Page 43 – The Business Pinnacle

Berkshire Hathaway Unit sells $1.1 billion of a 31-year Green Bond to be due in 2053

by The Business Pinnacle November 30, 2022

written by The Business Pinnacle

Power utility PacifiCorp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company sold $1.1 billion of ecologically friendly bonds due in 2053, the lengthiest maturity to be offered in the sustainable debt market from a US corporation during this year. The offering from the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. unit is one of the lengthiest maturities from a green corporate issuer in the US ever, according to Bloomberg’s data compilation. The green bonds yield 1.53 percentage points above Treasuries, after initial discussions of about 1.8 percentage points, according to an individual with information on the subject.

Proceeds from the offering to be used to fund a series of eligible projects – According to Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s green financing framework

Proceeds from the offering will be used to fund a series of eligible projects that consist of renewable energy, climate change adaptation, and clean transportation, according to Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s green financing framework. The Portland, Oregon-based power utility raised $1 billion through similar bonds the previous year.

PacifiCorp is among 11 companies that scurried to the US high-grade market on Tuesday to raise new capital in advance of expected volatility. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is slated to speak Wednesday, with crucial inflation data points to go along with on Thursday and the monthly US employment report on Friday.

Bonds set aside for environmental, social, and governance projects are attributing for a smaller, share of global corporate debt issuance in 2022, indicating the first decline in their brief history, according to BloombergNEF data compilation. The green bond global sales amount to about $465 billion year-to-date, approximately 13% less than at the same point the previous year.

Bank of Montreal, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Toronto-Dominion Bank, and Wells Fargo & Co. managed the sale of the bond, Bloomberg stated.

About PacifiCorp

PacifiCorp is a leading western U.S. energy services provider and the largest grid owner/operator in the West, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company. Serving 2 million consumers throughout 143,000 square miles in six western states, it will continue to grow its renewable resources and transition to a lower carbon future.

The largest grid operator in the western United States, it serves the growing energy needs of 2 million consumers while protecting the ecosystem. PacifiCorp’s business units are leaders in offering safe, reliable, and sustainable low-cost power.

Pacific Power serves consumers in Oregon, Washington, and California.
Rocky Mountain Power serves consumers in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming.

Expanding a cleaner future

In all aspects of its business, the company is reducing its environmental impacts and leading the way to a clean energy future.

Revolutionizing energy solutions

PacifiCorp develops innovative solutions and leverages technology to make its grid more effective, resilient, and secure.

November 30, 2022 0 comments

Eng & Tech

LyondellBasell and Audi create the first automotive plastic parts from mixed automotive plastic waste

by The Business Pinnacle November 29, 2022

written by The Business Pinnacle

LyondellBasell and Audi on Monday announced a first-time partnership to help close the loop for mixed automotive plastic waste. Audi is installing plastic seatbelt buckle covers in the Q8 e-tron created by making use of LyondellBasell plastic that supports the sourcing of feedstocks from mixed automotive plastic waste. Plastic parts from consumer vehicles that can no longer be restored are dismantled, shredded, and treated by chemical recycling into pyrolysis oil. The pyrolysis oil is then used as a raw material in LyondellBasell’s manufacturing process to manufacture new plastics, replacing virgin fossil feedstocks. The recycled content is ascribed to the Audi product by a mass balance approach.

As part of the PlasticLoop project, the company is working with Audi to establish an innovative closed-loop process, recycling plastic automotive parts for use in new vehicles, said Erik Licht, Director, of New Business Development at LyondellBasell Advanced Polymer Solutions.

For the first time, the company is using chemical recycling to recycle mixed automotive plastic waste into plastic granulation for automotive interior applications. The plastic granulate is then used in the production of the seatbelt buckle covers for the Audi Q8 e-tron, Licht added.

With this method, LyondellBasell, Audi, and chemical recycler SynCycle (Next Generation Group and BDI), achieve in recycling a stream of material which currently is mainly just suitable for energy recovery. This reduces the usage of fossil-based core materials for the Audi Q8 e-tron and holds significant feedstocks in a circular loop.

Materials generated from pyrolysis oil are of a similar high quality as virgin materials and have identical properties. Chemical recycling extends an alternative to energy recovery and adds mechanical recycling.

“Audi’s vision is to use secondary materials wherever it is technically possible, economically viable, and ecologically beneficial,” states Philipp Eder, Project Manager for Circular Economy in the Supply Chain at Audi.

The PlasticLoop project is part of Audi’s circular economy strategy and a good instance of cross-sector cooperation contained by the Audi supply chain. Outcomes from the project are also integrated into the product development of future vehicle projects via the ‘‘Design for Recycling’’ approach, Eder added.

LyondellBasell’s polymer product (including fillers and additives) is produced from chemical recycling making use of 70% recycled content by weight. The recycled content is distributed by a mass balance technique, and validated by an independent certification body, ecoloop. This implies that recycled and non-recycled feedstocks are mixed in the production process, and an extent of recycled feedstock equivalent to 70% of the Audi product was attributed using a certified mass balance accounting methodology.

About Audi

The Audi Group is one of the most successful manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles in the premium and luxury sectors. The brands Audi, Ducati, Lamborghini, and Bentley create at 21 locations in 13 countries. Audi and its partners are present in over 100 markets worldwide. In 2021, the Audi Group delivered about 1.681 million cars from the Audi brand, 8,405 sports cars from the Lamborghini brand, and 59,447 motorcycles from the Ducati brand to customers. In 2021, Audi AG attained a total revenue of €53.1 billion and an operating profit prior to special items of €5.5 billion. More than 89,000 people across the globe work for the Audi Group, around 58,000 of them in Germany.

With its attractive brands, new models, innovative mobility offerings, and leading-edge services, the group is methodically pursuing its path toward becoming a provider of sustainable, individual, premium mobility.

About LyondellBasell

As a leader in the global chemical industry, LyondellBasell strives every day to be the best, top-quality, and most valued company in the industry. The company’s materials, products, and technological know-how are advancing sustainable solutions for food safety, access to clean water, healthcare, and fuel efficiency in more than 100 international markets. LyondellBasell places a high priority on diversity, equity, and inclusion and is Advancing Good with prominence on the planet, the communities where it operates, and the future workforce.

The firm takes great pride in its state-of-the-art technology and customer emphasis. LyondellBasell has paced up its circularity and climate ambitions and measures to address the global trials of plastic waste and decarbonization. In 2022, LyondellBasell was named one of FORTUNE Magazine’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” for the fifth consecutive year.

November 29, 2022 0 comments

Health

iCAD and Google Health announce strategic development and commercialization agreement to integrate AI

by The Business Pinnacle November 29, 2022

written by The Business Pinnacle

The agreement indicates Google Health’s first collaboration with a mammography AI vendor

iCAD Inc., a global medical technology leader providing innovative cancer detection and therapy solutions, on Monday announced a strategic development and commercialization agreement with Google Health to integrate its artificial intelligence (AI) technology into the portfolio of iCAD’s breast imaging AI solutions.

Google Health has entered to introduce its breast imaging AI into clinical practice, marking the first commercial partnership. Both companies will work together to enhance ICAD’s preeminent breast cancer AI solutions for mammography and increase access to the technology for millions of women and providers around the world. iCAD will also leverage Google Cloud’s reliable, scalable infrastructure, accelerating the point in time to market for iCAD’s cloud-held offerings.

Through this partnership, Google has licensed its mammography AI technology and personalized risk assessment with iCAD. iCAD will apply the licensed technology to further improve its 2D and 3D AI algorithms and will commercialize advanced products.

Partnering with Google marks a historic milestone for iCAD, as leveraging Google’s exceptional AI and Cloud technology elevates the caliber of its industry-leading breast AI technologies and may also accelerate adoption and expand access on a global scale, said Stacey Stevens, President, and CEO at iCAD.

Google Health is iCAD’s cross-company initiative to use technology to help everyone, everywhere to be healthier, and collaborating with state-of-the-art companies like iCAD is a key part of this strategy, said Greg Corrado, Distinguished Scientist / Senior Research Director, Google AI.

Google Health’s AI tech may be used to make healthcare more accessible, more open, and more accurate. The entire network needs to work together to expand healthcare solutions that indeed improve service to patients, doctors, and health systems, Corrado stated.

Google Health working with iCAD is an excellent illustration of two organizations partnering to leverage their common forces, technological capabilities, and resources to enhance breast cancer screening worldwide, with the ultimate objective of improving the health outcomes of individuals and communities, Corrado added.

Advancing innovation through partnership

iCAD’s Breast AI Suite is a wide-ranging portfolio of clinically proven technologies for breast cancer detection, density assessment, and individualized short-term risk evaluation.

Through this partnership, iCAD will validate and integrate Google Health’s mammography AI technology into its Breast AI Suite, to maintain patients’ cancer journeys.

Although 3D mammography is increasing in adoption around the world, in many countries 2D mammography remains widely prevalent for breast cancer screening, said Axel Gräwingholt, Head of the Department of Mammography Screening at the Radiologie Am Theater in Paderborn, Germany.

A growing body of research shows ProFound AI could play a significant role in empowering clinicians to overcome these challenges, and iCAD’s commitment to the continual advancement of this technology offers clinicians significant tools that can lead to enhanced outcomes for all, Gräwingholt said.

iCAD also plans to incorporate Google Health’s mammography AI technology into ProFound AI Risk, the world’s first clinical decision support tool that offers an accurate short-term breast cancer risk assessment that is truly tailored for each individual. This is the only commercially available technology that can prospectively detect people who are at a high risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer before or at their next screening, using information readily available in a screening mammogram. It offers clinicians significant information that can support them customize screening regimens for patients, based on their risk, rather than a single-size-fits-all age-based screening program which is the situation in several countries.

Expanding access by cloud-based offerings

In addition to licensing Google Health’s mammography AI technology, iCAD will also leverage Google Cloud’s secure, scalable infrastructure to embark on transforming its delivery model from an on-premises suite of solutions to cloud-hosted solutions. The capability to develop cloud-hosted solutions in different regions can facilitate business-scale access to AI-based tools in underserved regions that are hindered by infrastructure challenges.

Google Cloud presently supports a wide variety of healthcare systems and workflows, to enable secure, unceasing patient care, empower healthcare professionals with partnership and productivity tools, and make better clinical and operational decisions based on data analytics and acumens. By integrating with Google Cloud, iCAD businesses will be able to deploy and scale iCAD’s solutions more seamlessly, extending incomparable interoperability and the potential to increase access on a global scale.

“With customers in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, Google Cloud is used extensively across an array of industries, and it is particularly well optimized for healthcare imaging AI delivery. This partnership will improve its ability to expand its addressable market and accelerate the commercialization of its cloud offering, said Ms. Stevens.

Healthcare providers are gradually shifting away from locally deployed systems in favor of virtual or remote locations. Additionally, hospitals are under increasing pressure to reduce costs, while providing higher-quality care, underscoring the need to streamline operations and increase clinician productivity. Integrating Google’s Cloud technology into this more flexible delivery model offers facilities the solution they need, and the technology patients deserve, Ms. Stevens added.

About iCAD, Inc.

iCAD, Inc., headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire, is a global medical technology leader providing innovative cancer detection and therapy solutions.

About Google Health

Google Health is an enterprise-wide endeavor to help billions of people be healthier. It works toward this vision by meeting people in their everyday moments and empowering them to remain healthy and uniting with care teams and the public health community to provide more accessible, accurate, and equitable care. The teams are applying their expertise and technology to improve health outcomes globally – with high-quality information and tools to support people manage their health and well-being, solutions to transform care delivery, research to catalyze the use of artificial intelligence for the screening and diagnosis of disease and data and acumens to the public health community.

November 29, 2022 0 comments

Tourism

The World Travel & Tourism Council’s 22nd Global Summit is set to be the largest ever in Riyadh

by The Business Pinnacle November 28, 2022

written by The Business Pinnacle

Global Summit will exhibit how travel is the solution for a healthier future

The World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) 22^nd Global Summit opens its doors today to the biggest event in history in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The global tourism body’s highly awaited Global Summit, which is the most influential Travel & Tourism event on the schedule, inaugurates today in Riyadh with approximately 3,000 people anticipated to be present.

With more international business leaders and foreign government delegations attending than ever before, addressing media from across the globe, Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, announced that the event taking place this week is set to break all records.

Simpson also said over the next five years, WTTC affiliates are set to invest more than $10.5 billion in the Kingdom.

Presenters taking to the podium include Former UK Prime Minister Theresa May, the first to hold two of the Great Offices of State and UK’s second woman Prime Minister following Margaret Thatcher.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will also address the delegates. During his tenure, he advocated sustainable development and gender equality at the top of the UN program. He was also instrumental in obtaining the Paris Climate Agreement, rallying global leaders behind climate action – a historic accomplishment for global diplomacy.

Actor, filmmaker, and Golden Globe winner, Edward Norton, will also address the Global Summit. An advocate for renewable energy and an ardent supporter of the African Wildlife Foundation, Norton will participate in an exceptional Q&A session.

Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO said: “Our Global Summit will be our biggest ever in terms of business leaders, international media, and governments from around the world’’.

Simpson added that their event is bringing together many of the world’s most powerful Travel & Tourism business leaders to discuss and secure its long-term future, which is crucial to economies, jobs, and livelihoods from across the globe.

His Excellency Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia, said that the Kingdom is proud to welcome the 22nd WTTC Global Summit to Riyadh.

With more government ministers and world-leading CEOs than ever before, it will be a true display of the future we want to create. A future founded in public and private sector partnership, with sustainability and innovation at its core, Al-Khateeb added.

‘‘Travel for a Better Future’’ is the theme for the event that will focus on the value of the sector, not only to the global economy but to the planet and communities across the globe.

November 28, 2022 0 comments

Construction

POSCO Chemical completes the world’s largest cathode production single plant in Gwangyang

by The Business Pinnacle November 28, 2022

written by The Business Pinnacle

POSCO Chemical has completed the construction of the world’s largest cathode production plant in Gwangyang, starting a full-scale operation that will have an annual cathode production capacity of 90,000 tonnes. The plant is anticipated to play a vital role in setting the foundation as the company expands as a top-notch battery material producer, hailed for its production capacity, high-quality products and materials, and product diversification.

On November 10, 2022, POSCO Chemical held a completion commemoration for the cathode material plant in Gwangyang, Jeollanam-do, South Korea. Around 100 business executives attended the event – Kyung-zoon Min, CEO of POSCO Chemical, Sung-hee Han, CEO of POSCO E&C, Sang-rak Song, Director of Gwangyang Bay Area Free Economic Zone Authority.

CEO of POSCO Chemical Kyung-zoon Min “We hope to secure growth engines by accelerating global investment based on the Gwangyang cathode plant”

The newly constructed cathode material plant is anticipated to increase the annual production capacity from 3 to 90,000 tonnes. It has the world’s largest production capacity built on a single plant. This annual production capacity is equivalent to the number of cathode materials required to manufacture batteries for 1 million high-performance electric vehicles (EVs).

Produce high-nickel cathode materials for next-generation EVs and supply them to global clients

The Gwangyang plant will specialize in generating high-nickel NCMA and NCM cathodes, which are next-generation electric vehicle battery materials and supply them to global battery manufacturers and automakers. In the time to come, the company prepares to respond flexibly to changing market demands by launching extensive product lines involving high nickel single particle cathodes, NCA cathodes, and Cathode Materials for Energy Storage System (ESS).

Step-by-step enlargement process

The cathode plant was enlarged over four years and three months following a four-step process, which considered the condition of the market and the status of contracts, with the initial phase being introducing a production plant with an annual production capacity of 5,000 tonnes in August of 2018. The plant has a total area of 165,203 square metres, which is equivalent to the size of 23 soccer fields.

The Gwangyang plant has advanced into a smart factory that facilitates quicker and more effective production of the finest products, owing to POSCO Chemical’s amassed knowledge and technical proficiency and POSCO Group’s manufacturing, construction, and ICT expertise.

Continuous improvement in the process led to a 300% increase in the production capacity per line associated with the preliminary stages of construction. The entire procedure is operated unmanned, and a logistics system that can move raw materials and products swiftly at a pace of 5 meters per second utilizing an air transport technique is as well equipped.

The company is profoundly following RE100 and ecological management by installing solar power generation facilities that can generate around 1.3GWh of renewable energy per annum on the roof and parking spaces and reducing wastewater generated during precursor production by 49% associated with the existing procedure through the introduction of recycled use of water and pollutant reduction facilities.

The POSCO Group is creating a full value chain cluster of battery materials near the Gwangyang plant, where the company can produce raw materials, intermediary materials, and cathode materials in a single area. This cluster, which will bring the Group’s material competitiveness into a single area, will highlight POSCO-Pilbara Lithium Solution, which produces 43,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per annum. POSCO HY Clean Metal, extracts lithium, nickel, and cobalt from recycled waste batteries, including a precursor plant with an annual capacity of 45,000 tonnes to produce intermediary materials.

With the completion of the Gwangyang plant which has a 90,000-ton production capacity per annum, POSCO Chemical has secured a total of 105,000 tonnes of cathode material production capacity, including the 10,000 tonnes from Gumi plant and 5,000 tonnes from its joint ZPHE, also called Zhejiang Posco-Huayou ESM plant in China. Additionally, at present, the company is building a 60,000-ton Pohang plant, a 30,000-ton ZPHE plant in China, and a 30,000-ton GM joint plant in Canada.

POSCO Chemical, which has built the world’s largest and highest-level production base, prepares to expand its global centres in North America, Europe, and China.

POSCO Chemical, which has developed the world’s largest and highest-level production base, proposes to expand its global bases in North America, Europe, and China by responding more swiftly and flexibly to potential market variations and customer demands. Applying the Gwangyang plant as a role-model plant, the company intends to become a top-notch battery material business with extensive R&D and an unparalleled product portfolio by expanding its cathode production capacity in-country and overseas to 340,000 tonnes in 2025 and 610,000 tonnes in 2030.

November 28, 2022 0 comments

Financial Market

Matrixport seeks $1.5 billion funding estimate after FTX collapse

by The Business Pinnacle November 25, 2022

written by The Business Pinnacle

Matrixport Technologies Pte, one of Asia’s biggest crypto lenders, is targeting $100 million in funding at a higher valuation, despite the fall of FTX resounding across the digital asset market.

The Singapore outfit has commitments from lead investors for $50 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion in the round, up from $1 billion a year earlier, according to known sources. The deal has yet to be finalized and the company is still seeking investors for the other half of the round, said the people, soliciting not to be named as discussing private information. Now it’s not immediately clear who the round’s lead investors are.

Matrixport customarily participates with key stakeholders as part of its regular course of business, including investors devoted to participating and enabling its vision as a digital assets financial services provider, the company’s public relations head Ross Gan said, substantiating the fundraising plan.

Matrixport, founded by crypto billionaire Wu Jihan, has its place in a category of firms aiming to create a familiar Wall Street formula for the virtual-asset ecosystem. It offers crypto financial services from custody to trading and structured products – to both institutional and retail businesses. In Asia, it participates with firms like Babel Finance, which is restructuring after taking strikes from this year’s crypto meltdown, and Temasek Holdings Pte. backed Amber Group.

Matrixport said it has no probability of insolvency

Investors have been burned by a series of high-profile crypto failures in recent months, generating fresh concerns over loose regulation of the industry and a lack of guardrails to protect client assets. In the aftermath of FTX’s collapse, Matrixport said this month it has no probability of insolvency in Sam Bankman-Fried’s realm but dozens of its customers incurred losses via exposure to FTX-linked products on its platform. Matrixport has said it faces no risk of insolvency, but a total of 79 users on its platform had suffered losses in products linked in FTX.

In August last year, Matrixport attained unicorn status in a funding round that was led by partners of Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s DST Global, Hong Kong tycoon Adrian Cheng’s C Capital, and K3 Ventures, founded by Kuok Meng Xiong, the grandson of Malaysia’s richest person Robert Kuok.

Matrixport says it handles $5 billion of trades each month and has tens of billions of dollars of assets under management and custody, according to an investor deck viewed by Bloomberg News. The firm engages close together to 300 people, it states.

In 2013, Wu partnered with Micree Ketuan Zhan to launch Bitmain Technologies, a supplier of specialized hardware well-known as mining rigs which are intended for the single task of adding transactions to bitcoin’s blockchain. The people who own the hardware earn, or mine, new bitcoins by making their processing power accessible to the network.

Wu, the co-founder of crypto-mining behemoth Bitmain Technologies Ltd., turned his second venture into a unicorn last summer when Matrixport raised more than $100 million from backers including DST Global and Tiger Global. Matrixport also counted IDG Capital and Dragonfly Capital as investors.

In 2019, Wu spun Matrixport off from Bitmain, after the world’s largest maker of Bitcoin mining rigs ran into a cash crunch. The Chinese crypto magnate now serves as chairman of Matrixport and his mining firm Bitdeer Technologies Holding Co.

November 25, 2022 0 comments

ESG

Renault Group is expediating the decarbonization plan for its plants in France and announces three major partnerships with energy players: Volatile, ENGIE, and Dalkia

by The Business Pinnacle November 24, 2022

written by The Business Pinnacle

Renault Group today announced expediating the decarbonization plan for its industrial sites with three strategic and exceptional partnerships to achieve its energy transition goals. This new stage has emerged today with Voltalia as the major green electricity supply contract in France – for the French industries of the Group; with ENGIE for the first deep geothermal project on a European manufacturing site, in Douai; and Dalkia, an EDF Group subsidiary, for the installation of a biomass boiler, in Maubeuge.

The Group strengthens its commitment to achieving net zero carbon at its Electricity plants in Hauts-de-France by 2025, in Europe by 2030, and globally by 2050. With other initiatives, the Group is drawing up a large-scale concrete plan to accelerate industrial decarbonization via photovoltaics, geothermal energy, and biomass. Renault is committed to the energy transition for over 10 years and reasserted in the Climate Strategy in April 2021.

Renault Group and Voltalia mark the biggest green electricity supply agreement in France

Renault Group and Voltalia sign France’s largest long-term renewable electricity supply agreement (Corporate Power Purchasing Agreement) indicating the production of nearly 500 gigawatt hours per year for a capacity of 350 megawatts by 2027. With a duration of 15 years, it is an exceptional commitment in France in relation to dominions. By 2027, the long-term agreement will enable Renault Group to cover up to 50% of the electricity consumption of the producer’s manufacturing activities in France.

As of 2025, Voltalia will install photovoltaic panels for a capacity of 100 megawatts in the French region. The capacity offered to Renault by Voltalia will increase steadily over the following years, achieving a total of 350 megawatts by 2027. This agreement will cover Cléon’s electric activities as well as all the sustainable electricity requirements of the ElectriCity cluster, the largest and highly viable electric vehicle production facility in Europe whose objective is to generate 500,000 vehicles per year by 2025.

Renault Group and ENGIE are building a deep geothermal energy project at the Douai plant, an exceptional project in Europe

This large-scale project is incorporated as part of a Heat Purchase Agreement (HPA) with the purpose of supplying the plant with carbon-free heat, restoring 70% of its gas requirements from local and renewable sources. The collaboration would extend over 15 years. Therefore by this commitment, Renault Group will strengthen its leading position in the decarbonization of its industrial sites.

By the end of 2023, ENGIE, through its subsidiary ENGIE Solutions, will commence drilling work at the Douai plant to draw boiling water (130-140°C) from a depth of 4,000 meters to secure the calories required for the plant’s industrial and heating process requirements. The geothermal water will subsequently be restored to its natural environment. Once applied, this geothermal technology would offer a power of almost 40 MW constantly. In summer, when the requirement for temperature is lower, geothermal energy may possibly be used to generate carbon-free electricity.

Renault Group and Dalkia partners to supply carbon-free heat to the Maubeuge plant

Renault Group and Dalkia, an EDF Group subsidiary specializing in renewable energies, have signed a 15-year partnership to supply carbon-free heat to the Maubeuge Renault plant through the installation of a biomass boiler and waste heat recovery systems on-site. With a capacity of 15 MW, this boiler would enable the factory to cover 65% of its gas requirements from local and renewable resources by 2025.

The decarbonization plan entails all Renault Group sites on the four continents where the Group operates. To avoid the use of fossil fuels, and to make this transition to renewable energy, Renault Group is surrounded by a group of partners to deploy its decarbonization strategy across the globe.

November 24, 2022 0 comments

Health

UAE unveils its first eye donation transplant bank

by The Business Pinnacle November 24, 2022

written by The Business Pinnacle

The UAE has announced that Abu-Dhabi will house the nation’s first eye bank.

As part of its efforts to establish a world without blindness, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Health will collaborate with a top US medical company to build a facility that will import and store donated corneas in the UAE.

The Department of Health in Abu Dhabi (DoH) is working on the project with US-based Eversight and has urged UAE citizens to consent to post-mortem organ and tissue donation.

#GivingTuesday is just one week away! Please consider giving to Eversight on this international day of generosity. Your gift will help Eversight purchase materials and equipment to continue the fight against global blindness: https://t.co/MsiYTlXtfe. #YouChangeLives pic.twitter.com/LAVRYjWWcL

— Eversight (@EversightVision) November 22, 2022

Vision for UAE healthcare

This will be the first eye and tissue bank in the UAE, and Eversight is one of the top non-profit eye banks in the world.

A complete and seamless eye transplantation framework will be developed, implemented, and maintained in the UAE as a result of the agreement.

DoH and Eversight will establish the new business in three phases through this strategic partnership including program design, implementation, and management.

Both organizations will initially concentrate on executing the essential arrangements in place so that the Eye and Tissue Bank and Abu Dhabi would serve as the region’s importers of corneas and other eye-related tissues.

Additionally, the National Programme for Organ Donation and Transplantation of the UAE will incorporate the eye and tissue banking program.

To standardize and operate processes within the Eye and Tissue Bank – Abu Dhabi in accordance with global best standards, Eversight will create a thorough medical framework for the region.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reflecting the partnership was signed by Dr. Jamal Mohammed Al Kaabi, Undersecretary of DoH and Erik Hellier, Director of Global Development of Eversight, in the presence of Abdulla bin Mohamed Al Hamed, Chairman of DoH, and Carrie Wolverton – Global Development Executive Director at Eversight.

Dr. Al Kaabi said that in the directives of their wise leadership, Abu Dhabi continues to partner with leading international bodies to promote its national healthcare operations across all frontages.

DoH is proud to have partnered with Eversight to determine yet another impactful program that promotes to sustaining and enriching lives in the UAE and beyond, stated Dr Al Kaabi.

The partnership would aim to further improve healthcare outcomes and facilitate quick and seamless operations for all patients in need of eye-tissue transplantation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Al Kaabi continued DoH would urge all community members to register their consent to donate organs and tissues post-mortem.

While the team works relentlessly to reiterate Abu Dhabi’s position as a leading destination for healthcare, DoH would empower its community to partake in the journey to excellence through noble and sentimental actions as this.

Hellier said, its vision for the future is to expand its reach, connect more effectively with all communities and provide a life full of sight to anyone in need.

“Eversight’s vision is a world without blindness. This partnership is an enormous step towards that vision, Hellier added, this is the highlight of my 17 years in eye banking, and we are very excited for the future’’.

November 24, 2022 0 comments

Agriculture

OCP Group partners with Bioline and Agrorobótica to launch their first carbon farming and certification project to support sustainable agriculture in Brazil

by The Business Pinnacle November 23, 2022

written by The Business Pinnacle

OCP Group, one of the world’s largest custodians and suppliers of phosphate-based fertilizers and associated products on Tuesday announced a partnership for an initial carbon farming and certification project across Matto Grosso – the leading producer of livestock and grains in Brazil, alongside the farmers’ cooperative Bioline by Invivo, and agtech company, Agrorobótica. The selected farmer is an early adopter of innovative technologies. At present, the project would be covering areas of cotton, soybean, and corn, which are representative of Brazilian agriculture.

The project offshoots from a shared belief that soil health management is vital to developing the environment, attaining food security, and working towards global net zero ambitions. This is now the beginning of a larger partnership between OCP Group, Bioline, and Agrorobótica.

The partnership would promote regenerative farming practices to improve yield and soil quality through individualized digital solutions that are tailor-made to the region and the crop. For attaining this, the project will utilize Agrorobótica’s AI-led soil analysis tool – Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) – to assess, report, and validate carbon content and sequestration potential. LIBS is an analytical method that utilizes a high-focused laser to create micro plasma on the surface of the soil sample, to ascertain its rudimentary composition without producing any harmful chemical residues.

LIBS creates insights that enable a farmer to adopt the regenerative systems essential for sustainable agriculture. These systems enhance the soil’s capacity to sequester carbon and improve soil health and fertility, which in turn reduces carbon emissions, strengthens food security, and helps to enhance revenues for farmers.

The carbon credits created from the project offer a valuable source of income for the farmer and OCP Group will put the carbon credits that it obtains from this partnership towards its individual objectives of achieving Zero carbon emissions by 2040.

The partnership is OCP Group’s first phase into carbon agriculture, reflecting its strategy to take the lead in a sustainable agriculture transformation and promote innovative smart practices to improve harvests and soil quality.

Hanane Mourchid, Chief Sustainability Officer of OCP Group, said: OCP Group promotes regenerative agriculture practices in Brazil, Africa, and many areas across the globe by supporting farmers through training, deploying the 4R approach, and fostering innovation.

The project is a concrete way to unlock the potential of agriculture as a natural carbon sink that will help achieve the Paris Agreement objectives, Mourchid added.

Laurent Martel, Bioline by InVivo CEO, said that this project demonstrates Bioline by InVivo’s commitment to accelerate agricultural solutions for the environment, by diversifying farmers’ revenues.

Agriculture can regenerate natural capital, agriculture is a solution to the climate crunch, and farmers must be compensated for their regenerating actions.

‘‘We are launching a French Carbon Farming project: Carbone&Co, with French cooperatives, and created CarbonExtract, a digital monitoring, reporting, and verification digital tool for carbon farming projects,’’ Martel said.

Carbon farming is a nascent model that needs to be assessed on different experimental grounds, alongside other tools to finance the transition, and a global approach makes a lot of sense to identify the best approaches. Bioline expects a great deal from its partnership with OCP through this pilot which will feed its knowledge-building to discover, create and accelerate the solutions that will help farmers regenerate the ecosystem and diversify their income.

Fábio Angelis, Founder & CEO of Agrorobótica said that the purpose of Agrorobótica is to contribute to food security and the mitigation of climate change in the sphere.

About OCP Group

OCP Group plays a significant role in feeding a growing global population by providing essential elements for plant growth and soil fertility. With a span of knowledge and revenues achieving US$ 9.4 billion in 2021, OCP is a leader in plant nutrition and the planet’s leading producer of phosphate-based fertilizers. Headquartered in Morocco and exhibiting on five continents, OCP works in close collaboration with over 350 businesses across the globe.

Closer to the home environment, OCP Group is dedicated to accelerating Africa’s ecological and social development and executing sustainable and flourishing cultivation through uninterrupted innovation. The Group is resolutely assured that leadership and profitability are tantamount to social responsibility and sustainable development. Its strategic vision is entrenched in the gathering of these two dimensions.

About Bioline by InVivo

Bioline Group, which is firmly implicated in the Third Way of Agriculture, is the InVivo group’s agriculture holding group. With businesses covering the total agricultural production chain, the company brings together a distinctive coalition of 360° expertise, organized into three business lines:

Bioline Seeds
Bioline Crop Care
Bioline Solutions

About Agrorobotica

Agrorobótica is a Green FinTech start-up that formed the AI platform AGLIBS, the same technology utilized by NASA in its robots to delve into the soils of Planet Mars. The platform supports farmers to solve major challenges on Planet Earth such as climate change mitigation and food security, creating enhanced productivity and agricultural sustainability as value creation, with carbon monetization and added value in products.

About Sementes Tropical

Sementes Tropical is an agricultural firm, founded in 1985. It had its foundations in Serra da Petrovina, with the farming of soybeans and the production of soybean seeds. At present, the company is a reference in the quality of soybean and cotton seeds at a national level and produces agricultural commodities such as soybeans, cotton, corn, and livestock.

November 23, 2022 0 comments

Legal & Tax

PBGC approves the application tendered to the Special Financial Assistance Program by the Teamsters Local 52 Pension Plan

by The Business Pinnacle November 23, 2022

written by The Business Pinnacle

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) stated on Tuesday that it has approved the application tendered to the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program by the Teamsters Local Union No.52 Pension Plan (Teamsters Local 52 Plan). The application was tendered and approved under provisions of PBGC’s SFA interim final rule. The plan, based in Valley View, Ohio encompasses 769 participants in the transportation industry.

The Teamsters Local 52 Plan will obtain nearly $84.9 million in special financial assistance, including interest to the anticipated time of payment to the plan. In 2023, the plan was anticipated to be strapped for cash. Devoid of the SFA Program, the Teamsters Local 52 Plan would have stayed essential to decrease participants’ benefits to the PBGC guarantee levels upon plan insolvency, which is approximately 60 percent lower than the benefits payable under the provisions of the plan. SFA will facilitate the plan to continue to pay retirement benefits without a decrease for several years into the future.

These 769 transportation workers worked with the assurance of a pension when they retired. Now, the Biden-Harris administration has fulfilled that assurance, said Marty Walsh, U.S. Secretary of Labor, chair of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Board of Directors.

Under President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the Teamsters Local Union No.52 Pension Fund will obtain Special Financial Assistance to deliver the pensions that these workers have earned, added Walsh.

About the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program

The SFA Program was authorized as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021. The program offers funding to acutely underfunded multiemployer pension plans and will guarantee that millions of America’s workers, retirees, and their families receive the pension benefits they earned through several ages of intense work.

The SFA Program requires plans to assess the amount of assistance under ARP and PBGC’s regulations to determine eligibility for SFA. SFA and earnings thereupon must be segregated from other plan assets and may be applied only to pay administrative expenses and plan benefits. Plans are not required to repay SFA to PBGC. Plans in receipt of SFA are also subject to specific terms, conditions, and reporting obligations, including an annual statement detailing following the terms and conditions. PBGC is authorized to carry out periodic audits of multiemployer plans that receive SFA.

At present, the SFA Program operates under a final rule, published in the Federal Register on July 08, 2022, which came to be effective on August 08, 2022. SFA applications submitted before that date indicate the provisions of the interim final rule, issued in the Federal Register on July 12, 2021.

As of November 22, 2022, PBGC has approved approximately $8.9 billion for plans that cover more than 191,000 workers, retirees, and beneficiaries.

About PBGC

PBGC protects the retirement security of more than 33 million American workers, retirees, and beneficiaries in both single-employer and multi-employer private sector pension plans. The agency’s two insurance programs are lawfully separate and financially and operationally independent. PBGC is directly accountable for the benefits of over 1.5 million participants and beneficiaries in unsuccessful pension plans. The Single-Employer Program is backed by investment income, insurance premiums, and assets and recoveries from unsuccessful single-employer plans. The Multiemployer Program is backed by insurance premiums. Special financial assistance for financially distressed multiemployer plans is funded by general taxpayer assets.

November 23, 2022 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts

Berkshire Hathaway Unit sells $1.1 billion of a 31-year Green Bond to be due in 2053

Proceeds from the offering to be used to fund a series of eligible projects – According to Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s green financing framework

About PacifiCorp

Expanding a cleaner future

LyondellBasell and Audi create the first automotive plastic parts from mixed automotive plastic waste

About Audi

About LyondellBasell

iCAD and Google Health announce strategic development and commercialization agreement to integrate AI

The agreement indicates Google Health’s first collaboration with a mammography AI vendor

About iCAD, Inc.

About Google Health

The World Travel & Tourism Council’s 22nd Global Summit is set to be the largest ever in Riyadh

Global Summit will exhibit how travel is the solution for a healthier future

POSCO Chemical completes the world’s largest cathode production single plant in Gwangyang

CEO of POSCO Chemical Kyung-zoon Min “We hope to secure growth engines by accelerating global investment based on the Gwangyang cathode plant”

Produce high-nickel cathode materials for next-generation EVs and supply them to global clients

Matrixport seeks $1.5 billion funding estimate after FTX collapse

Matrixport said it has no probability of insolvency

Renault Group is expediating the decarbonization plan for its plants in France and announces three major partnerships with energy players: Volatile, ENGIE, and Dalkia

Renault Group and Voltalia mark the biggest green electricity supply agreement in France

Renault Group and ENGIE are building a deep geothermal energy project at the Douai plant, an exceptional project in Europe

Renault Group and Dalkia partners to supply carbon-free heat to the Maubeuge plant

UAE unveils its first eye donation transplant bank

Vision for UAE healthcare

OCP Group partners with Bioline and Agrorobótica to launch their first carbon farming and certification project to support sustainable agriculture in Brazil

About OCP Group

PBGC approves the application tendered to the Special Financial Assistance Program by the Teamsters Local 52 Pension Plan

About PBGC

Editor's Pick

Random News

Popular Categories

Subscribe to Our Newsletters