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

The global community finds itself in the midst of a quandary: how to provide adequate nutrition, including higher demand for protein, for a growing population that's expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050 while reducing environmental impacts and utilizing natural resources in a more sustainable way. Finding solutions has risen to the top of the agenda at leading agricultural and food industry players such as Smithfield Foods, a U.S.-based $15 billion global food company and the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer. 

Creating and executing corporate sustainability plans often creates what may seem like strange bedfellows—leading environmental organizations partnering with multinational corporations, for instance. Breaking the mold that shaped their relationship marked by differing opinions decades ago, corporations and environmental organizations are now finding there's a lot of common ground between them. 

Smithfield "was the first major protein company to set an ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal to reduce emissions 25 percent by 2025, which is the equivalent of removing 900,000 cars from our roads," company management highlights. Intra- and cross-sector partnerships play an important role in Smithfield's emissions-reduction and sustainability strategy, as they do across the agricultural sector. "Environmental stewardship requires a tremendous amount of innovation, ingenuity and unique problem-solving to truly address serious environmental challenges—and Smithfield has been proud to lead this process with several partners and projects," Stewart Leeth, vice president of regulatory affairs and chief sustainability officer for Smithfield Foods, told 3p. 

Partnerships are essential to minimizing impact  

The animal agriculture industry is under increasing pressure to offer healthier foods and distribute them in ways that reduce impact on the environment. That includes realizing dramatic reductions in the industry’s associated GHG emissions.

Smithfield and other food industry leaders are responding with ambitious sustainability plans that reduce energy, water usage and waste, and other forms of environmental pollution—in Smithfield’s case, throughout an organization that employs 54,000 people globally. 

In an effort to reduce its footprint, Smithfield is reaching out across the value chain, joining with suppliers and other business partners to find and implement ways to produce and transport more and healthier food with minimal environmental impact. The company also found a partner in the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

"While environmental stewardship is just one facet of our company’s industry-leading sustainability program, it includes a company-wide effort among all employees to aggressively reduce water and energy use and the amount of waste sent to landfill. However, being a part of true environmental sustainability involves much more than simply reducing our own environmental footprint. As part of our commitment to the environment, we have formed partnerships with environmental or environmentally-minded organizations, including EDF,” said Leeth. 

A holistic approach to raising hogs, bringing pork products to market

Smithfield takes a holistic, enterprise-wide approach in crafting and carrying out its sustainability plans, Leeth said. The company's emissions-reduction efforts, for example, span across its operations—including fertilizer optimization on grain farms and biogas projects on hog farms, equipment upgrades at company facilities, and the optimization of transport networks. 

Forming partnerships with like-minded organizations, both inside the industry and across sectors, are pivotal aspects of Smithfield's strategy. "Any company that sets an important goal and strategy to holistically reduce GHG emissions cannot do it alone: forming partnerships is invaluable at all stages of planning, execution, and measurement and reporting," Leeth told 3p.  

Smithfield’s work includes new business ventures and millions in capital investments to install waste digesters and manure lagoons covers on 90 percent of the company’s hog finishing spaces in four U.S. states. The initiative should go a long way toward helping Smithfield realize its emissions-reduction goals by creating renewable natural gas (RNG) from methane produced by manure. Smithfield's commitment  goes beyond manure lagoons at farms the company owns. It extends to include contract farms—independent farmers who raise hogs for Smithfield—and opens doors for other hog and livestock farms to join or follow their best practices and lessons learned. 

The company created the Smithfield Renewables platform in 2017 to further its emissions-reduction goals. The platform brings the company's carbon reduction and renewable energy efforts under one umbrella, so to speak. Emphasizing the holistic approach Smithfield has adopted in pursuing its sustainability goals, management likes to say that these efforts extend from "farm to facility to fork." 

The manure-lagoon covers and waste digesters Smithfield is installing at its hog farms in North Carolina, Missouri, Utah and Virginia capture GHGs, such as methane, convert them into RNG, and feed that RNG into natural gas pipelines for use off-site by energy customers. 

Smithfield's renewable energy efforts don't end with its investments in anaerobic digesters and RNG. The company is also installing wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems on its hog farms and facilities, reducing GHG emissions and providing clean power for its facilities and surrounding communities. 

Fostering energy efficiency and sustainable farming practices

It's said that a kilowatt-hour, or kilojoule, of energy saved is the cheapest and most effective means of reducing energy costs and helping to mitigate carbon emissions. Seeking to take advantage of this, Smithfield made multimillion-dollar investments to upgrade plant equipment, such as installing LED lighting and streamlining production processes to increase energy efficiency. The company also is making a strong push to reduce waste at its hog farms, as well as processing and distribution facilities. A number of our food manufacturing facilities "have already achieved zero waste-to-landfill status, which is not an easy accomplishment," Leeth highlighted.

Further up the supply chain, the company is fostering sustainable farming practices that optimize fertilizer and water use and minimize associated fertilizer run-off into waterways. "We started by providing agronomy advice and tools to farmers to help them incorporate more efficient practices that produce the same amount of grain using less fertilizer," Leeth explained. The initiative started in 2013, through a partnership with EDF.

As a result of these efforts, Smithfield recently surpassed its goal to source three-quarters of its feed grain from farms using efficient fertilizer and soil health practices. In addition to improving soil health and reducing GHG emissions, these efforts are also boosting Smithfield's financial bottom line by sourcing more local grain, the company says. 

Further downstream toward consumers, Smithfield is working to redesign and produce packaging that is more sustainable. It’s also re-configuring its transportation network so as to reduce the distance its hogs and products travel by as many as 19 million miles in the next five years. The company estimates that these efforts collectively will save more than $50 million in transportation-related costs, while reducing GHG emissions significantly. 

“Our sustainability efforts are having a positive impact on the environment while generating additional value for our company and our business partners, creating a win-win situation for everyone involved,” stated Leeth. “Ultimately, it further showcases our company’s commitment to producing good food in a responsible way.” 

Image courtesy of Smithfield Foods

With the unofficial end to summer occurring the day many of us are traveling for our last long weekend of the year, we here at TriplePundit thought we’d help end your Labor Day weekend with some updates in the world of sustainable travel.

Bye-bye, single-use plastics in your hotel room.

In case you missed it, Marriott International announced last week that it will eliminate those nifty travel sized bottles of toiletries from its hotel rooms by the end of 2020. That news came after the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), which includes chains such as Holiday Inn and the boutique Kimpton Hotels, said they would also nix those goodies before 2022. Many of these hotels branded as Marriott or IHG have already done so, motivated by either costs or a commitment to sustainability. So, get used to seeing large refillable bottles atop the bathroom counter and in the shower caddies. And no, those big bottles are not to be taken home (we know, it’s tempting).

Not everyone is impressed with these hotel chains’ moves.

“Even if replacing miniature toiletries does reduce waste somewhat—as other hotel chains join the movement and California moves to ban them—a transition to bulk products will barely put a dent in the plastic waste that now clogs the planet’s rivers and oceans,” wrote Yossi Sheffi for Quartz. “It is another ‘feel good’ initiative which help avoid the move to more serious actions that can actually make a difference.”

Sheffi has a point, but again, these decisions are all about scale – if more hotel and hospitality companies do the same, all of us travelers will get used to the “new normal” of not being able to swipe those mini-toiletries during the first five minutes after checking into our hotel rooms. This is an action that won’t hurt and at a minimum, can help prevent some single-use plastics from entering our waterways.

Sustainable travel, socially: use caution when geo-tagging

For many of us, Instagram is a safe zone in the world of social media. You generally don’t have the level of trolling on Twitter or the annoyance of those fourth cousins of yours on Facebook. But sometimes, too much of a good thing can harm the environment – as in geotagging your selfie.

The travel company G Adventures brings up the point that at times, geotagging a fabulous spot may cause more problems than a previously untouched corner of the earth can handle. Citing an example of a location in one of Wyoming’s national parks, G Adventures' blog noted, “It only takes one viral picture to spark a trend that results in greater human footfall than nature can handle. Thousands of travelers lining up to take the exact same picture can desecrate and forever destroy the planet’s most beautiful landscapes.”

Similar rules apply when it comes to taking pictures of kids you don’t know, culturally sensitive sites, animals, fashion choices (remember your incident in Abu Dhabi, Rihanna?) and of course, those selfies in dangerous locations.

Will we see more electric vehicle-friendly highways soon?

If you’re currently in the market for an electric vehicle, as I currently am (Kelley Blue Book has never seen so much love in its existence), there’s always that nagging question: what if I want to go on a road trip or away for the weekend? Yes, it’s true most of our driving is around town – but there are some of us who’ll be happy if we never have to visit a gas station or rent a car again. Well, apparently more electric vehicle charging stations are coming to the Trans-Canada Highway – in Saskatchewan! Come on . . . if they can build them in Saskatchewan, they can build them anywhere. After all, the entire province has about five people per square mile, compared to 13,590 people per square mile in Vancouver, Canada’s most densely populated city.

Yes, vegan restaurants are a thing.

Forbes recently noted that the U.S. now has over 24,000 vegan-friendly restaurants in the U.S., and almost 1,500 exclusively across the country. And no, they just aren’t located in the usual suspects like California, New York, Austin and Seattle. Whether you are flexitarian or strictly vegan, Happy Cow is among several web sites and apps that can help you find the right place to nosh if you happen to get famished. If Forbes is applauding this trend, you can rest assured this isn’t some passing fad! Unlike a decade ago, if you are determined to avoid animal products during your travel, you’re no longer relegated to French fries or the salad bar.

More options for luggage made out of recycled materials.

For those of us that remember suitcases with only a handle, (or heaven forbid, garment bags) those lightweight rollaway travelers with wheels and backpacks that can scrunch into a something the size of your fist were a godsend. Well, travel bags are becoming more sustainable. Patagonia, for example, said it recently consumed 10 million plastic bottles for its latest line of duffel bags. We showcase a few more ideas here.

And finally, if you’re traveling with your dog Labor Day weekend, or at any time . . .  

Labor Day road trips, or any trip with your dog, can be rewarding, especially if he or she is part of a photo shoot at one of the U.S. national parks (as Whiskey, in the photo above, experienced yesterday at Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park). But traveling responsibly with your dog involves common sense, advance planning and awareness about some sensitivities of the local environment. Most National Park Service (NPS) locations welcome dogs (and cats) within developed areas and campgrounds – but for obvious reasons, not on most hiking trails. The NPS hosts a great site of suggestions, no-no’s and updates on pet policies.

Happy road tripping, and travel safe!

Image credit: Leon Kaye

As Americans prepare to drive home during one of the biggest travel weekends of the year, it’s a reminder of how energy policy has drastically changed over the past 30 months. In the Trump administration’s latest move, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rolled back more “redundant” regulations, including rescinding limits on methane emissions.

“EPA’s proposal delivers on President Trump’s executive order and removes unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens from the oil and gas industry,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler in a public statement. “The Trump Administration recognizes that methane is valuable, and the industry has an incentive to minimize leaks and maximize its use.”

The oil and gas industry has long maintained it is doing what it can to minimize methane emissions, which by most accounts are believed to be 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Methane leaks are a pesky challenge across the entire natural gas industry’s value chain, but at the same time they have inspired innovation as established energy companies and startups alike try to prevent methane gas from emitting into the planet’s atmosphere.

Curiously enough, several energy companies are pushing back against the Trump administration’s decision, arguing such regulations governing methane are a net positive.

“The best way to help further reduce and ultimately eliminate methane emissions industrywide is through direct federal regulation of new and existing sources,” said Susan Dio, BP America’s chair and president, in a Houston Chronicle op-ed. “From an efficiency standpoint, a single set of regulations created by the Environmental Protection Agency would be preferable to a patchwork of regulations created by multiple federal or state agencies.”

As Bloomberg’s editorial board noted:

“ . . . the rules introduced under President Barack Obama were hardly onerous. They required oil and gas companies to take action to prevent methane leaks from new wells, pipelines and storage tanks. Methane, unlike carbon dioxide, is a fuel, so companies have reason to do this anyway. And existing wells, which outnumber new ones, would have plenty of time to adapt: The EPA would have taken years to develop new standards for them.”

Plenty of stakeholders in the energy sector are shaking their heads, too. “[The ruling] is another dangerous, ill-advised maneuver that aims to sabotage climate action while flying in the face of investor concerns,” the sustainability advocacy organization Ceres said in a public statement. “Methane is a valuable product for oil and gas companies and their investors, who see methane leaks as a waste of assets.”

The EPA’s own data suggests the rollback of these regulations governing methane could release an additional 370,000 tons of additional methane emissions between now and the mid-2020s – or the equivalent of 9 million more cars driving America’s roads, according to Forbes.

Investors are beginning to respond as well, as a group of 140 investors backed by $5.5 trillion in assets under management have urged 35 companies across the oil and gas sector to oppose the EPA’s rule changes. The letter’s authors have asked energy companies to go a step further and make it clear that they support federal regulations of methane emissions.

The bottom line is that as renewables continue to surge while more consumers are aware of the natural gas industry’s environmental impact, energy companies don’t need more news that casts them in yet even more negative light. After all, the EPA regulations that had governed methane emissions served the public interest. It may be true the current White House occupants are the oil and gas industry’s friends; nevertheless, the fossil fuels-friendly EPA gave the energy companies a gift they don’t necessary want or need.

Image credit: Matthew Henry/Unsplash

(Image: The Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (GLOW), an all-girls charter school that's out to close the STEM gender gap with a focus on "whole girl" education.) 

The recent 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing meant the resurrection of images depicting NASA’s anxious mission-control analysts, almost all of whom were white males, sporting white shirts, black ties and crewcuts. As far as 1969 viewers were concerned, rocket scientist was a job for men with bad haircuts.

Jump ahead half a century, and notions have changed about who can be a mathematician or a scientist—and the number of women and minorities in those fields has increased. At the same time, old perceptions persist: Over the past 20 years, studies have shown that when asked to draw a scientist, girls drew men more than twice as often as they drew women, and boys almost always sketched men.    
  
While girls’ lack of participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses was once dismissed as a lack of interest or ability, research shows girls are just as capable as boys when it comes to higher-level math and science. Female high-school and college students, for example, fare as well as males in math and science courses, although males tend to score higher on the math portion of the SAT. But in the end, only 6.7 percent of women earn a college degree in a STEM field, versus 17 percent of men. When it comes to minority women, the figures are even lower: From 2015 to 2016, only 2.9 percent of all STEM degrees were earned by African-American women and 3.8 percent by Latinas.  

Fueled by recent studies and real-life successes, some stakeholders are embracing single-sex schools as the best way to close the persistent gender gap in math and science fields. The leaders of the Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (GLOW), an all-girls public charter school in Wilmington, North Carolina, for example, are hopeful that this model will not only be life-changing for low-income, struggling students, but also benefit society at large. 

(Image: Students at the Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington.)

GLOW: All-girls education focused on STEM, empowerment and the arts

The school starts its third year this month in a new building, with students in sixth-through-ninth grades. One hundred new students, selected by lottery, are enrolling every year until the school is fully populated with sixth-through-12th graders.

GLOW focuses on STEAM (STEM plus the arts), offering rigorous academics and an education model designed to help girls develop confidence, positive self-images, and leadership skills on their way to earning a high-school diploma and enrolling in college, the school’s leaders say.

Just getting students into college, though, is not GLOW’s end goal. The school’s long-term mission is to produce college graduates who transition confidently into society.

“We have set out to create a system so students can develop academic and thought skills to navigate into middle-class America,” says GLOW Principal Laura Hunter. “It takes time, it takes resources, and it takes intentionality that is outside the norm. High-school graduation is not the finish line for us—it’s the beginning. Our finish is happy, healthy adults who are engaged in their communities.” 

And GLOW’s staff members are convinced that empowering girls can ultimately push future families up the economic ladder. “The reality of poverty is that it lies most heavily on the shoulders of women and children,” Hunter says. “We have to work with women to claim financial independence in adulthood and build stronger, more resilient family structures that move toward the accumulation of wealth.”

U.S. women are 35 percent more likely to live in poverty than men, with single mothers particularly affected. More than one-third of single mothers are considered poor, according to Legal Momentum, an advocacy group for women and girls in the U.S.

Single-sex education: A solution for the STEM gender gap? 

GLOW is part of the Young Women’s Leadership Network, a group of all-girls schools founded in New York in 1996. “It was very evident that what was being done by the leadership network was the leading model for girls in closing the achievement gap and persisting through high school and graduating from college,” says Todd Godbey, GLOW Academy CEO.

Part of that is due to removing the ultimate distraction, the opposite sex. Studies show that girls in single-sex schools are less concerned about appearance, dating and sexuality, and they report more confidence in their science, computer and math skills without boys in the classroom. Low-income students in single-sex schools also score higher on standardized tests in mathematics, reading, science and civics, compared to those in co-ed schools.

Building girls’ STEM skills can also be easier in single-sex schools, where girls are not as self-conscious. “We have a number of girls reporting that their favorite subject is math or science, but after middle school, they no longer have confidence in math and science,” Hunter says. “So the first step is keeping that love alive in middle school. That takes confidence-building, ways to do hands-on math and science, and field trips. Over time, we provide lots of experiences in building those skills. [For example], we have a lab entirely focused on problem-solving involved with engineering.” 

(Image: GLOW students sit down for lunch on the first day of the 2019 school year.) 

Supporting girls for a successful future

Many GLOW students enter with additional challenges on top of the usual teen angst. Ninety-percent of students are from low-income families; 55 percent are African-American, 18 percent Latina, and 35 percent white or mixed race. Most of the students are one or more years behind academically, and many have troubled home lives, so the school provides extensive support services for students and families.

Despite those challenges, many students have shown gains in reading over the two years they’ve spent at GLOW, though math scores are improving more slowly. “The process of catching students up to grade level takes time,” Godbey explains. “We don’t ask what is wrong with a child; we ask what has happened to that child. We have a lot of student support staff, and we are committed to ‘whole-girl' education. We have to find out what’s causing the trauma and work with the family.”

Instilling more skills that match workforce demand is another GLOW mission. “GLOW is attempting to look at the community and the job sector around us, listen to what they need, and provide kids with those skills,” Hunter notes. “[These are the ability to] collaborate, write, advocate, meet deadlines and manage time, all things the modern workforce needs. We intentionally teach students how to participate in collaborative groups, project management and group discussions. We also encourage them to fail on their way to a goal. We have to make those opportunities available for them to develop those skills.”

Knowledge-sharing promotes innovation in education 

With so much to manage, the support and knowledge that GLOW receives from other schools in the leadership network have been critical to its development as a school and a potential resource for others. “We learn from each other every day,” Godbey says. “We get together several times a year to share ideas, best practices, issues and lessons learned. We usually take more than we give at this point because we are a younger affiliate.” 

GLOW administrators have also provided advice to other schools starting up. “Even though we are relatively new, we are actively helping the next generation,” Godbey told us. 

As it builds its new model, GLOW’s leadership also recognizes a responsibility to promote successful strategies to the larger education community. “It is our job to be potential incubators of innovative ideas, and the next step is to share those,” Godbey notes. “We have clear indicators that things are going well, but we are not at the share stage yet.”

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

Images courtesy of the Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (GLOW)

Everyone has a voice. But at a time when there are limitless ways to share that voice, it’s how you choose to use it that absolutely matters.

That's why the speakers at this fall’s 3BL Forum Brands Taking Stands – What's Next stand out.

With just two months to go before the October 29-30 Forum, the 80-plus speakers are getting ready to share their voices as they offer world-class insight into the relevant and timely topics in sustainability, social impact and corporate responsibility today.

Among this year’s speakers, nearly 60 percent are trailblazing women ready to share their stories as they lead the way in their respective fields, including:

• MGM National Harbor President and COO Melonie Johnson, who has a unique perspective on what it takes to get a seat at the leadership table.
• Black & Veatch President and Chief Human Resources Officer Stephanie Hasenbos-Case, who will share what it means to be intentional about the workforce of the future.
• CECP Managing Director Kari Niedfeldt-Thomas, who will bring her perspective to the stage on what she is hearing from senior leaders around the country. 
• Porter Novelli/Cone VP of Marketing/Research and Insights Whitney Dailey, who will call your attention to what is driving activism in our nation’s young people, as well what every company needs to know to engage, inspire and activate them.

Join these and other exceptional women at the Forum, at MGM National Harbor, just outside of Washington, D.C. Prepare for two days of fast-paced discussion aimed at answering some of the most simple yet impactful questions about today’s and tomorrow’s business landscape, such as “why,” “how,” “what’s next” and “where are we headed.”

“This year’s conference will feature some exceptional women on our main stage,” said Lynne Filderman, Executive Producer of the 3BL Forum. “In speaking with each of these women in the run-up to our high-octane event, I have heard firsthand their candid and authentic voices, whether focused on brand purpose, women’s leadership, intentionality of the future workforce, bridging corporate silos or insights into ‘what's next.’ You can be assured they will bring their experiences and unique perspectives to our two-day conversation.”

Now through Friday, September 6, receive 30 percent off registration rates for 3BL Forum when you enter the code LABORDAY2019. Join us as we explore how companies, with employees at the helm, are reinventing how they do business – whether it’s redefining their purpose, making social impact commitments or finding where to put a stake in the ground. 

Image credit of National Harbor, MD: Sharosh Rajasekher/Unsplash

I’m not one for spotting trends, but if I had to wager on the next big thing in corporate C-suite recruitment it would be for the Chief Impact Officer.

I’m still less one for coining phrases, but let’s call them “CImpO”, in order to differentiate from the various other CIO roles out there. (I’m not sure it will stick, though.)

Currently, scans of Google, LinkedIn and job sites reveal very few CImpO roles, and a “Chief Impact Officer” LinkedIn group with a membership of only three people.

I suspect that will change fast now, particularly in light of the new Statement of the Purpose of a Corporation from Business Roundtable – a CImpO will be a key guardian of stakeholder interests.

Here’s what I think, after time spent myself as a freelance CImpO, the brief might include:

• To oversee the measurement, verification, management, reporting and improvement of the company’s social and environmental impact (its value delivered to stakeholders);
• To advise the board on business model and operational risks arising from areas of impact underperformance and developments in the understanding of social and environmental impact;
• To contribute to the strategic and operational development of the business by identifying and promoting innovation that mitigates impact risks and opens up new commercial opportunities;
• To ensure that all stakeholder relationships (workers, suppliers, community and environment) are managed consistently with the company’s impact vision and values;
• To report on and discuss at each board meeting progress against agreed key environmental, social and governance metrics;
• To oversee the production and publication of an annual impact report which will be made public as soon as practicable after year end and filed as part of the company’s strategic report thereafter.

I suspect that sort of role is currently filled, if at all, by a Chief Sustainability Officer, Human Resources Director, Company Secretary and/or General Counsel or even CEO.

Here are some of the reasons I can imagine a dedicated role being necessary:

• Sustainability is no longer enough – it’s not aspirational enough and implies maintenance of steady state, rather than growth and development. That’s not a bad starting point if what came before was deeply unsustainable, but it’s not going to feed a growing population or excite an investor. It also sounds too restricted to the environmental domain – important but only part of the equation. Furthermore, businesses are now alive to the fact that doing good in the world isn’t the sole preserve of the third sector. The B Corp community is full of examples of companies using the for-profit model to deliver, often, multiple impact returns alongside financial profits. This is a big job: these opportunities need to be coordinated strategically, at the right level, with the right investment and for the right reasons.

• Impact is undoubtedly a board issue – unmanaged negative impacts, and the financial and brand risks they entail, will negatively affect shareholder and stakeholder value. Conversely, but in exactly the same way, the opportunities of innovating to create positive impact will create positive value. Impact has to form part of every strategic planning discussion, as well as having a meaningful place in governance systems, processes and structures.

• Funders will expect it – looking at Larry Fink’s latest letter to CEOs on this topic as well as the rapid divestment by various funds in recent months from non-renewable energy stocks, the investors (and indeed banks) of the future will need to be persuaded that every company has robust social and environmental impact strategies in place. Over time, it may become a pre-requisite for access to capital, but it will not be straightforward to get right.

In the investor community, impact has been moving out of its bubble and into the mainstream for 12 months or more. The Business Roundtable statement makes it clear that the corporate community is following close behind.

Getting impact right is a topic of increasing relevance to all businesses and those who don’t think it applies to them could, before too long, be in for a nasty shock.

Image credit: Clay Banks/Unsplash

As kids head back to school, teachers are once again battling the effects of the dreaded summer slide—a term used to describe the tendency for students to lose some of the achievement gains they made during the previous school year.

One study using data from over half a million students in grades 2 through 9 found that students, on average, lost between 25 and 30 percent of their school-year learning over the summer. 

Studies also show that the loss is far greater for lower-income students than middle-class students. One reason for the gap is the lack of access to educational resources over the summer months. Academic researchers refer to this as the “faucet theory.” According to the theory, the “resource faucet” is on for all students during the school year, but over the summer, the flow of resources slows for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

According to Susan Neuman, professor of childhood education and literacy development at New York University’s Steinhardt School, many low-income students live in “book deserts.” In research she conducted in a low-income community in Washington, D.C., for example, Neuman found that, given the low access to books in the neighborhood, 830 children would have to share one book in order to read.  

“Book deserts seriously constrain young children’s opportunity to learn and have an unfortunate consequence in their school readiness,” Neuman says. 

Houston, we have a problem . . . a big one

The summer slide is just the tip of the iceberg. We are facing a literacy crisis in the United States. 

According to recent research, more than 30 million adults in the United States cannot read, write or do basic math above a third-grade level. Children whose parents have low literacy levels have a 72 percent chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves. These children are more likely to get poor grades, display behavioral problems, have high absentee rates, repeat school years or drop out, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. 

Other studies confirm the widening literacy gap, which authors say will lead to the perpetuation of poverty and a resultant expanding unskilled workforce in the coming years. 

This challenge is too big for any one sector 

The U.S. Department of Education is scrambling to address the growing crisis, but it is just too big. Increasingly, businesses are realizing the immensity of the challenge in their communities and the potential impact it could have on their own sustainability. They also realize that their employees and customers are looking to them to do something. 

“There is an expectation today that companies will respond and help,” says Icema Gibbs, director of corporate social responsibility for JetBlue Airways and architect of the company’s award-winning Soar with Reading program. “It’s incumbent upon companies to help. Everyone has to get involved to move the needle on social change.” 

Through its Soar with Reading program, JetBlue has been tackling the issue of book availability in underserved communities since 2015. Using a creative approach, the program provides free children’s books through vending machines in a different city every summer.  

For selection in the program, a city must be one where JetBlue flies and where a book desert exists. To date, JetBlue has brought Soar with Reading to Detroit, San Francisco and Oakland, Washington, D.C., Fort Lauderdale and, this year, New York City.

Once a new city is selected, Gibbs’ corporate responsibility team works with local community leaders, educators and community organizations to identify neighborhoods that would benefit most from the program and high-traffic areas where kids and families visit often, such as community centers. 

Vending machines are set up from July through September and restocked every two weeks with new titles that feature a wide array of age-appropriate books that also reflect the distinct languages and cultures of the community.

“We work long and hard to ensure we select books that represent the neighborhoods we go into,” Gibbs explains. For example, when Soar with Reading took up residence in San Francisco, Gibbs and her team ensured there were books available in Mandarin. 

JetBlue’s vending machines include historical, biographical, and narrative books designed to attract young audiences and keep them reading. 

(Image: Award-winning children’s author David Ezra Stein hosted a special story time at the Queens Public Library in July to celebrate the launch of Soar with Reading's 2019 season.) 

Kids and parents line up for new books 

“We know people rely so much on their phones and tablets, even in low-income neighborhoods,” Gibbs says. “But what is consistent across all socioeconomic platforms we’ve measured is that kids like to feel the book they are reading, and they like to build their own home library.”

JetBlue is able to track the ZIP codes of people who use the machines, and the company found that some families travel from miles away. Gibbs says some even place the dates on their calendar of when a new cycle of books will arrive.

She gives the example of a grandmother in the Anacostia section of Washington, DC who brought her granddaughter to the vending machine whenever there was a new shipment. She became known as the “book lady” because she would bring books back for all the other children in her housing complex. 

At the Soar with Reading launch event this past July in Brooklyn, actress Aisha Hinds was talking with some young girls, Gibbs recalls. “One of the girls said to Aisha, ‘These books are big! How are we supposed to read them?’ Aisha told them that she wanted them to form a book club and to make sure they all were reading together.

“This little girl’s eye lit up and she said, ‘That is exactly what we will do.’” Gibbs says, with a satisfied laugh, that the girl and her friends went through every age-appropriate title in the vending machine that summer and kept up their book club after the program ended. 

Chance for JetBlue employees to give back 

Soar with Reading also offers JetBlue crewmembers from across the country a chance to get involved in their local communities. They can volunteer their time at vending machines to help kids select books, or, if there is no vending machine in their city, they can order titles to be included in the vending machines through JetBlue and host book readings at local schools, libraries or even at their own airport.  

Closing the gap 

To date, JetBlue and its community partners have donated and distributed more than $3.5 million worth of books through the Soar with Reading program, and they don’t plan to stop anytime soon given that their research shows the program is having an impact.

“Studies have shown that owning 25 books or more has a sizable effect on achievement, with each additional increment of books, such as 10 or more, improving achievement,” says Neuman, who is also a member of the Soar with Reading Advisory Board. “This program allows children to own books and combat the knowledge loss that so often accompanies summer.”

Some may say that Soar with Reading is just one program in one city each year. But what if other companies also stepped forward to support similar programs in the cities where they operate?

As Neuman told Forbes last year, “Changes like this in the environment can strongly influence changes in behavior, and along with generous and powerful policy solutions, we can begin to close the achievement gap for low-income children."

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

Image credits: Nicole Honeywill/Unsplash and JetBlue

A new report from the Citizen Power Initiatives for China highlights the growing use of forced labor in the cotton and garment industry in Xinjiang, the westernmost region of China. This region is responsible for 84 percent of China’s cotton production (including the cotton field shown above) and therein has deep interconnections to global supply chains. The report’s authors say they found evidence of forced labor being used during cultivation at cotton farms; the harvesting and processing of cotton; and during garment production throughout the vast region.

This is just the latest worrying news from the region. What is happening in Xinjiang, homeland of the mostly Muslim Turkic Uyghur people, is considered by some to be the worst human rights crisis of the century. The most recent wave of repression can be tied the riots that broke out in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, in July of 2009. Around 200 people died, and the Chinese government soon ordered thousands of troops to be stationed there in order to militarize the region.

Since then, the human rights situation has become even worse. The ruling Chinese Communist Party has given regional leaders the freedom to take whatever measures they wanted to suppress Uyghur dissent, with a seemingly unlimited flow of financial resources. The result is today’s dark reality – an Orwellian tech surveillance state and now a massive network of concentration camps that hold somewhere between 500,000 and 3 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities – the vast majority of whom were never tried in any court and committed no crime.

“The situation in Xinjiang and China’s treatment of its Uyghur Minority is beyond abhorrent,” said Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) in a November 2018 public statement. “[We should] not turn a blind eye as a million Muslims are unjustly imprisoned and forced into labor camps by an autocratic regime.”

Unfortunately, Menendez has been one of the few voices in Washington D.C. speaking up for Uyghurs. Despite the mounting evidence, the international response has been lacking for many reasons. One is that China has near-total control of information flows between Xinjiang and abroad, due partly to the Great Firewall but also its ability to rapidly censor content on Chinese social media apps such as WeChat or Weibo. The country is also the largest trade partner with most of the world’s nations, and it uses those relationships to buy influence. In the past, China has also withheld trade to hurt countries who upset it politically, such as South Korea.

Reporting in the region has also become increasingly difficult. Journalists have reported intimidation, coercion, and pervasive surveillance when in Xinjiang. The few who have been able to file reports, such as Buzzfeed’s Megha Rajagopalan, who revealed conditions in the frightening 21st century police state, or French journalist Ursula Gauthier, who first exposed China’s crimes in 2015, found themselves evicted or denied visas.

“We should demand answers to the severity of human rights violations in Xinjiang.” said Michael Caster, a human rights advocate, researcher, and civil society consultant, in a public statement. “This includes greater freedom of access for independent journalists but also ultimately an international independent fact-finding mission to the region.”

These camps have turned into a cheap source of labor for Chinese authorities and companies. In fact, this is not the first report that tied multinational brands to forced labor in China. Last year, an investigation by the Associated Press found that United States sportswear could be traced to internment camps. Badger Sportswear, a North Carolina-based company that produces popular university-branded clothing, was implicated; to its credit, Badger immediately ceased sourcing from suspect Chinese sources. Then, last month, Cotton On and Target were found to have some of their apparel products linked to forced labor.

“The presence of forced labor, particularly prison labor, at many steps of the cotton supply chain means that potentially all cotton/textile/apparel products from Xinjiang are produced with forced labor, and some of these products have entered into international commerce, including the U.S. and European markets,” said Citizen Power Initiatives' researchers in a press statement.

This likely extends beyond the garment industry. The Uyghur Human Rights Project, based in Washington, D.C., says it has found evidence that Volkswagen, Ford, General Motors, Heinz, Campbell Soup, Oracle and Thermo Fisher all have supply chains that link to Xinjiang. As a result, these companies are at high risk of either using forced labor, or they are empowering the state-sanctioned abuse of ethnic Uyghurs.

There is a strong likelihood that if your company sources apparel, cotton, or other materials from Xinjiang, China, it might be tainted by forced labor. Companies need to more proactive as they evaluate their ties to the region, and therefore should develop plans to source products from elsewhere. Considering that the state is likely behind these massive atrocities, the cost of doing business with China may be too large for any company determined to conduct business ethically and responsibly.

Image credit: Pixabay

A spike in intentionally set fires in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil has provoked an international response from government leaders due to the devastating impact these fires could have on the world’s climate – and now, the corporate community has also begun to speak up. That’s significant because of the somewhat fraught political landscape surrounding the Amazon fires: Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, is widely viewed as a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, who continues to deny that global warming is rooted in human activity.

Tim Cook pledges Apple action on the Amazon fires

Apple CEO Tim Cook was among the first, if not the first, leading executive to pledge funds to help fight the Amazon fires.

Though Bolsonaro has been accused of enabling the unusual number of intentionally set fires in the Amazon, Cook did not address the politics underlying the emergency. In fact, he avoided focusing attention on Brazil altogether — an accurate take, considering that Brazil encompasses most, but not all, of the Amazon.

Instead, he focused on preserving biodiversity, stating on his personal Twitter account earlier this week that it is “devastating to see the fires and destruction ravaging the Amazon rainforest, one of the world’s most important ecosystems,” and that “Apple will be donating to help preserve its biodiversity and restore the Amazon’s indispensable forest across Latin America.”

With this statement, Cook deployed a strategy similar to that employed by other companies that have pushed back against harmful or unethical government policies here in the U.S., by focusing attention on areas of strong social consensus rather than criticizing individuals in power.

The value of corporate giving

As of this writing, the media spotlight has not been shining on other global companies pledging to help fight the Amazon fires. Nevertheless, nonprofit organizations are already laying the groundwork for additional corporate action.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest environmental project, Earth Alliance, is a case in point. The organization launched on July 2 with co-founder and social justice advocate Laurene Powell Jobs with a focus on supporting and preserving biodiversity. As the widow of Apple’s iconic founder Steve Jobs, she may have inspired Tim Cook to take up a vanguard position on the Amazon wildfires, but her potential for influence through Earth Alliance goes well beyond a single company.

Earth Alliance is a powerful next step for the existing Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, in partnership with Jobs’s Emerson Collective and Global Wildlife Conservation. In addition to his work with Jobs, DiCaprio sits on the boards of several environmental organizations that partner with leading global companies, including World Wildlife Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Earth Alliance has already set a high bar by pledging $5 million toward the effort to fight Amazon wildfires.

In comparison, the G7 countries have collectively pledged $20 million. Britain and Canada have also separately pledged $12 million and $11 million, respectively.

A call to action for leading partners

Whether or not they seek media attention, other leading companies have also been drawn into the Amazon fires though their affiliation with the Rainforest Alliance.

Rainforest Alliance works with global companies on eliminating forest destruction in their supply chains through the Accountability Framework Initiative among other activities.

The organization has taken a slightly more confrontational approach toward the Amazon fires, though it refrains from criticizing Bolsonaro directly. Its website features this call to action:

“Following a staggering increase in fires this year, with flames and smoke captured on both NASA and NOAA satellites from space, it's clear the world must stand together to stop ongoing threats to the Amazon, which is vital to the world’s climate stability.”

Rainforest Alliance also states that “we are mobilizing our broad network of partners to fight the ongoing destruction of this precious ecosystem.”

That network currently includes leading corporations like P&G and L’Oreal, along with thousands of other companies that are currently participating in the organization’s certification process.

When a climate crisis becomes a bottom-line crisis, too

Though few multinational CEOs have followed Tim Cook’s lead so far, the Amazon fires may well end up demonstrating that corporations are primed and ready to act on global climate threats, whether through direct donations or affiliation with nonprofits and trade organizations.

The window for action is beginning to close, however. The European Union, for one, is already threatening trade sanctions unless Bolsonaro acts aggressively to stem the fires. The Brazilian president’s refusal to accept any funding from the G7 nations puts even more pressure on the private sector to step up.

With the global economy already sliding toward recession, CEOs cannot afford to ignore the threat of another trade war – nor can their companies afford the larger risks as the world teeters from surging climate change risks to a full-blown climate crisis.

Be sure to join us this fall at 3BL Forum: Brands Taking Stands – What’s Next, at MGM National Harbor, just outside Washington, D.C., on October 29-30, 2019. One theme we’ll explore is how companies, with employees at the helm, are reinventing how they do business – whether it’s redefining their purpose, making social impact commitments or finding where to put a stake in the ground. Receive a 25 percent discount using this code PUNDIT2019AUGUST when you register here during the month of August, 2019.

Image credit: Birgit Lengert/Unsplash

Employees at the home furnishings company Wayfair raised the bar on employee activism when they staged a walkout in downtown Boston earlier this summer. That poses a challenge for workers at other companies, who have relied on petitions and open letters to lobby for change. A case in point is the big data firm Palantir.

Palantir in hot water over ICE contracts

Palantir is not a household name on the order of Wayfair and other consumer brands. However, since its founding in 2003 the company has established a solid record within the law enforcement and national security communities.

Palantir initially made its reputation by deploying data mining and analytic software to thwart drug cartels, terrorists, and bank fraud. More recently, though, the company’s reported involvement in racial profiling by domestic law enforcement has made it the target of privacy and civil liberties advocates.

The tipping point for Palantir employees is the company’s operational role in supporting the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants, including mass deportations and its notorious family separation policy, through contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

The Washington Post and Business Insider, among others, have reported that Palantir employees confronted CEO Alex Karp during an internal meeting to protest the ICE contract. Palantir employees have also circulated at least two petitions arguing against the company’s business with ICE.

The most recent petition, reportedly signed by more than 60 employees earlier this month, asks Palantir to assign the profits from its ICE contracts to charity.

Why Palantir probably won’t budge

The idea of a charitable giving solution seems like a dose of weakly brewed tea considering the human suffering at stake, but it may have been inspired by the partial success of the Wayfair walkout.

Plans for the walkout took shape after top executives brushed off an employee petition that expressed concern over the mistreatment of children in an immigrant detention center, for which the company had a contract to supply $200,000 worth of mattresses. The letter asked Wayfair to donate the profits to the immigrant legal services organization RAICES.

After the walkout, it seems that Wayfair executives took the request to heart. In an apparent compromise, the company pledged a $100,000 donation to the American Red Cross.

The donation exceeded the reported $86,000 in profits from the mattress contract, though the employee group has pointed out that donating to the Red Cross is not nearly as impactful as funding for RAICES would have been.

Nevertheless, Wayfair’s gesture appears to have had its desired effect. Calls for a boycott of the company drifted out of the media spotlight shortly after the walkout.

The charitable giving solution, though, hardly seems likely for Palantir.

That’s partly due to the scale of Palantir’s work with ICE. Its current contract dwarfs Wayfair’s mattresses, and on August 20 news surfaced that Palantir has entered into a new contract with ICE.

According to documents posted online by the General Services Administration and spotted by Mother Jones, the first year of the contract reportedly starts in September 2019 and is worth $16 million. With the potential for renewal options over the next two years, the total could come to about $49 million.

Corporate culture and Palantir

Given the scale of the ICE contract, it’s no surprise that Palantir has so far refused to accommodate the concerns of its employees.

Aside from the money involved, Palantir employees also face the additional challenge of the company’s corporate culture.

While much of the media attention has focused on the contradiction between CEO Alex Karp’s self-described socialism and Palantir’s business model, there is a superseding dynamic at work.

Palantir’s work with ICE may conflict with the worldview of its CEO, but it is almost perfectly aligned with that of its co-founder and investor, Peter Thiel, who has also served on the company’s board of directors.

Thiel has become a person of media interest in his unique role as Silicon Valley’s most visibly public, and instrumental, supporter of Donald Trump’s successful 2016 campaign. Regardless of the racist rhetoric, the choice to support the Trump campaign was of a piece with Thiel’s considerable financial support for the candidacy of Ron Paul, and his support for the anti-immigrant organization Numbers, USA.

In addition to financial contributions to the Trump campaign, Thiel stood as a California delegate for Trump during the primary cycle, delivered a keynote speech at the Republican National Convention and placed op-eds at key junctures during the campaign He also quashed a potentially influential media critic by funding a successful lawsuit against the news organization Gawker Media, which was spearheaded by Trump attorney Charles Harder.

Despite the 2017 “Muslim ban” that marked the beginning of Trump’s term in office, Thiel has remained in an advisory capacity to the administration, and was among the very first to donate to Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign.

Preparing for re-election

In the latest illustration of his behind-the-scenes role in formulating White House policy, on August 2 Thiel placed an op-ed in the New York Times excoriating Google for its work in China and all but accusing it of treason. The President followed up with a series of tweets on August 6, in which he supported and amplified Thiel’s article, and pledged that the White House will “take a look” at his accusations against Google.

In the context of corporate culture, Thiel’s op-ed also aimed at a company that is rooted in purposeful dissent, so much so that Google employees are already taking preemptive action by publicly pledging not to work on a potential contract with Customs and Border Patrol.

That kind of employee action would most likely not be tolerated at Palantir, especially not in the runup to the 2020 election cycle. As noted by Tech Crunch and others, Thiel and the President appear to be building a case against Google in advance of Election Day, by questioning the company’s loyalty to the U.S. and accusing it of election tampering, while positioning Palantir as a “patriotic” company.

With stakes that high, Palantir is unlikely to waver in its support for the Trump administration’s policies. Perhaps the only recourse for employees who are uncomfortable with the company’s policy on ICE contracts is to walk out, never to return.

Be sure to join us this fall at 3BL Forum: Brands Taking Stands – What’s Next, at MGM National Harbor, just outside Washington, D.C., on October 29-30, 2019. One theme we’ll explore is how companies, with employees at the helm, are reinventing themselves – whether it’s redefining their purpose, making social impact commitments or finding where to put a stake in the ground. Receive a 25 percent discount using this code PUNDIT2019AUGUST when you register here during the month of August, 2019.

Image credit: Maria Oswalt/Unsplash