KeyBank's Key4Women program, in partnership with MESO and the Portland Thorns FC, is joining forces to organize a business pitch competition aimed at supporting women-owned businesses situated in specific counties within Oregon and SW Washington. This contest presents exciting prospects for both start-ups and established businesses, with a total of $50,000 in cash prizes up for grabs. The winner of the grand prize will be awarded $20,000.
 
To qualify for participation, businesses must have at least 51 percent ownership, control, operation, and management by a woman or women. Moreover, they must be based in one of the following Oregon counties: Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Columbia, Hood River, Yamhill, Marion; OR one of the following Washington counties: Clark, Cowlitz, or Skamania. Applicants have the option to be an entrepreneur with a novel business concept or an existing business introducing a new product or service to expand their current operations, provided their annual sales do not exceed $3 million.
 
“We are delighted to join forces with Key4Women for this inspiring pitch contest. It serves as a platform to connect with an extensive network of women-owned businesses and enterprising individuals in Oregon and SW Washington," said Cobi Lewis, CEO of Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon (MESO).
 
"Our mission extends beyond providing financial resources for the growth of the contest winner's business; we are committed to offering comprehensive support as they navigate their journey forward. We firmly believe that when women-owned businesses thrive, they become catalysts for job creation and become integral players in fostering robust local economic growth.”
 
Starting July 17th at 8 am PST, the online portal for submissions will be open at https://www.mesopdx.org/key4women. For those interested, MESO Advisors are offering free application workshops on July 25th, August 2nd, and August 5th.
 
Mark your calendars because the application deadline is August 31st at 11:59 pm PST. Following this, the host representatives will select ten finalists who will be announced on September 18th. The live event is scheduled for November 16th at Providence Park in Portland, running from 10 am to 1 pm PST. During this event, finalists will have the opportunity to present a four-minute pitch and engage in a six-minute Q&A session with a panel of five judges. The winners will then be officially announced on the following day.
 
The assessment criteria for determining the winners include the quality of the presentation, clarity of the business vision and mission, economic impact of the idea, and the viability of the value proposition. It's worth noting that all applicants will have access to mentoring services post-contest.
 
“We are thrilled to host and support this pitch contest in collaboration with KeyBank’s Key4Women program and MESO,” said Todd Spear, SVP of Corporate Partnerships for the Portland Timbers & Thorns.
 
“The Portland Thorns have always been passionate about making a difference in our community and providing opportunities and resources to women. We are excited to partner with KeyBank on this first iteration of this program and to make a meaningful impact for a handful of woman-owned small businesses in our region.”
 
“Women business owners and leaders positively impact our economy and communities in powerful ways every day,” said Rachael Sampson, national director, Key4Women. “Key4Women is on a mission to advocate, connect, and empower them to thrive. MESO and the Portland Thorns are great co-sponsors in this endeavor, and through this pitch contest we look forward to offering two critical supports women-owned businesses often struggle to find or ask for: mentorship and capital.”
 
For comprehensive information about the 2023 Oregon and SW Washington Women-Owned Business Pitch Contest, including rules, eligibility criteria, submission requirements, and the application process, please click here.

Dailycsr.com – 12 April 2019 – Jessie Arnell works at Ceres, a non-profit sustainable organisation, as a “Federal Policy and Campaigns Associate”, who wrote that irrespective of political stance, the corporate world of the U.S. is well aware of the “significant risk” imposed on the country’s economy due to the climate change phenomenon. In fact, the urgency for action is equally understood.
 
In the words of the Climate Change Communication’s Director at Yale Programme, Anthony Leiserowitz:
“One of the most important things that companies can do is to continue to elevate the voices that say ‘this is beyond politics’”.
 
Jessie agrees with Leiserowitz and exclaimed:
“Sadly, climate change has become a deeply partisan issue over the last few years, and the responses to proposals like the Green New Deal threaten to further politicize this global challenge. Businesses, however, don’t view taking action on climate as a political issue: they treat climate change as an economic risk—and an opportunity”.
 
Businesses from various sectors are aware of the climate change’s economic reality, while delay in taking appropriate action or “denying science” altogether is “no longer a viable economic possibility”.
 
Following the reports presented at fall last year, the “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” issued a warning to curb the global temperature growth within “1.5 degrees Celsius” so as to “avoid dire consequences”. Moreover, the report also gave a detailed account on how the climate change is affecting the health and the economy of the country. While, Arnell added:
“Together, these reports underscore that avoiding the worst effects of climate change will require dramatically increasing the pace and scale of greenhouse gas emission reductions”.
 
The corporate world has been taking action in this matter through commitments and work to bring down the emissions in their “operations and across their supply chains”. Many major companies, including “Apple, Bank of America, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Mars Incorporated, and Nike”, have pledged to source hundred percent green energy. Some companies sought “ambitious science-based targets” for emissions reduction while others poured in their money in electric vehicles.
 
These actions are taken not only to mitigate the looming risks but also “to take advantage of the opportunities throughout every sector of the economy”, as told by Leiserowitz. There is an accelerated move towards low carbon economy as the corporate sector regards it to be the future.
 
Arnell stressed on the fact that Americans consider “companies not simply as providers of a specific service, but also as partners in helping meet larger sustainability goals”. As per the findings of “Yale Program for Climate Change Communications”, said Arnell, “Americans overwhelmingly believe that policies that promote clean energy will improve economic growth and create jobs”.
 
Nevertheless, the existent U.S. policy fails to support the Americans’ enthusiasm. Therefore, Arnell added that companies “have a leadership role to play in sharing their sustainability stories and making the business case for addressing climate change, engaging with policymakers on both sides of the aisle”.
 
 
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com

Dailycsr.com – 06 August 2018 – On July 20, 2018, 15 top “luxury companies” came together to launch a “new report” which outlines the “opportunities and recommendations” for the luxury market sector in the battle against the global challenges that arise due to “climate change and biodiversity loss, new technologies and automation, and rising economic inequality”.
 
The leaders from “luxury group Kering, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Limited, and BSR (Business for Social Responsibility)” met at “The Peninsula Hong Kong” to celebrate the launch and to discuss about the same. The above mentioned report has been titled as “Disrupting Luxury: Creating Resilient Businesses in Times of Rapid Change”.
 
The report, however, has taken shape under a “groundbreaking collaboration” which involved “members of BSR’s Responsible Luxury Initiative (ReLI)”, including “Cartier, CHANEL, Harvey Nichols Group plc, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Limited, IWC Schaffhausen, Kering, LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton S.A., Michael Kors Holdings Limited, mytheresa.com, OTB, PVH Corp., Ralph Lauren, Richemont International S.A., Swarovski, and Tiffany & Co.”.
 
Moreover, below are mentioned the highlights of the report which has been categorised under “three opportunities for luxury companies”, as mentioned by BSR, for creating “strong, resilient brands” besides building trust in a rapidly changing environment:

 
In the words of the managing director as well as the head person of “Responsible Luxury Initiative” at BSR, Elisa Niemtzow:
“This is a unique report in that it offers a perspective on how luxury companies specifically can build on their strengths to successfully grapple with an increasingly volatile world context. Many luxury companies came together to contribute to this report, signaling that while competition may be alive and well in the commercial space, luxury brands recognize that collaboration towards social and environmental progress is essential to the future of the industry.”
 
Kering’s chief sustainable officer and head if international institutional affairs, Marie-Claire Daveu said:
“Luxury companies have the added responsibility as trendsetters to create value for the good of the environment and society, which can then influence the entire fashion industry to act. In prioritizing sustainability and embedding proactive strategies into our business models now, the luxury sector will become more adaptive to future challenges and ultimately this will provide us with critical business advantages.”
 
Furthermore, the corporate responsibility and sustainability director at The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Limited, Janice Lao added:
“We are delighted to collaborate with other world-leading luxury brands to tackle the serious issues we are all facing. As a company with 150 years of heritage, we understand the necessity of creating long-term value and being resilient in the face of rapid change. The Responsible Luxury Initiative is creating a world where luxury brands can flourish, but we also believe companies—especially aspirational luxury brands—have a responsibility to take action and drive positive change. We hope more companies will be inspired to join this initiative”.
 
While the “Global Vice President Corporate Sustainability & Social Responsibility” at Swarovski, Dax Lovegrove noted:
“The luxury sector has to step up now and stand for excellence in both quality and sustainability”.
 
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com

Dailycsr.com – 04 October 2017 – Businesses can effectively include sustainability in their process of taking decision with the NFR or “Non-Financial Reporting” system which will help in identifying “critical ESG issues, risks and opportunities”, reports Sangeeta Waldron.
 
Moreover, with NFR system, companies will be able to involve “various stakeholders” into “constructive dialogue” regarding the impacts made by their respective businesses. Recently, the European Commission came out with an “NFR Directive”, whereby from the year of 2017 as many as “8,000 large EU companies” will annually report on “their major ESG risks, respect for human rights, anti-corruption issues, and board diversity”.
 
The first report under NFR Directive will appear in the year of 2018 wherein companies will publish information regarding their “global impacts”, policies regarding them, as well as “due diligence procedures for addressing those impacts”. While, Waldron writes:
“The EU Commission has now released a set of guidelines to help companies comply with both the spirit and letter of this EU Directive on Non-Financial Reporting. The guidelines have been welcomed by the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ), the WWF European Policy Office and Amnesty International”.
 
The above mentioned guidelines clarifies the “application of the Directive” and prevents boilerplating of the reporting disclosure, whereby particularly emphasising on the “need to report on supply chains and other business relationships”. Waldron reports that the senior executive officer of Amnesty International, Nele Meyer thinks that “the guidelines deliver a clear and direct message to businesses that they must be transparent about risks of human rights abuse in their supply chains. They must also allow people who are potential victims to understand if their rights are at risk”.
 
Codifying the standards that are “globally recognised” for corporate human rights reporting, the “UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises” have inspired the above mentioned guidelines. While, the NFR Directive has been responsible for introducing a shift that takes the reporting purpose from “the risk” regarding the “company alone” to the “people into account”.
 
Moreover, the guidelines pushes companies into disclosing “forward looking information based on climate scenario analysis”. In Waldron’s words:
“Jerome Chaplier, ECCJ Coordinator, said that these new corporate disclosure rules are part of a fundamental shift in assessing corporate performance and mark a significant step forward for improved corporate transparency”.
 
 
 
 
References:
ethicalperformance.com

Dailycsr.com – 25 April 2017 – The Antea Group is hosting a one day long workshop, wherein the “brightest” of “EHS minds” in tech line will come together to collaborate, share about “best practice” and gather insight into “the complex challenges” that come on the way to manage “EHS across global operations”.
 
The EHSxTech workshop will be also co-hosted by “Salesforce”, while “Microsoft, Autodesk” as well as Salesforce will come up with their “special presentations”.
 
Here is a list of topics that will be covered in event, as mentioned by Antea Group:

 
While features speakers are, as mentioned by Antea Group:

 
 
 
 
References:
ethicalperformance.com
http://us.anteagroup.com