Impact & Sustainability News From Leading Brands

Keep up with the latest news from 3BL’s clients.







Editors Pick

Social Impact & Volunteering

FCA Community: Volunteers Transform Michigan Neighborhood, One House at a Time

To help end local homelessness, Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac, Michigan, has weaved together supportive services, safe and affordable housing, and neighborhood revitalization efforts to create “Little Grace Village.” Once a blighted neighborhood, this area is now a “community of hope” thanks in part to the hundreds of FCA volunteers who have donated thousands of hours over the course of five years to transform homes for people who are trying to transform their lives.

Energy

The Business Case for Clean Power

General Mills began milling grain with water power from the Mississippi River 150 years ago. Now, the Fortune 500 company is using wind to power operations and cut its carbon footprint.

Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Update to Chinese Translations of GRI Standards

Additional Chinese translations of the GRI Standards, the world's most widely adopted sustainability reporting framework, are now available.

Events, Media & Communications

Corporate Social Investment Leaders Convene to Reflect On New Era of Action and Integrity

Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP) welcomes more than 300 corporate leaders from across the U.S. and around the world to the 2019 CECP Summit: Integrity and Action: Reshaping the Role of Business. The event, held annually in NYC, brings together professionals who drive societal investment strategies at the world’s largest companies.

Environment

Timberland, Wrangler, VF Foundation Support Regenerative Ranching Research

The VF Foundation (the charitable arm of VF Corporation) and the Timberland® and Wrangler® brands today announced $150,000 in grants to researchers at seven US universities — including Arizona State University and Michigan State University — that are conducting the first comprehensive research into regenerative ranching practices.

Environment

How One Small Business in Brazil is making a Big Impact on the Country’s Deforestation Problem

The Kitambar factory, which formerly used firewood to fire up its kilns, was indirectly involved in this trend by sourcing its wood fuel from forests that are "unmanaged," which essentially means that the biodiversity and health of these forests were not actively maintained by governmental or private parties. Previously, the factory would have used over 30,000 tons of non-renewable wood as fuel each year— mostly because it was cheap and there was little incentive to try to find cleaner fuel sources.

Innovation & Technology

Innovation Gets in the Weeds Under Solar Panels

Solar power plants provide many benefits but at least one perpetual challenge: How do you keep grass under the panels from growing too high? Mowers with traditional blades can damage equipment. Hand-held weed-whackers are a labor-intensive solution. Even the sheep tried at one small site behaved unreliably. So why not innovate and let engineers-to-be address this question for college credit?

Green Infrastructure

How Smart Small Businesses Can Make Sustainability Work for Them

As climate change and environmental responsibility become increasingly important drivers for consumers, businesses of all sizes are taking notice. In a recent survey, 83 percent of millennial respondents said it’s important for companies to implement programs to improve the environment, and 75 percent said they’d change their purchasing habits to reduce their own impact.

Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Viacom Partners with Reel Works on Annual Day of Service

In 2006, Patricia Henry was a high school senior working through a complicated mix of feelings about sex.

So when her school introduced her to a program called Reel Works—which recruits underserved teenagers and, via after-school, in-school and workforce programs, teaches them the filmmaking skills that can act as a precursor to a career in media—she found a creative outlet through which she could channel her curiosity.

Education

At the Top of Their Game: Messi, Gates & Wooten Not Only Share Great Talent, but Also Opportunity & An Environment That Allowed Their Talent to Thrive

You know it when you see it.

Lin-Manuel Miranda transforming a book into something else entirely. Messi moving up the field with a soccer ball that moves along with him. Diamond taking 13,000 years of history – and multiple disciplines – to incredibly show us how and why societies advanced in different ways at different rates.

Innovation & Technology

Arrow Electronics and Posner Center for International Development Collaborate on Innovation in Technology Award

Arrow Electronics and The Posner Center for International Development have awarded the 2019 Arrow Innovation in Technology Award to Moving Up the Coffee Chain via Blockchain, a project that will tap technology to connect Honduran coffee farmers with roasters in the United States. A collaboration between iDE and Bext360, the project’s goal is to show how blockchain can be applied to market-based interventions in global development.

Environment

13 Major Companies Call On Congress To Accelerate Climate Legislation. Here’s Why.

Corporate America is setting – and meeting – increasingly ambitious climate and clean energy goals. But the hard reality is that individual corporate action, no matter how big, won’t solve this great climate crisis.

In order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need public policies that harness the power of the whole economy to drive down emissions by putting prices and limits on climate pollution.

Responsible Production & Consumption

CNH Industrial Working to Make Manufacturing Even Safer in Brazil

CNH Industrial (NYSE: CNHI /MI: CNHI) achieved a year-on-year reduction of 55% in the total number of incidents causing an absence of one or more days in 2018, at its production facilities in Brazil. These results are testament to the effectiveness of the methodologies the Company adopts in terms of workplace safety.

Innovation & Technology

Announcing the 2019 Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge Winners

Today, in our third year of the Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge, we are proud to be recognizing a new group of young entrepreneurs who are creating cutting-edge, technology-based solutions capable of solving some of the world’s toughest challenges. With each year, I’m continually impressed by the ideas and solutions developed by these young entrepreneurs and inspired by their drive to make a difference. It’s with much excitement that I introduce you to the winners of this year’s competition.

Green Infrastructure

SCE Procures 195 Megawatts of New Clean Energy Resources in Ventura, Santa Barbara Areas

Southern California Edison announced that it has signed seven contracts for 195 megawatts of battery-based energy storage resources to meet local capacity requirements in the Santa Clara sub-area of its electrical system. Contracts were the result of SCE’s Aliso Canyon Energy Storage 2 Request For Offers and last year’s Local Capacity Requirements Request For Proposals.

Awards, Ratings & Rankings

Lockheed Martin Chief Ethics and Enterprise Assurance Officer Named to Compliance Week’s 2019 “Top Minds” List

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) Senior Vice President for Ethics and Enterprise Assurance, Dr. Leo S. Mackay, Jr., was named one of Compliance Week’s 2019 “Top Minds,” an annual recognition of the best and brightest thought leaders in the fields of governance, risk, compliance and ethics.

Health & Healthcare

New Study Shows Researchers May Be One Step Closer to Intercepting Lung Cancer Earlier

A team of scientists, including those from Janssen and the Lung Cancer Initiative at Johnson & Johnson, found that biomarkers related to the immune system may be able to aid doctors in identifying high-risk lung cancer patients—and treating them—at the earliest stage of the disease.

Environment

‘The Bobs’ Are Back: 4 Motivational Employee Engagement Lessons for EHS Leaders

Get your employees interested in EHS with the help of our blog on four lessons in employee EHS engagement.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

The Future of ESG: A Conversation With GPIF Chief Investment Officer Hiro Mizuno

Hiro Mizuno, Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Japan’s $1.4 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), spoke at the recent IMAS-Bloomberg Investment Conference in Singapore. To an audience of 400 asset managers, investment professionals, technologists and industry experts, Mizuno shared his views on ESG investing and the unique approach GPIF adopts as a universal owner and cross-generational investor. GPIF invests $28 billion of its AUM in ESG and signed the Principles of Responsible Investment in 2015.

Energy

Consumers Energy Chief Sees Solar Future in Michigan

Patti Poppe likes to joke about the bumper sticker she once stuck on her Chevy Volt electric hybrid car: “I ♥ coal.”
These days, the sticker sits in Poppe’s office at Consumers Energy’s headquarters in her hometown of Jackson. It’s a symbol of her personal evolution on climate change — and the transformation she’s leading at Michigan’s largest natural gas and power provider.

Environment

Major League Baseball and Discovery Education Invite Students and Educators Nationwide to Participate in the Global Sustainability Challenge

Major League Baseball® (MLB) and Discovery Education, the leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engaging content, and professional learning for K-12 classrooms, invite all students and educators nationwide to participate in the Global Sustainability Challenge. During this unique no-cost event, participants will explore their impact on the environment and learn about the importance of environmental stewardship through a set of flexible digital resources that can either be integrated by educators into classroom instruction or completed independently by students over the summer as part of an enrichment activity.

Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

GreenMoney’s Videos Issue on Sustainable Business, Impact Investing and Environmental Sustainability

GreenMoney’s annual all-Videos issue (May 19) is now online. Check out the lineup of selected short videos on Sustainable Business, Impact Investing and Environmental Sustainability

Latest Campaigns

  1. License to Operate
    Corporate governance, risk management, operational integrity, and regulatory compliance are demanding challenges that companies face in today’s ever...
  2. Collaboration and Partnership
    Cascale shares updates on its strategic partnerships with industry stakeholders geared toward shifting the industry into one that gives back more than...
  3. WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene)
    Highlight the essential role of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene in preventing disease and malnutrition. Content will link WASH to nutrition...
  4. Sustainable Products and Innovation
    Ongoing research into innovative solutions enables CNH’s brands to manufacture products that respect the environment while satisfying customers’...
  5. 2024 Sustainability Report
    Chemours chemistry enables products that people rely on to live better and thrive. Our world-class portfolio drives innovation and enables high...
  6. Accelerating access to healthcare technology
    We believe technology can help close the world’s health gaps. By putting people first, we find new ways to advance health while reducing costs. And...
  7. Special Economic Zones
    Driving awareness of Special Economic Zones.
  8. AEG's Commitment to Social Impact and Volunteerism
    AEG embraces its responsibility to enrich the lives of people in the communities around the world where we do business, and to use business to create...
  9. LG Air Conditioning Solutions
    About LG Conditioning Technologies The LG Electronics USA Air Conditioning Technologies business is based in Alpharetta, Ga. LG is a leading player in...
  10. Corporate Social Responsibility
    Corporate Social Responsibility
  11. Brightening Our Corner Newsletter
    Quarterly newsletter from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. Subscribe here.
  12. Subaru Love Promise: Education
    Subaru believes that all students deserve an equal and fair opportunity at a quality education. Through our partnership with AdoptAClassroom.org...
  13. Crown Holdings 2024 Sustainability Report: Built To Last
    Crown Holdings 2024 Sustainability Report: Built To Last In today’s rapidly changing world, “Built to Last” embodies our unwavering commitment to...
  14. Cascale Events
    Cascale organizes and participates in a series of events, leveraging its position as a global convener of close to half the sector to bring together...
  15. Sustainable Products and Innovation
    Ongoing research into innovative solutions enables CNH’s brands to manufacture products that respect the environment while satisfying customers’...