Thousands of volunteers have fanned out this weekend across towns and neighborhoods still reeling from damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. In Brooklyn’s Red Hook, for example, New Yorkers and visitors hauled out debris from flooded basements and handed out blankets and warm clothes from church steps and garages. At shelters in Park Slope, locals were helping the ill and the elderly with basic human necessities such as using the bathroom and brushing the teeth. In Coney Island, teams of volunteers carried food and water to residents stranded in high rise buildings still without power. Sandy’s victims need all the help they can get. According to the latest estimates, more than 1.3 million homes and business along the East Coast are still without electricity.
GE and its employees have been helping out, too. GE Foundation gave $1 million to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and another $100,000 to the United Way of America for local community needs. The company will also match in full employee donations to the American Red Cross and other disaster relief organizations. GE volunteers have also reached out to local non-profits to help on the ground.
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Sandy-Brooklyn.jpg"]
Friends in Need: Hundreds of volunteers traveled to Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood to help clearing out flooded basements and handing out water, food, and warm clothing.
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Sandy-Brooklyn2.jpg"]
Friends in Need: Hundreds of volunteers traveled to Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood to help clearing out flooded basements and handing out water, food, and warm clothing.
[/image]
[/slides]
“While state and local governments as well as relief organization are still in the middle of determining the exact needs as a result of Hurricane Sandy, we have employees, customers and neighbors who have lost or damaged homes, or who are still living without power,” said Bob Corcoran, vice president of GE Foundation. “Through our partner relief organizations, GE can help those in need in the aftermath and we will.”
In addition to the Sandy relief donations, the GE Foundation supports disaster relief through a $1 million grant to the American Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program. The money helps the Red Cross mount an immediate response to any disaster and help people who are affected by it. GE also helps local communities through more than $8 million in contributions to 500 United Way organizations throughout the United States and in other countries.
Showing posts with label GE Foundation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GE Foundation. Show all posts
Monday, November 5, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
Blood Diamonds of Ore: GE Takes On Conflict Minerals
The Democratic Republic of Congo is Africa’s second largest country, but also the continent’s most violent. Over the last two decades, foreign and domestic armies, militias and gangs of armed thugs have been waging war and staging rebellions that have killed at least 5.5 million people and displaced many more. The fighters sustain their troops with money from the DRC’s rich mineral deposits. Observers estimate that armed groups control half of the tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold mines in the vast eastern part of the country and generate as much as $225 million annually from the mineral quarries. “They may own the mines in the conflict region, or tax the mines or tax the trade routes used to export the minerals,” says Sandy Merber, counsel for international trade regulation and sourcing at GE.
Because manufacturers around the world use these minerals in everything from digital cameras and cell phones to paint and golf clubs, NGOs seeking to cut off the funding have pushed companies to audit their supply chains to reduce the risk that the minerals they are using may support the conflict. In August, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a new reporting rule that requires listed companies to “publicly disclose their use of conflict minerals that originated in the DRC or an adjoining country.” GE, through its citizenship initiatives, has been working with companies, NGOs, investors as well as government agencies to foster a system that supports cutting out conflict minerals from the supply chain and improves reporting.
One way is to create a network of certified conflict-free smelters. “There are thousands and thousands of suppliers and many layers of the supply chain, but the choke point in the system is the smelters,” Merber says. There are only about 200 significant smelters around the world. GE works with groups like the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition and Global e-Sustainability Initiative that have created a program to verify the sources and origins of the minerals at the smelters. “As this smelter verification program matures, companies can pass down through their supply chains a requirement that minerals be sourced from conflict-free smelters,” Merber says.
The GE Foundation, along with HP and Intel, is now participating in the Conflict-Free Smelter Early Adopters Fund, which provides grants to small smelters to help offset the costs of being audited. The Foundation also supports some of the leading NGOs monitoring the minerals trade.
GE is also one of 30 companies participating in a pilot program to implement guidelines on conflict minerals due diligence developed by the OECD. (You can find more details on GE’s new citizenship website.)
The GE Foundation is also an initial contributor to the Public Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade. Merber says that the Alliance will support efforts “to map supply routes from mines in the conflict region and elsewhere in the Congo to prove that you can actually source from the Congo and still get verified.” According to estimates, some 3 million people are working in this industry in the Congo. “You want to have a conflict-free policy but not a Congo-free policy,” Merber says. “If you shut down their place of business, that’s another humanitarian crisis.”
Wolframite Mining in the DRC's Kailo Province: Wolframite rocks are the source of tungsten, a rare hard metal used in light bulb filaments, machine tools, and catalysts in coal-fired power plants.
Because manufacturers around the world use these minerals in everything from digital cameras and cell phones to paint and golf clubs, NGOs seeking to cut off the funding have pushed companies to audit their supply chains to reduce the risk that the minerals they are using may support the conflict. In August, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a new reporting rule that requires listed companies to “publicly disclose their use of conflict minerals that originated in the DRC or an adjoining country.” GE, through its citizenship initiatives, has been working with companies, NGOs, investors as well as government agencies to foster a system that supports cutting out conflict minerals from the supply chain and improves reporting.
One way is to create a network of certified conflict-free smelters. “There are thousands and thousands of suppliers and many layers of the supply chain, but the choke point in the system is the smelters,” Merber says. There are only about 200 significant smelters around the world. GE works with groups like the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition and Global e-Sustainability Initiative that have created a program to verify the sources and origins of the minerals at the smelters. “As this smelter verification program matures, companies can pass down through their supply chains a requirement that minerals be sourced from conflict-free smelters,” Merber says.
The GE Foundation, along with HP and Intel, is now participating in the Conflict-Free Smelter Early Adopters Fund, which provides grants to small smelters to help offset the costs of being audited. The Foundation also supports some of the leading NGOs monitoring the minerals trade.
GE is also one of 30 companies participating in a pilot program to implement guidelines on conflict minerals due diligence developed by the OECD. (You can find more details on GE’s new citizenship website.)
The GE Foundation is also an initial contributor to the Public Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade. Merber says that the Alliance will support efforts “to map supply routes from mines in the conflict region and elsewhere in the Congo to prove that you can actually source from the Congo and still get verified.” According to estimates, some 3 million people are working in this industry in the Congo. “You want to have a conflict-free policy but not a Congo-free policy,” Merber says. “If you shut down their place of business, that’s another humanitarian crisis.”
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Chicken and Egg Solution: GE Grants Fund School Science, Transform Standards and Train for Good Jobs
Science is “really boring when all you do is read,” said eight-grader Corinne Dietrich from the Erie School District in Pennsylvania. “You visualize it better and understand it better when you’re using all this technology in the classroom.” Dietrich was speaking to a reporter from Erie Times-News about school work that included incubating chicken eggs and analyzing the movement of a worm. “All this technology” was microscopes, graphing calculators, science kits and other tools that her district bought with help from a $15 million GE Foundation grant.
The money was part of the Foundation’s six-year, $200 million Developing Futures program focused of finding new ways to teach science and math to American students from urban areas, and ultimately improve their job prospects.
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AtlantaBuilding1A.jpg"]
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AtlantaBuilding2A.jpg"]
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AtlantaPrincipalA.jpg"]
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AtlantaScience1A.jpg"]
[/image]
[/slides]
Building a better future: Grants from the GE Foundation give American students access to hands-on experiments that improve their science skills and job prospects.
This week the Foundation announced a new $18 million grant that brings this effort to the national level. The grant will help develop national learning standards and replace the uneven patchwork that exists today. “Our economy is facing an undeniable challenge – good paying jobs are going unfilled because U.S. workers don’t have the skills to fill the positions,” said Robert Corcoran, President and Chairman of the GE Foundation. “We must cultivate a highly educated workforce and we see the standards as a key component to answering this challenge.”
The standards, known as Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, set new rigorous expectations for students in literacy and math. So far officials in 46 states have signed on.
Money from the new $18 million grant will flow to Student Achievement Partners, whose founders David Coleman, Susan Pimentel and Jason Zimba led the standards development. “The GE Foundation is going deep in this work and its commitment to improving public education for all students is exactly what it is going to take to seed real and lasting change,” Coleman said.
GE may also reap some benefit. Last year GE Transportation, which is based in Erie, announced that it would invest over $400 million to open new plants and upgrade old ones in Pennsylvania and Texas. Good engineers are always wanted. With luck, Corinne Dietrich, the budding Erie scientist, will keep GE in mind.
The money was part of the Foundation’s six-year, $200 million Developing Futures program focused of finding new ways to teach science and math to American students from urban areas, and ultimately improve their job prospects.
[slides image_align="left"]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AtlantaBuilding1A.jpg"]
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AtlantaBuilding2A.jpg"]
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AtlantaPrincipalA.jpg"]
[/image]
[image src="http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AtlantaScience1A.jpg"]
[/image]
[/slides]
Building a better future: Grants from the GE Foundation give American students access to hands-on experiments that improve their science skills and job prospects.
This week the Foundation announced a new $18 million grant that brings this effort to the national level. The grant will help develop national learning standards and replace the uneven patchwork that exists today. “Our economy is facing an undeniable challenge – good paying jobs are going unfilled because U.S. workers don’t have the skills to fill the positions,” said Robert Corcoran, President and Chairman of the GE Foundation. “We must cultivate a highly educated workforce and we see the standards as a key component to answering this challenge.”
The standards, known as Common Core State Standards, or CCSS, set new rigorous expectations for students in literacy and math. So far officials in 46 states have signed on.
Money from the new $18 million grant will flow to Student Achievement Partners, whose founders David Coleman, Susan Pimentel and Jason Zimba led the standards development. “The GE Foundation is going deep in this work and its commitment to improving public education for all students is exactly what it is going to take to seed real and lasting change,” Coleman said.
GE may also reap some benefit. Last year GE Transportation, which is based in Erie, announced that it would invest over $400 million to open new plants and upgrade old ones in Pennsylvania and Texas. Good engineers are always wanted. With luck, Corinne Dietrich, the budding Erie scientist, will keep GE in mind.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)