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Bartenders have a unique window on the world. They absorb and reflect the hubbub of conversation that swirls around their workplace. They fill many roles, including those of cheerleader and social influencer. When brands build relationships with bartenders — or mixologists, in professional parlance — they have a unique opportunity to amplify their messages. That’s not as simple as it may seem, but the company Bacardi has launched a new youth training program that could help build public support for its environmental activities as well.

Bacardi launches new training program for young mixologists

Bacardi’s new initiative addresses the twin problems of youth unemployment and a worker shortage in the hospitality industry.

Announced last month, the company’s “Shake Your Future” program is aimed at recruiting young people into the hospitality industry through a bartending and mixology training program.

In an era when the “gig economy” is attracting workers into jobs with little or no career development opportunities, Shake Your Future offers placement in an industry that has traditionally offered pathways for working up the ladder.

Bacardi gave this program a trial run last year in France. Based on those results, the company plans to roll it out across Italy, France and Spain later this year, with the aim of making it available in 12 leading cities globally within three years.

From the doorstep to an open door

With a branch in the Paris suburb of Saint-Ouen, Bacardi launched the pilot project to help address a youth employment crisis occurring practically at its own office doorstep.

According to the company, youth unemployment in the European Union is at an all-time high of 15 percent. At the same time, though, skilled workers are in short supply for the hospitality industry.

In partnership with the European Bartender School, Shake Your Future offers a free 10-week training and work program, leading to internationally recognized certification.

Beyond instruction in mixing scores of different cocktails, the program includes rigorous instruction in bar management and other transferrable skills.

The program also offers a genuine chance at job placement, with leading bars and restaurants providing on-the-job experience for participants.

Amplifying environmental messages

Coincidentally or not, Bacardi’s focus on youth employment has come about during a key moment in history, when young people across the globe are flexing their power to influence policy on climate change and other environmental issues.

In the meantime, evidence is growing that millennials are attracted to companies that share their values — both as consumers and as employees, too.

In other words, a company’s ability to attract the up-and-coming generation of workers is becoming intertwined with its ability to engage the public on environmental issues.

As a spirits maker devoted to building relationships with young bartenders, that focus puts Bacardi in a good position to work with the hospitality industry to amplify messages on the environment.

Bacardi already has a head start with a focus on the issue of ocean plastic debris. The effort has included partnering with nonprofits on local beach cleanup projects.

Bacardi has also taken the cleanup campaign to the source. Last year it partnered with the innovative organization Lonely Whale on the #FutureDoesn’t Suck campaign, designed to raise awareness about ocean plastic. A key element of the campaign is to encourage consumers to stop using plastic straws.

As part of the campaign, earlier this year Bacardi promoted a slightly tongue-in-cheek initiative to lobby Unicode, the keeper of the emoji archives, to remove the straw from the popular cocktail glass and soda cup emojis.

In another imaginative iteration of the plastic straw campaign, last month Bacardi and Lonely teamed up to produce a limited-run vinyl record made with recycled plastic straws. The effort has enlisted more than 50 bars to help collect straws. The record will feature Make It Hot, a musical collaboration by the international artists Major Lazer and Anitta, as announced earlier this summer by Bacardi.

Engaging employees on the environment

Bacardi has also taken the ocean plastic campaign into the arena of employee engagement. In 2014 it launched the annual Good Spirited Awards, aimed at motivating individual employees, teams, and entire facilities to develop new environmental programs including energy and water as well as waste and recycling. This year, the winning programs included amplification of the plastic straw campaign.

Another employee-centered initiative involves the company’s “Back to the Bar” event. Bacardi staged its second annual Back to the Bar event last February, sending more than 7,000 Bacardi employees to more than 1,000 bars in 130 cities around the world.

The event is aimed at peppering social media with Instagram messages. In just its second year, it has become an “important cultural touchstone” for Bacardi.

In a press statement last February, CEO Mahesh Madhavan explained that “…it’s important to reconnect with our roots, think like Founders and put our own feet on the street to see first-hand how our business, bars and consumers are changing.”

This ability to enlist employees in supporting brand identity and amplifying environmental messaging presents an interesting contrast with the efficiency-and-availability focus of gig employment.

That is reflected in the behavior of investors who are working to establish ESG (environmental, social and governance) profiles. Specifically, they are avoiding Uber and Lyft. In addition to a plethora of worker rights issues, evidence is beginning to show that ride-sharing services can increase car traffic and undercut public transportation, rather than helping to reduce local congestion and air pollution.

Impact on brand reputation

While Uber and Lyft (especially Uber) have struggled with their brand reputations in recent years, Bacardi’s emphasis on global youth, youth culture, bartender training, bar culture and employee engagement has been paying off. This year, Bacardi celebrated its seventh consecutive appearance on the Reputation Institute’s Global RepTrak 100 list, published in Forbes.

All things being equal, in the coming years Bacardi, and companies like it, will intensify their efforts to connect with global cultural transitions on a granular level, especially regarding the rise of youth activism and environmental action.

For Bacardi, it comes down to recognizing that bartenders are “truly on the cutting edge of what’s new and next in our business.”

The company foresees a revival of interest in drinking cocktails, driven by millennials. If all goes according to plan, this new “golden age” for cocktail culture will also be an age without a place for plastic straws.

Image credit: Johann Trasch/Unsplash

Consumers are buying more organic food, and that is adding yet another element of complexity within the food industry. Food companies are responding to the growing demand for simpler, safer ingredients in their branded products. However, they are bumping up against conventional agricultural practices involving the use of pesticides and genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, within the global food supply.

In that respect, the food and agriculture industries are engaged in a transitional struggle, much like the global energy sector is battling through a period of change from high carbon to low carbon.

First ice cream, now coffee

Nestlé and Bayer (which completed its acquisition of Monsanto last year) illustrate how consumer demand is fomenting tension between food brands and the agriculture industry.

In 2016 Nestlé ramped up its efforts to simplify its ingredients and provide consumers with more non-GMO options, focusing particular attention on several flavors of its Dreyer’s Slow Churned brand.

Nestlé positioned the move as a “journey to evolve with consumer preferences and offer greater choice.”

The company continues to express confidence in the safety of genetically modified ingredients, but some industry observers had interpreted its emphasis on non-GMO options as a strike against Monsanto.

Last month the tension with Bayer came into sharper focus, when Nestlé went public with concerns over the level of glyphosate in coffee beans.

Glysophate is the key ingredient in Bayer’s popular Roundup brand herbicide, a legacy Monsanto product.

As reported by Bloomberg and other media, Nestlé tested its beans and found that glyphosate levels in certain beans from Indonesia and Brazil are uncomfortably close to the limits imposed in Europe, Australia and Malaysia. Those limits are stricter than in other nations across the world.

Nestlé has stated that its agronomists will work with the source countries to adjust the protocols for applying glyphosate and other herbicides, including the “adoption of other weeding methods,” in order to meet the stricter standards.

Global food supply, global standards

Nestlé’s reference to “other weeding methods” is consistent with the company’s broader supply chain requirements for water resources.

Published in 2012, the requirements state that “farmers should adopt measures to reduce pesticide use, such as integrated pest management, and/or the use of cultural, biological, mechanical or physical methods.”

Reducing, if not eliminating, the use of pesticides and herbicides would be a task for global food companies like Nestlé – not necessarily suppliers like Bayer.

For example, back in 2008 Nestlé preemptively withdrew a Brazilian milk cereal product from the U.S. market. It took the action because the U.S. had not yet set a limit for a certain pesticide used on wheat, though the cereal did meet standards set by Brazil and the EU.

Food and energy transitions

As major economic sectors, food manufacturing and agriculture are both deeply entwined in the global energy transition, especially as it relates to the nexus between energy and water.

As with the demand for clean power, demographic and cultural forces also appear to be at work in the global food supply transition. Products that were once confined to the shelves of the local food co-op are now mainstreamed into thousands of big box supermarkets.

Last December, Nielsen surveyed trends in the U.S. and noted that millennials and citizens of Hispanic heritage topped the list of demographic groups driving a significant jump in the sales of organic products.

The report attributes millennial support for organics to an overall interest in sustainability. That element is also in play for the Hispanic demographic in the U.S., but the key factor is the use of traditional ingredients to prepare meals at home.

According to Nielsen, organic products are “more accessible than ever” and “sales continue to outpace previous years.”

Nielsen found that “growth is huge” in the organic FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) industry, even though overall consumption in that category has practically flatlined:

“Where the average American household is spending just 0.2% more across overall FMCG, the pace of purchasing happening among organic goods is exceptional and is breathing life into otherwise flat or contracting aisles of the store.”

Food and energy

Bolstering Nestlé’s emphasis on supply chain requirements, the report indicates that overall, consumers are becoming more sophisticated about both their food and non-food supermarket purchases.

They are “taking note of the ingredients, manufacturing process, and attributes” surrounding the items in their shopping cart.

That close scrutiny is in accord with the efforts of Nestlé and other food brands to reduce their carbon footprint, including impacts within the supply chain.

Along with using renewables at its factories, Nestlé is working with farmers to reduce greenhouse gases, particularly in the dairy supply chain. Tree planting and biodiversity efforts are also part of the mix.

The company also plans to accelerate “the transformation of its products in line with consumer trends and choices.”

Like the energy transition, the global food supply transition is well under way, and leading brands will continue to press for more sustainable — and marketable — agricultural practices.

Image credit: David Mark/Pixabay

(Image: Students at Aviation High School, the largest public aeronautical high school in the U.S.)

Most of us know that jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are in high demand: Economic projections indicate a need for up to 1 million more STEM workers than the U.S. will have available in its workforce through 2022.

Introducing children to these subjects at an early age can help to close the so-called “STEM gap” while opening up a college education and well-paying jobs to more young people nationwide, educators and researchers say. 

“It’s important for youngsters to start at the elementary-school level,” Mario Cotumaccio, assistant principal of Aviation High School in Long Island City, New York, said of STEM education. “The sooner it is incorporated into the curriculum, the better, as early as pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.” 

Aviation High School has prepared young New Yorkers for technical careers in the aerospace industry for more than 80 years. Within specialized fields such as aviation in particular, “Exposure is the biggest factor, especially for inner-city kids, who rarely see what an aviation technician or aviation mechanic does,” Cotumaccio told us. “It’s about having them feel different career clusters and do career shadowing at an early age.”

The school works with professionals and companies in the aviation industry to connect students with mentors and provide hands-on learning opportunities. With an office a mere mile from the school’s campus in Long Island City, JetBlue and its aviation and STEM-focused Foundation are key mentoring partners. Hundreds of JetBlue crewmembers are alumni of Aviation High School, and now they’re paying it forward by regularly volunteering as student mentors and sponsoring field trips to New York airports. 

Although students work on planes in class, many have never stepped foot on one or been inside an airport. Working side-by-side with crewmembers also gives students a glimpse into the day-to-day life of aviation professionals and allows them to see themselves in the career, as some say the field trips are the first time they’ve seen pilots of color. These trips also provide awareness of the many career options available within an airline,  according to JetBlue. 

“One third of U.S. companies report job openings and can’t find skilled workers for technical positions. A strong STEM foundation will be critical as these students enter the workforce,” said Marco Nogueira, director of quality assurance and chief inspector of technical operations for JetBlue. 

“Mentorship and access are the key differentiators that help the JetBlue Foundation make a true impact, whether it’s ensuring students have skills for well-paying STEM jobs upon graduation from high school or the opportunity to further their education through college,” he continued. “As the JetBlue Foundation Ambassador to Aviation High School, I have the honor of working with students and administrators to provide a direct pathway to JetBlue’s talent pipeline and workforce.”

Why STEM? 

STEM programs are particularly important for students in high-poverty, urban school districts, research finds. Graduation rates remain much lower in these districts compared to the national average, as students grow discouraged by under-resourced schools and a lack of opportunities to attend college.

Focusing on specialty and vocational training has proven to help keep students, particularly those from underserved communities, engaged. And data indicates that reaching students at an early age determines if they enter STEM tracks at specialty and vocation-focused high schools.

According to research from the Association for Career and Technical Education (CTE)—a national association representing CTE professionals—students involved in CTE programs are more engaged in school and graduate at higher rates than their peers in traditional high-school programs. Students in CTE programs have an average graduation rate of 93 percent, and more than 75 percent of those graduates go on to postsecondary education not long after high school. 

Technical schools prepare young learners for success 

One of the country’s most successful technical high schools, Aviation High School has built its reputation on a demanding curriculum that has evolved with the industry, educating thousands of the city’s underserved students. It boasts the longest school day in New York City, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  

A Title 1 school, the enrollment is 42 percent Latino, 39 percent Asian, 12 percent white and 4 percent African-American. The female population is on the rise as well, Cotumaccio said, at close to 20 percent of enrollment, and the school provides support for female students. “We have shadowing, field trips, female mentors and we have female professionals come into the school and make the subjects very tangible for them.”

Aviation has a 90 percent graduation rate, and about 80 percent of graduates go on to college; many become pilots and enter engineering, law enforcement, business and aviation law. 

The school’s proximity to John F. Kennedy International Airport also offers students the chance to train alongside aircraft mechanics and technicians. However, the majority come in having never touched a screwdriver. “They are quick on computers, but have difficulty using tools,” Cotumaccio said. “This is a replacement generation; it becomes difficult to impress upon them that things can be repaired.”

Most of the entering students have some type of love for aviation, he added, although they have not settled on a career. “Many are interested in piloting, creating, designing; we help them to work toward their goals.”

Driving interest in STEM: Opening the door for postsecondary education and successful careers 

For those who want to pursue careers in aviation, the jobs will be waiting, Cotumaccio added. Together with Vaughn College, a four-year aeronautics and technology college in Queens, Aviation High School graduates more than 20 percent of the U.S. supply of new aviation maintenance technicians, a field that will need more than 100,000 new workers over the next 20 years in the U.S. alone.

“There is going to be a tremendous shortage Boeing is predicting in terms of aircraft technicians, pilots and teachers with these types of skills,” Cotumaccio said. “There are definitely opportunities for kids with aviation flowing through their blood.”

Aviation High School was one of the JetBlue Foundation’s first grant recipients. The two organizations continue to work closely together, and JetBlue’s Aviation High School internship and apprentice programs have provided hundreds of students with the opportunity to learn about the aircraft mechanic track, while working side-by-side with JetBlue technicians. 

The JetBlue Foundation is accepting letters of interest for grants from STEM and aviation-focused partners for the Fall 2019 grant cycle through Oct. 12. Click here to learn more.

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

Image credits: Aviation High School and Hanson Lu/Unsplash

In mid-September 2019, Internet retail giant Amazon caught the world’s attention with the announcement of its order of 100,000 electric delivery vans, possibly the largest such electric vehicle (EV) order ever. It is the latest major milestone in EVs’ accelerating role as a core component of corporate sustainability. Amazon’s news follows on an early-2019 announcement from ride-hailing app Lyft to similarly add thousands of EVs to its fleet, all of them powered by 100 percent renewable energy.

Now, a recently released report from nonprofit software tech company WattTime shows how EVs can be even cleaner than they already are, further supercharging corporations’ decarbonization efforts. The key is emissions-optimized EV charging, powered by software intelligence.

The concept is simple, yet powerful: as the U.S. grid adds more renewable energy, the real-time emissions rate of the grid is becoming increasingly variable, with wind and/or solar supplying electricity in one moment and coal and/or natural gas ramping up the next. With the right software signal, smarter EV charging can sync with moments of cleaner energy and pause charging during moments of dirty energy. It’s like a “green” button for EV charging that further reduces associated grid emissions while still full charging the battery at the end of the charging period.

Workplace charging is growing fast, and a ripe scenario for emissions savings

Daytime workplace EV charging is one of the two most-common charging scenarios, alongside overnight at-home charging. It’s especially effective when paired with a regional grid mix well-matched to daytime charging, such as in California where lots of solar and some wind energy saturate the daytime hours.

The WattTime analysis found that emissions-optimized daytime workplace charging in a place like California could reduce associated EV emissions a further 12 percent annually and over 90 percent on individual days. These are additional, incremental emissions savings above and beyond the switch from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to EVs charged on a variety of grid mixes.

The workplace EV charging market—as measured by both corporate EVSE expansion commitments and EVSE infrastructure deployment forecasts—is growing rapidly.

For example, The Climate Group’s EV100 initiative launched with 10 founding members in September 2017. The initiative brings together “forward-looking companies committed to accelerating the transition to EVs and making electric transport the new normal by 2030.” By fall 2018, that number had grown to 23 members; by September 2019, it has now grown to 59 members.

For another example, by many estimates there are upwards of 9,000 charging stations and a total of nearly 19,000 charging plugs at workplaces across the United States (filtering the U.S. Department of Energy’s electric vehicle charging station database by level 2, public, privately-owned stations). By 2030, the Edison Electric Institute forecasts a need for an incredible 1.2 million workplace level 2 charging stations to help accommodate the anticipated 19 million EVs on the country’s roads and highways by then.

5 ways smarter EV charging super-boosts corporate sustainability

At the end of the day, smarter, emissions-optimized EV charging helps make EVs even more cleaner. In turn, that supercharges corporate sustainability in at least five significant ways:

• Brand image: More than ever, translating corporate sustainability efforts into positive brand value comes down to authenticity and making true inroads to decarbonization. It’s behind the rise of “additionality” as the new metric for renewable energy procurement. Emissions-optimized charging provides a similar boost to the simple installation of workplace EV charging stations.
   
• Employee appeal: According to a 2017 federal study, employees who have access to workplace charging are six times more likely to purchase an EV than those who lack such access. Smarter, emissions-optimized charging “sweetens the deal,” boosting employee confidence that their EV purchase is indeed taking a bite out of overall emissions.
   
• Scope 3 emissions of employee commutes: Emissions associated with employees’ commutes typically fall under the Scope 3 category of the GHG Protocol for corporate sustainability reporting. Slashing those emissions starts with getting employees out of ICE vehicles and into EVs. Emissions-optimized charging takes those emissions reductions even further… without any upgrades to hardware, whether employees’ EVs or the workplace charging stations they use to refill their batteries.
   
• Fleet emissions: Whether massive fleets of delivery vans or platoons of corporate cars, electrification and emissions-optimized charging go hand-in-hand to make the biggest dent in fleet emissions.
   
• Renewable energy procurement: For corporations serious about integrating more wind and solar renewable energy on the grid, emissions-optimized EV charging can be a surprising yet powerful tool. As more and more variable renewables get added to the grid, we’re seeing increased instances of curtailment—times when perfectly good but surplus renewable energy generation gets “thrown away” because there isn’t enough demand to absorb it. Smarter charging knows when these moments occur, so that EVs’ batteries can soak up more of that clean energy and avoid charging during times of dirtier energy.

Everywhere we look, digitalization and software-enabled capabilities are at the heart of a new wave in corporate sustainability, from building energy management systems that optimize consumption to battery energy storage systems that mitigate demand charges to sophisticated power purchase agreements that match renewable energy procurement to actual corporate load profiles. As electric vehicles become an increasingly central part of corporations’ strategies, smarter, emissions-optimized EV charging should be at the heart of the discussion. Without it, integrating variable renewables while increasing EV load will simply not be possible, and we’ll all be leaving easy emissions savings on the table.

Image credit: Andrew Roberts/Unsplash

Governments, non-profits and individuals can do a lot of good for ocean health. But what about companies? According to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), all elements of society must work together to assure the continued survival of our oceans, and that includes corporate action.

To help facilitate healthy business activity in oceans, the Global Compact published a list of nine “Sustainable Ocean Principles” last month. The group, which calls itself the “world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative,” aims to collect letters from companies who say they are committed to renewing the world’s oceans. Companies can download the pre-written letter, sign and send it in, thus resolving to abide by the guidelines and recommendations and to communicate yearly progress.

“[As] we approach the decade of delivery for the Global Goals, much more work must be done, and we need your company to join the movement,” the U.N. group writes its introduction to the new initiative. These Sustainable Ocean Principles come just under a year before the 2020 U.N. Ocean Conference in Portugal. The previous (and first) U.N. Ocean Conference was held in 2017.

Comprehensive ocean principles for responsible business

The three categories under which the nine new principles fall are ocean health and productivity; governance and engagement; and finally, data and transparency.

These guidelines were created with the idea of building upon the Ten Principles of the U.N. Global Compact, which consider human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. The new ocean principles were created alongside stakeholders from U.N. agencies, NGOs, academic institutions and private sector companies.

The principles take businesses through a cohesive process for achieving ocean sustainability, no matter the industry. The first, for example recommends that companies, “Assess the short- and long-term impact of their activities on ocean health and incorporate such impacts into their strategy and policies.”

The Sustainable Ocean Principles continue through specific actions companies should take to maintain and restore ocean health, prevent pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and preserve marine life; but they also continue through responsible engagement with local communities and sharing data and practices where appropriate.

This initiative follows the publishing of “Global Goals, Ocean Opportunities” earlier this summer, which outlines the necessity for ocean action, as well as economically-motivated reasoning for keeping the oceans healthy and productive.

The business case for ocean health

“The rapid deterioration of ocean health, which deeply affects biodiversity, coastal communities and the health of the planet, must be urgently addressed,” Lise Kingo, CEO and Executive Director of the Global Compact, says in a press release.

“The deterioration is caused by human activity, and we need to create a tipping point where a critical mass of businesses use their capacity and competence to solve this challenge.”

The report discusses industries such as shipping, recreational cruises, aquaculture and offshore energy production.

One business case the report offers for marine food production is that more sustainable production practices, such as responsible aquaculture, can improve yields and reduce pressures on marine and land ecosystems. The report includes a graphic that shows aquaculture increasingly overtaking production from capture fishing, especially over the last three decades.

Also recommended is integrated farming, which can mitigate ocean acidification and improve carbon sequestration, but also directly benefit the farm by creating a more balanced ecosystem that more effectively uses byproducts and organic waste.

The report also discusses improving the traceability of fish feed — which represents half of the industry’s procurement costs. Better data can improve business operations and build trust among customers.

Responsible aquaculture can also help restore fish populations — 50 percent of which are fully exploited. In the case of ocean food production, the business case for sustainability is continued survival of the industry. With continued warming oceans, acidification and pollution, the same can be said for all industries that rely on oceans, though not always as directly.

Anticipation builds for the 2020 U.N. Ocean Conference

When some national governments are shifting from stewarding the ocean to protecting opposing business interests that pollute, exploit resources and ignore indigenous populations, individual corporate action is essential.

The theme of the 2020 U.N. Ocean Conference will be “Scaling up Ocean Action Based on Science and Innovation for the Implementation of Goal 14: Stocktaking, Partnership and Solutions.”

There’s no doubt that corralling businesses for coordinated and deliberate action on behalf of oceans will prove a positive precursor to a meeting that will focus on partnerships, progress and solutions.

If your business touches the ocean in any way, even in energy or shipping, sign onto the Sustainable Ocean Principles. If nothing else, the increasingly environmentally conscious average consumer will reward you for it.

Image credit: Pexels

Not too long ago, companies that aimed to establish a leadership role in corporate sustainability reporting were mainly focused on environmental issues. More recently, the meaning of sustainability has broadened into ESG: Environmental, social, and governance reporting. This integrated approach can be challenging, but for some companies it is the inevitable result of their efforts in the environmental field, as illustrated by the leading fertilizer firm The Mosaic Company.

Environmental sustainability as a starting point

In its simplest terms, a fertilizer company’s relationship with its customers is purely transactional: The company supplies the nutrients, and farmers grow the food.

For Mosaic, though, the relationship extends far beyond the initial exchange.

“Mosaic is a fertilizer company, so we have long viewed sustainability as an essential piece of our business and an imperative for ourselves and our stakeholders,” explains Natali Archibee, sustainability manager at Mosaic.

In other words, environmental sustainability is just one part of a holistic community web that is affected by Mosaic’s core business. The global ESG movement has provided the company with an opportunity to draw more corporate resources into its sustainability efforts.

“Our emphasis had been on sustainability, meaning that the targets and performance improvements had been on environment,” Archibee says. “Now the expectations are shifting, and this approach is more representative of our business.”

From subsistence to surplus

The fertilizer sector is characterized by energy and water intensity, but these challenges also provide opportunities.

For example, Mosaic promotes the science-based “4R Nutrient Stewardship” best practices model for fertilizer application, enabling farmers to increase yields while reducing environmental impacts.

As practiced by Mosaic, the 4R program also supports no-till farming, the use of cover crops, and other conservation strategies that support local communities. Through improving farmer profitability, the impacts of 4R can ripple out to impact the economic, environmental and social health of the entire community.

Those impacts come into clear focus when applied to subsistence farming, notes Archibee. She cites the company’s “boots-on-the-ground” approach as a factor in the ability of local communities to move from bare subsistence to surplus.

“It is really important to share best practices, and 4R is a great example of efforts extend beyond the four walls of a company, and reach into value chain,” she explains.

ESG as a natural outcome

In the context of the 4R program, the transition from environmental reporting to ESG comes into sharp focus. Mosaic has positioned the 4R program as the vehicle for sustaining the use of fertilizer through an equal measure of economic, environmental and social benefits.

The company’s Villages program in India illustrates how that framework can involve the community holistically, beyond the fields.

The Villages program focuses on food security for smallholder farmers, whose yields are often far below that of large producers.

Mosaic launched the Villages project in 2008, in partnership with its nonprofit foundation and India’s sustainable development nonprofit organization, the Sehgal Foundation.

The project provides equipment and guidance for farmers to practice Krishi Jyoti, which translates into “enlightened agriculture.” In practice, that means an integrated approach to agriculture, water conservation and education.

Since launching in 2008 the program has grown from two villages to 60, encompassing 40,000 people and more than 16,000 acres of crops.

So far, the project has increased yields among participating farmers by 20 to 30 percent, while helping to restore local water tables and provide a healthier environment for children’s education.

A web of community relationships

Another stepping-stone to ESG occurred in 2013, when Mosaic entered into a partnership with the U.S. wildlife conservation organization Ducks Unlimited and the trade group USA Rice.

The so-named Rice Stewardship Partnership extends the focus of the 4R program to emphasize wildlife habitat as well as energy efficiency, water conservation and nutrient management.

The partnership, which also involves significant input from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, involves ensuring that rice fields provide wintertime habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife after the growing season. Dry conditions and declining aquifers have made it imperative for rice farmers to adopt new water conservation measures, so all stakeholders benefit through the partnership.

In just six years, the partnership has engaged more 13 percent of all the rice acreage in the U.S.

Of the 390,000 acres managed within the program, 27,000 acres are also practicing a new water conservation approach that saves water and improves water quality while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Maximizing the good

With the transition to ESG reporting, Mosaic can apply its experience in community well-being to employee wellness and other areas. It can also zero in on areas of challenge, including energy and water intensity.

“It’s not only about investments. It’s also about impacts where we have operations,” Archibee explains. “A company like Mosaic has the responsibility to make a positive impact. The ESG model allows us to understand and minimize those impacts and maximize the good. It all comes back to mission of helping the world grow the food it needs.”

The lesson for other companies is clear: the world of commerce is transitioning to a more holistic model - and adopting an integrated approach to sustainability is the key to long term growth.

Environmental reporting is a good start, but it is just one step in a journey that is more complex and challenging, but also more rewarding – for a company’s employees and external stakeholders alike.

Don’t forget: Later this month, we’ll be hosting 3BL Forum: Brands Taking Stands – What's Next, October 29-30, at MGM National Harbor, just outside Washington, D.C. Natali Archibee of Mosaic will join an onstage discussion exploring how ESG must integrate all departments of a company, including investor relations, human resources and communications.

We're pleased to offer 3p readers a 25 percent discount on attending the Forum. Please register by going to the 3BL Forum website and use this discount code when prompted: NEWS2019BRANDS.

Image credit: Tobias Greitzke/Unsplash

While Silicon Valley often comes to mind when you think of software development, there is a growing hub of tech activity in Latin America as major players such as Google, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon expand operations in the region.

According to the Inter-American Development Bank, software development will be the fastest-growing career in Latin America over the coming years, with 1.2 million professionals needed by 2025. However, like Silicon Valley, the tech sector in Latin America is highly dominated by men, with women making up less than 10 percent of software developers.

This startling statistic is a problem – not only for gender equality in the region but for the future growth of the tech sector there whose success relies on finding highly skilled workers. According to the OECD, Latin America has the world’s widest gap between the available pool of skills and those demanded by firms.

Expanding the pool of female coders

With backing from Google, Microsoft and other tech giants, Women Who Code (WWCode) has grown from a small group of women engineers in 2011, to become one of the world’s largest and most active nonprofits dedicated to helping women excel in technology. Today it has networks in 60 cities across 20 countries, including more than a half dozen in Latin America.

Recently it launched its most recent network in Costa Rica with funding from California-based software firm VMware.

“When we are able to bring a network to a new city like San Jose, it makes such a difference in the lives of the engineers living there,” said Alaina Percival, said WWCode CEO in a press release issued at the network’s launch. “It is a place where the talented engineers in the local community can gather together, and support one another, while also benefiting from valuable technical learnings that will enhance their career.”

The network will host technical, career, educational and networking events for its members and join with other WWCode networks to offer scholarship opportunities to members.

Investing in human capital to battle inequality

“In Latin America there are millions of women with the potential of becoming the digital leaders of tomorrow,” said Mariana Costa Checa, co-founder and CEO of  Laboratoria, which, like WWCode, also helps women in Latin America develop careers in tech. 

Laboratoria, which has a presence in Chile, Brazil, Peru and Mexico, offers a six-month bootcamp starting with basic tech skills and finishing with specialized training in front-end development and UX design. Participants learn JavaScript, HTML and CSS. In the past three years, more than 1,300 women have graduated, with more than 80 percent of them getting jobs in technology with salaries, on average, three times what they were earning before.  According to its website, more than 400 companies have hired Laboratoria graduates since it opened its doors in 2014.

Any woman can apply to Laboratoria. Through a series of questions and interviews, it identifies those who could benefit and have the potential for a career in technology. To date, more than 7,500 women have applied.

“Prioritizing the right type of investments in human capital is the only way forward for the region,” wrote Costa in Fortune last  month. “If the public and private sectors address this talent gap in a way that ensures less privileged groups can benefit equally, a more inclusive future would be within reach.

“Imagine a Latin America where women, ethnic minorities, and underserved youth are part of designing the products and services we use daily. In the most unequal region in the world, bringing their skills and views in to shape the digital economy is a chance to start building societies that can respond to the needs of all.”

Image credit: Women Who Code

When The Guardian updated its style guide earlier this year, committing to stop using the term “climate change” and instead, call it what it really is – a climate emergency – it was an honest admission highlighting the reality of the dire landscape we’re facing today. In the words the remarkable global climate youth leader, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, “we can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis.”

Increasingly, political leaders and executives across sectors are more forcefully acknowledging that the clock is ticking to address this growing emergency. We have a short window of time – a decade – to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with science. As a result, we are seeing growing numbers of companies engage in bold climate actions. For instance, we see it from Anheuser-Busch InBev, a member of our RE100 initiative for companies committed to sourcing 100% renewable electricity and helping to shift market demand in favor of clean alternatives; from PepsiCo, which just days ago announced their plan to reduce their plastic use by 35 percent in the beverages portfolio; and Seventh Generation, which donated airtime to cover the Global Climate Strike on September 20th, in addition to cutting their own greenhouse gas emissions internally.

While big business is taking steps towards a more sustainable future, this in itself simply isn’t enough. Facing one of the largest environmental crises our planet has ever endured, we are in need of more voices, more tools, and more new solutions to help save the place we all call home. We need big, bold ideas and we need to invest in the people that are going to turn these ideas into reality now. But with a seemingly insurmountable crisis, where can we start? One key group that comes to mind when I think of the voices we need most are entrepreneurs.

Innovators and startups from around the world are using emerging technologies like AI and machine learning to develop innovative solutions that can save the planet, focusing on everything from emissions-free transportation to lower-footprint construction. From new heating and cooling tech to closed loop food systems, the list goes on. Unfettered by corporate red tape, the ability to launch new products quickly is infinite, and there is a new era of leaders and thinkers in every corner of the world who are moved to solve the multitude of climate-related issues.

Unfortunately, a great idea cannot survive on its own. Access to capital, industry experts, policy makers, and a human-centric design approach are paramount to transform a good idea into a successful company and a sustainable solution. That’s why programs like URBAN-X, the MINI-backed accelerator for startups reimagining city life, are crucial in the fight against climate change. By investing in the most promising entrepreneurs who are driven to confront the climate crisis, URBAN-X and similar entities around the world are shepherding in a new generation of leaders solving for emerging and unprecedented challenges.

What once could be seen as a niche industry -- the intersection of technology and cities -- has fortunately become a booming sector now dubbed “urban tech.” Between 2016 and 2018, investment in urban tech totaled more than $75 billion, equaling approximately 17 percent of all global venture-capital investment. While only a small fraction of the total investment we need to prevent catastrophe, this investment is promising for our cities and our climate as it means more creative thinkers developing bolder solutions faster, with new approaches to make our cities healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable to live.

Image credit: Markus Spiske/Unsplash

Since 2007, Elytus—a waste management and environmental services company based in Columbus, Ohio—has helped restaurants, groceries, and other companies manage their food waste streams. Its clients include Red Robin, CineMark Theatres and Bob Evans Restaurants.

Although Elytus started as a company to manage waste logistics, consumer demand drove its clients to change their business-as-usual practices, and in turn, the company has emerged as a trusted advisor as it consults with more companies on finding ways to make their operations run far more efficiently and sustainably. 

From hauling waste to sustainability advisor

“We started off as managing waste haulers’ logistics, but then consumers started to ask questions about how much was being thrown away, so we became subject matter experts of what is wasted and why,” Matthew Hollis, Elytus’ founder and president, told TriplePundit.

Now, Elytus embodies the motto “waste nothing” across its projects with different companies. The company has grown to 45 employees, servicing 50 nationwide clients, and has saved companies more than $11 million through waste audits, sustainability planning and ROI assessments, according to its website.  

“It is about really sitting down and showing, 'Here are the cost of the investments you need to make.' Then answering, 'What is the cost benefit, and how long is it going to take?'” Hollis said. “When a payback makes sense, [the clients] go for it."

During the interview, Hollis touched on how his clients are moving into data-driven decisions to cut food waste, which is an important step since it is estimated that full-service restaurants and limited-service restaurants waste $25.1 billion worth of food annually in the U.S.

Empowering data-driven decisions to cut waste

The most crucial step is for restaurants to benchmark their amount of food waste to understand how much money is being thrown away. Hollis explained that it is easier for restaurant owners to buy into the operational costs and impacts of waste reduction technology because the restaurant industry is capital intensive.

New technologies that enable the restaurant team to collect data about their waste include those offered by LeanPath and Winnow Solutions. Not only do these technologies help restaurants reduce their costs, but they also improve restaurant chains’ reputation as 72 percent of U.S. diners care about how restaurants handle waste, according to a Unilever study.

“I think technology has the ability to create connectivity between resource spaces, and to take one person’s waste to make it another persons’ feedstock,” Andrew Shakman, CEO and founder of Leanpath, recently told GreenBiz. “We see that as a big opportunity.”

When it comes to waste, both technology and knowledge are power

Another methodology to benchmark waste creation is made possible by sensor technology. Sensors in coolers and refrigerators can help companies monitor their products’ perishability and alert employees. Zest Labs is one company utilizing the Internet of Things to curb waste along the supply chain, including restaurants’ back-of-house operations. 

By understanding how much food and plastic waste is being created, Elytus’ clients are better able to prevent waste during operations and procurement to make a dent in their waste production and curb operational costs by making decisions such as eliminating the use of single-use plastic containers.

“In the end, I am a firm believer that the largest impact that you can have your waste stream is by preventing it in the first place,” Hollis said.

Image credit: Pixabay

By Danielle Holly, CEO, Common Impact

When Walmart announces that it will stop selling handguns in response to the increasing incidence of mass shootings, the result is a major shift in thinking about gun laws throughout the U.S. When AirBNB provides free housing to the refugees of Hurricane Dorian, companies start to think of new, creative ways they can use their assets and core business practices to make our communities safer and more resilient.

In these times of increasing national disasters, natural and man-made (the border crisis, mass shootings, water pollution), it is incumbent on the private sector to facilitate change before tragedy strikes, not as an afterthought to mitigate illness and death.

Corporations can do this by changing their current reactive approach to disaster response by deploying their workforces in advance of tragedy through skills-based volunteering. Also known as pro bono consulting, skills-based volunteerism engages business experts to support community-based nonprofits in creating risk contingency plans, business continuity programs and disaster communications protocols - all in advance of catastrophe. This preparation enables nonprofits to better respond to the acute needs brought on by crisis and supports communities in preparing for and recovering from the next disaster.

Research indicates the public is looking to the private sector for such support and employees, young and older, increasingly want to work for good corporate citizens. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not only good for business, but it is good for our communities.

Recently, TOMS, the company known for donating a pair of shoes for each one sold, took on the gun control debate by launching its own campaign against gun violence, spurred by founder Blake Mycoskie's personal reaction to the 2018 mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California.

Other companies have lent their strategic, marketing and project management expertise in such areas as supply chain, finance, human resources and communications when natural disasters like forest fires, hurricanes and tornadoes strike.

The key, believes Amy Smith, Chief Giving Officer at TOMS, is not being reactive but being proactive:

"At TOMS, we knew the world around us was changing, and we had already been asking ourselves 'Where else are we going to be putting our energy and focusing our impact?' When the Thousand Oaks shooting happened, it just felt like the right thing to do on every level. Blake was driving into work and his wife called him and said, "There's been a shooting. It's in our backyard. I'm not taking the kids to school today. Somebody has to do something." And he thought, "Well, if not us, who? If not now, when?"

Some ways that companies can help communities prepare for the next crisis include developing a supply management program or for communities hit by climate incidents or drafting a communications plan and creating funding streams as part of a pre-disaster plan for non-profits and municipalities.

"Private sector companies are also affected. They have people and teams on the ground during a disaster and are looking out for those people and trying to make sure their teams are safe. And so they've already done a lot of really good thinking and work around how to best respond to a disaster," said Erica Tavares, Senior Director, Institutional Advancement at International Medical Corps. "The NGO community has a lot to learn from all of the expertise, learning, and work that private sector companies have already done around the whole continuum of disaster response."

My organization, Common Impact, whose mission is to match corporate entities with nonprofits for skills-based volunteering, has just released a set of tools available to help communities and organizations as they plan for the inevitable. These tools were designed to help companies rethink their current approach to disaster response in order to develop a more strategic and proactive solution for our communities and include:

1)    A Measurement Framework for companies to quantify how a focus on community resiliency will produce social and business benefit for nonprofit partners, overall community health, consumers, employees, and shareholders.

2)    This Pro Bono Project Portfolio for initiatives that build the resiliency of community partners by leveraging common corporate skills and expertise.

3)    A Resiliency Assessment to identify gaps in an organization's ability to respond to disaster and provides insight into beneficial pro bono projects.

We also recently published a report, Insights & Impact 2019: Disaster Response, from Relief to Resiliency, that is available to all organizations and includes access to these tools as well as extensive research on why investment in disaster preparedness can yield strong results for our communities.

A report by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation finds that 70 percent of giving occurs within the first two months of a disaster's occurrence. The Center for Disaster Philanthropy reports that only 1 percent of corporate sector giving goes toward preparedness and .8 percent towards resilience, risk reduction and mitigation combined.

The current business environment and our research confirm that the business community must broaden its response to disasters from one of reactive donations to support immediate relief efforts to include a more proactive and sustained approach that allows community nonprofits to build resiliency through pro bono support in business continuity planning, risk mitigation and contingency planning. Companies must engage their most strategic asset - their people - in building stronger communities, seizing the power of skills-based volunteerism as a critical investment in community resiliency. We hope the next year sees a vast improvement to match the unfortunate rise in the need to respond to tragedy.

Image credit: Pixabay