance, or team lift for heavy objects. These efforts limit manual material-handling risk.

To minimize injuries relating to slips, trips and falls, we established a risk management plan that identifies, assesses, controls and monitors relevant hazards. 
All warehouse employees are trained to stop any unsafe practices or correct any unsafe conditions relating to slips, trips and falls.

Highlight: In 2023, Wesco’s internal audit team identified inadequate training and documentation of training for Powered Industrial Truck (PIT) operators. After this discovery, we introduced a company-specific PIT Training Program and began providing “train-the-trainer” courses to create a pool of Wesco-Authorized PIT Trainers.

To learn more, download the 2024 Wesco Sustainability Report here.

About This Report

Unless otherwise stated, this report covers activities, data and initiatives from our fiscal year 2023.

ESG Disclosure and Framework Alignment

The topics covered in this report include those that we have determined to be material for our business and stakeholders as noted on page 12. Wesco aligns with several ESG frameworks and disclosures in support of our commitment to transparency and our fulfillment of stakeholder needs and expectations. We leverage the following frameworks and standards to provide robust ESG information disclosure:

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): GRI offers a list of global standards and guidelines around sustainability reporting.Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB): SASB provides a comprehensive set of industry-specific disclosure topics and guidelines.Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD): TCFD provides disclosure recommendations on thematic ESG topics such as governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets to provide stakeholders with fuller information surrounding climate risks.CDP: Formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, CDP is an international organization that helps companies and cities measure and disclose important environmental impact information through an annual questionnaire and rating system.United Nations Global Compact (UNGC): UNGC is an initiative that aims to help businesses align their strategies and work toward the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (U.N. SDGs): U.N. SDGs provide a shared set of 17 toward peace and prosperity for people and planet goals and create a call to action by all countries in a global partnership.

We also regularly engage with our investors, employees, customers, regulators, ratings agencies and others on ESG and business issues. Additional information about Wesco can be found in our public financial filings—including our annual report and proxy filings—as well as on the Security and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov or on the Investors page of our website at Wesco.com.

Wesco plans to continue to report annually as we monitor, measure, and deepen our ESG initiatives and disclosures.

Wesco endorses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are a call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

More information about our SDG aligned initiatives is included throughout this report.

Assurance 
We did not seek third-party assurance for this report; however, we will consider doing so for future reporting. The information and data contained in this report was vetted by internal subject matter experts on the various ESG topics included in this report.

Contact Us 
We appreciate and welcome feedback on our ESG initiatives and reporting and invite you to contact us directly via email at Sustainability@Wesco.com.