Search

The discourse over electric vehicles (EVs) has been heating up, thanks partly to a field of high-profile startups headed by Tesla. However, much of the attention has tilted towards electric vehicle batteries. Hydrogen fuel cells also provide for zero-emission mobility, and Daimler Truck CEO Martin Daum is among those who advocate for including both fuel cells and batteries in the mix.

The case for batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, too

In the context of technology available today, the case for including both batteries and hydrogen in the global electrification strategy is a simple one.

During an interview with CNBC earlier this month, Daum explained that Daimler Truck is committed to both as it is a diversified company that makes trucks for a variety of uses.

Shorter distances are appropriate for batteries, especially where there are opportunities for overnight charging. For longer trips and quicker refueling, fuel cells fill the bill.

“In general, you can say: If you go to city delivery where you need lower amounts of energy in there, you can charge overnight in a depot, then it’s certainly battery electric,” Daum explained. “But the moment you’re on the road, the moment you go from Stockholm to Barcelona … in my opinion, you need something which you can transport better and where you can refuel better and that is ultimately H2.”

Daimler Truck and electrification diversity

Daimler Truck is a recent spin-off from Daimler AG. Its focus is on buses and heavy-duty trucks, while the latter will concentrate on passenger cars and vans under the Mercedes brand.

That arrangement sheds additional light on Daum’s embrace of both fuel cells and batteries. He affirmed the diversified approach last month, when the Daimler Truck spinoff was announced.

“As a technologically leading manufacturer of trucks and buses, we will do everything we can around the world to offer our customers the best products, our shareholders an attractive return on their investment, and our employees sustainable jobs,” Daum said. “That’s why we are accelerating the development of battery and fuel-cell vehicles in all segments along the way to emission-free transport.”

Fuel cell passenger cars are facing hurdles in the competition for market space against an ever-improving scenario for battery-electric cars. In contrast, the playing field is leveling in the area of heavy-duty mobility including construction equipment as well as trucks and buses.

Cleaning up the zero-emission act

Batteries and hydrogen fuel cells provide for zero emission mobility at the tailpipe, but Daimler Truck and other automakers still have to address sustainability challenges in both fields.

Battery electric vehicles currently rely on lithium-ion technology. Until other formulas are developed, the auto industry will need to address environmental and human rights issues in the global lithium supply chain. The worldwide lithium-ion battery recycling industry also needs to be ramped up.

Fuel cell technology also faces supply chain and environmental issues related to mining. Fuel cells generate electricity by combining hydrogen with oxygen in the presence of a catalyst, typically based on platinum. Until alternatives are developed, fuel cell car manufacturers will need to address the impacts of platinum mining.

The green hydrogen piece of the puzzle

Hydrogen fuel cells have garnered an eco-friendly image because they generate electricity without producing airborne pollutants. Water is the only byproduct. However, the zero-emission picture is clouded by natural gas, which is currently the primary source of the global hydrogen supply.

Fortunately, alternative sources have already begun to emerge. Much of the investment activity is currently focusing on green hydrogen, in which renewable energy provides electricity to run electrolysis systems, which can push hydrogen gas out of water.

The renewable energy angle could help accelerate the growth of the global green hydrogen supply by attracting the same deep-pocketed oil and gas stakeholders that have been pursuing wind and solar energy opportunities.

That is apparently under way. Last spring, for example, Shell signed an agreement with Daimler Truck AG to develop fuel cell hubs and fueling stations in the European Union that feature green hydrogen. Shell also played a key role in the launch of the EU’s new Refhyne green hydrogen project last summer, and earlier this month the company announced a new green hydrogen partnership with the firm Norsk Hydro.

BP provides another example. Last week, Sally Prickett, the company’s vice president for hydrogen market development, told attendees at the recent S&P Global Platts hydrogen markets conference that “we see hydrogen as a really important vector in decarbonizing some of the particularly difficult-to-decarbonize areas of industry and transport.”

According to Prickett, BP is providing room for gas-sourced hydrogen in its 10-year plan, but electrolysis systems for green hydrogen are also included.

Daimler Truck and other diversified automakers that are committed to incorporating fuel cells into their decarbonization plans should begin pressing BP and other energy stakeholders to make more green hydrogen available as quickly as possible. Otherwise, their new fuel cell vehicles will be dragging a long tail of fossil energy behind them for years to come.

Image credit via Daimler Truck

The health and safety of the workplace have always been a priority for employees, but the COVID-19 pandemic has put such concerns into sharp relief — and many Americans are still anxious about their return to in-person work. 

Companies that have decided to reopen their physical office spaces are putting their buildings’ health under the radar to support safer and healthier workspaces. And for an increasing number of them, the tool they lean on is the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management.

Launched by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) in July 2020, the rating is designed to help businesses large and small prepare their spaces for re-entry in the wake of COVID-19 and into the future. While it was adapted from the widely used WELL Building Standard (WELL) and informed by the IWBI Task Force on COVID-19, it has broader applicability for supporting the long-term health and safety needs of people in a given space. 

“One thing that the pandemic has put into the forefront is the need for healthy and clean buildings that prioritize health,” Rodolfo Perez, senior director of standard development at IWBI, who leads the team’s water and materials concepts, told TriplePundit. “While the practices the rating promotes are not new, they have grown in importance since the pandemic, with interest from businesses growing exponentially.”

Safety, health and well-being are top concerns for building owners

Indeed, in a new survey focused on the facility management industry in the U.S. and Canada, 86 percent of building managers responded that the safety, health and well-being of employees, occupants, and visitors is their leadership's top concern, according to Blue Skyre, a commercial real estate management company which facilitated the survey that was conducted by survey researcher HarrisX.

Perez of IWBI contributed to the cleaning and sanitization procedure requirements that are one of five core areas in the WELL Health-Safety Rating, along with emergency preparedness programs, health service resources, air and water quality management, and stakeholder engagement and communication. There is good reason to focus on cleaning and sanitization, Perez said, as these practices are critical components in the defense against the spread of pathogens. 

It’s no wonder, then, that some 94 percent of building managers have reported that their buildings installed or plan to install improved HVAC air filtration systems and adopt advanced wellness programs, according to the Blue Skyre survey, while hand sanitizing stations, temperature checks and frequent cleaning of high-touch areas are now common. 

From handwashing to reduced surface contact, simple procedures work

These are among the practices suggested in the WELL Health-Safety Rating: handwashing, reduced surface contact, better cleaning practices, the selection of preferred cleaning products and reduced respiratory particle exposure. Handwashing may seem like an obvious and long-recommended procedure for a hygienic workplace, but today the simple act of handwashing has gained enormous attention as an effective way to reduce the spread of infectious disease — and studies show people often still need a reminder. 

Reducing surface contact is another key tactic. While the main way people become infected with COVID-19 is through exposure to respiratory droplets carrying infectious virus, contact with contaminated surfaces or objects (fomites) are a known source of spread for viral diseases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), although the risk is generally considered to be low.

Reducing the instances where people touch surfaces can help to minimize one of the vectors of disease transmission. The first step is to assess all of the high-touch surfaces throughout a building and consider temporary or permanent strategies to reduce the frequency of touching those surfaces, or even the need for hand touch, Perez told us. For example, an automated soap dispenser that operates by sensor rather than touch, or a water fountain activated by a foot pump, would cut down the number of high-touch surfaces. Employers can also consider ways to avoid people touching door knobs, elevator buttons, faucet handles and security equipment, Perez suggested. 

For a sensible cleaning protocol, the key is not to overdo it

A key part of the arsenal to improve cleaning practices is a cleaning and disinfection plan that includes instructions, training and record-keeping, Perez told us. “You need to have a cleaning objective, establish a plan that will meet those requirements, and follow that plan,” he said. “The key is to do it right, but not overdo it.”

One aspect of cleaning and sanitization that shouldn’t be overlooked is the type of cleaning products used and to avoid any hazardous or harmful ingredients in those products. Commercial cleaning products may contain ingredients that degrade indoor air quality and are suspected to be hazardous to human health. “It’s also a question of equity,” Perez explained, “for instance, we should work to protect the health of janitorial staff with significant exposure to cleaning products.”

The final component of the rating’s cleaning and sanitization procedures is minimizing people’s contact with contaminated respiratory particles. Here is where the now-familiar step of establishing physical distance between people in the office, or even building physical barriers to prevent respiratory particles, may slow the spread of pathogens. 

While the approach will vary, every building owner or employer is seeking to create a level of comfort — physical and psychological — for those who decide to return to the workplace.

“Let’s not forget that we need to feel safe in the places where we work. If someone feels their personal safety is threatened in a specific setting, they are less likely to be comfortable there,” Perez said. “So in addition to the protection it brings against the spread of pathogens, cleaning and sanitization may play a very important role in making people feel welcome in a space.” 

Streamlined accreditations to spur uptake of best cleaning practices

With cleaning and sanitization as a critical line of defense, IWBI has joined forces with the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC), a division of the worldwide cleaning industry association International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA), in a joint initiative to accelerate the uptake of best practices that strengthen the role of buildings in the fight against COVID-19 and other infections.

Specifically, the GBAC Star Facility Accreditation Program is become a recognized path of partial compliance for cleaning and sanitization criteria within IWBI’s WELL Health-Safety Rating. A GBAC Star accreditation can count toward five of the 15 points necessary to achieve the WELL Health-Safety Rating overall.

Proper cleaning protocols, disinfection techniques when necessary and infection prevention practices are all important components in the age of COVID-19 and beyond, Perez said — and it can’t be a “one-and-done” type of approach. 

“Cleaning plans are living documents, not paperwork that only collects dust,” he told us. “The WELL Health-Safety Rating is meant to be operational. Building owners and employers need to continually assess their needs and adjust and update their cleaning and sanitization plans. More than ever, we need to take the precautionary approach, so that our buildings are equipped to meet the challenges of this changing work environment.”

This article series is sponsored by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Image credit: zphoto83/Adobe Stock

There’s a big mural on an apartment building near my home that says, “We’re in this together.” In spring of 2020, seeing that sign made me feel hopeful. Now when I see the fading words, I cynically ask myself if that’s really true anymore. Maybe that’s an indicator of my own mental health, but with Giving Tuesday coming up tomorrow, November 30, I have started to imagine what it would feel like to be “in it together again.” 

If you haven’t heard of Giving Tuesday, you’re not alone — only 37 percent of adults have, according to the latest data available. In its 10th year, Giving Tuesday is an annual day dedicated to giving back and doing good that comes the day after Cyber Monday as a counterbalance to the consumerism of that day and Black Friday. For context, last year we spent $34.4 billion online during Cyber Week, the 5-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, according to Adobe, whereas only $2.5 billion was donated on Giving Tuesday in the U.S.

Giving Tuesday: the least recognized day of action

The gap in awareness could be because Giving Tuesday receives only 2.25 percent of all major media conversation in the holiday cycle, according to a recent analysis our team performed using Signal AI, and is the least talked about day compared to other recognized national days that highlight critical societal issues, such as Black History Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pride Month, Indigenous Peoples Day, International Women’s Day and Earth Day. Maybe it’s time to give Giving Tuesday a bit more of our attention, too. 

In 2020, a new level of commitment to social issues was spurred, and we saw the power of collective action. Whether you were sewing masks, marching in protests or amplifying Black voices, donating funds or goods, or volunteering your time to communities hit hard by the pandemic or social justice causes, there were a lot of small actions that added up to big impact.  

Yet, a year and a half later, we’re living in a much more polarized — and inequitable — world. And we seem to have lost steam. The truth is that we are giving less. So far, data from Benevity shows that individuals gave 19 percent less from April to October 2021 than they did during the same period in 2020. Arguably the need is just as great now as it was when we were in crisis. And if we are to prevent further crises, injustice, inequity, we need to act now, not when crisis hits. 

Can Giving Tuesday reinvigorate our collective drive to come together as a global community and take action on the issues affecting our world? Even if just for one day? 

Signs of hope

A lot has changed about the way we give that gives me hope. In the four years prior to the pandemic, social-and political-related causes made up only 10 percent of donation-based action. When our world was turned upside down in 2020, we saw a huge shift toward corporations and their employees, customers and communities taking action beyond their personally favored causes to create more impact around issues that matter for the good of the global collective.

Corporations stepped up by providing matching campaigns, large grants and customer donation incentives that made a difference in how much people got involved. And we expect to see more of that as companies put their weight behind Giving Tuesday. 

In recent months, Benevity data has revealed a sharp uptick in donations related to such critical issues as mental health, refugee relief and vaccine equity. Afghanistan refugee relief-related donations have surged 142 percent in the last month, compared to the first seven months of 2021. Mental health-related causes saw a 73 percent year-over-year increase in donations in October alone. And causes dedicated to vaccine equity saw donations spike 10x earlier this year and have experienced sustained support over the past five months for big, global initiatives such as Go Give One. 

This shows that these pressing social issues are still on our collective minds. Tomorrow, join us in doing just one good thing for the world and making Giving Tuesday a strong day of action. 

Image credit: Tyler Logalo via Unsplash

Guest articles reflect the opinions of the bylined authors and not necessarily those of TriplePundit’s editors and writers.

Tires may not be the first commodity that comes to mind when imagining a circular economy. Their numbers are hidden in plain sight. Globally, approximately 1 billion tires reach the end of their lives each year, and the potential consequences of discarding, stockpiling and dumping tires can include catching fire and breeding mosquitoes.  

The good news is that end-of-life tires, or ELT, are a valuable resource for the circular economy. Natural rubber, of course, is a significant component, but it only constitutes about a fifth of a passenger vehicle’s tire. Elements like synthetic polymers, steel and textiles also play a part. Each has a unique purpose for tire performance, and each remains valuable, even at end of life. Ensuring that these components get to an appropriate end use, however, takes deliberate research, planning and management. 

Most end-of-life tires are already recovered. Circularity is the next step. 

The bulk of ELT are already recovered, according to the 2019 Global ELT Management report from the Tire Industry Project (TIP), a CEO-led sustainability forum for the tire industry that sits under the umbrella of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Within the 45 countries considered, accounting for over 80 percent of the world’s vehicles in use, 86 percent of ELT were recovered. These findings represent a significant improvement over the last few decades. Only 30 years ago, the United States was recovering 17 percent of its ELT, compared to 75 percent in 2019. 

The tire industry continues to roll along, and its next destination is circularity. Members of TIP, leaders in the tire industry, provide useful indications of where the industry is growing. Some companies have been reworking the resources they use in their tires. Goodyear, for example, has replaced petroleum-based components with soybean oil in some tread compounds. Pirelli aims to use at least 40 percent renewable materials in select consumer tires by 2025. 

Toward more sustainable natural rubber, and to lessen reliance on Hevea brasiliensis — the trees which provide the world’s supply of natural rubber — Bridgestone has invested in the development of an alternative source, guayule, a rubber-producing plant indigenous to the hot and dry environments of the southwestern United States and north-central Mexico. And the Michelin Group’s 2050 target — to source all of its materials from recycled or renewable sources — will do its part to move the industry’s needle toward circularity. The group is also engaged in recycling end-of-life tires.

Understanding the importance of research for continued progress, as a whole, TIP members focus on advancing global knowledge about ELT management (through initiatives like its state of knowledge reports). Tire manufacturers, recyclers and regulators are all calling for more research and innovation in support of the sustainable management of ELT. Last year, the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) reported a 20 percent decrease in tire recycling nationwide since 2013, noting the importance of market development.

“Three decades after we successfully eliminated 94 percent of the over 1 billion scrap tires stockpiled around the country, this report reveals that efforts to find and develop new uses for scrap tires have stalled,” Anne Forristall Luke, president and CEO of USTMA, said in a statement. “We must take immediate steps to grow new and existing markets to recycle 100 percent of scrap tires. This not only protects our health and the environment — it drives innovation and jobs.”

Rubber modified asphalt a promising ELT innovation

Organizations like The Ray — a nonprofit pursuing net-zero roadway solutions on an 18-mile stretch of interstate highway in Georgia — are forging the way to a circular economy for tires through research, experimentation and advocacy. This year, The Ray worked with USTMA to examine the environmental impacts and benefits of one destination for end-of-life tires: rubber modified asphalt, an innovative paving material made from asphalt cement and ground ELT that carries a significantly lower carbon footprint compared to traditional asphalt pavement. 

The Ray has already installed rubber modified asphalt on one mile of the interstate’s four lanes, upcycling over 40,000 pounds of rubber from ELT in the process. While testing the pavement, the organization is looking to investigate previous research, Allie Kelly, executive director of The Ray, says — pursuing questions such as: Does rubber modified asphalt really make quieter and longer-lasting roads that resist cracking, as researchers hope? Do these roads manage stormwater more effectively? Can adding rubber reduce tire wear? 

"When you understand the knowns, you also understand the gaps, and then you can more strategically find any follow-up studies or follow-up research,” Kelly says. Results were published last summer with an immediate call for more research. In reviewing more than 300 scholarly sources and surveying 26 state highway agencies, the study found that rubber modified asphalt is a promising circular solution that reduces costs over the life of the asphalt, extends pavement life and reduces roadway noise, among other verified benefits. 

Valuing ELT, innovating toward a circular economy

Kelly emphasizes that a key to successfully giving tires a “second life and beyond” is changing how we view ELT. “The problem is that when the tire gets to the end of its life on a vehicle, we don't regard it as a commodity. We regard it as scrap,” she says. “And we don't really invest in scrap.”

There has been great innovation in manufacturing tires, Kelly notes — from airless tires to sensor additions to 3D printable tires. The Ray, recognizing the value in ELT, is advocating for innovation throughout the tire lifecycle, she says.

The shift from standard ELT recycling practices has only just begun. While rubber modified asphalt has great potential as a destination for ELT, Kelly recognizes a broader purpose for organizations like hers in the growth of this corner of the circular economy: “I think what our role is at The Ray, with partners like USTMA, is to make sure that we're taking full advantage of end-of-life opportunities for scrap tires,” she says. 

Driving progress, together

As The Ray pursued its study on rubber modified asphalt, TIP was rolling out a series of value-chain workshops for sustainable ELT management that aimed to improve the exchange of knowledge and good practices between stakeholders. The fruits of these efforts included the recently published ELT Toolkit for Improved ELT Management Systems. The toolkit is directed toward markets that have the potential to recover more ELT; TIP also plans to establish a digital platform to facilitate knowledge-sharing among stakeholders. 

Citing how little of the world has achieved circularity, the World Economic Forum claims that a circular economy “requires unprecedented collaboration.” The ten member companies of TIP certainly can’t transform the global management of ELT on their own. That’s the beauty of TIP’s knowledge-sharing approach — good practices and approaches that work should be shared so they can reach the stakeholders and regions where they are most needed. Toward a circular economy for tires, knowledge sharing and stakeholder cooperation will be the key drivers of progress. 

This article series is sponsored by the Tire Industry Project and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team. Members of the Tire Industry Project (in alphabetical order) are Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear, Hankook, Kumho Tire, Michelin, Pirelli, Sumitomo Rubber, Toyo Tires, and Yokohama Rubber.

Image credit: Imthaz Ahamed/Unsplash

Like most of you on the day before Thanksgiving, we’re a bit distracted. We’re focused on one thing though: Our gratitude to our readers. We appreciate the fact you keep coming back.

While we’re on the topic of distractions, we’ll be closing up shop for the long weekend and returning on Monday, November 29. In the meantime, if you’re fearful that your upcoming holiday gathering is akin to SNL’s recent spoof of a Target Thanksgiving ad, then consider this executive editor’s timeless pumpkin chocolate chip cookies: They are a definite crowd please and can satisfy almost everyone’s dietary (and political) needs.

In the meantime, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones.

Leon Kaye’s Addictive Thanksgiving Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup Miyoko’s Vegan butter or other “healthy” margarine

1 cup organic brown sugar

1/2 cup organic granulated sugar

1 humanely sourced (cage free, organic, etc.) egg (You can try using ¼ cup of applesauce or another alternative if you wish for these to be vegan)

1 cup organic canned pumpkin

1 teaspoon fair trade vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups organic all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cloves)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional – or any nuts for that matter)

1 cup or a 12 oz bag of fair trade-certified semisweet chocolate chips (or dark chocolate chips or chunks)

The steps to making these addictive cookies:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
2. Grease cookie sheets, or use parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then fold in the pumpkin and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices; gradually mix into the creamed mixture. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
4. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown. Cool on wire racks.
5. Try to eat only one. It so won’t happen.

You can use butter, but using Miyoko’s vegan alternative (which I prefer as it has no palm oil) or a similar product gives the cookies a nice texture, similar to a cake. If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice should do the trick. And don’t forget the salt–it brings out the flavor of the chocolate.

The results should look almost the above photo, courtesy Keith McDuffee via Wiki Commons. (The author’s photos never happen as platters of these cookies disappear before he thinks of snapping a pic.).

Lead image credit: Joseph Gonzales via Unsplash

As featured in the ViacomCBS Social Impact Review

In the U.S., suicide rates are the highest they’ve been since World War II, yet mental health is still often misunderstood and stigmatized. Events in 2020 brought this concern to the forefront for our viewers.

ViacomCBS has a commitment to mental health stretching back a decade and a half. Building on our long legacy, MTV Entertainment Group has recently launched Mental Health is Health, an initiative seeking to harness the power of storytelling to destigmatize mental health and drive behavioral and cultural change that normalizes mental health conversations and inspires action.

In 2020, ViacomCBS and the Well Being Trust conducted a survey of Americans to better understand the attitudes of mental health care. We found that:

• COVID-19 and social injustice have only exacerbated mental health challenges, with more than half of respondents reporting that difficult feelings have been getting in the way of their daily activities and relationships during the pandemic.
• 78 percent of Americans believe that their mental health is an important priority.

Collaborating To Create a First-of-Its-Kind Mental Health Media Guide

In recognition of the pivotal role storytelling can play in addressing the growing mental health crisis, MTV Entertainment Group led the development of the first-ever Mental Health Media Guide, a groundbreaking, comprehensive resource for content creators designed to help expand positive mental health portrayals. The Media Guide was developed by a coalition of media and entertainment companies and mental health experts and organizations. We will use it to inform our own storytelling and programming across our channels.

Our Brands’ Commitment To Being A Part of the Solution

Our brands have championed a constructive conversation around mental health for many years. When the SHOWTIME show Homeland first aired in 2011, the main character, Carrie Mathison, was one of the only protagonists on television struggling with bipolar disorder.

In 2020, we participated in the mental health and wellbeing conversation in a number of ways:

• The Daily Show with Trevor Noah raised over $40,000 during Mental Health Awareness Month and highlighted programs to help address the unique emotional challenges of the pandemic. The recipients of the donation, Vibrant’s Disaster Distress Helpline and NYC Well, provide life-saving crisis support to anyone in distress.
• Lady Gaga’s mother, Cynthia Germanotta, joined the CBS This Morning special Stop the Stigma broadcast to talk about the impact of mental illness on her family and friends.

Sparking Important Conversations

In 2020, we announced that we will expand mental health resources, including our Employee Assistance Program, to all production teams and talent to ensure that every single person on a ViacomCBS production has access to free, professional counseling.

ViacomCBS Veterans Network is partnering with our content producers to talk about mental health and suicide proactively and responsibly. For example, SEAL Team is a drama that follows an elite unit of Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous, high-stakes missions our country can ask of them. We introduced David Boreanaz, a leading actor on the show, to a couple who lost their son in combat in order to give Boreanaz perspective on what his role means to military families.

For shows that contain triggering content like Blue Bloods, a CBS drama about a multi-generational family of veterans and cops dedicated to New York City law enforcement, the ViacomCBS Veterans Network reviewed scripts to ensure appropriate warnings were included.

On the international side, we supported the UK’s Film + TV Charity in the launch of its Whole Picture Programme, which is designed to improve mental health for employees behind the scenes in UK film and TV. We will continue to work with the charity’s taskforce and mental health experts to help those working in our industry feel supported and valued.

In Africa, MTV Generation Change’s Need to Know in Isolation series passed the mic to Nigerian mental health activist Hauwa Ojeifo, who discussed the importance of selfcare, explained how access to services like medication and therapy is vital for vulnerable populations and encouraged audiences to amplify the call for mental health awareness during the global pandemic.

Read the 2020 ViacomCBS Social Impact Review here.

Previously published in the 3BL Media newsroom.

Yes, many of us have long snickered at the very thought of Ikea furniture and products – as this recent parody bit of John Oliver in this recent Saturday Night Live skit sums up. Of course, many of the snickering among us also shop at Ikea knowing the chances of running into anyone we know in those mazes disguised as retail showrooms are very low.

But Ikea has also been a leader on the sustainability front within the retail sector – for example, charging for plastic bags long before other retailers did the same, a move those chains generally made because of local ordinances. The company has also been a trailblazer on renewable power investments – so much so that earlier this year, Ikea said those projects were generating more power than it could use.

Speaking of plastic, today Ikea has announced that it will phase out all plastic from its consumer packaging by 2028. For example, those light bulbs encased in plastic blister packs that foment wrap rage? Well, now they are arriving on shelves packaged in paper boxes.  

According to the company, plastic now only consists of less than 10 percent of Ikea’s total packaging needs by volume. Nevertheless, the company has disclosed it spends about 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion) on 920,000 metric tons of packaging annually. Incorporating more renewable and recycled materials can help keep that tab down.

Most of the shift away from plastic packaging at Ikea will instead be toward paper-based materials. That won’t necessarily satisfy critics who argue that paper consumption drives deforestation worldwide – and much of the paper-based packaging produced worldwide ends up in landfill, especially it’s embossed with aluminum or lined with plastic. If (and that’s a massive if) paper waste streams are managed correctly, many global organizations have made the case that paper can be a part of the transformation toward a global circular economy. Again, we’re talking gargantuan if’s here.

Ikea insists this change in packaging will eventually be based on renewable and recycled materials – the details of which are vague for now. But in the grand scheme of things, and in comparison to other retailers, once again Ikea is a step or two ahead of its peers.

“Phasing out plastic in consumer packaging is the next big step on our journey to make packaging solutions more sustainable and support the overall commitment to reduce plastic pollution and develop packaging from renewable and recycled materials,” said Erik Olsen, the company’s packaging and identification manager at IKEA of Sweden. “The shift will happen progressively over the coming years, and mainly be focusing on paper as it is both recyclable, renewable, and widely recycled across the world.”

Image credit via Ikea

The shift toward virtual work, commerce and community during the COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated issues of accessibility online. People with disabilities are often unable to access the basic functions of websites and apps. And while some companies are making big strides in improving digital accessibility, it’s not nearly fast enough for people with disabilities who are taking their frustrations to court. For companies, this is both a wake-up call and an opportunity.

A stunning 98 percent of websites are considered inaccessible. That leaves the 61 million Americans who live with a disability, or 1 in 4 U.S. adults, without access to the online information that many of us take for granted. Globally, the situation is much the same: Websites are largely inaccessible for the more than 1 billion people worldwide who experience some form of disability.

That has many people fed up. The number of U.S. lawsuits alleging that websites, apps and digital videos were inaccessible to people with disabilities rose 64 percent in the first half of 2021, and more than one of these lawsuits is now filed every hour. That is a 300 percent increase in lawsuits since 2018, many aimed at large companies.

Once the pandemic boosted digital-first consumer interactions, companies got serious about accessibility — some for the first time. According to a recent survey from the market research firm Forrester, 8 in 10 companies are now working to achieve accessibility, but only about a third have a top-down commitment to creating an accessible digital experience. For nearly half of the companies surveyed, accessibility is driven by grassroots efforts from passionate teams or individual employees.

“It’s ironic that as we become more of a technological world where more things can be made accessible, less and less things are,” Michael Hingson, chief vision officer for AccessiBe, a company specializing in solutions for digital accessibility, told TriplePundit. 

Hingson is blind from birth and a longtime advocate for people with disabilities. His dramatic story of surviving the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center, making it down 78 flights of stairs with his guide dog, Roselle, is chronicled in his book, Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog and The Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero.

“All my life, I have had the opportunity to be involved in visionary work, and that includes digital accessibility,” he told us. “COVID-19 has made the lack of accessibility a more visible problem, but it hasn’t solved it. I think we’re going to see more of an outcry that accessibility isn’t built into the websites, apps and the products we’ve come to depend on.”


Not only is it the right thing to do, but serving the disabled community is also a significant market opportunity. Globally, people with disabilities control $8 trillion in disposable income, including nearly $500 billion in the U.S. alone. Those people are much more likely to spend their hard-earned cash with businesses whose platforms they can easily use, Hingson explained. Businesses that prioritize accessibility can also earn customer loyalty, with a Nielsen study finding that people with disabilities tend to be more brand loyal and also make more shopping trips and spend more per trip than the average consumer.

Moving from a compliance to an opportunity mindset

What exactly is digital accessibility? As the U.S. Department of Labor’s Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology (PEAT) puts it, accessibility means that everyone can use the exact same technology — regardless of how much they can see or hear, how they process information, or whether they can manipulate a trackpad, touchscreen or mouse.

Making websites accessible is the law. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice clarified that websites are considered places of public accommodation and should therefore comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act Title III. Due to the increased use of the internet, many countries have incorporated web accessibility into existing civil rights legislation that protects people with disabilities or created new laws to make the internet more accessible.

For many companies, digital accessibility strategy has been focused on meeting these legislative mandates. Not surprisingly, those actions tend to be more focused on risk containment versus business differentiation or innovation. 

BMC, an enterprise software company, has embedded accessibility into the way it designs its website — including creating a web accessible color palette, training developers and product managers to inclusively build products, and providing web accessibility checklists that allow for all functions of the company to build in accessibility accommodations.

“While it’s true that risk containment has been the catalyst for many accessibility initiatives including ours, it has also brought about a real change in the way we think about our digital experiences and our users,” said Mark Fries, AVP of web strategy and development at BMC. “By making accessibility something we build in from the beginning of a project, we are able to focus our efforts on the things that will be most meaningful to the most people and ultimately make the greatest impact. It’s not a tradeoff.”

Yet there is a great deal of innovation to gain in digital accessibility, as journalist John Brownlee, who is blind, writes in Modus: “Accessibility is probably the most important and exciting frontier in design right now. Far from being something that designers pursue grudgingly, it should be viewed as what it is: a crystal ball through which we can view the all-encompassing future of tech.”

The pandemic has also accelerated this mindset shift toward innovation, according to a recent report from the International Labor Organization’s Global Business and Disability Network. “[COVID-19 has] significantly raised the visibility of digital technology’s impact on the workplace … and overall, the impact of the pandemic has further accelerated digital transformation,” the report reads. “It also has ‘normalized’ accommodation requests and the adoption of inclusive technology, and many companies do have well-established accessibility solutions and practices around mobility, vision, hearing, and increasingly in the area of cognitive and neurodiversity disability.”

Framing digital accessibility as an opportunity rather than a compliance matter is the way to go, Hingson told us. “It’s really a matter of education, and to have meaningful consumer input and involvement in the development of technologies,” he said. "Technology and devices should include accessibility right from the outset, not as an afterthought.”

The next step forward for digital accessibility

There is still much work to be done. Ensuring companies are inclusive and accessible requires a new mindset that incorporates human-centered and inclusive design into the way companies create products and services. “Most organizations, including my own, still have a lot of work to do. However, it is imperative that all experiences, including products, content materials and websites, are inclusively designed,” Fries of BMC said.

Yet very few companies recognize that digital accessibility needs to be an integral part of their digital transformation strategies, according to the ILO report. They fail to connect the dots that digital accessibility investment has a universally positive impact on all users, internal and external, and is a prerequisite for sustainable and scalable hiring in serving people with all different abilities. “Beyond simply benefiting users with disabilities, focusing on web and content accessibility improves brand perception, facilitates social inclusivity, and builds a better experience for all users,” Fries added. 

The situation can — and must — change, Hingson said — and he is confident that the technology for digital accessibility will continue to improve with advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning. But the bigger question is the commitment: that businesses give digital accessibility the focus it deserves. 

“The reality is, today we have the technology and the ability to make the world an inclusive place,” Hingson said. “What we don't have is an educated desire on behalf of all the decision-makers in the world to truly make it inclusive.”

This article series is sponsored by BMC Software and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team. 

Image credit: Peakstock/Adobe Stock

It may seem like Black Friday has been going on for a month already, but that doesn’t minimize the importance of Small Business Saturday across the U.S. As those web ads keep following us as we surf and our email inboxes fill up with holiday deals, we thought we would offer a reminder why this coming Saturday, November 27, is so important to many entrepreneurs, small business owners and their families nationwide.

Small Business Saturday is a big thing

According to American Express, which was instrumental in launching Small Business Saturday over a decade ago, awareness about this day has turned into huge numbers over the past several years. Last year,spending on Small Business Saturday 2020 reached $19.8 billion, a slight uptick from the previous year despite the global pandemic’s impact, according to the company's estimates.

November 27 offers another opportunity to support Black-owned businesses

American Express has made it more seamless for small business owners to register and participate for this coming Saturday. The financial giant has also invested in raising the profile of Black-owned businesses across the U.S. For example, in a partnership with the online shopping partner Showfields and the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce, the company has curated an online holiday-themed shopping collection that exclusively showcases Black-owned retailers.

Such a focus is important as many of these small businesses are looking to recover the losses they suffered during the pandemic. Although many large corporations pledged their support to Black-owned enterprises last year, overall those promises have since fallen short. One study has concluded that almost 60 percent of Black-owned businesses ran into large financial risks over the past 18 months, yet many of them quickly realized they had no choice but to pivot and figure things out on their own as federal emergency funds and loans largely bypassed them.

It makes it easier for locals to spend money where it counts the most

Whether we live on social or traditional media, it’s hard to ignore the constant messaging from the largest online and brick-and-mortar retailers as they keep rolling out new deals in their bid to have us open up our wallets time and again. Based on the fact that these larger companies have had more luck than their smaller competitors in scoring those coveted holiday items on their shelves, the evidence suggests that the deck is stacked against smaller stores.

It won’t be surprising if the largest retailers in the U.S. report a banner year once this season wraps up, but here’s one fact about where many Americans’ hearts lie: The data out there concludes 80 percent of them will likely buy from a small business during the next few weeks. The work of companies like American Express, as well as ongoing social media campaigns with hashtags like #ShopSmall and #SmallBusinessSaturday, is important to remind consumers where they can go to support local businesses.

It keeps dollars in the local community

It’s a pretty intuitive argument to make: When we leave our homes this weekend and hit the local main street or that corner strip mall, we’re doing more than finishing off our holiday gift list. Add that latte and scone at the local coffee house, the lunch bought while taking a break between stores, and picking up any household items that we may need, and the economic impact of our decision to shop local can tally up quickly.

That tally can cumulatively amount to hundreds of billions of dollars, American Express says. “Shopping small” this season, according to the company, could result in a total impact of $695 billion spent in the small business economy. Hence small business owners are counting on the next several weeks to be successful one: 78 percent of the business owners who American Express surveyed said this holiday season’s results will determine their ability to stay in business during 2022.

Image credit: Mac Glassford via Unsplash

Those disturbing viral videos of people getting trampled in big box store stampedes on Thanksgiving night aren’t the only reason many of us prefer to stay home that day and avoid the Black Friday madness altogether. If you ever had to get up at 2 a.m. on Black Friday morning or cut a Thanksgiving Day gathering short because of that weekend’s demands on retail workers, you would understand why anyone with a smidgen of a conscience would rather not walk through any large store's sliding glass doors that day or at all that weekend.

It turns out that very soon, store hours on Thanksgiving Day will soon become a distant memory. According to the Associated Press, Target won’t be open at all that day or night — for good.

“What started as a temporary measure driven by the pandemic is now our new standard — one that recognizes our ability to deliver on our guests’ holiday wishes both within and well beyond store hours,” Target CEO Brian Cornell wrote in a note obtained by the AP. “You don’t have to wonder whether this is the last Thanksgiving you’ll spend with family and friends for a while, because Thanksgiving store hours are one thing we won’t ‘get back to’ when the pandemic finally subsides.”

While Cornell’s note may come across as if it had been written with compassion toward what retail workers endure each holiday season, current economic realities are what dictates this latest shopping trend. Many retailers stayed closed during last year’s Thanksgiving holiday in a move to “stop the spread” of COVID-19, and Americans’ continued shift to online shopping also makes shopping on a family holiday more of a relic than a necessary reality for these companies’ bottom line. Add the fact that many retail workers have been fed up with how they’ve been treated on the job, thereby becoming a driving force in the “Great Resignation,” this announcement is also a face-saving measure on behalf of any retailer deciding to give its employees during this year’s holiday.

Nevertheless, credit Target with being the first nationwide large retailer to end any store hours on Thanksgiving Day. Macy’s is one retailer that will also shutter its stores this Thursday, though some of its locations will still offer curbside pickup. Kohl’s and Walmart locations will also stay dark on Thanksgiving, though according to the AP they haven’t yet committed to making this policy change permanent. Don’t be surprised, however, if more retail chains follow suit as when one makes a drastic, headline-generating change, others will follow.

Retailers have been offering bonuses and benefits such as health insurance and 401(k) contributions in the rush to staff up Many potential employees, however, have been unmoved, even though federal pandemic benefits expired earlier this month. More people are putting their health and sanity first, even if at first it means less spare income. “I think, overall, people are really shifting their priorities,” Sara Gordon of the temporary staffing company Adecco told NBC News in September. “Flexibility and the ability to acknowledge that life happens and life is happening in a very unpredictable world really packages employee mental and physical health as a priority and value proposition.”

Image credit: Ashkan Forouzani via Unsplash