Tag: 3BL

Napaporn Slattery is using DEI practices to advance innovation for Henkel brands through kindness, authentic leadership, and diversity of thought. She advocates for others, whether it be through leading the development of new products and solutions for the benefit of consumers, her work on Henkel’s DEI Council, or her volunteerism with the Alzheimer’s Association.

Our purpose is what unites us at Henkel North America: Pioneers at heart for the good of generations. Our pioneering spirit is reflective of the diverse backgrounds, experiences and talents of our employees and partners. They dare to make an impact on the world by collaborating to tackle challenges, find solutions and open new perspectives.

Their contributions allow us to deliver products, services and innovations that enrich and improve everyday life. We invite you to “meet” our pioneers in our series, “Pioneers for Good.”

Introducing Napaporn

As Director Research & Development, Henkel Consumer Brands, Napaporn Slattery works with her team to find new ways to elevate and advance Henkel brands and their products. She leads a team based in Trumbull, CT where they work on the front lines of new science and technology to deliver innovative breakthroughs and insights for consumer products.

Napaporn has been a dedicated employee for the past fifteen years and remains excited about the power of innovation and the vast opportunities at Henkel.

Powering Innovation through Diversity

Finding solutions that benefit the consumer is what drives innovation and Napaporn believes leveraging the power of diversity to bring new ideas to the table creates better ones. “It’s about including every idea or perspective that we have and combining innovative problem solving to achieve ‘diversity of thought.’” Fostering synergy between the different ideas, thoughts and perspectives has proven to be successful in R&D’s process while giving each team member the opportunity to be heard.

My leadership is anchored in kindness and authenticity. To me, this is so vital to create a culture of trust and open communication, the foundation for a high-performing team. Trust also promotes courage to take risks and challenge the status quo. Taking risks naturally comes with many failures; Thomas Edison once said, ‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.’

Napaporn Slattery, Director Research & Development, Henkel Consumer Brands

Napaporn also serves on the North America DEI Council as the Consumer Brands Representative, where she is responsible to collaborate and develop DEI initiatives with business unit colleagues to strengthen inclusion in the workplace, in the community and in all we do. For example, she worked with Henkel’s DEI team to conduct focus groups encouraging a safe space for dialogue and collaborate with council members colleagues to develop a road map for embedding diversity of thought throughout the product development process.

Progressing Innovation in Alzheimer’s Research

Napaporn is an advocate for others around the clock. Since 2009, she and her family have been working with the Alzheimer’s Association to bring awareness to the community in honor of a family member who struggled with the disease. Her passion drove her to raise $15,000 within the past two years for the Association through Henkel’s Make An Impact on Tomorrow (MIT) program. She also volunteers her time to support the cause.

Innovation is at the heart of this work as well. “Fundraising efforts work towards attaining resources that drive innovation to identify and treat the disease early, put research into new drugs that can prolong the life of patients, prevent the disease, and find a solution to Alzheimer’s.”

Pioneering through Kindness

Reflecting on DEI, innovation, and advocacy, the thought of being a pioneer for the good of generations brings her back to the fundamental principle of kindness. Napaporn leads with empathy and humility, creating confidence with her team to be their true selves and do their best to drive success at Henkel. Trust is the foundation of everything we do, and without it, you’re not going to be sustainable, and to me, that stems from kindness and authentic leadership.”

Originally published in Quest Diagnostics’ 2023 Corporate Responsibility Report

Inclusion and diversity

The communities we serve at Quest are diverse in background, abilities, experiences, and cultures. We strive to build a workforce that reflects that diversity and supports all employees in achieving their goals and growing at Quest. In 2023, we continued to embed Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) into our organizational culture, processes, and leadership and development opportunities.

EMPLOYEE BUSINESS NETWORKS 
Our EBNs are a key part of our I&D strategy and help cultivate a culture of belonging. In 2023, membership in our EBNs grew by ~30%, with 2,000 new members and the launch of 4 new chapters, 3 in Mexico and 1 in Puerto Rico. By the end of the year, our 11 EBNs had ~8,000 active members comprising ~16% of our workforce. To provide additional structure and support for our EBNs, we also invested in leadership development, streamlined membership processes, and revamped programming to better align with employee interests.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS 
In 2023, Quest enacted several process improvements to better reflect our company values and further integrate I&D across our operations and consumer services.

We launched our Everyday Equity Council, which is comprised of EBN leaders and exists as a standing focus group for Quest employees to raise equity-related ideas, concerns, and questions. Whether they’re developing a process or preparing to release a product or service, employees can use the Council as a sounding board to determine whether their effort is inclusive and accessible. The Council can advise on Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, for example, or review training or development materials for culturally sensitive language.

In 2023, we worked to create a common understanding of gender identity and sexual orientation across our workforce. As employees voluntarily self-identify at Quest, we’ve expanded how we define gender and sexual orientation to better reflect our workforce composition. We introduced training to provide every Quest employee with the same baseline knowledge of what gender identity means—with 93% of employees completing the training. Additionally, we added an option for chosen names to be added to several internal platforms. We remain committed to creating a workplace where all employees feel supported to show up as their authentic selves.

Quest also spearheaded a working group to evolve our search, selection, and hiring practices. The group will leverage metrics and insights to inform process enhancements, assess strategies to attract diverse talent, and implement practices with the goal of increasing the diversity of candidate slates and interview panels. To further support this initiative, training programs for recruiters and hiring managers are being developed to advance skills in competency-based search and selection best practices.

PROGRAMMING 
We continued to incorporate I&D into our leadership and talent development efforts throughout 2023. In collaboration with McKinsey’s Connected Leader Academy, employees have an opportunity to participate in various programs based on leadership level. In addition to enhancing core business understanding and leadership strategies, participants are provided with a robust network of peers and experts with whom they may share cultural backgrounds and experiences. Over 350 employees participated in 2023, an increase from 58 employees in 2022.

We also launched our Inclusion Mentor Circles program, where leaders connect with frontline supervisors to share their expertise and hone the inclusive leadership skills needed to ascend at Quest. This new initiative is in addition to MentorQuest, a learning and development program designed to strengthen diversity in the leadership pipeline.

Aligning a diverse Board with a diverse workforce

We commemorated heritage months throughout the year with our EBNs and took the opportunity to hear directly from our Board of Directors. In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, Board Director Tracey Doi spoke at an event hosted by our Pan-Asian Leaders EBN. Ms Doi served as CFO of Toyota North America for 20 years and has deep expertise in finance, strategic planning, and enterprise risk.

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, our Hispanic/Latino EBN hosted an engaging talk with Dr Luis Diaz. Dr Diaz, a leader in advanced oncology research, joined the Quest Board in May 2023, and is head of the division of Solid Tumor Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Read more from Quest’s 2023 Corporate Responsibility Report, or click here to access the Inclusion and Diversity landing page on Quest’s website.

The clock is ticking for building owners in Cambridge and Boston, where if you haven’t already begun the process of obtaining a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) it may already be too late to avoid the impending 2025 penalties associated with BUEDO and BERDO regulations.

While avoiding any fees may not be possible, the sooner you set up your PPA the sooner you can move forward with compliance for these Massachusetts city ordinances. This will help alleviate accumulating too many fines, which over time can add up to millions of dollars.

What are BEUDO and BERDO?

Cambridge’s Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance (BEUDO) and Boston’s Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure (BERDO) are two city ordinances that require large city buildings to reach net zero emissions by 2050, with strict benchmarks set to cut emissions every few years. The ultimate goal of both these ordinances is to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from large buildings, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.

While timelines vary for each ordinance, here’s a breakdown of what building owners need to prepare for.

BEUDO (Cambridge)

Emissions requirements are set based on the size of your building, with larger buildings (over 100,000 sq. ft.) reporting their first reductions in 2026. These buildings must reduce their emissions 20% by 2026, and reduce an additional 40% every five years until they reach net zero by 2035.

For buildings under 100,000 sq. ft., there is no immediate emissions requirement, but starting in 2030 they are required to reduce emissions by 40% and an additional 20% every five years until they reach net zero by 2050. The baseline for the program is the average of usage in 2018 to 2019. For buildings built after 2019, the baseline is the average of the first two full years of usage following construction completion.

Reporting on building usage and renewable purchases have already kicked in, with each report due on May 1 for the prior year.

BERDO (Boston)

Boston’s ordinance sets a schedule of maximum allowable emissions for buildings over 20,000 sq. ft., which will gradually decline to net zero carbon intensity by 2050. Enforcement of this schedule begins in 2025.

Annual compliance filings as well as 3rd party verification of building consumption and filing accuracy are required annually, with the first report due in 2022. Emissions can be offset by MA Class I RECs or renewable Power Purchase Agreements.

How steep are the fines?

In both Cambridge and Boston, customers that exceed the city’s emissions targets are subject to penalties of $234 per metric ton of CO₂, which can add millions of dollars annually to operating costs for some of the city’s largest consumers, beginning in 2026.

In addition to this, BEUDO sets a fine of $300 per day per building if it doesn’t meet any reporting, verification or emissions requirements while BERDO sets fines from $300 per day for failure to submit timely and accurate filings to $1,000 per day for failure to comply with the emissions targets.

While these may not sound like steep penalties, they add up quickly. For a representative 350,000 sq. ft. building in Cambridge, this would amount to approximately $200,000 in fines annually for 2026-2029, which increases to approximately $350,000 in fines annually for 2030-2034. For a representative 1,000,000 sq. ft. building in Boston, these fines would amount to approximately $1.5 million annually from 2025-2030, which would increase to approximately $3.5 million from 2030-2034.

How do Renewable Energy Certificates, Power Purchase Agreements and Carbon Offsets Factor into Compliance?

The ultimate goal of both these city ordinances is to achieve net zero. The most effective way to do that in the long term is to start with efficiency, waste reduction and reduced energy use across all aspects of your operations. This may not be feasible or cost effective in many buildings, particularly over the next decade, so Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) and PPAs can be used to offset your remaining emissions during the program compliance period.

Both BUEDO and BERDO have specific guidelines on what offsets and certificates are accepted. PPAs are likely the least costly mechanism for building owners to comply with these ordinances, especially in Cambridge where stand-alone RECs are not eligible for compliance.

Cambridge’s ordinance only allows RECs to be used if it comes from a project with additionality through a PPA, and a building cannot offset emissions using RECs purchased from the open marketplace. In addition, Cambridge allows carbon offsets to be used for buildings more than 100,000 sq. ft., but those buildings cannot report the offsets as part of their compliance until after 2030.

In Boston, your options are:

Purchasing MA Class I RECs from the open marketplace; Current market price is ~$40 per RECEntering into a PPA for MA Class I RECS; Price is ~$8 to $20 per RECPaying the $234 per metric ton penalty, thus doing nothing and spending more in the long runCarbon offsets are not allowed through BERDO

What should I do if I haven’t started preparing for BEUDO/BERDO?

If your building is in Boston or Cambridge and qualifies under the cities’ ordinances, you should already be submitting annual emissions reports. Now, with the first required reductions set for 2025 in Boston and 2026 for Cambridge, you should start tapping PPAs, RECs or carbon offsets to hit your target.

It is important to keep in mind that approximately two years of runway is needed for a PPA to successfully start. A PPA requires offtakers to be established before the project is built, so there will be approximately six months of contract negotiations needed to work out all the details. After negotiations, contracts need to be executed in tandem with other offtakers. Once contracts are executed, there will be approximately one and a half years of time needed for the project to be built, interconnected with the grid and fully certified before power will start flowing for it.

Because of these time constraints and the pending requirements from the ordinances, it is pertinent to start investigating options as soon as you can if you haven’t started. First, you’ll want to educate yourself on what specifics are required for your building, and working with a knowledgeable partner that understands the details of each ordinance will help you save time and money.

What happens if we stick with business as usual? We fail by default.

C.D. Glin, President, PepsiCo Foundation and Global Head of Social Impact, PepsiCo, Inc talks about food systems are failing women, and what companies can do to correct for that. Thinking with a whole of company approach, beyond just philanthropy, is critical. Companies have to use their profits, their products, their procurement, their people, and their markets if we’re going to achieve #zerohunger. He talks about how COVID-19 was a wake up call to the visceral challenges in the global food system—like climate change and inequality—and how to turn a moment into momentum. He also talks about how projects like She Feeds the World can help address these challenges.

Listen to or download the conversation here.

To listen in on more conversations with CARE staff around the world discussing experiences learned from failure, and how we use that to get better at our work, check out other episodes of the CARE Failing Forward podcast.

SEATTLE, September 4, 2024 /3BL/ – Expedia Group released Journeys for All: An Expedia Group Study on Inclusion in Travel — a first of its kind study that equips the travel industry with key insights and evidence-based recommendations to improve the travel experience for underserved groups, including Black, Latino, LGBTQIA+ and travelers with disabilities.

Underserved travelers are a large part of the global market, but their needs are often overlooked. Underserved groups in the U.S. are projected to grow significantly, increasing their impact on the travel market. As such, the travel industry has an obligation to meet the needs of underserved travelers and develop efforts that discourage barriers such as bias, discrimination and lack of personal safety. Expedia Group’s new report highlights urgent industry challenges and key insights to drive progress:

Forty-two percent of underserved travelers feel limited by their identities when planning travel.5+ hours is the extra time underserved travelers spend researching to plan trips, including to ensure services and destinations are safe, welcoming and accessible.Only 16% of travelers feel that travel advertising and promotions represent them authentically.Seventy-one percent of underserved travelers say it is important that travel company staff be well-trained on diversity and inclusion issues and topics.Nearly 3 out of 4 underserved travelers are more likely to book with companies demonstrating a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

This study assesses the needs of underserved groups across all three stages of the travel journey — planning, in-transit and at destination. According to the report, 20% of LGBTQIA+ travelers with disabilities say travel advertisements do not represent them at all. More than a quarter (26%) of Latino travelers with disabilities say they feel a need to hide their identities when traveling to and from their destination, compared to just seven percent of the general population. This data reinforces that most travelers identify with more than one underrepresented group and thus, have multiple reasons for concerns when traveling — from safety to accessibility to feeling welcomed.

“Evolving business strategies to create more welcoming and inclusive travel experiences should be an industry imperative,” says Greg Schulze, chief commercial officer and president, Travel Partnerships and Media, Expedia Group. “It not only improves the traveler experience, but it’s also good for business. This study invites the industry to come together and take action because everyone should be able to experience the joy of travel and its ability to strengthen connections and broaden horizons.”

In 2022, Expedia Group launched its Open World™ strategy to begin addressing inequities across the travel industry, as part of the company’s larger commitment to remove barriers and open access to travel to all. Since then, the company has launched two signature programs — its Open World Accelerator and Made to Travel Fund to realize this commitment.

# # #

Research Sources:

1All demographic data presented here refers to the United States population and is based on projections and characteristics sourced from the U.S. Census and the Human Rights Campaign.

About Expedia Group 
Expedia Group, Inc. brands power travel for everyone, everywhere through our global platform. Driven by the core belief that travel is a force for good, we help people experience the world in new ways and build lasting connections. We provide industry-leading technology solutions to fuel partner growth and success, while facilitating memorable experiences for travelers.

Expedia Group’s three flagship consumer brands include: Expedia®, Hotels.com®, and Vrbo®. One Key™ is our comprehensive loyalty program that unifies Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo into one simple, flexible travel rewards experience. To enroll in One Key, download Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo mobile apps for free on iOS and Android devices. One Key is currently available in the U.S.

© 2024 Expedia, Inc., an Expedia Group company. All rights reserved. Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. CST: 2029030-50

Increased availability of testing and antiretrovirals has led to global progress in preventing and managing infectious diseases like HIV, tuberculosis (TB), malaria and hepatitis in the last quarter of a century. However, progress is slower in some low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where the needs are greatest, especially among more vulnerable groups like women and children. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and growing impacts from climate change have demonstrated how infectious threats can emerge and have devastating global effects.

At Viatris, we have expanded access at scale to high-quality HIV/AIDS treatment for more than a decade. Our work includes helping to prevent HIV infections, increasing diagnosis and treatment and providing healthcare solutions. We also are working on local manufacturing initiatives with partners to transfer technology to expand access where it is most needed. Over the years, we have continued to seek improvements to existing molecules to better meet patient needs, including introducing novel heat-stable generic formulations, more convenient packaging options and pediatric therapies as well as extended shelf life for certain products.

Number of countries to which we provide access to high-quality and affordable ARVs ~125

Percentage of people on treatment for HIV that use a Viatris product1 ~32%

Viatris has worked to provide in-vitro HIV rapid diagnostic tests for self-testing in LMICs, and during 2023, we continued work to develop a dual oral pill for HIV and birth control in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. The product is expected to be filed with the WHO PQ approval by the end of 2024. All the above are important components to make progress on the collective goals of preventing HIV infections, expanding treatment and providing healthcare solutions to people living with HIV.

During 2023, we continued our partnership with the international, not-for-profit research and development organization Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) for the development of flucytosine slow-release formulation, a drug used for the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis, with the intention to reduce the pill burden and increase treatment adherence.

As part of our strategy to expand access to ARV treatments, we are working with international organizations for pooled procurement, engaging in licensing agreements with originator pharmaceutical companies and the Medicines Patent Pool and participating in government tenders. We provide a single price for all applicable countries supplied via leading global procurement mechanisms, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the U.S. PEPFAR Program.

Viatris has eight licensing agreements with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) for HIV – including PrEP – hepatitis C and COVID-19. For ARV and infectious disease products, Viatris also has license agreements with Gilead, Viiv Healthcare, MSD, TB Alliance and Otsuka.

Product registrations are an important part of enabling access to patients across geographies. We consistently file our ARV treatments with the U.S. FDA and the WHO Prequalification pathways to enable procurement by PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, as well as other international agencies. Still, many countries require local registration in addition to these global approvals. To meet this need, we have steadily been filing for local market authorizations of our ARV products based on country guidelines across all key high-burden HIV countries.2 

Viatris files all relevant ARV products based on country guidelines across key high-burden HIV countries. We have more than 700 registrations of infectious disease products across LMICs.

In 2023, Viatris engaged with WHO to seek scientific advice for regulatory approval of two different medicines improving on existing molecules to better meet needs of people living with and at risk for HIV, building on our long legacy of making relevant improvements in these medicines. In 2023, the shift to consolidate treatments for patients using ARVs continued, meaning that most of the HIV programs across LMICs transitioned to a dolutegravir-based regimen across first-line, second-line and pediatric populations.

Despite significant progress made over the years, the burden of HIV remains high in many countries. Estimates indicate that around 2.47 million people in India are living with HIV.3 Viatris has been a trusted partner to the government over several years in supplying HIV medicines and in 2023, Viatris launched in India a single pill combination HIV treatment of tenofovir alafenamide, emtricitabine and dolutegravir, reaching more than 4,000 patients in the first six months it was available.

In the last two years, Viatris has launched more than 10 new ARVs in South Africa, including a darunavir/ritonavir combination used for difficult-to-treat HIV patients when initial treatments have failed or not been tolerated, as well as the first fixed-dose tenofovir alafenamide combination to be available in South Africa. This has provided patients living with HIV increased access to leading treatments, helping to improve HIV outcomes in the country and contributing to the fight against HIV.

Improving Treatment for Children Living with HIV

Protecting and improving the health of children is a fundamental global health priority. Although significant strides have been made, there are still major disparities globally, with children in LMICs being among the most vulnerable. Complexities around formulations and dosage guidelines can often be hurdles to children accessing the care they need.

We have built strong partnerships with multiple stakeholders to improve access to ARVs, with particular attention to vulnerable populations like children. For example, in partnership with Viiv Healthcare and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Viatris has worked to develop a dispersible form of treatment which will reduce the pill burden in pediatric populations, which hopefully will significantly improve the treatment experience for children living with HIV.

Viatris has more than 150 medicines in the 2023 Essential Medicines List for Children. This represents more than 40% of the total list.

Viatris has more than 45% of the anti-infective medicines in the Essential Medicines List for Children.

Approximately 65% of children on treatment for HIV use a Viatris product.4

In 2023, we received approval of a single tablet regimen – the fixed-dose combination of abacavir 60 mg/dolutegravir 5 mg/lamivudine 30 mg – that will reduce the pill burden for children living with HIV.

In South Africa, we provided access to leading fixed-dose combinations for children living with HIV by launching Dumiva dispersible and dolutegravir dispersible in 2023, which enable caregivers to provide easy-to-administer medication to children as opposed to syrups that can be difficult for some children to take.

These milestones support the company’s sustainability goal to provide ARV therapy equivalent to a total of 30 million patients, including more than 2 million children living with HIV/AIDS, between 2022 and the end of 2025.

The Power of Partnerships in Treating TB

Our work in infectious disease also includes a focus on TB, one of the leading causes of infectious disease deaths worldwide.5 In many cases, TB can be cured with an antibiotic treatment regimen for six months; however, non-adherence is a challenge for TB control and prevention programs. Non-adherence to TB treatment increases the risk of morbidity and mortality and fuels drug resistance, impacting both individuals and communities.

Through our continued partnerships, Viatris has launched pretomanid, specifically approved for adults with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). It’s only the third new anti-TB drug approved in the past half-century. It was developed by TB Alliance, a nonprofit organization that develops and delivers new TB treatments.

In 2023, we completed another 57 registrations for pretomanid, and we are awaiting approval in 10 countries, spanning across multiple continents and income levels.

Partnerships like the one with TB Alliance are essential to providing more sustainable access to medicine. Pretomanid reached patients in more than 40 countries in 2023.

Continuing Our Commitment to Prevent and Treat Hepatitis

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver that is caused by a variety of infectious viruses and noninfectious agents leading to a range of health problems, some of which can be fatal. For examples, types B and C lead to chronic disease in hundreds of millions of people and together are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and viral hepatitis-related deaths. It’s estimated that more than 350 million people worldwide live with hepatitis B or C, and for many, testing and treatment are out of reach.6 We have a long tradition of helping to address hepatitis B and C, both through awareness and prevention and in making treatment more available.

Fighting TB in India

India leads the world in TB cases, a stark statistic that caused the government to set an aggressive target to eliminate TB in India by 2025.3 As many as 45,000 people are being treated for MDR TB in India. More than 10,000 of those patients were treated with a Viatris product, delamanid, in 2023. Viatris supplied this medicine through participation in a government tender and through India’s first order through the Global Drug Facility of the Stop TB Partnership, an innovative public-private partnership.

Examples from our work in 2023 include:

In the Philippines, a partnership with PHILUSA we offered a lower priced product to patients living with hepatitis B.In Myanmar, in collaboration with Burnet Institute, nearly 800 hepatitis C patients were treated with MyHepDVIR at a subsidized price. This marked one of the largest treatment initiatives ever conducted for hepatitis C in Myanmar, a country that carries a disease burden of 1.3 million people living with hepatitis C.Collaborated in Bulgaria with the patient organization HepActive to raise awareness of hepatitis B risk factors, diagnosis and treatment adherence and to provide psychological support to patients diagnosed with hepatitis B through webinars and social media campaign.

View the full 2023 Sustainability Report.

Sources

1 Excludes the U.S., EU and other developed markets. Also excludes Russia, China and Mexico, where we do not commercialize ARVs 
2 WHO Global List of High Burden Countries 
3 India HIV Estimates Report 
4 Excludes the U.S., EU and other developed markets. Also excludes Russia, China and Mexico, where we do not commercialize ARVs. 
5 WHO Tuberculosis Fact Sheet 
6 WHO Hepatitis Fact Sheet

Originally published by NYU Tandon School of Engineering on PRWeb

As we prepare to return to classrooms this fall, NYU Tandon’s NYC Media Lab, in partnership with Verizon, delivers on our joint commitment to empower educators and engage students by releasing brand-new immersive learning resources on Verizon Innovative Learning HQ—the free education portal that makes innovative learning tools available to all.

The immersive learning resources were developed by education experts from NYC Media Lab’s $1M Museum Initiative, a program aimed at connecting educators nationwide with museums, science centers, aquariums, and cultural institutions.

Continue reading here

Whether you’re a startup, a business that may have a change in operations, or you’re in a new role or have joined a new organization, you may want to keep reading. Do you know which environment, health, and safety (EHS) requirements apply to your industry and operations? Do you have a plan to meet them and avoid the risks of non-compliance?

If you answered no to any of these questions, you might benefit from an EHS applicability assessment. In our recent webinar, “Changes to Your Business? How to Know What Your Environmental, Health, and Safety Obligations Are,” Lauren Corbett-Noon, EHS Compliance & Auditing Leader, moderates an informative session about EHS applicability assessments. Mike Pauli, a lead EHS Auditor at Antea Group, and Becky Matich, EHS Audits and Assessments services lead, share strategies for how to understand which EHS regulations apply to your business, and how to evaluate the potential EHS implications of a change in your business operations. Business changes may include a process change, an expansion, an acquisition, or maybe you’ve heard about a change in a regulation and you’re not sure if it applies to your business.

Missed the webinar? Watch on-demand below.

Watch On-Demand

What is an EHS Applicability Assessment?

First, an EHS applicability assessment is a process of identifying and understanding the relevant EHS requirements applicable to your business. It involves collecting information about your operations, processes, materials, and equipment, and then determining which EHS regulations apply at the federal, state, and local levels.

The outcome of an EHS applicability assessment is a customized report that summarizes your EHS obligations and provides recommendations for compliance. The report also prioritizes the most critical or urgent actions that you need to take, such as applying for permits, developing programs, or conducting training.

Why is an EHS Applicability Assessment Important?

Compliance with EHS regulations is not only a legal obligation, but also a strategic advantage for your business. Below are some of the benefits of conducting an EHS applicability assessment. It can:

Reduce the risk of non-compliance, fines, accidents, and injuries that can harm your employees, customers, environment, and reputation.Improve your environmental performance and social responsibility, which can enhance your brand image and customer loyalty.Foster a culture of integrity and transparency, which can boost your employee engagement and morale.Help you plan and prepare for changes in your operations that might trigger new or different EHS requirements.Help you plan and prepare for potential regulatory changes that may impact your operations.Provide you with a clear and comprehensive understanding of your EHS responsibilities and how to meet them.

When Should You Consider an EHS Applicability Assessment?

You should consider an EHS applicability assessment in the following situations:

You are a new EHS manager, or a contractor, and you need to understand the EHS requirements that apply to the facility or operation that you are responsible for.You are expanding or modifying an existing facility, and you need to know what EHS permits, licenses, plans, and programs you need to have in place before you begin operation.You are making changes to your products, processes, or equipment, and you need to evaluate the impact of these changes on your EHS obligations and update your EHS controls accordingly.There are new EHS regulations that affect your industry, and you need to evaluate the impact of these changes on your EHS obligations and update your EHS controls accordingly.You are opening a new facility in a different location, and you need to know what EHS regulations  apply to the new location and how they differ from the ones that apply to your existing facilities.

How is This Conducted?

Conducting an EHS applicability assessment can be a complex and time-consuming task, especially if you are not familiar with the EHS regulations that apply to your business. That is why you might want to consider hiring a professional EHS consultant to help you with this process.

An EHS consultant can provide you with the expertise, experience, and tools to conduct a thorough and accurate EHS applicability assessment. They can also tailor the assessment to your specific needs and context, such as focusing on environmental or health and safety aspects or covering multiple facilities or locations.

The typical steps of an EHS applicability assessment process are:

Completing a questionnaire to gather basic information about your business and operations.Conducting a site visit to observe your operations, processes, materials, and equipment a, and to interview key personnel.Determining the applicable EHS regulations based on the information collected.Preparing a report that summarizes your EHS obligations and recommendations for compliance and prioritizes the next steps.

Wrap-Up

An EHS applicability assessment is the first step in building a solid foundation for EHS compliance. It can help you identify the gaps and opportunities in your current EHS practices and provide you with a roadmap for improvement. It can also help you avoid the costly and damaging consequences of non-compliance and enhance your business performance and reputation.

EHS compliance is not a one-time event, but a continuous process that requires ongoing care, review, refinement, and improvement. You may need to use different methods and tools, such as recurring inspections, internal or external audits, legal registers, management systems, or software programs, to maintain and monitor your EHS performance. However, it all starts with knowing which EHS regulations apply to your business, which is what an EHS applicability assessment can help you achieve.

If you are interested in conducting an EHS applicability assessment for your business, reach out today, our team is ready to help.

Originally published in American Airlines’ 2023 Sustainability Report

Marc Shapiro is the Director of the Breakthrough Energy Contrails team, one of American’s partners on contrail avoidance. Below, he answers our questions on the science behind contrail avoidance strategies, as well as some of the challenges in their implementation.

Prior to joining Breakthrough Energy, Marc worked as an applied scientist and entrepreneur in a diverse set of research and development efforts across fluid mechanics, geospatial analytics and mobile healthcare. In 2020, he started a company to develop geospatial data systems for climate mitigation and adaptation before transitioning to his current work. Marc earned a Master of Science degree in Fluids and Thermal Sciences from Brown University and a Bachelor of Engineering from Dartmouth College.

Marc, how would you compare the warming impact of contrails versus CO2 ?

It’s hard to compare them precisely, but CO2 is weakly warming over a long period of time, while contrails are strongly warming over a short period. But not all contrails have the same warming effect. Persistent contrails at night clearly impact the climate the most. By being more precise in our interventions and focusing on those, we have the greatest opportunity to make a difference.

How can we predict where warming contrails will occur?

There are fundamentally two ways to go about this. One involves using physics and meteorology to predict regions or volumes of air that should be avoided. The other uses observational techniques on the ground and from satellites to see where aircraft are actually forming contrails. In our work towards solving this problem, we need both.

What are the scientific challenges?

The type of atmospheric condition that creates persistent contrails is called ice supersaturation, which is a fancy way of saying the temperature is really cold and the humidity is high. Predicting that state is something that models have a hard time doing today. Another challenge is predicting these atmospheric states on as fine a scale as you need. Weather forecasts generally correspond to a grid, say, 25 kilometers by 25 kilometers. In that grid, you might have multiple fluctuations of supersaturation states. So, the model resolves to the average and it’s wrong sometimes.

Is there an easy way to describe your model?

Think of it like a weather forecast. We predict the probability that a contrail will form and an estimate of that contrail’s severity. The first part indicates how likely it is that an aircraft will form a persistent contrail in a particular area. The second part tells us that if we found a contrail in that area, it would likely have a particular persistence and impact on the climate.

Avoiding a contrail might also result in greater CO2 emissions. How should we look at the trade-off?

There is a cost in added fuel and CO2 that potentially gets added to the atmosphere as a result of avoidance maneuvers. Our models are telling us, though, only a few flights will be affected, and avoidance still results in a net climate benefit even over 100 years. We could reduce these added emissions if airlines had access to SAF. But from an operating standpoint, there’s a cost to the airline business in terms of greater fuel use, and no mechanism exists to share that cost right now.

How do you see American’s role in helping advance the solution?

The airlines are essentially on the front line of solving this problem because you are the ones that would implement the solution. So, what American is doing in helping us run trials is truly critical to advancing the research. The biggest hurdle to get through right now is not model development. It’s having the chance to really test and validate the model. Additionally, having a major airline working on this issue is a valuable signal that it’s important.

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By using creativity and persistence, the packaging department team at Yamagata, Japan, managed to reduce their waste plastic material by 11 percent, making them an inspiration for all sites globally. And it all started with one small idea.

Boehringer Ingelheim’s Yamagata site – 400 kilometers north of Tokyo – is surrounded by beautiful nature. On her daily drive to work, Yuko Goto, who works in the Yamagata packaging department, sees both the snow-covered Mount Gassan on the horizon and the many cherry fields that the Yamagata prefecture is famous for. “I feel very close to nature here,” says Yuko, “I am happy to live and work in such a beautiful environment.”

In the packaging department, Yuko and her colleagues guarantee a steady supply of 45 different Boehringer Ingelheim products for customers and patients in Japan. Yamagata started bulk exports to regional markets like Australia and New Zealand in 2023, and Yuko’s team is also responsible for packing for export. Packaging medicines in an automatic process creates scrap waste when the margin of the plastic film is cut away. The Yamagata site currently produces 2 billion tablets a year – a process that leads to 16 tons of plastic waste material.

“I have two children, and it is important to me to pass on a better future to the
next generation” – Yuko Goto, worker at the Yamagata Packaging Department

Working close to the production line, the amount of scrap waste produced became evident to Yuko – and something she decided to change. In 2021, she submitted a proposal to re-evaluate the established production process to reduce material loss and to improve packaging efficiency. “It was just sad to see all the material scrap waste, so we had to act,” Yuko explains. At Yamagata, employees are encouraged to submit their own ideas for small “quick-win” projects. This approach, called “Kaizen”, has led to a continuous flow of proposals for improvement. “I have two children, and it is important to me to pass on a better future to the next generation,” Yuko shares.

Using our resources in a sustainable way

The approach in Japan is true for all of us at Boehringer and a great example of what we aim for. Our Leitbild states that “we feel responsible for our communities and are respectful of our resources”. Boehringer will always strive to be better: develop better therapies, enable better healthcare solutions, and contribute to a better world for future generations. This includes protecting natural resources and reducing waste. The world’s natural resources are not endless. To use them sustainably, the amount extracted needs to reflect the resources’ capacity to recuperate and regrow.

“Our societies are currently using more resources than we have,” says Anthony Matheri, Senior Manager Circular Economy at Boehringer. “According to the Global Footprint Network, by May countries like Germany or Japan have used more resources than one earth can sustainably support.“ Boehringer is aiming to do its part to reduce the global over-usage of resources. Through the global MORE GREEN program and by applying a holistic approach, we are working to reduce our environmental footprint, including in areas such as carbon emissions, energy, water, and waste.

“By bringing together our global community, we can help and inspire each other.”

– Dr. Anthony Matheri, Senior Manager Circular Economy at Boehringer Ingelheim

Circular Economy helps us to keep resources in a loop

The concept of circularity – one component of which is waste reduction – promotes moving away from a linear business model of take-make-dispose. Instead, the approach encourages a circular business model that “closes the loop”. This means keeping resources in a “circular loop” where material is recycled and reused for as long as possible, or where the use of raw material is reduced altogether. “One way that we are increasing circularity within our operations is through eco-design and green chemistry,” Anthony explains, adding “This means challenging the status quo and considering product sustainability throughout the product life cycle of the end-to-end value chain.”

That was a key learning for the Japanese team. The machine manufacturer claimed that it was impossible to change established processes. But the team did not want to give up. So instead, they started innovating on their own and found a way to reduce material loss and to improve the packaging efficiency of three blister machines. They successfully reduced the scraps for the plastic film connection by half. This resulted in a waste reduction of 100 meters of film per process order.

By re-evaluating their processes, the Yamagata team managed to shorten the width of plastic film by 2 mm, leading to another reduction of 1.8 tons of waste. This also meant the scrap waste was reduced by 11 percent.

The team managed to reduce 11 % of scrap waste through the re-evaluation of processes

“There were many challenges, but in the end, we found a way to reduce the width of the plastic film and optimize the packaging material,” Yuko says with a smile on her face. In addition to the waste reduction, the weight reduction of the packaging materials has led to unexpected benefits. For example, logistics have become more efficient and employee safety has increased, since less volume means less weight that workers need to handle when transferring goods.

Reducing plastic waste further

This project, which started as one small idea, has now snowballed to create new projects which reduce plastic waste even further. The Yamagata site is also currently consulting with the machine manufacturer to see how they can collaborate to reduce packaging scrap waste even further – or altogether. In addition, since the blister machine manufacturer has the highest market share in Japan, our initiative opens up the possibility for many other clients to implement changes as well, thus benefiting not just Boehringer, but society as a whole.

So how can a project that reduces plastic film by 2 millimeters in Japan help us decrease our environmental impact globally? “No one can be an expert in all areas,” Anthony points out, “but by bringing together our global community, we can help and inspire each other.” Key to this is building systems of knowledge exchange between different cross-functional teams around the world. In this way, we are sharing the experiences gained from local circularity projects and using them to initiate and scale up similar projects at other sites.

Anthony summarizes: “The waste reduction project in Japan has the potential to not only increase the circularity of Boehringer’s operations locally, but also inspire many more similar waste reduction projects at Boehringer sites around the globe.”

Every kilo helps, and everyone can contribute when it comes to waste reduction. “Small things can make a huge difference”, Yuko agrees and tells us about how the project has given her the confidence that she can do more for the future. “I questioned what I took for granted and realized the importance of breaking down stereotypes and continuing to challenge myself. To contribute to a big change, I learned to find small opportunities and take action.”

Plastic pollution – tiny particles with a long-lasting impact

Plastic pollution poses a critical challenge within circularity. Plastic is not biodegradable, i.e. instead of decomposing, the material breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. These so called micro- or nano-plastics have a devastating effect on the world’s health. They enter waterways and oceans, negatively impacting the health of both humans and animals. Boehringer is working on sustainable optimization solutions for these issues in line with the work of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Their joint goal: A healthier future for humans, animals and the environment.

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Find out more about Boehringer Ingelheim’s global sustainability initiatives, ranging from creating more sustainable healthcare solutions and community engagement with impact to environmental stewardship in Imagine: our sustainability story hub.

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