CHICAGO, February 16, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– CSE’s Annual Sustainability Practitioners event, “Winning the ESG & Net-Zero Race – Trends for 2023 and beyond”, on Feb. 7, 2023, brought togetherthought leaders, institutions and corporate executives. They engaged in a dialogue on regulatory changes and new trends, ESG reporting, risk management and challenges that heads of Sustainability and ESG functions face towards integration.
This event celebrates 15 years of the Certified Sustainability (ESG) Practitioner Program that has become the first choice for Sustainability and ESG Professionals around the globe, as proven by more than 9,000 certified practitioners in 90 countries, representing 85% of Global FT 500 firms.
The unique findings of CSE’s Annual ESG Research in the U.S. and Canada were presented, investigating ESG best practices and standards used by 31 leading business sectors. It identified the Top 10 ESG Performing Companies in each sector and common success factors, using consolidated scores from several ESG rating agencies for each company and analyzed potential key success factors such as ESG Reporting, Νet-Zero Goal setting and ESG Standards used.
The event hosted as guest speakers Matthew Rusk, Head of Regional Hub North America at Global Reporting Initiative (GRI); David Marshall, Director, Sustainability & Public Affairs at RESOLUTE; Elisabeth Philippe, Senior Manager, CSR and Media Relations, Executive Operations at United Nations FCU; Rosalinda Sanquiche, Head of Global Sustainability & Communications at CHG; and Arlette Palacio, CEO at Club de Innovación RD and Sustainable Innovation Partners (SIP) Group. The panel discussionfocused on good ESG practices, challenges, opportunities and how business leaders can effectively leverage ESG practices strategically.
Matthew Rusk presented how the GRI standards work, what they have to offer and why GRI and SASB reporting complement each other. David Marshall explained why the three great ESG challenges for RESOLUTE are tracking and balancing ESG metrics, ensuring information gets to stakeholders and determining where to focus their resources. Elisabeth Philippe spoke about the journey of UNFCU from a green team to a sustainability movement; taking collective action on sustainability, advocating about transparency and serving as a convener of ideas and best practices for all its 200,000+ members globally. Rosalinda Sanquiche analyzed the ESG challenges for the Food and Beverage industry, and finally, Arlette Palacio presented the C-suite executive’s perspective on ESG and how sustainability could be used as an organizational competence.
Nikos Avlonas, President of CSE, said, “For more than 16 years, we have provided top of the notch advisory services and tools to FT 500 and government organizations, and we have reached the record number of qualifying 9,000 sustainability practitioners from 90 countries, placing CSE as one of the most important influencers in ESG-Net Zero integration globally.“
Market rout deepens in Indian tycoon Adani’s shares
Adani Enterprises loses $26 bln in value since report
Falls after Adani pulled share sale, investors spooked
Analysts say signals confidence crisis in Indian market
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Adani’s market losses swelled above $100 billion on Thursday, sparking worries about a potential systemic impact a day after the Indian group’s flagship firm abandoned its $2.5 billion stock offering.
Another challenge for Adani on Thursday came when S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would remove Adani Enterprises from widely used sustainability indices, effective Feb. 7, which would make the shares less appealing to sustainability-minded funds.
In addition, India’s National Stock Exchange said it has placed on additional surveillance shares of Adani Enterprises <ADEL.NS>, Adani Ports <APSE.NS> and Ambuja Cements <ABUJ.NS>. read more
However, Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani is in talks with lenders to prepay and release pledged shares as he seeks to restore confidence in the financial health of his conglomerate, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. read more
Latest Updates
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The shock withdrawal of Adani Enterprises’ share sale marks a dramatic setback for founder Adani, the school dropout-turned-billionaire whose fortunes rose rapidly in recent years but have plunged in just a week after a critical research report by U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research.
Aborting the share sale sent shockwaves across markets, politics and business. Adani stocks plunged, opposition lawmakers called for a wider probe and India’s central bank sprang into action to check on the exposure of banks to the group. Meanwhile, Citigroup’s (C.N) wealth unit stopped making margin loans to clients against Adani Group securities.
The crisis marks an dramatic turn of fortune for Adani, who has in recent years forged partnerships with foreign giants such as France’s TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) and attracted investors such as Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company as he pursues a global expansion stretching from ports to the power sector.
In a shock move late on Wednesday, Adani called off the share sale as a stocks rout sparked by Hindenburg’s criticisms intensified, despite it being fully subscribed a day earlier.
“Adani may have started a confidence crisis in Indian shares and that could have broader market implications,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at Swissquote Bank.
Adani Enterprises shares tumbled 27% on Thursday, closing at their lowest level since March 2022.
Other group companies also lost further ground, with 10% losses at Adani Total Gas (ADAG.NS), Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS) and Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS), while Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone shed nearly 7%.
Since Hindenburg’s report on Jan. 24, group companies have lost nearly half their combined market value. Adani Enterprises – described as an incubator of Adani’s businesses – has lost $26 billion in market capitalisation.
Adani is also no longer Asia’s richest person, having slid to 16th in the Forbes rankings of the world’s wealthiest people, with his net worth almost halved to $64.6 billion in a week.
The 60-year-old had been third on the list, behind billionaires Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault.
His rival Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) is now Asia’s richest person.
[1/4] Indian billionaire Gautam Adani addresses delegates during the Bengal Global Business Summit in Kolkata, India April 20, 2022. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri
Reuters Graphics
BROADER CONCERNS
Adani’s plummeting stock and bond prices have raised concerns about the likelihood of a wider impact on India’s financial system.
India’s central bank has asked local banks for details of their exposure to the Adani Group, government and banking sources told Reuters on Thursday.
CLSA estimates that Indian banks were exposed to about 40% of the $24.5 billion of Adani Group debt in the fiscal year to March 2022.
Dollar bonds issued by entities of Adani Group extended losses on Thursday, with notes of Adani Green Energy crashing to a record low. Adani Group entities made scheduled coupon payments on outstanding U.S. dollar-denominated bonds on Thursday, Reuters reported citing sources.
“We see the market is losing confidence on how to gauge where the bottom can be and although there will be short-covering rebounds, we expect more fundamental downside risks given more private banks (are) likely to cut or reduce margin,” said Monica Hsiao, chief investment officer of Hong Kong-based credit fund Triada Capital.
In New Delhi, opposition lawmakers submitted notices in parliament demanding discussion of the short-seller’s report.
The Congress Party called for a Joint Parliamentary Committee be set up or a Supreme Court monitored investigation, while some lawmakers shouted anti-Adani slogans inside parliament, which was adjourned for the day.
ADANI VS HINDENBURG
Adani made acquisitions worth $13.8 billion in 2022, Dealogic data showed, its highest ever and more than double the previous year.
The cancelled fundraising was critical for Adani, which had said it would use $1.33 billion to fund green hydrogen projects, airports facilities and greenfield expressways, and $508 million to repay debt at some units.
Hindenburg’s report alleged an improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation by the Adani Group. It also raised concerns about high debt and the valuations of seven listed Adani companies.
The Adani Group has denied the accusations, saying the allegation of stock manipulation had “no basis” and stemmed from an ignorance of Indian law. It said it has always made the necessary regulatory disclosures.
Adani had managed to secure share sale subscriptions on Tuesday even though the stock’s market price was below the issue’s offer price. Maybank Securities and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority had bid for the anchor portion of the issue, investments which will now be reimbursed by Adani.
Late on Wednesday, the group’s founder said he was withdrawing the sale given the share price fall, adding his board felt going ahead with it “will not be morally correct”.
Reporting by Chris Thomas, Nallur Sethuraman, Tanvi Mehta, Ira Dugal, Aftab Ahmed, Sumeet Chatterjee, Anshuman Daga, Summer Zhen, Ross Kerber and Bansari Mayur Kamdar; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Jason Neely and Alexander Smith
The Nebraska Bankers Association is raising concerns about legislation that would bar state treasurers from depositing public funds in financial institutions that could use the money to promote social or political objectives.
Legislative Bill 67, introduced in January by conservative lawmakers, is part of a pushback in Republican-led state governments across the country against so-called “woke capitalism,” a term that encompasses new environmental, social and governance policies at many banks and other large corporations. Critics worry that lenders’ efforts to address climate change and promote diversity and equality will translate into politically biased credit decisions.
Robert Hallstrom, the bankers association’s general counsel, said that LB 67 is “too vague” and that the trade group is pressuring supporters of the bill as well as Nebraska’s state treasurer, who supports the legislation, to ensure wording of the bill matches its “original intent.”
“We are working to make sure that [LB 67] gets back to the intent of having the state treasurer remain neutral with regard to exerting any influence or direction over financial institutions regarding their banking activities or practices,” Hallstrom said during an interview.
“Other than the fact that state funds are some portion of our deposit base, we can’t identify that state money was specifically used for one purpose or another,” Hallstrom said.
During a public hearing on Monday to discuss the legislation, Nebraska Sen. Julie Slama, a Republican who proposed LB 67, said that the bill is meant to protect against future state treasurers using public funds “to further political or social agendas,” according to a Nebraska Examiner article.
John Murante, Nebraska’s Republican state treasurer, has voiced support for passing LB 67 and in November wrote an opinion article for the National Review describing the adoption of ESG policies by banks as an attempt to “achieve through the backdoor goals that even our own legislation hasn’t been able to achieve.”
In December, Nebraska State Attorney General Doug Peterson issued a report warning against ESG lending and investment strategies as “a threat to our democratic form of government.”
This week’s political back and forth over ESG in Nebraska is playing out alongside conservative reaction in other state governments.
Republican lawmakers in Wyoming this month introduced House Bill 210 to clamp down on “financial institution discrimination.” The legislation calls for the state treasurer to make a list of lenders that refuse to do business with energy companies operating in the state.
In Kentucky, State Attorney General Daniel Cameron was sued in November by the Kentucky Bankers Association, which claims the state’s top lawyer overstepped statutory limitations and violated the First Amendment rights of banks by compelling documents, communications and information related to their environmental lending practices.
Overall, more than a dozen Republican-led states have launched investigations into alleged antitrust and consumer law violations related to ESG investment practices at six banks that are members of the United Nations’ Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
Discover why ‘doing business as usual’ is no longer a valid option and the shift to ‘doing business in a sustainable way’ is the only way that will secure companies’ trust and access to financing.
Press Release –
Jan 18, 2023 10:00 EET
CHICAGO, January 18, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– For the sixth consecutive year, the Center for Sustainability and Excellence is proud to announce the unique findings from its Research in ESG Ratings and Reporting Trends, focusing on ESG best practices and standards used in 2022. CSE’s research examined the ESG practices and commitments of more than 400 FT 500 companies in North America and Europe from 31 sectors, with a high percentage of profitability within the last years. CSE’s research identified the Top 25 ESG Performing Companies and Top 10 per Sector and explored common success practices, including the most widely used ESG Standards and goals setting.
The research’s findings verified that there is indeed an increased influence between financial performance, brand credibility and ESG good practices. More specifically, the 25 companies such as General Mills, Ford, NIKE, Target, AIG with the highest percentage increase in profits between 2020 and 2021, are characterized by the following:
Common Practices
High in average consolidated ratings on four ESG ratings (MSCI, CDP, Sustainalytics, and S&P Global), use of ESG-related standards (GRI, SASB, TCFD) and incorporation of stakeholder concerns and preferences into their strategies, comprehensive independent ESG reporting, as well as commitment to ambitious quantitative goals.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Regarding the ESG incorporation potential, the sectors of “Beverage & Food Consumer Products”, “Real Estate” and “Insurance: Life & Health (Mutual, Stock)” are clearly leading the way. The lagging sectors are Diversified Financials, Food Production, Insurance (Property & Casual), Metals, and Petroleum Refining/Energy.
Climate Commitments and Transparency
The research demonstrates that although companies set ambitious goals, there is still lack of transparency, e.g. 29% of the companies validated near-term reduction targets and almost 50% set net-zero targets. It remains to be seen if these goals are true, or wishful thinking, or unintentional greenwashing.
The rise of ESG Standards. Independent Sustainability Reporting Is Becoming More Important Than Ever
Out of 310 companies evaluated, 86% have published an accessible, independent Sustainability (ESG) report, but only 30% have an External Assurance.
Τhe preferred ESG Standards:44% have included reference and commitments to the UN SDGs, 74% have complied with the SASB Standards, and 64% reference the recommendations ofthe TCFD. The use of specific global standards and frameworks verifies that top companies adopt a more strategic approach towards ESG, aiming to secure better consolidation of scores, easier comparability and greater transparency.
CSE is one of the leading ESG Consulting and Educational companies specializing in maximizing social, economic and environmental impact. CSE has qualified over 8,500 Sustainability and ESG professionals in 90 countries with its global Certified Sustainability – ESG Practitioner Program and Sustainability Academy educational platform.
Mosaic Recently Contributed AI/ML Services to a Custom Application that Alerts on Carbon Emissions and Recommends Renewable Energy Portfolios. The company is also working with a leading risk management software firm to accelerate corporate ESG adoption.
Press Release –
Jan 9, 2023 13:15 EST
LEESBURG, Va., January 9, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Mosaic Data Science contributed machine learning algorithm development & deployment services to help a leading power firm automate the process of quantifying the switch to renewable energy portfolios from traditional energy sources while exploring the costs and tradeoffs of said offerings for their business-to-business customers. The solution is designed for enterprises that require power to a diverse set of business functions, such as industrial warehouses, production plants, and related physical infrastructure.
The application relies on a highly scalable, custom mathematical optimization algorithm to select the products to eliminate or offset the emissions required to reach the GHG targets. Mosaic’s data scientists collaborated with key stakeholders to lay out requirements for an interactive dashboard and the algorithms driving the portfolio recommendations.
In the past, this had been a manual, error-prone, and time-consuming effort as sales personnel had to piece together a portfolio to cover energy usage across tens of thousands of service locations for a customer over a multi-decade window. Automating the process is a massive win for the energy company and its customers.
As the world becomes increasingly exposed to climate change impacts, more companies have stepped up their efforts to provide environmental, social, and governance reports (ESG) with emissions reduction goals. The project is just one example of the many use cases of data science techniques in solving carbon footprint reduction problems and combating climate change, contributing to a healthier future for our planet.
Mosaic also works with a leading risk management software company to accelerate ESG adoption among global corporations. Mosaic is designing ML-based solutions to help corporations make more sustainable decisions.
According to Gartner, artificial intelligence was named one of the top technologies by CEOs to help accelerate sustainable business progress and could help deliver nearly one-third of the carbon emission reductions required by 2030.
“Mosaic’s artificial intelligence and machine learning skills can help the organizations focus on sustainable processes & practices,” said Drew Clancy, VP of Marketing and Sales. “Too often people generalize AI as trying to sell you more products, but this technology should play a critical role in increasing our resilience to the effects of climate change by helping us identify risk factors and develop plans to mitigate them.”
Companies that put AI at their core are far more likely to contribute positively to climate resilience, adaptation, and mitigation efforts than those that do not. Mosaic continues to be a champion of sustainability in its business practices.
About Mosaic Data Science
Mosaic Data Science is a leading AI/ML services company focused on helping organizations build and deploy custom solutions. The company makes complex artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions actionable, explainable, and usable to any organization.
Texas lawmakers grilled finance industry executives they summoned to a remote corner of the Lone Star State for a hearing Thursday, questioning whether their environmental, social and governance policies are hindering state pension investments.
The GOP-led committee on state affairs called the hearing amid growing concern in the party that financial firms are pushing a “woke” ideology with investing rules tied to ESG issues. They summoned officials from BlackRock, State Street and Institutional Shareholder Services to defend their practices before a committee made up of seven Republicans and two Democrats.
Harrison County Courthouse, Marshall, Texas. Photographer: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst cited a Harvard Business Review study this year that showed ESG funds tend to lag behind the overall market.
“We have a commitment to our retired teachers and we have a commitment to our retired state employees to do better with our money,” Kolkhurst said at the hearing in Marshall, in eastern Texas. The state is the nation’s largest energy producer.
BlackRock’s head of external affairs, Dalia Blass, stood by the firm’s record in handling the assets of its clients in the state.
“We are really proud of our performance for the Texas institutions that have entrusted us with their money,” Blass told the panel. “We have one bias: to get the best risk-adjusted returns for our clients.”
The setting, chosen because it’s in the district represented by the panel’s chair, was unusual for Wall Street. With a population of almost 25,000, Marshall is 150 miles (241 kilometers) east of Dallas, 70 miles south of Texarkana and about as far as can be from the world of high finance.
The committee is focused on how ESG policies may impact Texans’ retirement savings, but the investigation is part of a broader effort by GOP officials around the country to push back against what they see as progressive ideologies among corporations. New York-based BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is a frequent target.
Florida’s chief financial officer has urged state pension funds to remove BlackRock as an asset manager over ESG concerns, while Louisiana and Missouri have pulled a combined $1.3 billion from the company this year. In August, Texas included the firm on a list of those it says boycott the energy industry. Republicans have also clashed with PayPal Holdings and the Walt Disney Co. over their policies.
The firms have struggled with how to respond, often trying to assure conservative critics that they embrace fossil fuels while at the same time telling environmentalists they’re committed to helping to fight climate change. Vanguard Group recently announced it was leaving the world’s largest climate-finance alliance, saying it would help “provide the clarity our investors desire.” The company was slated to join the hearing but was then excused.
“We do not pick and choose what to invest in,” Lori Heinel, global chief investment officer for State Street Global Advisors in Boston, told the committee. “More specifically, we do not discriminate against energy companies, or any other sector.”
ESG’s impact on the fossil-fuel industry is of particular concern to lawmakers worried that it could dry up funding sources. In August, the committee sent letters to the four firms asking for documents and testimony from executives related to their investing and consulting practices and any impacts on state pensions.
“When there’s no funding for energy projects, energy projects don’t get done, energy costs go up, jobs go away and the cost of everything we buy goes up,” committee Chairman Bryan Hughes said Thursday. “This is real. This is family security. This is national security.”
Republicans in the U.S. Senate have also homed in on how the biggest asset managers use their stakes in public companies to cast proxy votes, alleging they favor a “liberal political agenda,” according to a report from Banking Committee staff. They called for congressional probes into how the firms influence corporate policies on carbon emissions reduction, board diversity or racial-equity audits.
Global sustainability consulting firm ADEC ESG Solutions releases suite of corporate educational material designed to guide organizations on the path to decarbonization and net-zero goals.
Press Release –
Nov 22, 2022 06:00 PST
IRVINE, Calif., November 22, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– ADEC ESG Solutions, an ADEC Innovations company and global leader in sustainability solutions that helps organizations responsibly grow and operate, last week hosted an online learning event focused on the process of decarbonization. The event’s goal was to educate participating organizations on decarbonization and outline a foundational step-by-step process to achieving decarbonization goals.
Streamlining Decarbonization: Key Strategies and Net-Zero Planning begins by laying the groundwork for a fundamental understanding of concepts surrounding greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction. This opening section discussed technical terminology, corporate drivers of the rise of decarbonization, and recent changes to the regulatory environment. The November 16 seminar’s highlight was a step-by-step breakdown of the decarbonization strategy process, from emission source identification to short- and long-term change management framework design and planning.
The event is the latest in a series of emissions-focused corporate educational materials that ADEC ESG Solutions has released, including articles on the basics of decarbonization and the role of supply chain engagement in scope 3 GHG emissions management, as well as an in-depth white paper focused on carbon accounting methods. These complementary resources are a key part of ADEC ESG’s resource library, catered to organizations looking to make impactful changes to their overall strategy and demonstrate a strong commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.
ADEC ESG Solutions has helped private and public organizations as well as municipalities at every step on their Sustainability Journey, from strategy development, data collection, analysis, and planning, through implementation, tracking and automation, and reporting. “The market has shifted beyond just disclosure, and customers are asking to not only see commitments but to see a decarbonization path or net-zero plans,” said ADEC ESG Solutions Head of ESG Strategy and Implementation, Culley Thomas, emphasizing market, regulatory, and internal pressure on organizations to demonstrate real progress on ESG goals.
A recording of Streamlining Decarbonization: Key Strategies and Net-Zero Planning, including the real-time Q&A session, as well as ADEC ESG Solutions’ library of resources for decarbonization and overall sustainability and resiliency strategies, can be found at https://www.adecesg.com/resources/.
About ADEC Innovations
ADEC Innovations’ ESG business advances sustainable practices around the world and helps organizations responsibly grow and operate. With a global workforce spanning six continents, ADEC ESG Solutions seamlessly delivers fully-integrated, cost-effective consulting, data management, and software solutions to ensure we meet our clients’ ever-evolving ESG needs. Visit adecesg.com to learn more.
Please direct media inquiries to: media@adec-innovations.com
Trust Exchange and their partner EpiCentric have announced a joint venture, EcoCertify, to help companies manage ESG compliance.
Press Release –
Nov 18, 2022 10:15 EST
PHILADELPHIA, November 18, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Trust Exchange, a collaborative compliance platform, today announced that it is launching a new product with partner EpiCentric Consulting to offer an ESG-compliance solution. EcoCertify is a cloud-based platform that powers a business to connect suppliers and their entire supply chain network, affording remarkable transparency, and the ability to create clear, real-time communication of ESG requirements and capabilities throughout their ecosystem. It can be customized to fit most any workflow to dramatically streamline the process of monitoring, real-time reporting, and tracking.
“ESG compliance is rapidly becoming a critical component of every company’s DNA,” says Edward Sullivan, CEO of Trust Exchange. “These emerging guidelines are complex and require multiple touchpoints inside and outside of organizations. The only way to solve this problem effectively is via collaboration. This partnership between EpiCentric and TrustExchange will enable companies to have the best-in-breed knowledge embedded into a collaborative platform.”
“The challenges facing companies in ESG compliance are growing by the week, and it’s a cause for concern inside the C-Suite of any company with a supply chain,” states Hain MacKay-Cruise, CEO of EcoCertify. “The ability to take an ESG strategy and operationalize it takes resources, time and often extensive funding. Establishing a well-laid plan supported by date and customizable dashboards is what EcoCertify brings to the table. Our partnership with Trust Exchange allows for the use of a best-in-class platform configured to support the needs and rigor of sustainability reporting.”
Trust Exchange is a business information gateway that allows for the exchange and verification of mission-critical information with partners, suppliers and third parties. Trust Exchange is a cloud-based, secure, and scalable platform with high configurability and customization. With a unique approach of peer 2 peer crowdsourcing, Trust Exchange allows customers to automate compliance and regulatory management with high accuracy and real-time data. Trust Exchange is currently serving financial institutions, government, and businesses nationwide.
As an elite business consulting firm, we work with companies that need complex solutions to transform their organization. Through years of experience, we understand what it really takes to implement a successful transformation effort—and make it stick. Leveraging our decades of leadership experience, we have created a knowledge-centric service delivery organization full of energetic, talented, proactive people that our clients love working with.
SARASOTA, FL – SEPTEMBER 28: Wind gusts blow across Sarasota Bay as Hurricane Ian churns to the … [+] south on September 28, 2022 in Sarasota, Florida. The storm made a U.S. landfall at Cayo Costa, Florida this afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane with wind speeds over 140 miles per hour in some areas. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Getty Images
The analytical rigor and discipline that we see in modeling and managing mortality risk in life insurance policies is almost completely missing from managing climate risk in U.S. property and casualty (P&C) industry. Are one year P&C policies to blame? In this first of three posts, I will compare the largest European insurance company, AXA, with the largest P&C U.S. firms that publish a climate report: Chubb, Liberty Mutual, and Travelers. Part I is an overview of the topic. Part II examines insurance practices or the liability side of a P&C’s balance sheet. Part III examines investment practices or the asset side of their balance sheets.
One would expect the property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry to be at the front lines of the fight against climate change. Hurricanes, floods, and forest fires hit the pocketbooks of the insurance industry before anyone else’s. On top of that, it is well known that population growth since 1990 has been above average in the U.S. in regions that are at a high risk for hurricanes and wildfires. These climate catastrophes are also becoming more common. For instance, Travelers states in its 2021 TCFD report, “California wildfires…we now view events such as those of the past few years as being less remote than we thought previously.”
Climate risk affects both the asset (investments) and the liability side (obligations to make good on losses) of an insurer’s balance sheet). These companies should have expertise in climate as they process a vast number of claims relate to climate induced threats. Hence, if there was ever an industry where doing good coincides with doing well, it must be insurance. Moreover, the analytical rigor that actuaries bring to prediction and management of mortality risk in U.S. life insurance companies is worth celebrating. Why is that formidable intellectual and managerial talent absent in the management of climate risk of U.S. P&Cs? SwissRe, a prominent reinsurer’s 2021 climate report states, “from 2010 to 2020, realized loses have exceeded expectations in almost every year. Very likely, part of this gap can be attributed to trend effects due to climate change.”
The usual assumption in the U.S. P&C business has been that the possibility of a wildfire in say California is not correlated with a possible hurricane in Florida. What if these events begun to become correlated on account of climate change? Would a simultaneous wildfire in California and a large hurricane in Florida potentially jeopardize the capital position of an U.S. P&C insurer? More worrisome, a massive climate related disaster or a series of big losses will make the hit to the insurer’s capital exponential, as opposed to linear, over time.
My assessment is that the P&C industry in the U.S. has not been as visible or active as it could have been in leading the climate risk conversation. This is partly because the social, political and economic pressures in Europe are different, and partly because incentives for U.S. policy holders are somewhat more myopic.
Annual policy writing incentives
Is the annual policy writing cycle to blame? An insurance company that writes a life insurance policy for the next 15-30 years has incentives to devote actuarial resources to forecast your mortality. However, P&C insurance contracts, covering losses from climate events, are usually written for one year only and the incentives for the industry to look far into the future are necessarily limited.
The top ten U.S. P&C insurers
To understand the landscape a bit better, I started digging deeper into the sustainability disclosures of a top French insurer AXA XL (latest available 85 page 2022 climate report). AXA’s revenues were 99 billion euros, half of comes from the P&C business and around 20% from health-related insurance. I consider AXA to be the gold standard of thinking about how climate risk affects both their coverage and investment decisions.
To benchmark AXA with an insurer from the other side of the Atlantic, I found the top ten P&C insurers, ranked by revenues in the U.S. Those are State Farm, Berkshire Hathaway, Progressive, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, Travelers, USAA, Chubb, Farmers Insurance, and Nationwide. The returns were somewhat disappointing.
Berkshire Hathaway is well-known skeptic of ESG, and their sustainability discussion of their conglomerate covers a grand total of one page. Progressive puts out a 51-page sustainability report but the CEO statement in that report focuses heavily on Progressive’s DE&I efforts, not on climate. Progressive devotes one page to a generic discussion of risks (page 13 and 14) and publishes half a page of generic text on climate (page 15). On the investment side, Progressive states that 80% of their bonds have an MSCI ESG rating. They also state they have started tracking the LEED status of buildings in their CMBS (collateralized mortgage-backed securities) portfolio. Roughly $35 billion of Progressive’s 2021 $47 billion revenue comes from auto insurance for which climate is not such a big concern. However, around $2 billion of annual premiums comes from insuring physical risks where climate should be a risk factor. Moreover, the assets side of all these insurers’ balance sheets is exposed to climate risks.
Allstate’s 2021 10-K states that out of their $40 billion of premiums revenue, $27 billion relates to auto but a sizeable $10 billion comes from insuring homes. Allstate puts out a 106-page sustainability report but the word “climate” appears only on page 65. The climate discussion spans three pages after page 65. Allstate says it has enough capital to withstand climate stress.
The efforts of USAA, Farmers and Nationwide in the climate area appear to be minimal. USAA has a webpage labeled “environmental responsibility” where they talk about recycling, reduction of paper usage, savings in water and energy usage. Farmers publishes a page called “corporate citizenship” where their focus is mostly on their employees, diversity and inclusion efforts, cutting usage of plastic, paper, planting of trees, charitable contributions, involvement with charitable NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and the “Farmers Insurance Open,” a golf tournament they organize with the PGA (Professional Golf Association).
Nationwide puts out a 15-page corporate responsibility report that covers communities, giving, food security, work with the American Red Cross, United Way, investments in affordable housing, health care, education, clean water, children’s wellbeing, diversity and inclusion efforts, diverse boards of directors, ethics and governance. They devote one page to the environment which touches on reducing their own carbon footprint, reducing waste, water usage, paper usage and landfill diversion.
Liberty Mutual has put out its second TCFD report in 2021. Travelers and Chubb have also published a TCFD report. So, it seems worthwhile to compare the efforts of AXA with these three U.S. firms Chubb, Liberty Mutual, and Travelers. Before embarking on a deep dive, it is worth reiterating that seven of the top 10 U.S. P&C insurers do not report a serious discussion of the implications of climate risk on their balance sheets. The default answer might be to argue that their climate risk exposures are not large enough to warrant a bigger discussion. I doubt that hypothesis. I have to assume that absence of reporting implies absence of either an internal consensus on the importance of climate inside their companies or a lack of investment in understanding that risk.
The discussion follows a series of questions and different strategies followed by AXA relative to the three American insurers: Chubb, Liberty and Travelers. The comparison is simply meant to be a benchmarking exercise. I understand that every firm would likely follow its own strategy given their opportunities and constraints. Moreover, every company has its own learning curve in building infrastructure required to support such thinking and institute organization wide buy in and processes.
Here are some high-level findings that cover both the liability and asset side of the companies’ balance sheets.
High level findings
Has the insurer articulated a climate strategy?
All the four companies have articulated their climate strategy. I will leave the discussion of the details to the next part. As a summary, AXA is the only company that linked strategic goals to specific KPIs (key performance indicators). The U.S. insurers produced high level statements without clear links to numerical targets.
What are the insurer’s views on double materiality?
AXA is a staunch supporter of double materiality while thinking about ESG. For the uninitiated, “double materiality” simply means thinking about the impact of climate on their investments but the externalities imposed by the operations of the firms underlying these investments on climate. The other insurers do not devote much or any space to double materiality.
Is a full dashboard of metrics presented?
Ideally, the firm should present a dashboard of its metrics benchmarked to some objective target or standard and time series data of its metrics over time so that the user can track progress, both over time and keeping time constant, to a benchmarked portfolio. AXA has an excellent dashboard along these lines. I could not find such a detailed dashboard for the other insurers.
Voluntary audits of climate data
PwC has issued a limited assurance report on AXA’s processes and underlying assumptions. The other insurers do not discuss assurance of climate risk metrics and processes.
Is executive and staff compensation tied to climate goals?
AXA, states that the following three key performance indicators (KPIs) will be included in the compensation packages of executives and 5,000 AXA employees: (i) Dow Jones Sustainability Index ranking; (ii) reduction of operational carbon emissions; and (iii) reduction of investment-related carbon footprint (for its general account assets). I did not find such a commitment in the disclosures of the other insurers.
I will show in Parts II and III that AXA is similarly quite distinctive compared to its three selected U.S. counterparts. I have not done an in-depth analysis of the differences in the regulatory environments of these four companies regarding corporate reporting and this may explain some of the differences.
In Part II, I will compare AXA to these three companies in terms of their insurance business or the liability side of their balance sheet.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, November 7, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Klean Industries Inc (“Klean”), a leading equipment manufacturer that owns a commercialized portfolio of intellectual properties and know-how focusing on the recovery of clean energy and resources from waste, is pleased to announce that it has signed a partnership agreement with H2 Core Systems (“H2 Core”) to distribute and build green hydrogen projects around the globe.
H2 Core Systems (“H2 Core”) is a leader in integrated design and engineering for modular and containerized green hydrogen production plants. H2 Core Systems develops, manufactures, and maintains modular and configurable electrolysis systems that are expandable and scalable at any time. H2 Core offers the perfect solutions in combination with photovoltaic (solar) or wind power systems for a decentralized, self-sufficient, integrated system that enables the creation of a green energy supply chain that can be used worldwide. Hydrogen plays a crucial role in providing a solution for the global path to a zero-emission future in transportation, industry, homes, and workplaces. H2 Core Systems understands the clean hydrogen value chains, technology integration, systems, people, and partnerships needed to ensure hydrogen’s role in the clean energy economy.
The combination of this partnership in deploying hydrogen at scale is being built on the foundation of Enapter AG’s (“Enapter”) Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) Electrolysers. Enapter provides this partnership with modular electrolyzers which can be deployed individually or at scale for any amount of on-site hydrogen and for any application. Inspired by the mind-blowing cost reduction of solar panels and microchips through standardization and mass production, Enapter has developed plug-and-play electrolyzers that can be manufactured at scale.
“Klean, H2 Core, and Enapter share synergistic values and the understanding of what the world needs to achieve Net Zero, in a Circular Economy that supports the development of a sustainable society. The KleanTeam has conducted extensive due diligence on the hydrogen production marketplace, and we believe that H2 Core’s technology applications combined with Enapter’s AEM Electrolysers’ and energy management system (“EMS”) offer the perfect design for both Klean’s internal projects and our customers’ projects. The uniqueness of these designs also compliments the integration of our KleanLoop™ technology, which together represent a game changer for combined applications of alternative energy production,” said Marc Schwarzlose, Director of Project Development for Klean Industries Inc.
Over the course of the next few months, Klean is planning the development of a modular and scalable 40′ containerized pilot project with the integration of an AEM MultiCore 1.0 megawatt (MW) electrolytic production unit designed by H2 Core for Klean’s flagship facility in Boardman, Oregon. This site is the perfect location for creating green hydrogen onsite from cost-effective, clean, reliable, and environmentally friendly hydroelectric power as Boardman has one of the lowest costs for electricity in North America.
The hydrogen produced at the Boardman facility is being engineered for its potential application and use in Klean’s modular oil upgrading units. The carbon emissions-free hydrogen produced can be utilized to upgrade recovered fuel oil (“rFO”) and pyrolysis oil into highly valuable, drop-in replacement fuel known as e-fuels to produce significantly lower CO2 gasoline and diesel to meet the needs of California’s Low Carbon Fuels Standards (“LCFS”).
Additionally, Klean and H2 Core see an opportunity for a number of Klean’s projects to have their own hydrogen-generating plants for producing 100% renewable green hydrogen, which could be used in Klean’s fleet vehicles for the collection and transportation of feedstock and output products. This alone offers a significant environmental advantage to our projects and the communities in which Klean operates. This concept is further reinforced by the ability to also integrate fuel cells, engines, and boilers that are powered by green hydrogen to offset energy costs in terms of electrical demand, with the added benefit of also providing both heating and cooling applications in various projects.
Beyond Klean’s internal applications, H2 Core and Klean see increasing market demand for green hydrogen produced by electrolysis. Together through this partnership, Klean plans to work with its project partners in Canada, the United States, and Australia to deploy H2 Core’s fully integrated containerized solutions. By doing so, they aim to unlock hydrogen’s true potential in reducing pollution and climate change by building hydrogen supply solutions and station networks to support the rollout of fuel-cell electric vehicles and decentralized renewable energy plants.
“Partnerships make what we do at H2 Core Systems possible. Enapter, H2 Core Systems, and Klean Industries are aligned in our commitment to both deploying and developing a renewable hydrogen value chain. We believe this partnership is a great first step in what we hope will become a long and successful relationship,” said Ulf Joergensen, CEO H2 Core Systems.
“We believe Enapter’s mass-produced AEM Electrolysers will enable low-cost green hydrogen to be deployed at a massive scale in the shortest amount of time. It is partnerships like this that illustrate the demand and opportunity throughout various industries for green hydrogen worldwide. By combining technologies and applications, this partnership offers integrated solutions that address both climate protection and decentralized energy generation. To make all of this happen, we must act with urgency, opt for simplicity, and insist on transparency and global partnerships,” said Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, CEO Enapter GmbH.
“Developing clean energy projects in partnership with leading technology providers such as Enapter and H2Core Systems supports Klean’s strategic focus and enables our companies to create a symbiosis between waste, resources, and energy, while simultaneously creating a circular low carbon economy,” said Jesse Klinkhamer, CEO of Klean Industries Inc.
About H2 Core Systems
H2 Core Systems (“H2 Core”) develops, manufactures, and maintains modular and configurable electrolysis systems that are expandable and scalable at any time. The perfect solution in combination with photovoltaic or wind power systems for a decentralized, self-sufficient, and green energy supply that can be used worldwide. H2 Core provides solutions for making green hydrogen available for everyone and everywhere, from 100% renewable energy sources in a standardized, flexible, and intelligent way. Their systems and containerized units replace fossil power with carbon emissions-free alternatives, combining their know-how of fluid systems with innovative Enapter AEM electrolysers and their energy management system (“EMS”). H2 Core is building standardized, flexible, and smart hydrogen sources that utilize a long track record of experience in industrial services. H2 Core, builds, upgrades, and maintains the systems they provide throughout its lifecycle.
Enapter is an innovative energy technology company that manufactures highly efficient hydrogen generators – known as electrolysers – to replace fossil fuels and thus drive the global energy transition. Their patented and proven Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) technology enables the mass production of cost-effective plug-&-play electrolyzers for green hydrogen production at any scale. Their modular systems are already used in 50 countries across the energy, mobility, industrial, heating, and telecommunications sectors. Enapter has its main offices in Italy and Germany.
Klean Industries (“Klean”) provides best-in-class technologies and solutions in the waste-to-value industry. Our international team of award-winning experts has decades of experience in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of the highest-quality equipment to convert waste streams into valuable energy and resources. Our unique products and services are a result of combined knowledge in the design of recycling, resource recovery, waste management, and power generation projects. Our global project management expertise safeguards timelines and budgets enabling projects to be delivered in less time and at lower costs.
Klean uses proprietary technologies to rapidly develop projects that produce the highest quality fuels, recovered Carbon Blacks (“rCB”), and green hydrogen from various kinds of carbon-based wastes. Our know-how and skillfulness provide a specialization in building projects that use advanced thermal technologies such as gasification, pyrolysis, and carbonization, which convert scrap tires, waste plastics, and municipal solid waste into domestic energy, sustainable commodities, and new cleantech jobs. We create a symbiosis between waste, resources, and energy. Klean Industries is the link between the low carbon, circular economy, and the goal of zero waste to landfill.
Nov 4 (Reuters) – Twitter Inc laid off half its workforce on Friday but said cuts were smaller in the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation.
Tweets by staff of the social media company said teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics were among those gutted, as were some product and engineering teams.
The move caps a week of chaos and uncertainty about the company’s future under new owner Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who tweeted on Friday that the service was experiencing a “massive drop in revenue” from the advertiser retreat.
Musk blamed the losses on a coalition of civil rights groups that has been pressing Twitter’s top advertisers to take action if he did not protect content moderation – concerns heightened ahead of potential pivotal congressional elections on Tuesday.
After the layoffs, the groups said they were escalating their pressure and demanding brands pull their Twitter ads globally.
“Unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day,” Musk tweeted of the layoffs, adding that everyone affected was offered three months of severance pay.
The company was silent about the depth of the cuts until late in the day, when head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth tweeted confirmation of internal plans, seen by Reuters earlier in the week, projecting the layoffs would affect about 3,700 people, or 50% of the staff.
Among those let go were 784 employees from the company’s San Francisco headquarters and 199 in San Jose and Los Angeles, according to filings to California’s employment authority.
Roth said the reductions hit about 15% of his team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and other harmful content, and that the company’s “core moderation capabilities” remained in place.
Musk endorsed the safety executive last week, citing his “high integrity” after Roth was called out over tweets critical of former President Donald Trump years earlier.
Musk has promised to restore free speech while preventing Twitter from descending into a “hellscape.”
President Joe Biden said on Friday that Musk had purchased a social media platform in Twitter that spews lies across the world.
“And now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends – that spews lies all across the world… There’s no editors anymore in America. There’s no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?”
Major advertisers have expressed apprehension about Musk’s takeover for months.
Brands including General Motors Co (GM.N) and General Mills Inc (GIS.N) have said they stopped advertising on Twitter while awaiting information about the new direction of the platform.
Musk tweeted that his team had made no changes to content moderation and done “everything we could” to appease the groups. Speaking at an investors conference in New York on Friday, Musk called the activist pressure “an attack on the First Amendment.”
[1/9] Owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc. Elon Musk arrives at the 29th Annual Baron Investment Conference in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., November 4, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
ACCESS TO SYSTEMS CUT
The email notifying staff about layoffs was the first communication Twitter workers received from the company’s leadership after Musk took over last week. It was signed only by “Twitter,” without naming Musk or any other executives.
Dozens of staffers tweeted they had lost access to work email and Slack channels overnight before receiving an official layoff notice on Friday morning, prompting an outpouring of laments by current and former employees on the platform they had built.
They shared blue hearts and salute emojis expressing support for one another, using the hashtags #OneTeam and #LoveWhereYouWorked, a past-tense version of a slogan employees had used for years to celebrate the company’s work culture.
Twitter’s curation team, which was responsible for “highlighting and contextualizing the best events and stories that unfold on Twitter,” had been axed, employees wrote.
Shannon Raj Singh, an attorney who was Twitter’s acting head of human rights, tweeted that the entire human rights team at the company had been sacked.
Another team that focused on research into how Twitter employed machine learning and algorithms, an issue that was a priority for Musk, was also eliminated, according to a tweet from a former senior manager at Twitter.
Senior executives including vice president of engineering Arnaud Weber said their goodbyes on Twitter on Friday: “Twitter still has a lot of unlocked potential but I’m proud of what we accomplished.”
Employees of Twitter Blue, the premium subscription service that Musk is bolstering, were also let go. An employee with the handle “SillyRobin” who had indicated they were laid off, quote-tweeted a previous Musk tweet saying Twitter Blue would include “paywall bypass” for certain publishers.
“Just to be clear, he fired the team working on this,” the employee said.
DOORS LOCKED
Twitter said in its email to staffers that offices would be temporarily closed and badge access suspended “to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.”
Offices in London and Dublin appeared deserted on Friday, with no employees in sight. At the London office, any evidence Twitter had once occupied the building was erased.
A receptionist at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters said a few people had trickled in and were working in the floors above despite the notice to stay away.
A class action was filed on Thursday against Twitter by several employees, who argued the company was conducting mass layoffs without providing the required 60-day advance notice, in violation of federal and California law.
The lawsuit asked the San Francisco federal court to issue an order to restrict Twitter from soliciting employees being laid off to sign documents without informing them of the pendency of the case.
Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas, Katie Paul in Palo Alto, California, and Paresh Dave in Oakland, California; Additional reporting by Fanny Potkin, Rusharti Mukherjee, Aditya Kalra, Martin Coulter, Hyunjoo Jin, Supantha Mukherjee and Arriana McLymore; Writing by Matt Scuffham and Katie Paul; Editing by Kenneth Li, Jason Neely, Matthew Lewis and William Mallard
San Francisco Bay Area-based tech reporter covering Google and the rest of Alphabet Inc. Joined Reuters in 2017 after four years at the Los Angeles Times focused on the local tech industry.
Schneider Electric was founded in 1836 in France, and in the 21st century it’s one of the world’s most sustainable companies, now helping Walmart decarbonize its scope 3 emissions.
Over the past 15 years, under CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Schneider acquired automation, energy-efficiency, and electricity brands including Invensys, TAC, and Andover. The company has been reinventing itself from selling electrical products to digitizing and automating the infrastructure of everything from humongous factories to a house on your block.
At a time when sustainability is top of mind, Schneider positioned itself around energy management. For example, the company acquired start-up climate-tech platform Zeigo in January. And to support its software solutions, in September, it announced a full takeover of the British software company Aveva PLC for $11 million. Schneider reported Q3 2022 revenues of €8.8 billion (about $8.57 billion), up 12% year over year, energy management was up 12.1%, and industrial automation up 12%.
Joshua Dickinson
Courtesy of Schneider Electric
Forty-one-year-old Joshua Dickinson is the new SVP and CFO for Schneider Electric North America (NAM). Dickinson, based in Dallas, began his career at the company in 2015 and was most recently VP and deputy CFO of NAM operations. He’s now responsible for all financial operations of the approximately 8.2 billion euro (FY ’21) ($7.9 billion) region. I sat down with Dickinson to talk about cost savings, upcoming projects, grappling with digital transformation in finance operations, and his leadership style.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Fortune:What are some of the cost savings related to the digitization process?
One of the things I get asked as a CFO in this space is, how do you reconcile the cost to become more sustainable with managing your P&L? When you look at our sustainability business, a lot of the engagements that we take on in our performance contracting business are targeting about 30% energy savings every year for that company’s operation. Once we digitize the facility, we can show people how they’re losing money, and how their operation is inefficient. And when you present that to a CFO or anyone who understands profitability, it can be a very powerful tool to incentivize them to change.
Schneider Electric has plans to invest about $46 million in your Lexington, Ky., and Lincoln, Neb., manufacturing plants to digitize operations. Both plants are more than 50 years old. Why is the company choosing to undertake this effort?
It’s to ensure that we’re living out our own story to have an electrified and digitized operation both in North America and globally. But then also, we use facilities like that as a showcase to customers who don’t understand the value of electrification and digitization, especially to operations. During a recent trip to Mexico, I visited our Rojo Gomez plant which was built in 1967. I was surprised to see another great example of one of our older operations that has been on a journey of electrification and digitization, and the tangible value they were experiencing in their efficiency and overall quality of operations.
Now that you’re CFO, and Schneider will have increased large-scale projects in the U.S., what will your role be in the process?
I would say more of my role as a CFO at Schneider isn’t necessarily being a cheerleader but making sure that the decisions that I’m making on real estate and our facilities are enabling progress. Upstream supply is a huge part of this. As a large company, a lot of our carbon footprint is with our suppliers. My job as a CFO is to make sure that ESG remains at the forefront, leveraging it, and keeping it involved in the decision-making process.
Speaking of ESG, as public companies await the passage of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed mandatory climate-risk disclosure rule, CFOs will most likely be at the center of enhanced reporting. What’s your perspective?
Even if the SEC’s ESG reporting rules don’t go into effect, I think we’re seeing a cultural change in the interest level and the importance of this to people. I think it’s critical that both the CFO and the CEO are fully aligned on the commitments that they’re making. Greenwashing is having a negative effect within financial institutions, but also with shareholders. People are having more and more interest in what a company is really doing about their commitments.
As a large global company, how is your digital transformation in finance going?
There are times we struggle with the siloed effect.When you think about the digitization journey within finance, we’re really now in a process of taking the best practices from each zone. Internally, we have the tag phrase “One Finance.” When I was recently in Las Vegas at our Innovation Summit, a few mornings I had the privilege of getting on some 3 a.m. calls, being on Pacific time, and talking with some of my European counterparts. It was an opportunity to share best practices and make decisions on what we’re going to keep from the different pieces, but then we’re going to put it on a single digital platform, a single operating structure where we’re standardizing whatever we can.
If you think about it, if I explain my financial performance, say to Hilary Maxson [EVP and group CFO], using different tools and different KPIs [than my counterparts], when she’s hearing my explanation versus hearing from China or from France, that can be very confusing. And we might not be comparing apples to apples, right? I think for a while, we really held off and we were playing defense. But the leadership team right now assembled by Hilary is such a great group of people. We’re very like-minded.
What is your leadership style?
I’ve got a great team and I would say that’s one of my strengths because I’m not an expert in every element of the finance function. My ability to attract talent and manage a team effectively, I think is part of my success story. It’s only been three months since I was a peer of a lot of the people that I’m leading. When you think about going from a peer and a friend to a boss, at least for me, it was a little intimidating. But that’s been one of the most rewarding parts of the last three months, just seeing the closeness and the level of talent that’s on my team.
PwC’s latest pulse survey, “Cautious to Confident,” finds business leaders continue to show optimism amid economic pressures. Ninety percent of executives surveyed are concerned about macroeconomic conditions. They’re also very concerned about the Federal Reserve’s tightening cycle, and the higher cost of capital (both at 86%). However, the findings also showed that executives are focused on the future. Seventy-seven percent of executives are confident that they can hit near-term growth goals, and 82% are confident that their company can execute overall business transformation initiatives. The survey was conducted from Oct. 12-18 and had a total of 657 executives from both public and private companies.
Eliane Okamura was named CFO at Ford Motor Credit Company. Okamura will succeed Brian Schaaf, CFO, treasurer and EVP of strategy, since 2018, who will retire, effective Dec. 1. Okamura has been director of automotive strategy, risk, and agile finance on Ford’s treasury team, since March 2021. She joined the company in 1995 in Brazil as an analyst and held positions including treasurer of Ford South America.
Todd Wilson was named CFO at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (Nasdaq: RRGB), a full-service restaurant chain, effective Nov. 7. Wilson succeeds Lynn Schweinfurth who will retire. Wilson most recently served as CFO at Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Hibar Hospitality. Before that, he was VP of finance for Jamba Juice. Wilson also served as Division CFO and VP of finance at Bloomin’ Brands Carrabba’s Italian Grill.
Jim Benson was named CFO at Dynatrace (NYSE: DT), a software intelligence company, effective Nov. 15. Benson will succeed Kevin Burns, who announced in May his intention to transition out of Dynatrace by the end of the year. Benson most recently served as EVP and CFO at Akamai Technologies, a global cloud services, and cybersecurity leader. Before joining Akamai, he spent 20 years at Hewlett Packard Company.
Cecilia Situ was named EVP and CFO at Santa Cruz County Bank (OTCQX: SCZC). Most recently, she was SVP and treasurer at Bank of Marin, and previously controller and principal accounting officer. She had a 14-year tenure with the company. Situ started her career in public accounting at Deloitte & Touche with a specialty in auditing community banks, real estate firms, not-for-profit organizations, and other financial service companies.
Jeff Stafeil was named EVP and CFO at Tenneco Inc. (NYSE: TEN). Stafeil will replace Matti Masanovich, upon Tenneco’s acquisition by Apollo Funds. Stafeil will join Tenneco from Adient PLC, where he served as EVP and CFO since 2016. Before that, he worked at global automotive electronics supplier Visteon, where he was EVP and CFO.
Andrew Lazarus was named CFO at Validity, a provider of data management and email marketing success solutions. Lazarus will leverage his experience in finance and investor relations to scale the company for its next stage of growth. Previously, he has served as CFO at several companies, including Electric, Pilot Freight Services, and BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.
Overheard
“I heard about the blue tick for a while, but I learned about the $8 thing at the same time you did. Anything that can reduce the bots on Twitter is fantastic.”
—Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who pumped $500 million into Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s vision for Twitter, commented during Web Summit this week about Twitter’s intent to start selling blue verification badges for user profiles as part of an $8-a-month subscription, Fortune reported.
This is an opinion editorial by Daniel Batten, a Bitcoin ESG analyst, climate tech investor, author and environmental campaigner.
Growing up in the ’70s, our local council tried to put a rubbish tip into our coastal New Zealand community. The whole community came together — not just to fight a common enemy (and win), but to discover the power of what is possible as part of a grassroots movement, which is impossible alone. In years to come most of that community, including myself, would go on to become voices for humanitarian and climate justice.
Starting young, my first environmental action at age four. From Thursday Magazine, 1974.
Fast forward to October 2022: I would never have imagined I would be part of a community of environmentalists defending the environment against Greenpeace USA.
A period of intensive data analysis six months earlier had led me to the inescapable conclusion that Bitcoin was a net positive to the environment, but powerful forces were at work to hoodwink the world’s environmentally-minded through a seemingly orchestrated misinformation campaign. The misinformation was strong enough that I initially fell for it myself.
“Bitcoin uses too much energy,” has become the new “immigrants are taking our jobs”: the incantation of vested interests and the hoodwinked who, wittingly or unwittingly, stoke the fires of populism with sound bites over sound analysis.
What we are seeing is not new.
We saw the tobacco industry influence medical opinion for many years about the safety of smoking. We saw the print media criticize the environmental credentials of the internet, predicting it would cause coal factories to fire up worldwide. Today, it’s unsurprising that central banks that want their central bank digital currencies (CDBCs) to be the future of digital currency, not Bitcoin (which disintermediates central banks), should happily fan the fires of doubt about Bitcoin using environmental credentials as its attack vector.
In this historical context, it is no surprise that Ripple’s executive chair Chris Larsen, among others, paid $5 million to launch a Greenpeace USA campaign attacking Bitcoin’s energy use. And Ripple is not just another altcoin, it is launching its own CDBC pilot project. CBDCs and Bitcoin represent fundamentally-competing visions for our digital currency future.
Nor should we be surprised that seemingly no mainstream journalist has publicly questioned either Larsen or Greenpeace about an evident conflict of interest.
But despite the money, the compassionate pass from mainstream media and a well-trained in-house media team that did its best to neuro-associate Bitcoin with stock video footage of climate catastrophe, Greenpeace USA’s campaign did not go well.
The “Change The Code” campaign actually energized and galvanized strong environmentalist voices within the Bitcoin community including Troy Cross, Margot Paez, Adam Wright and others.
It motivated podcasters such as Bitcoin Archive, Pomp and Crypto Birb who had not previously examined the environmental benefits of Bitcoin to start doing so.
It was also the catalytic moment that took me from being a read-only Twitter user, to becoming one more outspoken voice for the environmental merits of Bitcoin.
Greenpeace USA had the opportunity for a strategic retreat, but it did not take it.
On Greenpeace USA’s Twitter feed, a horde of Bitcoiners weighed in with data and fact, mercilessly counter-attacking Greenpeace’s campaign for what they perceived as its misinformation, ignorance, questionable ethics, lack of science, use of psyop-style messaging and inability to see how thoroughly it had been played by central bankers.
Remarkably few of Greenpeace USA’s own 218,000 followers, nor any other branches of Greenpeace internationally came to its aid. And Greenpeace USA wasn’t just repeatedly ratioed. It was honey badgered. Lyn Alden’s commentary on Troy Cross’ reply to a Greenpeace USA tweet captures the extent of the backfire:
Source: Twitter
No other branch of Greenpeace seems to have retweeted any of the “Change The Code” campaign since September.
Organizers set up a Change The Code Twitter handle which spent many months limping to 1,300 twitter followers — 80% of whom seem to be Bitcoiners based on their profile descriptions.
With the clockwork relentlessness of an oil pumpjack, the account continues to grind out near-daily anti-Bitcoin sound bites, only to see nearly every tweet ratioed by about 20:1 by the community.
It has proven a valuable resource for Bitcoiners. Not only is it very useful to see all the misinformation cataloged in one place but, more importantly, each time a tweet is ratioed, it allows Bitcoiners to educate themselves and others in the community about how to counter Bitcoin misinformation.
Far from turning more people against Bitcoin, the campaign has served only to draw attention to Greenpeace USA’s departure from grassroots funding while providing a forum for Bitcoiners to demonstrate the weakness of the anti-Bitcoin case once mainstream media was no longer there to insulate the attacker from a horde of highly-informed Bitcoiners.
Willy Woo calculated the campaign lost for Greenpeace at a minimum of $7.1 million in subscriptions worldwide. The brand and reputational damage will likely have been much more, and take much longer to recover from.
While outwardly Greenpeace USA will shrug shoulders and say “Well, you always lose some supporters on direct action campaigns, and Bitcoiners are vocal on Twitter,” behind closed doors its executive management will be asking “What went wrong?” in what has been an unprecedented social media catastrophe.
So, Why Did The ‘Change The Code’ Campaign Perform Badly?
The first foreboding signs came one year earlier. In the only level playing-field debate on if Bitcoin is a threat to the environment — a predominantly anti-Bitcoin general audience swung 17.9% to become predominantly pro-Bitcoin after just one hour of hearing for the first time not just a central banker’s narrative, but a Bitcoiner’s right of reply, according to a calculation of voters from the user forum on the video itself.
Plus 17.9% is a swing of gargantuan proportions.
The second alarm bell for Greenpeace USA was much closer to home. Greenpeace’s base is 18 to 34 year olds: This age group is twice as likely to think climate change poses a serious threat. What Greenpeace USA seemed not to realize until it was too late was that 18 to 34 year olds are also almost twice as likely to hold bitcoin as the rest of the general population.
The third alarm bell should have been that these 18 to 34 year olds are the least likely to trust mainstream media. Meaning: Greenpeace USA’s base was the least likely to have believed the highly-skewed narrative about Bitcoin propagated through mainstream news channels.
Greenpeace USA completely miscalculated what would happen in forums where the “Bitcoin can be good for the environment” case could not be censored the way it had been throughout mainstream media outlets.
Greenpeace’s direct action campaigns typically target large corporations with something to hide. Greenpeace USA also miscalculated what would happen when it took on a grassroots movement founded on the values of consensus and transparency, which had nothing to hide, and an untold story to tell.
It miscalculated how Bitcoiners would unite together to defend an attack from an environmental goliath that they perceived to have compromised its integrity by taking private money from a conflicted billionaire to fund their campaign.
But it also perhaps miscalculated how unsympathetic its 18-to-34-year-old base would be to its anti-Bitcoin narrative. For when the ratios came thick and fast on Twitter, its base did not defend it.
That vacuum allowed Bitcoin Twitter to do the job that mainstream media once did: hold an organization to account for taking funding from an apparently conflicted source.
What positives can Greenpeace USA take away from this campaign? Well if its intention was to…
Galvanize the Bitcoin environmental movement and create new leaders within it
Provide a forum where Bitcoiners can educate and inform its base about the environmental benefits of Bitcoin
Highlight a tactical error from its executive management team to its supporters
…then its campaign has been a resounding success.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Even before the extra $1 million from Ripple was paid to amplify Greenpeace USA’s message directly after the Ethereum merge, Cross warned the Bitcoin community in July that more pressure would come on Bitcoin post-merge.
It seemed the antagonists of Bitcoin were expecting this to be the turning of the tide, where they triumphantly cried, “Ethereum has proven it can do the right thing for the environment, now it’s Bitcoin’s turn” to a choir of cheerleaders.
They did not expect the reply: “Bitcoin is now the only major cryptocurrency that can become an emission negative network.” Nor did they expect the supporting data, showing that 7 megawatts (MW) of vented-methane-based mining per month is all it takes to make the whole Bitcoin network emission negative by December 2024, a monthly rate already surpassed using flared methane power.
Compiled by the author
As for Bitcioners, we can celebrate this moment. It is not the final battle. Not even close. The opponents of Bitcoin will re-gather stronger. We can expect new missiles of misinformation, new angles of attack vectors through the curatable channels of mainstream media and political influence that have worked for them to date.
But they have also learned that in an open forum where the right of reply cannot be censored, the truth will shine: social media is one stadium where they cannot win.
If Greenpeace USA introspects deeply, it will realize that we are on the same team: Bitcoin is a reflection of its own core values, not just a financial sovereignty movement, but a human rights movement and an environmental movement. It is a movement built on Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of peer-to-peer solidarity, returning power to the people algorithmically through the proof-of-work consensus mechanism, while disintermediating the unelected financial elites who, by virtue of wealth or position, can make decisions that are bad for the people and widen wealth inequality.
Bitcoin cannot fix the environment. Only people can do that. But Bitcoin was created to help the people, and that spirit of its founder lives on in everyone who is behind it.
The environmentalists within the Bitcoin community are growing rapidly, in number and in valor. Just like that coastal community of the ’70s, each attack on what we hold dear serves only to energize and galvanize us, creating new leaders who will go on to become irrepressible voices for humanitarian and climate justice.
This is a guest post by Daniel Batten. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
This project is expected to produce between 900,000 – 1,100,000 mmbtus of RNG annually and support up to 43,000 acres of farmland with liquid fertilizer.
Press Release –
Nov 1, 2022
LYNCHBURG, Tenn., November 1, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– 3 Rivers Energy Partners is launching a new sustainability project with Jack Daniel’s that represents a significant leap into the future of both the distiller and renewable energy industries. The project is expected to produce between 900,000 – 1,100,000 mmbtus of RNG annually while simultaneously lowering the overall energy usage of the Jack Daniel Distillery. 3 Rivers Energy Partners has partnered with TC Energy to utilize the Jack Daniel Distillery’s spent distillers grains to create an immense amount of renewable natural gas (RNG) and natural commercial fertilizer by feeding the spent distillers grains from the distillery into anaerobic digesters. This process allows Jack Daniel’s to utilize their corn to its fullest potential, completing the nutrient life cycle of the corn used to make whiskey by producing a nutrient-rich natural commercial fertilizer that can be used to replenish the surrounding farmland.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, the expected volume of renewable natural gas is enough to heat over 10,000 homes in Tennessee. The fertilizer created from this project could potentially support up to 43,000 acres of farmland, primarily in Moore, Coffee, and Franklin counties. We expect this to benefit over 400 Tennessee small family farms and for those benefits to ripple throughout the rural economy. Our discounted natural fertilizer avoids about $220 per acre of commercial fertilizer cost at today’s prices which results in nearly $7 million annually of direct regional economic benefit created from fertilizer cost savings for local crop farmers.
“Our goal is to help Jack Daniel’s create a sustainable future for their company, community, and the planet. With this process, we can reduce operational energy consumption, create renewable energy, help sustain local agriculture, and benefit the families of rural Tennessee. It is truly a full circle sustainability approach,” said John Rivers, CEO of 3 Rivers Energy Partners.
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About 3 Rivers Energy Partners
3 Rivers Energy Partners (3RE) is a renewable energy company that specializes in the design, build, and operations of renewable natural gas projects. Our teams work to provide renewable energy solutions for organizations by utilizing their existing bio-waste streams as feedstock for renewable energy sources. This allows organizations to lower their environmental impact and help return vital nutrients to the earth. We take renewable energy projects from idea to operation.
Empowering organizations to create a sustainable future.
Officially registered by the U.S. Government in 1866 and based in Lynchburg, Tenn., the Jack Daniel Distillery is the first registered distillery in the United States and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Jack Daniel’s is the maker of the world-famous Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey, Gentleman Jack Double Mellowed Tennessee Whiskey, Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Tennessee Whiskey, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Apple, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Rye, Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select and Jack Daniel’s Country Cocktails. Today, Jack Daniel’s is a true global icon found in more than 170 countries around the world and is the most valuable spirits brand in the world as recognized by Interbrand.
Please Drink Responsibly.
About TC Energy We are a vital part of everyday life — delivering the energy millions of people rely on to power their lives in a sustainable way. Thanks to a safe, reliable network of natural gas and crude oil pipelines, along with power generation and storage facilities, wherever life happens — we’re there. Guided by our core values of safety, innovation, responsibility, collaboration and integrity, our 7,500 people make a positive difference in the communities where we operate across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
TC Energy’s common shares trade on the Toronto (TSX) and New York (NYSE) stock exchanges under the symbol TRP. To learn more, visit us at TCEnergy.com.
The European Union reached a deal Thursday to effectively ban new gas-powered cars beginning in 2035.
It’s a move seen as a key part of a broader plan to reduce carbon emissions across economic sectors — and a major policy achievement to carry into high-profile United Nations climate-change talks in Egypt early next month.
Speculation about a deal, which had been heavily debated, was reported earlier this week and confirmed Thursday via a tweet from the spokesperson for the rotating presidency of the bloc, currently held by the Czech Republic.
Broadly, the agreement is part of a plan that requires a 55% cut in emissions across transportation, buildings, power generation and other sources this decade. That halfway mark is seen as a major milestone as the EU aims to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
The announcement comes as the U.N. climate arm has released a series of updated reports this week. One chastised the “highly inadequate” steps to date by rich nations to cut emissions of Earth-warming greenhouse gases, such as those from burning fossil fuels. The window to act is closing but is not quite shut yet, according to the Emissions Gap report from the U.N. Environment Programme. “Global and national climate commitments are falling pitifully short,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday. “We are headed for a global catastrophe.”
The EU is the world’s largest trade bloc, and its moves could push other major economies to also set firm cutoff dates for gasoline RB00, -0.52%
and diesel engines. Volkswagen AG VOW, +0.88%
and Daimler Truck Holding AG DTG, +2.67%
are already moving deeper into electric vehicles. Volkswagen this week said it would stop selling internal-combustion-engine cars in Europe between 2033 and 2035.
Other major economies, including the U.S., have set similar goals, but the U.S. has not set any federal-level restrictions on vehicle manufacturing. Some individual automakers, including General Motors GM, +0.79%, have set their own timelines. And California approved plans in August to mandate a gradual phasing out of vehicles powered by internal-combustion engines, with only zero-emission cars and a small portion of plug-in gas/electric hybrids to be allowed by 2035.
As the world’s fifth-largest economy, California can create ripple effects with its moves. At least 15 other states have signed on to California’s existing zero-emission vehicle program or have shown interest in and are working toward codifying the change. Among them, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Vermont are expected to adopt California’s ban on new gasoline-fueled vehicles.
Leading Market Supporters include KPMG, Williams, Parsons, Project Canary, Carbon GeoCapture & OxoCarbon; Blockchain-enabled Platform Enhances Transparency, Security, Trust, and Traceability To Provide Certified, Trusted Environmental Attributes & Differentiated Commodities
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., September 21, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Context Labs, an Enterprise Data Fabric Climate Tech company based in Cambridge, MA, and Amsterdam, announced today the launch of its CLEAR Path™ Platform (Context Labs Environmental Attribute Registry). CLEAR Path™ ensures that the fundamental building blocks, “data,” for environmental attributes and differentiated commodities, (e.g., carbon, renewable energy credits, water, plastics, and emission certifications), are transparent, secure, attested, trusted, and traceable. These new advanced capabilities provide a solution to mitigate green-washing and avoid double-counting within the industry, targeted at reliably accelerating the global energy transition.
Powered by the company’s Immutably™ Enterprise Data Fabric, CLEAR Path™ converges advanced machine learning/AI and blockchain technologies to form new empirical, data-driven registry capabilities rendering data as “Asset Grade Data (AGD).” CLEAR Path™ is being supported at launch by KPMG LLP along with select leading global firms, including Williams, Parsons, Project Canary, Carbon GeoCapture, and OxoCarbon.
“Regulators are increasingly mandating carbon transparency. This is driving increased interest in the carbon intensity of commodities. The work that Context Labs is doing to deliver the highest level of transparency to the Global Environmental Attribute markets through their Next Gen Registry called CLEAR Path™ is a critical ingredient for establishing trust and driving demand for lower carbon solutions,” stated Curtis Ravenel, Senior Advisor to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), Founding Member of the Secretariat of the Financial Stability Board’s Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) and Board Member to Context Labs.
“CLEAR Path™ is powered by Context Labs’ Immutably™ Enterprise Data Fabric Technology, which integrates and connects all sources of data in the verification and creation of environmental attributes, the fundamental building blocks of environmental commodities, and a new digitally quantified ESG. It generates the highest quality certs, credits, and RECs possible, based on transparent Asset Grade Data, military-grade encryption for data security, and immutable traceability on our blockchain fabric,” said Context Labs Founder and CEO, Dan Harple. “CLEAR Path™ solves two of the crucial problems at the crux of the energy transition: effectively, the lack of trust in existing environmental attributes and ESG data underpinning environmental commodities, and the inability to provide traceability for these environmental attributes across market platforms.”
KPMG is continuing to collaborate closely with Context Labs to deploy data and technology solutions to help businesses measure, monitor and prove their climate and ESG performance and scale their efforts to offer high-quality carbon credits.
“Voluntary carbon markets, underpinned by timely and accurate data, will be instrumental in the transition to a low carbon economy,” said KPMG US ESG leader, Rob Fisher. “With CLEAR Path™, Context Labs has the opportunity to provide a digital backbone that should help take voluntary markets to scale, increase trust and accountability amongst stakeholders, and provide companies with a better picture of both their environmental impact and risk.”
“This is another exciting step in our multi-faceted strategy with Context Labs, leveraging technology that enhances our innovative low carbon and carbon neutral market solutions,” said Chad Zamarin, Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategic Development at Williams. “As Williams drives the next generation of the energy marketplace with next-gen gas, clean hydrogen and other low carbon products, CLEAR Path™ from Context Labs will provide an industry-leading platform that will benefit our customers with best-in-class and trusted clean energy solutions.”
“Parsons is in the business of delivering innovative critical infrastructure across the world, including digitally-enabled solutions for utilities, transportation, environmental remediation, facilities and water and wastewater facilities,” said Peter Torrellas, President of Connected Communities for Parsons. “Today, that means we need to have a wider range of operational and environmental data available across a broader collection of stakeholders to drive climate-aligned decisions. Our collaboration with Context Labs opens new avenues of value creation in climate resilience and energy transition for our public and private sector clients.”
“Understanding the environmental footprint of how a natural gas molecule is produced and transported is becoming essential data for both sellers and buyers. We provide markets with independent measurements and assessments to verify these environmental attributes, such as low methane intensity or low water attributes. Now Context Labs CLEAR Path™ provides a trusted registry to track, transfer and retire these attributes,” said Will Foiles, Co-Founder and COO, Project Canary. “We believe in the power of markets to help combat climate change, and our combined offering provides exciting capabilities to accelerate the adoption of differentiated, responsibly sourced gas on terms that meet the needs of both sellers and buyers.”
“Carbon GeoCapture has spent 20 years learning to use unconventional rock formations to reduce capture and cleanup costs and to hold massive amounts of carbon dioxide. As we commercialize our unique approach, we are thrilled to be working with Context Labs to materially enhance how we track the carbon dioxide that we sequester. With CLEAR Path™, we can bring speed and transparency to how we quantify, verify, generate, register, and ultimately trade the highest quality carbon credits that will earn the highest premium in the voluntary carbon markets,” stated John Pope, Ph.D., President, and CEO of Carbon GeoCapture Corp.
“CLEAR Path™ facilitates the trust, traceability, and compliance in the data behind carbon methodologies and projects,” said Ludovino Lopes, OxoCarbon Chairman, Member of the United Nations Global Compact and Environmental and Carbon Legal Advisor. The foundations of an environmentally sympathetic and sustainable global economy need to be built on the basis of trust, transparency, and the highest level of legal and regulatory compliance. OxoCarbon is committed to delivering premium quality carbon credits from nature-based solutions by ensuring the highest level of environmental integrity, trust, traceability, and compliance, and CLEAR Path™ will enable this.
About
Context Labs provides solutions for customers who demand trusted provenance in their data, tracked veracity through the data’s supply chain of use, and a requirement for trusted insights. It is dedicated to sourcing, organizing, and contextualizing the world’s ESG information, enabling data to become trusted, shared, and utilized as Asset Grade Data to provide insights and solutions through Asset Grade Analytics that informs markets. Context Labs’ mission is to provide the world’s trusted data fabric platform, delivering Asset Grade Data, using its Immutably™ Enterprise Data Fabric platform, deploying machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, and cryptographic blockchain technologies, for context-driven insights. The company was formed out of MIT research and is comprised of a leadership team that has been instrumental in the at-scale growth of the Internet, in prior companies.
KPMG LLP is the U.S. firm of the KPMG global organization of independent professional services firms providing audit, tax, and advisory services. The KPMG global organization operates in 144 countries and territories and has more than 236,000 people working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.
KPMG is widely recognized for being a great place to work and build a career. Our people share a sense of purpose in the work we do, and a strong commitment to community service, inclusion and diversity, and eradicating childhood illiteracy. Learn more at www.kpmg.com/us.
Williams As the world demands reliable, low-cost, low-carbon energy, Williams will be there with the best transport, storage, and delivery solutions to reliably fuel the clean energy economy. Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Williams is an industry-leading, investment-grade C-Corp. with operations across the natural gas value chain, including gathering, processing, interstate transportation, storage, wholesale marketing and trading of natural gas and natural gas liquids. With major positions in top U.S. supply basins, Williams connects the best supplies with the growing demand for clean energy. Williams owns and operates more than 30,000 miles of pipelines system wide – including Transco, the nation’s largest volume and fastest-growing pipeline – and handles approximately 30 percent of the natural gas in the United States that is used every day for clean-power generation, heating, and industrial use. Learn how the company is leveraging its nationwide footprint to incorporate clean hydrogen, next-generation gas and other innovations at www.williams.com.
Parsons Corporation is a leading disruptive technology provider in the national security and critical infrastructure markets, with capabilities across cybersecurity, missile defense, space, C5ISR, transportation, environmental remediation, and water/wastewater treatment. Please visit www.Parsons.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook to learn how we’re making an impact.
Project Canary® is the leading provider of on-demand climate insights for emission-intensive companies. The company provides operational insights, emissions data, and verified climate attributes to decarbonize energy systems by integrating sensor data with real-time portal and in-depth data analytics. They are the leaders of independently verified climate credentials that support investment, safety, reporting, and disclosure actions. www.projectcanary.com
Carbon GEOCapture is focused on using its technology and knowledge to sequester significant amounts of carbon dioxide in geologic formations as economically and quickly as possible. CGC was founded in 2016 to drive safe, affordable sequestration of carbon dioxide in geologic reservoirs. More information is available at www.carbongeocapture.com.
OxoCarbon is committed to delivering premium quality carbon credits from nature-based solutions by ensuring the highest level of integrity, traceability, transparency, and compliance. Our rigorous validation procedures add incremental layers of value over existing standards and methodologies for carbon emissions, environmental assets, and services, enabling us to deliver environmental assets of the highest quality, in line with the long-term sustainability needs of our planet. www.oxocarbon.com
MOSCOW, October 27, 2021 (Newswire.com)
– The US edition of Forbes magazine has just included four projects of Vladimir Potanin among the most ambitious tourism projects in the world. Seen as a reflection on the whole concept by Vladimir Potanin, the head of Interros – to create a series of world-class tourism projects from the Arctic belt to the subtropics of the North Caucasus in Russia, it puts unique tourism destinations in Russia on the global map. The journalists noted that most of them are being developed in the remote regions of the Arctic and the Far East, where tourists will be able to receive first-class service in combination with the unique natural attractions of these parts of Russia.
These projects include the year-round balneological resort “Park Three Volcanoes” in Kamchatka, where tourists can take thermal baths, ski and wander through the black volcanic sand, the mountain resort “Valley Vasta,” which will create up to 5 thousand jobs in the region and will attract up to 1.5 million tourists a year, and two more projects that will be built in the attractive but hard-to-reach depths of the Russian Arctic – on the Rybachiy Peninsula in the Murmansk region and on Taimyr near the famous Putorana plateau. The development of these projects is carried out with a new set of stringent ESG requirements for construction and use, the Green Code, that mandates a minimal ecological footprint and interferences into the surrounding natural ecosystem, and guarantees preservation and wellbeing for the natural habitat.
About Interros
The Interros Group is one of the largest private investment companies in Russia, founded by Vladimir Potanin in 1990. Since its inception, Interros has successfully completed more than 25 investment projects. Drawing on decades of successful experience in the Russian market and shareholder’s assets, Interros invests in high-tech innovative projects aimed at developing Russia and improving people’s lives, in line with Vladimir Potanin’s vision of transferring capital to the benefit of society. Interros’s diversified portfolio includes investments in metals & mining, real estate development, sports and tourism, pharmaceuticals and private equity.
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