Essity

Sysco Corporation

Monster Energy

Tork – The Paper Towel Plea

Sysco’s 2020 CSR Report Demonstrates Continued Progress Toward 2025 Goals

Monster Energy Cares: Rob Gronkowski On Life After Football and Gronk Nation Youth Foundation

<img alt="2024 ESG Leadership Awards" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b1f8bc90-ae26-4d3f-a41f-670add19e09e" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/2024-ESG-Leadership-Awards_The-Conference-Board_041824.png" width="640" class="align-center" height="400" loading="lazy" />April 18, 2024 /CSRwire/ - It’s time to celebrate organizations that have moved beyond their public sustainability commitments by integrating sustainability into their business—making a positive impact on the company, stakeholders, society at large, and the environment. Join us as we honor Corning Incorporated, J.M. Huber Corporation, and Michelin North America during the <a href="https://www.conference-board.org/events/ESG-Leadership-Awards" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">ESG Leadership Awards dinner on May 16 in New York</a>.  
By shining a light on exemplary companies, The Conference Board inspires the broader business community to follow in their footsteps. The dinner will provide support to The Conference Board’s programming and publications specifically focused on a key challenge facing corporations today: defining and determining the ROI of Sustainability ESG.  
If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship and attendance, contact Brian Teagle at <a href="mailto:bteagle@tcb.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">bteagle@tcb.org</a>.  
You can read more about our impressive award recipients <a href="https://www.conference-board.org/events/ESG-Leadership-Awards" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.  
Accepting the award on behalf of their organizations:  
Thomas French  
Board of Directors  Corning Incorporated  
Gretchen McClain  
President &amp; CEO  J.M. Huber  
Alexis Garcin  
President &amp; CEO  Michelin North America, Inc.  Media Contact:  <a href="mailto:jdiblasi@tcb.org" target="_blank">Joe Diblasi</a>

<a href="https://www.conference-board.org/events/ESG-Leadership-Awards" target="_blank">Read More</a>

You’re Invited to the ESG Leadership Awards Dinner

<img alt="A group of children and an adult posed in front of an exhibit with sea creatures." data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a474baf7-52d1-4491-9c18-5c2ab2f88be1" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/dropbydrop_LasVegasSands_041624.jpg" width="640" class="align-center" height="801" loading="lazy" /><a href="https://www.sands.com/news/drop-by-drop-project-partners-make-progress/" target="_blank">Las Vegas Sands</a>

In 2019, Sands and The WASH Foundation (previously the Clean the World Foundation) established the Drop by Drop Project to support innovative water stewardship projects through grants to local environmental champions in Sands’ host communities of Macao and Singapore.

Managed and operated by The WASH Foundation, the Drop by Drop Project supports initiatives that increase local water resiliency, reinvigorate ecosystems, incubate new water solutions and engage the community. Drop by Drop Project partners have reported significant progress on their identified goals for the program this past year.

Macao

The University of Saint Joseph (USJ), the Drop by Drop Project partner in Macao, has used its funding to study the role of mangroves in reducing plastic pollution in coastal wetlands, marking the university’s third year of participation in the program.

Through its latest Drop by Drop Project grant, USJ collected 100 sediment samples along coastal areas in Macao, and preliminary analysis of results show higher amounts of microplastics in the mangrove areas than areas without vegetation, indicating mangroves’ success in entrapping plastic to preserve ecology. The USJ team also measured the impact of water movement on pollution and found that mangrove forests in Macao, particularly areas with more mature trees, are able to attenuate waves.

Both outcomes demonstrate the capacity for mangrove forests to capture plastic pollution and point to the value of nature-based solutions to address environmental issues. USJ is using these results to educate and advocate for the protection of coastal wetlands through community engagement activities such as clean-up programs, native wetland vegetation plantings and educational initiatives. In addition, the university is preparing an article on its research results for peer-reviewed journals, as well as presenting at scientific conferences and meetings.

USJ also invested some of its Drop by Drop Project resources into awareness activities and engaged approximately 40,000 students and community members, including Sands China Team Members, in an array of initiatives. Activities included conducting public lectures about plastic pollution, holding a mangrove planting event in collaboration with the Macao government and creating a mobile exhibit for school visits.

Last June, Sands China hosted USJ’s Sea of Plastic exhibit, which featured installations made from recycled plastic, at The Venetian Macao. Created mostly by local students and artists, art pieces included sculptures of marine and coastal organisms with scientific display boards to provide essential information on the harmful effects of plastic pollution in the oceans.
<img alt="A group of people cleaning a beach." data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="511c1e16-f9bf-4f3e-b016-643b560ab5ef" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/beachclean_lasvegassands_041624.jpg" width="640" class="align-center" height="900" loading="lazy" />Singapore

Conservation International, an organization that supports research, education and awareness about the need to responsibly and sustainably care for natural resources, has been a Drop by Drop Project partner for the past two years. The international nonprofit organization is using its grant funding to advance its Singapore priority on educating youth about the importance of sustainability and empowering them to be advocates for environmental responsibility.

Conservation International used its Drop by Drop Project grant to propel two key programs. First, the grant has enabled the organization to continue its five-part Ocean Conservation Virtual Learning Series, which features educational videos, interactive activities and informational guides to promote ocean conservation literacy and environmental advocacy among youth leaders.

Conservation International also took a big step forward with its advocacy work in Singapore by implementing the inaugural 10 for Zero award program, which identified and empowered 10 Singapore youth leaders who are advocating for a future of net zero carbon emissions and zero waste.

With Drop by Drop Project funding, Conservation International built the award program’s infrastructure and identified the first 10 for Zero recipients, who were honored in a ceremony at Marina Bay Sands last May. Awardees are now working with the nonprofit to curate their experience in the program and will participate in local and international environmental research, climate summits and workshops through December 2024. Conservation International also will connect award recipients to an exclusive network of global conservation experts for mentorship and coaching.

“The Drop by Drop Project is fueling significant contributions to promote sustainability and raise awareness of these organizations’ important work, which has a multiplier effect as more people become educated about environmental issues,” Manohar Shenoy, executive director of The WASH Foundation, said. “Our partnership with Sands as the funder of these leading organizations and their critical priorities has injected resources into Macao and Singapore to propel critical advancements in protecting their local habitats and natural ecology.”

Sands’ support for the Drop by Drop Project is part of the Sands ECO360 global sustainability program, which guides Sands’ work to minimize environmental impact and promote sustainable practices in regions around the world.

To learn more about the Drop by Drop Project, visit: <a href="http://cleantheworldfoundation.org/dropbydrop" target="_blank">cleantheworldfoundation.org/dropbydrop</a>. To learn more about Sands ECO360, read the company’s latest ESG report: <a href="https://www.sands.com/resources/reports/" target="_blank">https://www.sands.com/resources/reports/</a>

Drop by Drop Project Partners Make Progress in Advancing Environmental Sustainability Through Grants From Sands

Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE: DIN), the parent company of Applebee's Neighborhood Grill + Bar®, IHOP®, and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop® restaurants, released its 2023 ESG report which speaks to priorities and progress within the focus areas of People, Planet, Food, and Governance. 
“Dine Better, Together is how we describe our intention to combine business growth and competitive strength with our ESG commitments,” says John Peyton, CEO of Dine Brands. “At Dine we remain motivated to provide more than an exceptional dining experience, and we recognize the opportunities to make meaningful impact in the communities that we serve.” 
The 2023 Dine Better, Together report highlights include the following:

<ul><li>Achieved the Great Place to Work Certification™ for the second consecutive year.</li>
	<li>13.6 metric tons of food donated by Dine’s Glendale and Pasadena Restaurant Support Center as well as Applebee's and IHOP U.S. Franchisees and their Distribution Centers.</li>
	<li>$1.7 million raised by Applebee's U.S. franchisees to support Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.</li>
	<li>$708,471 raised by IHOP Puerto Rico and Mexico franchisees as of 2023 to support children's charities.</li>
	<li>$627,000 raised by Fuzzy’s since 2014 for No Kid Hungry.</li>
	<li>565,362 free meals served to U.S. active-duty military and veterans on Veterans Day at Applebee's and IHOP.</li>
	<li>100% Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) free achieved at Applebee’s and IHOP, one year ahead of goal.</li>
	<li>11 million Applebee’s gift cards transitioned from plastic to paper stock, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).</li>
	<li>48 million pieces of IHOP to-go packaging transitioned away from carbon black pigment, which prevented the containers from being recycled.</li>
	<li>35.2% of eggs for U.S. restaurants were cage-free, exceeding the 33% target set for 2023. The company is on track to achieve 100% cage-free eggs in the U.S. by the end of 2025.</li>
</ul> 
The report showcases Dine’s momentum in operating with ESG at the core, driven by our strong partnership with team members, franchisees and their restaurant employees, suppliers, and communities. This year’s publication highlights Dine’s progress and emphasizes the integration of these efforts in alignment with our business operations. 
For more information on the 2023 Dine Better, Together report, please visit <a href="https://www.dinebrands.com/en/social-good" target="_blank">https://www.dinebrands.com/en/social-good</a>. About Dine Brands Global, Inc. 
Based in Pasadena, California, Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE: DIN), through its subsidiaries and franchisees, supports and operates restaurants under the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill + Bar®, IHOP®, and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop® brands. As of December 31, 2023, these three brands consisted of over 3,500 restaurants across 18 international markets. Dine Brands is one of the largest full-service restaurant companies in the world and in 2022 expanded into the Fast Casual segment. For more information on Dine Brands, visit the Company’s website located at <a href="https://www.dinebrands.com/" target="_blank">www.dinebrands.com</a>.

###

Media Contact: 
Lauren Costabile 
Dine Brands Communications <a href="mailto:MediaInquiries@dinebrands.com" target="_blank">MediaInquiries@dinebrands.com</a>

Dine Brands Releases 2023 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report

<img alt="SR23 Report cover collage" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="cdfc7ad2-92ea-4b40-89fa-c771e308cb03" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/SR23-report-alert-visual-final.png" width="640" class="align-center" height="1584" loading="lazy" />At Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, we are committed to tackling some of the most critical global challenges facing us today. Our efforts to create a fairer, healthier and more sustainable world center around three main goals: achieving human progress for more than one billion people through sustainable science and technology, fully integrating sustainability into our value chains, and becoming climate neutral while reducing resource consumption. Our <a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/" target="_blank">2023 Sustainability Report</a> details our encouraging progress toward meeting these goals. Our ongoing commitments to climate and environmental action 
In 2023, we continued on our path toward achieving <a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/environment/climate-action.html" target="_blank">climate-neutral operations</a> across our value chain by 2040. We decreased our direct and indirect emissions across scopes 1 and 2 by 17% compared to the previous year. At the same time, we increased the global share of electricity we procured from renewable sources to over 50%, progressing toward our target of 80% by 2030. The Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs) we have in place mean that by 2025, renewable energy certificates will cover 100% of our electricity purchases in Europe, 90% in North America and 70% in all other regions. 
In addition, we enhanced our <a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/strategy-management.html" target="_blank">sustainability strategy</a> by intensifying our focus on biodiversity and a circular economy. For example, we conducted comprehensive biodiversity impact assessments for our sites, which will provide a baseline for further quantitative analysis. These efforts help us to more effectively prioritize future biodiversity initiatives and restore our natural environment. As part of working toward a circular economy, we have set a new target of achieving a 70% circularity rate across our entire Group by 2030. Diversity, equity and inclusion – empowering women in management positions 
We remain committed to fostering <a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/employees/diversity-equity-inclusion.html" target="_blank">diversity and equity</a> and creating a genuinely inclusive culture for all employees. We reinforced this commitment with our goal to achieve gender parity in management positions globally by 2030. In this year’s report, we are pleased to announce we increased the share of women in management roles to an all-time high of 39%. Sustainability in our supply chains – driving change across the industry 
We are continually working to make our <a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/business-ethics/suppliers/supply-chain-management.html" target="_blank">value chains</a> more sustainable. One of the key first steps has been gaining a better understanding of our global supplier network. Two-thirds of our suppliers now have a valid sustainability assessment, a significant improvement compared to 46% the previous year. Additionally, in 2023, we began including primary greenhouse gas emission data from service providers (scope 3.1) in our calculations. We also continuously strive to create more sustainable innovations and technologies for our customers. For example, in our Life Science business sector, we grew our Greener Alternative Products portfolio to 2,500 products in 2023, a 34% increase from the previous year. Access to medicines – continuing the fight against schistosomiasis 
For the last 15 years, we have been on a dedicated mission to eliminate the neglected tropical disease <a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/products/health-for-all/global-health.html" target="_blank">schistosomiasis</a>. In 2023, we donated over two billion Praziquantel tablets and supported various programs that combat this dangerous parasitic illness in Sub-Saharan Africa and other tropical areas. In addition, we treated 84 million patients and secured approval for an innovative pediatric treatment designed for young children aged three months to six years. Thanks to these milestones and our ongoing collaboration with strong, long-term partners, we are steadily progressing toward eliminating schistosomiasis as a public health concern by 2030. Sharing sustainability insights 
Transparently communicating our sustainability efforts helps to maintain the trust of our patients, customers, partners, employees and suppliers. Therefore, our 2023 Sustainability Report provides an interactive experience using a variety of digital formats. In <a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/stories.html" target="_blank">a unique story section</a> of the report, we highlight a broad range of hands-on topics and projects on issues such as Green Chemistry, digital ethics in AI, sustainability in R&amp;D and access to health, illustrating our commitment to sustainable progress. 
We prepared our 2023 Sustainability Report in accordance with the 2021 GRI Standards. The report also reflects the requirements of the <a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/facts-figures/sasb-index.html" target="_blank">SASB standards</a> and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (<a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/facts-figures/tcfd-index.html" target="_blank">TCFD</a>). Our <a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/annualreport/2023/management-report/non-financial-statement.html" target="_blank">non-financial statement</a>, in accordance with the German Commercial Code (HGB) and applicable <a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/annualreport/2023/management-report/non-financial-statement/further-topics/reporting-in-accordance-with-the-eu-taxonomy-regulation.html" target="_blank">EU Taxonomy Regulation disclosures</a>, forms part of our 2023 Annual Report. About Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany 
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, operates across life science, healthcare and electronics. Around 63,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From providing products and services that accelerate drug development and manufacturing as well as discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2023, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, generated sales of € 21 billion in 65 countries. 
The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark “Merck” internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, operate as MilliporeSigma in life science, EMD Serono in healthcare and EMD Electronics in electronics. Since its founding in 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company’s technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. Social Media: 
Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/emdgroup" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/emdgroup</a> 
Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/EMDGroup" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/EMDGroup</a> 
LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/emd-affiliates-of-merck-kgaa-darmstadt-germany" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/company/emd-affiliates-of-merck-kgaa-darmstadt-germany</a> 
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/MerckKGaADarmstadtGermany" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/c/MerckKGaADarmstadtGermany</a> Media Contact Info: <a href="mailto:judith.rahner@merckgroup.com" target="_blank">Judith Rahner</a>: 
+49 6151 72 7694 <a href="mailto:timo.breiner@merckgroup.com" target="_blank">Timo Breiner</a>: 
+49 151 1454 2512

<a href="https://www.emdgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/" rel=" noopener" target="_blank">Read More</a>

Harnessing Science and Technology for a Fairer, Healthier and More Sustainable World

<img alt="Woman in a glass window putting up an Open, Come in sign." data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="781f5d7f-4eb1-46c7-80c7-222f53893250" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Microbusiness-Resource-Contraints_GoDaddy_3.27.24A.jpg" width="640" class="align-center" height="630" loading="lazy" /><a href="https://www.godaddy.com/ventureforward/microbusinesses-drive-job-creation-reduce-unemployment/" target="_blank">As originally published by GoDaddy’s Venture Forward Research Initiative</a>

Since 2020, GoDaddy Venture Forward findings have consistently proven that microbusiness entrepreneurship makes an outsized impact on the economy, promoting job creation, boosting annual household median income growth and driving down unemployment. Every year, when the U.S. Census releases its most recent data, GoDaddy Venture Forward runs new analyses to capture the latest economic impacts.

Venture Forward is a research initiative that GoDaddy launched in 2018 to quantify the presence and impact of online microbusinesses on their local economies, providing a unique view into the attitudes, demographics and needs of these entrepreneurs.

This year, in partnership with UCLA Anderson Forecast economists led by William Yu, we’ve uncovered the following impacts made by microbusinesses (those having 10 or fewer employees, a domain and an active website).

<ul><li>At the county-level, every additional microbusiness entrepreneur adds about seven jobs, which has continued to grow based on data through 2023. 
	 </li>
	<li>Analysis of data from 2018 to 2022 found the effect of microbusiness entrepreneurship to be two or more new jobs for every additional entrepreneur, and from 2020 to 2022, about six new jobs. 
	 </li>
	<li>Adding 1,000 new microbusiness entrepreneurs in a county is associated with a drop of 0.11 percentage points in the unemployment rate. 
	 </li>
	<li>This means that studying Miami-Dade County in Florida, with almost 430,000 microbusinesses and 2.1 million people over the age of 18, adding just 1,000 entrepreneurs would reduce the region’s unemployment rate by almost 7% (from 1.6% to 1.49%).</li>
</ul><img alt="Chart showing impacts on a county level." data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="4d4ac4c7-aac3-4b10-b7f4-77e4be53048a" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Microbusinesses-Have-Major-Impact_GoDaddy_3.29.24B_0.png" width="640" class="align-center" height="673" loading="lazy" />Our research shows that entrepreneurship has only continued to grow in importance – from acting as a backstop during economic downturns like the pandemic, to being a catalyst for greater prosperity in current times, and the historically low unemployment rates we’re experiencing.

“We’ve learned that online businesses with 10 or fewer employees are creating more jobs than before – up to seven jobs for every one entrepreneur, compared to only two just a few years ago,” said Alexandra Rosen, senior director of Venture Forward. “Our findings show how even the smallest of businesses can significantly drive down unemployment rates in communities across the country.”

For more information about the state of microbusinesses across the country, visit the Venture Forward <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/ventureforward/microbusiness-datahub/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Microbusiness Data Hub</a>.
<img alt="Chart showing real world examples of economic Impacts." data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="6304c6f4-f909-4bc1-8c21-3e9fca58bc4c" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Economic-Impact_GoDaddy_3.29.24A_0.png" width="640" class="align-center" height="396" loading="lazy" />About GoDaddy Venture Forward

GoDaddy’s Venture Forward research initiative analyzes more than 20 million online businesses with a digital presence (measured by a unique domain and an active website). Most of these businesses employ fewer than ten people, categorizing each as a microbusiness. While these microbusinesses may be small, their impact on economies is outsized even though they are often too informal or too new to show up in traditional government statistics. 

Since 2018, Venture Forward surveyed more than 36,000 small business owners with a digital presence, making it the source for microbusiness data and insights.

New Results: Microbusinesses Drive Job Creation, Reduce Unemployment

IBM announced the release of its 2023 IBM Impact report. The report summarizes the company’s ESG initiatives, partnerships and investments in 2023, making a lasting positive impact. 
Over the last year, the world experienced widespread adoption of AI and other emerging technologies. IBMers have leveraged these technologies, creating new ways to address rising ethical challenges, empowering communities with skills, and protecting our environment while supporting our clients. 
A few highlights from the 2023 IBM Impact report include:

<ul><li>Released watsonx.governance, a component of watsonx designed to accelerate responsible, transparent and explainable AI workflows, and leading the creation of the AI Alliance, an open community to accelerate responsible AI innovation.</li>
	<li>Trained more than 600 suppliers in technology ethics, which is on track to meet our commitment to train 1,000 technology suppliers in technology ethics by 2025.</li>
	<li>Engaged over 11 million learners with free IBM training content through our combined education initiatives since 2021, which is on track to meet our commitment to skill 30 million people by 2030.</li>
	<li>Invested over $100 million towards apprenticeships and new-collar programs, since 2022.</li>
	<li>Reduced operational greenhouse gas emissions by 68.5% against base year 2010, ahead of our goal of 2025 and on track to meet our operational net zero emissions goal by 2030.</li>
	<li>Completed, since 2021, 2,130 energy conservation projects, avoiding an estimated 256,000 MWh of energy consumption.</li>
</ul>“At IBM, we believe that technology is a catalyst to unlock new and more powerful ways to make a positive impact. Innovation can address evolving demands and create a better future as new ethical, societal, and environmental challenges arise,” said Justina Nixon-Saintil, Vice President and Chief Impact Officer, IBM. “We continue to focus on making a lasting impact by using the power of technology, such as AI.” 
IBM leverages its resources and expertise to live its purpose of being a catalyst that makes the world work better. We have a long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, and service, in which technology and innovation play a critical role in taking our positive impact further. 
The IBM Impact Report 2023 report can be accessed <a href="https://www.ibm.com/impact/2023-ibm-impact-report" target="_blank">here</a>. Media Contact: <a href="mailto:Carmenssg@ibm.com" target="_blank">Carmen San Segundo</a> 
Global Marketing and Communications Director for ESG and CSR at IBM

IBM Releases 2023 IBM Impact Report

Join us as we honor Corning Incorporated, J.M. Huber Corporation, and Michelin North America during the ESG Leadership Awards dinner on May 16 in New York. 

<img alt="A women owned business and a customer are shown." data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f5748854-19c9-4a27-ac3b-e42d3f53736d" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Women%20Microbusiness%20Owners_GoDaddy_3.27.24A.jpeg" width="640" class="align-center" height="667" loading="lazy" /><a href="https://www.godaddy.com/ventureforward/women-microbusiness-owners-up-33-in-the-u-k-and-10-in-u-s-narrowing-the-gender-gap/" target="_blank">As originally published by GoDaddy’s Venture Forward Research Initiative</a>

The big fact

The number of women-owned microbusinesses has continued to increase in both the U.S. and U.K. according to the <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/ventureforward/spring-2023-us-national-survey-results/" target="_blank">GoDaddy Venture Forward U.S. National Survey</a> conducted in August 2023 (n=3,525). As a result, the gender gap narrowed. More than half (51%) of microbusiness owners in the U.S. are women, increasing by 10% in the last two years, and up 25% relative to where it started in 2019. And 42% of microbusiness owners in the U.K. are women, up 33% in the last two years.

Gender parity in business growth could boost the global GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by as much as 2 to 3% ($2 trillion) and generate 288 to 433 million jobs, according to a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/07/closing-gender-gap-could-boost-global-gdp-by-2-trillion-citi-says.html" target="_blank">Citi analysis</a>.

Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs

Of the microbusinesses owned by a Black entrepreneur, over half in the U.S. (68%) and U.K. (60%) are Black women, according to GoDaddy’s Venture Forward research initiative. Since 2020, the share of Black women-owned businesses out of all microbusinesses grew 70%, making them the fastest growing demographic.

Click <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/resources/advocacy/black-women-are-fastest-growing-group-of-microbusiness-owners-says-godaddy-study" target="_blank">here</a> to learn more about the growth of Black women microbusiness owners.
<img alt="Chart showing Microbusinesses closing the gender gap." data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ef28174e-7027-4fee-a7d4-468fde2b8698" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Women-Microbusinesses_GoDaddy_3.27.24B_0.jpg" width="400" class="align-center" height="525" loading="lazy" />Business size doesn’t matter

Women are narrowing the gender gap with smaller businesses and less funds.

<ul><li>In the U.S., the most popular aspiration for women (40%) is to be a solopreneur and stay small.</li>
	<li>For both the U.S. and U.K., women needed less capital to get started than men. In the U.S., 74% of women needed $5K or less, compared to 60% of men. In the U.K., 80% of women needed £5K or less, compared to 69% of men.</li>
</ul>The research

GoDaddy’s <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/ventureforward/?utm_source=3bl&amp;utm_medium=media" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Venture Forward</a> research initiative analyzes more than 20 million online businesses with a digital presence (measured by a unique domain and an active website). Most of these businesses employ fewer than ten people, categorizing each as a microbusiness. While these microbusinesses may be small, their impact on economies is outsized even though they are often too informal or too new to show up in traditional government statistics.

Since 2018, Venture Forward surveyed more than 36,000 small business owners with a digital presence, making it the source for microbusiness data and insights.

The number of women-owned microbusinesses has continued to increase in both the U.S. and U.K. according to the GoDaddy Venture Forward U.S. National Survey conducted in August 2023 (n=3,525). As a result, the gender gap narrowed. 

Women Microbusiness Owners Up 33% in the UK and 10% in US, Narrowing the Gender Gap

<img alt="Land with damaged trees" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a0f19558-06fa-4b4d-9d22-39823ba3e7b8" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Trees_Lenovo_032224.jpg" width="640" class="align-center" height="712" loading="lazy" />Optimizing and accelerating image processing with AI helps conservation experts safeguard seabird nesting sites on Robinson Crusoe Island.

Around the world, biodiversity is under threat. We are now in what many scientists call <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/sixth-mass-extinction" target="_blank">the sixth mass extinction</a>—and over the last century, hundreds of species of plants and animals have been lost forever.

Island ecosystems can be particularly vulnerable to human activity. On Robinson Crusoe Island in the South Pacific Ocean, native seabirds such as the pink-footed shearwater are easy prey for an invasive species: the South American coati. Introduced to the island by humans almost a century ago, coatis are housecat-sized mammals in the same family as racoons, which hunt for shearwaters in their nesting sites throughout the island.
<figure role="group" class="align-center"><img alt="A shearwater bird in the water" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2598700a-597b-4339-a032-b070ef579856" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Pink-Footed-Shearwater_Lenovo_032224.jpg" width="640" height="667" loading="lazy" /><figcaption>Image credit: Cece King</figcaption></figure>Protecting island ecosystems

Leading the fight against invasive species on Robinson Crusoe Island is <a href="https://www.islandconservation.org/" target="_blank">Island Conservation</a>: an international non-profit organization that restores island ecosystems to benefit wildlife, oceans, and communities. For many years, Island Conservation has been working side by side with island residents to help protect threatened and endangered species.

For Island Conservation, physically removing invasive coatis from shearwater nesting sites is only part of the challenge. To track coati activity, the organization also carefully monitors shearwater nesting sites using more than 70 remote camera traps.

Processing thousands of images a month

The organization’s camera traps generate a massive amount of data—around 140,000 images every month—which must be collected and analyzed for signs of coati activity. In the past, the Island Conservation team relied heavily on manual processes to perform this task. To classify 10,000 images would take a trained expert roughly eight hours of non-stop work.

What’s more, manual processing diverted valuable resources away from Island Conservation’s vital work in the field. The organization knew that there had to be a better way.
<figure role="group" class="align-center"><img alt="A group of people stood together with mountains in the distance " data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="d54fa74d-80f2-4226-bac1-be254cd7754a" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Outdoor-group-photo_Lenovo_032224.jpg" width="640" height="800" loading="lazy" /><figcaption>Image credit: Cece King</figcaption></figure>Realizing the potential of machine learning

David Will, Head of Innovation at Island Conservation, recalls the challenge: “We started experimenting with machine learning [ML] models to accelerate image processing. We were convinced that automation was the way to go, but one of the big challenges was connectivity. Many of the ML solutions we looked at required us to move all of our photos to the cloud for processing. But on Robinson Crusoe Island, we just didn’t have a reliable enough internet connection to do that.”

As a temporary workaround, Island Conservation saved its camera trap images to SD cards and airmailed them to Santiago de Chile, where they could be uploaded to the cloud for processing. While airmail was the fastest and most frequent link between the island and the mainland, the service only ran once every two weeks—and there was a lag of up to three months between a camera trap capturing an image and Island Conservation receiving the analysis.

David Will comments: “The time between when we detected an invasive species on a camera and when we were able to respond meant we didn’t have enough time to make the kind of decisions we needed to make to prevent extinctions on the island.”
<figure role="group" class="align-center"><img alt="A seal on the rocks " data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ae24be57-c9e8-4265-bd0c-1df66966d435" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Seal_Lenovo_032224.jpg" width="640" height="801" loading="lazy" /><figcaption>Image credit: Cece King</figcaption></figure>Tackling infrastructure challenges

That’s when Lenovo entered the frame. Funded by the <a href="https://lenovowfh.com/" target="_blank">Lenovo Work for Humankind</a> initiative with a mission to use technology for good, a global team of 16 volunteers traveled to the island. Using Lenovo’s smarter technology from devices to software, IT services to servers, the volunteers were able to do their own day jobs while volunteering to help upgrade the island’s networking infrastructure: boosting its bandwidth from 1 Mbps to 200 Mbps.

Robinson Crusoe Island is plagued with harsh marine conditions with limited access. They needed a sturdy system that brings compute to the data and allows remote management. The solution was <a href="https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/c/servers-storage/servers/edge/" target="_blank">Lenovo’s ThinkEdge</a> SE450 with <a href="https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/a40/" target="_blank">NVIDIA® A40</a> GPUs. The AI-optimized edge server provided a rugged design capable of withstanding extreme conditions while running quietly, allowing it to live comfortably in the new remote workspace. Lenovo worked with Island Conservation to tailor the server to its needs, adding additional graphics cards to increase the AI processing capability per node. “We took the supercomputer capability they had in Santiago and brought that into a form factor that is much smaller,” says Charles Ferland, Vice President and General Manager of Edge Computing at Lenovo.

The <a href="https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/servers-storage/servers/edge/thinkedge-se450/len21te0002" target="_blank">ThinkEdge SE450</a> eliminated the need for on-site technicians. Unlike a data center, which needs staff on-site, the ThinkEdge server could be monitored and serviced remotely by Lenovo team members. It proved to be the perfect solution. The ThinkEdge server allows for full remote access and management of the device speeding up decisions from a matter of months to days.

David Will comments, “Lenovo helped us run both the A40s at the same time immensely speeding up processing, something we previously couldn’t do. It has worked tremendously well and almost all of our processing to-date has been done on the ThinkEdge SE450.”
<figure role="group" class="align-center"><img alt="A green shed with a person stood in the doorway and another to the right, with two people sat on the floor" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ee1bdbc0-fc28-482e-965e-4803e9fe9be5" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Shed_Lenovo_032224.jpg" width="640" height="800" loading="lazy" /><figcaption>Image credit: Cece King</figcaption></figure>Unleashing the power of automation

To automate both the detection and classification of coatis, Lenovo data scientists from the AI Center of Excellence built a custom AI script to detect and separate out the results for coatis and other species from MegaDetector—an open-source object detection model that identifies animals, people, and vehicles in camera trap images. Next, Lenovo data scientists trained an ML model on a custom dataset to give a multi-class classification result for nine species local to Robinson Crusoe Island, including shearwater and coatis.

This two-step GPU-enabled detector-and-classifier pipeline can provide results for 24,000 camera trap images in just one minute. Previously, this would have taken a trained expert twenty hours of labor—an astonishing 99.9% time saving. The model achieved 97.5% accuracy on a test dataset with approximately 400 classifications per second. Harnessing the power of NVIDIA’s CUDA enabled GPUs allowed us to have a 160x speedup on MegaDetector compared to the previous implementation.

Sachin Gopal Wani, AI Data Scientist at Lenovo, comments: “Delivering a solution that is easily interpretable by the user is a crucial part of our AI leadership. I made a custom script that generates outputs compatible with TimeLapse—a software the conservationists use worldwide to visualize their results. This enabled much faster visualization for a non-technical end-user without storing additional images. Our solution allows for the results to load with the original images overlapped with classification results, saving terabytes of disk space.”

With these ML capabilities, Island Conservation can filter out images that do not contain invasive species with a high degree of certainty. Using its newly upgraded internet connection, the organization can upload images of coati activity to the cloud, where volunteers on the mainland evaluate the images and send recommendations to the island rapidly.

“Using ML, we can expedite image processing, get results in minutes, and cut strategic decision time from three months to a matter of weeks,” says David Will. “This shorter response time means more birds protected from direct predation and faster population recovery.”
<figure role="group" class="align-center"><img alt="Two people walking " data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="59185e29-ef64-4a43-bc87-e31e4d79163b" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Two-people-on-a-mountain_Lenovo_032224.jpg" width="640" height="800" loading="lazy" /><figcaption>Image credit: Cece King</figcaption></figure>Looking to the future

Looking ahead, Island Conservation plans to continue its collaboration with the Lenovo AI Center of Excellence to develop Gen AI to detect other types of invasive species, including another big threat to native fauna: rodents.

“With Lenovo’s support, we’re now seeing how much easier it is to train our models to detect other invasive species on Robinson Crusoe Island,” says David Will. “Recently, I set up a test environment to detect a new species. After training the model for just seven hours, we recorded 98% detection accuracy—an outstanding result.”

As the project scope expands, Island Conservation plans to use more Lenovo ThinkEdge SE450 devices with NVIDIA A40 GPUs for new projects across other islands. Lenovo’s ThinkEdge portfolio has been optimized for Edge AI inferencing, offering outstanding performance and ruggedization to securely process the data where it’s created.

Backed by Lenovo and NVIDIA technology, Island Conservation is in a stronger position than ever to protect native species from invasive threats.

David Will says: “In many of our projects, we see that more than 30% of the total project cost is spent trying to remove the last 1% of invasives and confirm their absence. With Lenovo, we can make decisions based on hard data, not gut feeling, which means Island Conservation takes on new projects sooner.”
<figure role="group" class="align-center"><img alt="Seedlings " data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="8976cf77-4faf-4446-a85b-7799e4002737" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Seedlings_Lenovo_032224.jpg" width="640" height="800" loading="lazy" /><figcaption>Image credit: Cece King</figcaption></figure>Healing our oceans

Island Conservation’s work with Lenovo on Robinson Crusoe Island will serve as a blueprint for future activities. The team plans to repurpose the AI application to detect different invasive species on different islands around the world— from the Caribbean to the South and West Pacific, the Central Indian Ocean, and the Eastern Tropical Pacific—with the aim of saving endangered species, increasing biodiversity, and increasing climate resilience.

In fact, Island Conservation, <a href="https://www.rewild.org/" target="_blank">Re:wild</a>, and <a href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/" target="_blank">Scripps Institution of Oceanography</a> recently launched the <a href="https://jointheiocc.org/" target="_blank">Island-Ocean Connection Challenge</a> to bring NGOs, governments, funders, island communities, and individuals together to begin holistically restoring 40 globally significant island-ocean ecosystems by 2030.

“Everything is interconnected in what is known as the land-and-sea cycle,” says David Will. “Healthy oceans depend on healthy islands. Island and marine ecosystem elements cycle into one another, sharing nutrients vital to the plants and animals within them. Indigenous cultures have managed resources this way for centuries. Climate change, ocean degradation, invasive species, and biodiversity loss are causing entire land-sea ecosystems to collapse, and island communities are disproportionately impacted.”

The Island-Ocean Connection Challenge marks the dawn of a new era of conservation that breaks down artificial silos and is focused on holistic restoration.

David Will concludes: “Our collective effort, supported by Lenovo and NVIDIA, is helping to bridge the digital divide on island communities, so they can harness cutting-edge technology to help restore, rewild, and protect their ecosystems, and don’t get further left behind by AI advances.”

Get involved today at <a href="http://www.jointheiocc.org/" target="_blank">www.jointheiocc.org</a>.

To read the Lenovo case study on Island Conservation, <a href="https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/case-studies-customer-success-stories/island-conservation" target="_blank">click here</a>. Or to watch the Lenovo case study video, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWwCFS6-zy0&amp;ab_channel=LenovoDataCenter" target="_blank">click here</a>.

Around the world, biodiversity is under threat. We are now in what many scientists call the sixth mass extinction—and over the last century, hundreds of species of plants and animals have been lost forever.

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