Published

December 01, 2019

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Best Corporate Steward: Large Business

Stanley Black & Decker offers its employees and other workers the opportunity to gain new skills to help them thrive in a technology-driven world. The company is improving the way its products enhance lives and protect the environment. It has also set a 2030 target to become carbon positive, achieve zero waste to landfill, and ensure sustainable water use across its operations.

Best Corporate Steward: Small and Middle-Market Business

Berkshire Bank focuses on three shared value priorities: building a responsible workforce, fostering sustainable communities, and financing the future. The company funds $4.2 million in community contributions, and finances $248 million to support small businesses and $71.5 million for renewable energy and low-carbon projects. Berkshire’s employee volunteer program, XTEAM, sees 100% employee participation.

Best Commitment to Education

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) created Ignite My Future in School to assist under-resourced U.S. schools in educating students for the new economy. Fewer than 1.5 million of the 50 million K-12 students are learning any form of computing skills, while only 10,000 of 3.1 million teachers are equipped to teach computing concepts. Ignite My Future in School lesson plans aim to impact 20,000 teachers and 1 million students by 2021.

Best Community Improvement Program

In 2017, Kroger launched its Zero Hunger | Zero Waste commitment to end hunger in communities and eliminate waste across the company by 2025. Kroger partners with nonprofits to execute Zero Hunger | Zero Waste, which includes donations of balanced meals, food rescue, policy advocacy, and the elimination of food and material waste in company operations. Since launching Zero Hunger | Zero Waste, the program has rescued 190 million pounds of food companywide and donated 650 million meals.

Best Disaster Response and Community Resilience Program

FedEx and International Medical Corps have transformed disaster response by redesigning an emergency field hospital to create rapidly deployable medical assets and health facilities. After three years, the collaboration enabled more than one million people to receive life-saving services including hygiene kits, medical shelters, protective equipment, and screenings after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico; Hurricane Michael in Florida, and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Best Economic Empowerment Program

Kellogg and TechnoServe have partnered to improve farming families’ income and climate change resilience in the rural state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The program teaches farmers climate-smart agricultural practices, which have increased the incomes of participating farmers by 20%. Moreover, families learn to grow organic kitchen gardens. The average household with a garden now consumes vegetables daily and its spending on vegetables has decreased by nearly 75%.

Best Environmental Stewardship Program

The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) is a technology incubator funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Launched in 2014, IN2’s mission is to speed the path to market for early stage, clean technology entrepreneurs. To date, the 30 IN2 companies have collectively raised more than $175 million in follow-on funding from outside sources and 6 have successfully exited through mergers or acquisitions.

Best Health and Wellness Program

Merck for Mothers focuses on tackling the leading contributors to maternal mortality and morbidity in the U.S.: lack of data, inconsistent obstetric care, increase in chronic conditions, and limited awareness. In 2011, Merck launched Merck for Mothers, a $500 million initiative to create a world where no woman has to die giving life. Since its launch, the initiative has reached more than two million women.