During this, he released the first installment of this fund in the account of the farmers. With this, he also distributed the credit card to the farmers.
source http://www.ncairways.co/india-news/%e0%a4%aa%e0%a5%80%e0%a4%8f%e0%a4%ae-%e0%a4%ae%e0%a5%8b%e0%a4%a6%e0%a5%80-%e0%a4%a8%e0%a5%87-%e0%a4%9c%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%b0%e0%a5%80-%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%80-%e0%a4%95%e0%a4%bf%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%be%e0%a4%a8/
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Saturday, February 23, 2019
AT&T: sustainability on a massive scale
Aligning the notion and practice of sustainability within the biggest companies on the planet is no small undertaking and AT&T – founded by Alexander Graham Bell – is no exception. The world’s largest telecommunications company and ranked number nine on the Fortune 500, this giant multinational conglomerate has just under over 270,000 employees and posted a 2017 revenue of $190.5bn. This is a holding company whose operations spread out over numerous sectors and territories and to seek a sustainable road map at such a business is as complex as it is integral.
Shannon Thomas Carroll is Director of Global Environmental Sustainability at AT&T and possesses a rich knowledge of both the company’s operations and its sustainable practices as he works to reduce the environmental impact of the telco’s operations. His key accomplishments include “being the internal driver for large scale renewable energy, zero-waste, and supply chain human rights audits”.
Carroll has been with the company for almost 20 years, having served in several different capacities across the 133-year-old conglomerate. “I’ve worked on a consumer side, the business side of the house and on the network side,” he explains. “So I’ve had lots of different roles. I spent a lot of time in project management, as well as with a couple different business units. I did project management and compliance for our supply chain; that’s one of the things that transitioned me into my current role. On the compliance side, you have things like environmental health and safety and that was one of the transitional topics that really got me interested in this work. Then I just started asking for more work around environmental sustainability while I was still in supply chain and was lucky enough to transition that into a full-time role over on the corporate side. I took that supply chain focus and expanded it to a corporate view. Now my responsibilities are specific to environmental sustainability within our operations. So, anything that has an environmental impact within our four walls is, generally speaking, something I would look at.”
AT&T has had a long history of corporate social responsibility, even if it wasn’t always labelled as CSR. “We have an extensive history of strong energy management and corporate real estate management,” Carrol explains. “We looked at things like waste water, and obviously there are natural financial incentives to use those resources, but you also want to look at being a good corporate citizen. What are the positive environmental impacts of doing that? I see my role, first and foremost, as looking into what’s going to be best for the company, while also seeing how we can have the most sustainable business practices possible.”
One of the first things Carroll explored when he stepped into his current role was AT&T’s greenhouse gas footprint. Carroll monitored all the different aspects of scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 through an inventory to gather the required information. “Once we had that information, we had it verified by an independent third party,” he explains. “That was a great introduction to the job because I got to touch all parts of the business when undertaking a corporate greenhouse gas footprint. From there you then start looking at some of the larger responsibilities, such as waste and how you dematerialise. What projects have been done? What was successful? What wasn’t successful? What maybe didn’t happen in terms of timing and can you pick up the ball again and start trying to work with what hasn’t been done? You have to be strategic in your thinking. You’ve got to read the tea leaves and see how the wind’s blowing externally as well. There’s obviously an importance to the business and what our stakeholders are asking of us is important. You’re looking internally, but you’re also looking externally. You’re trying to think strategically while you still have the practical responsibilities to get the job done.”
As the scale of operations at AT&T is so vast, Carroll liaises with Chief Sustainability Officer, Charlene Lake. They operate at what Carroll describes as the ‘ink level’ or the corporate side of operations. “The advantage that gives us is we can go into all parts of the business, essentially representing the company. What’s really important though is that we don’t just walk into the different business units and say, ‘This is what you’re gonna do!’ We have to be good business partners, whether it’s internal or external. We’re very lucky that sustainability really is at the core of a lot of our work. So, as we go in to talk to our network folks or our corporate real-estate folks, or our supply chain folks, they’re already doing a lot of this work. What we try to do is help frame that work and see what we can amplify; see what we can do better. We just try to partner with them.”
SEE ALSO: The Kiwi company taking on the wind with a small scale, single blade turbine
With support from AT&T’s corporate level, Carroll and his team launched 10X Goals. A 2025 goal, the program is aiming to enable 10 times the carbon savings for AT&T’s customers as well as for its our own footprint. “We have somebody who works full-time on that making sure the methodology is sound,” says Carroll. “We have somebody who’s working on the numerator part of that, making sure that our products and services can deliver that. You have me, I’m on more the denominator side. I’m trying to shrink our own operational footprint so it makes it easier to achieve it. We’re very lucky. We are a large company, but we have the right amount of resources addressing sustainability here.”
One of the challenges Carrol cites as specific to large-scale renewable energy is that first time you put the practice into action. Thus, off-site research is essential in getting these methods right. “We’ve obviously been looking at renewable energy options for years and years and years. We did have some onsite solar and we just knew, because of our scale, that if we’re going to have a significant impact we needed to look offsite at the large-scale renewable energies. We look at what others are doing and then try to figure out if that’s something that could potentially work for us. You do a lot of research and then bring that research and those findings home. We would then start stakeholdering those. I’d say the biggest challenge is because you’ve never done it before, you have to educate a lot of folks on what it is and how it works and how the mechanics of it work. What does it mean for AT&T to go from a relatively small renewable energy concern to one of the largest corporate buyers in the United States? A lot of education has to be done, in getting people familiar with new terminology. I’d say that’s the biggest challenge; the newness of it all.”
In reference to large scale renewable energy, AT&T is one of the top five corporate renewable energy buyers in the US. “The fact that we were able to scale up so quickly is a credit to the professionalism we have on our energy management team. I would say the thing I’m most proud of is just the scale ’cause what you’re really looking for is impact. We’re proud of the 820 megawatts we’ve done so far. We’re the evangelists. We’re going around talking about all the benefits. The interesting thing is when you go into the different business units, my experience is that even if people don’t know it by name, they’re doing the work. These are folks who do sustainability for a living. We already have folks who are trying to save as much water as they can. They’re already trying to remove as many kilowatts as they can from the business. They’re already trying to be as efficient as they can.”
AT&T has an energy intensity goal, relative to its network, to be 60% more efficient. Carroll wants to push more data through the network using the same, or less energy. “We have a public goal around that. We have a public goal to reduce our fleet emissions by 30%. We have lots of public goals that are already tagged at this work and within the business units. They just have their heads down and are doing the really hard work to achieve this. When we come into departments and explain it’s really about the work that they’re already doing, the light bulbs go off and they become really good business partners. We’re constantly looking at the landscape in terms of the environment. A few years ago, we worked with EDF on our water footprint for example. We’re always looking at every aspect of our operations.”
Technology is driving sustainability and AT&T is largely a technology company thus possessing a read edge when it comes to finding solutions. “I would say just about everything we do has a technology component,” Carroll explains. “For example, we’ve got a project called Icon. It’s basically our internal IoT solution, where we’ve put sensors on all types of internal equipment, including network equipment, HVACS, water towers, everything you can think of. We then actively monitor that through our Icon dashboard and are able to look at predictive and preventative maintenance. Are things running as efficiently as they should? If they aren’t, how can we maximise their efficiency? There’s a lot of data out there, so the key is not just having accessibility to data, but being able to do something smart and good with it. We need to make good, smart decisions around that data.”
“I think it’s important when you’re a company our size that you’re comprehensive. You need to have a short-term plan, a mid-term plan and a long-term plan. You have to think strategically, you have to look far down the line. You just can’t say you’re going to do this and that. You have to be transparent in the way that you do it. And you have actually have to do it.”
Breaking Travel News interview: Bob Schumacher, managing director, UK & Ireland, United Airlines
It took a while, but the recovery is taking shape at United Airlines.
After the deluge of negative publicity surrounding the forced removal of David Dao from a flight from Chicago to Louisville in 2017 and the unfortunate death of a passenger’s pet dog – Kokito – a year later, the US carrier has managed to stem the tide of negative headlines.
All staff have been undergoing what the company calls core4 training in order to better understand the needs of guests, while there has also been a sharp uptick in on-time performance.
Speaking to Breaking Travel News in London, Bob Schumacher, managing director for the UK & Ireland at United Airlines, is keen to present 2019 as a fresh start.
“We have a message to share, in terms of a healthy airline, one that is making healthy profits and one that has a story to tell,” he explains.
The new Polaris business class offering has been well-received
With United reporting pre-tax earnings of $2.7 billion last year, the carrier does indeed seem to have turned the page.
A large part of this has been down to a renewed focus on premium passengers – those who make up a big percentage of revenue at any full-service airline.
Later this year United will roll-out its new Premium Plus product, premier economy seating for passengers with budgets just below business class.
This is in addition to the revamped top-end product, Polaris, that has been well received among passengers following its launch a couple of years ago.
As Schumacher continues: “United Airlines has a strong message in 2019, focusing on the increase in premium seats that we are bringing to market, including here in the UK and across Europe.
“The includes the Polaris business class, which has been out now for a while, but is rolling-out across the fleet at a pace of one aircraft every ten days, and, of course, the new Premium Plus, our premium economy seat.
“This is a new product for us in the UK, three rows of seats within the cabin that will have a differentiated service, and it is part of us responding to the marketplace.
“We have seen the premium market being very strong, and we have spilt a lot of passengers here and there, and we don’t like doing that, particularly if they are of the premium sort.
“People have been coming to us, choosing United, and we have not had enough seats in the premium cabin for that – this is our response.”
New Premium Plus seats are the latest addition to the United fleet
In total 21 Boeing 767s are being reconfigured to carry the new Polaris and Premium Plus offering, with these planes set to offer a total of 46 premium seats.
“This is an ideal time for us reconfigure this sub-fleet, those 21 aircraft, as they roll out by the end of September, headed to dedicated destinations, including here in London, as well as New York,” adds Schumacher.
In the tail of the plane, United has also been recalibrating its offering to cater to an emerging, price-savvy generation of travellers.
The new Basic Economy fare seeks to match the price offered by low-cost, long-haul carriers, but to include a superior service.
“This is something you are seeing across all walks of life – you have the young, new traveller, who is price sensitive and has been brought up on Southwest Airlines and Ryanair,” continues Schumacher.
“They have an expectation on a price point, and they are willing to travel without their kitchen sink.
“We have seen the low-cost carries evolve into medium- and long-haul and offer those price points.
“What we did initially, as an industry, was ignore it, but we have now realised it is a significant market in size.
“With Basic Economy we keep the quality of service, in terms of meals and drinks, seat assignment, but also to strip out everything else.
“There has been a real segmentation onboard that aeroplane – at some point we will end up with individual seats with your name embroidered on it,” he jokes.
United has renewed its focus on premium passengers
With a number of low-cost, long-haul carriers – including flag-bearer Norwegian – facing financial trouble, Schumacher is keen to point to the strengths of diversification.
“This unquestionably makes these routes sustainable for us,” he explains.
“Of course, there are many variables, but offering services to 160 million customers a year through several key hubs, which ebb and flow through like a beating heart, is a key to our success.
“Having the right sized fleet, not a uniformed fleet, for the right route and the differentiation of the number of business seats we offer in a market, are real strengths.
“Corporate customers will want their passengers turning up at the other end capable of doing their business – and that is never really going to be offered by a low-cost carrier.”
He adds: “Low-cost carriers, I am sure, had their business case built on metrics that they thought were sufficient to serve their purpose on long-haul routes, we would argue that the ingredients we have are what make us successful.
“Connectivity is key to that – point-to-point works in primary markets, but once you go into secondary, tertiary markets, you will find you need to go through hubs that feed frequency.”
United has recovered from a deluge of negative headlines
Of course, no conversation about aviation in the UK in 2019 would be complete without mention of Brexit and the potential for the UK’s departure from the EU to disrupt the sector.
But here Schumacher is sanguine.
“As a United States-based carrier, with Open Skies with the UK signed, there will be normal operations whatever happens at the end of March,” he explains.
“This is perhaps more of a leisure market issue for travellers in Europe, but we will continue to operate the following day, whichever day that might be.
“It is no different to an election cycle.
“If the pound were to rally, that would also be useful, as we would see more travellers looking to visit the United States.”
Looking ahead there are no new United routes set to debut in the UK in 2019, but several summer services will return.
“We are returning to Denver, with our summer only slot out of London Heathrow, while Manchester will go wide-body for the first time in many years, with a Boeing 767 flying to New York,” explains Schumacher.
“Edinburgh-Washington will also return this summer, after a successful launch last year, as well as Chicago and New York from Scotland.
“We are also celebrating 21-years out of Glasgow to New York.”
The image Schumacher is keen to present is of an airline comfortable with where it is and enthusiastic about where it is going, having put recent troubles behind it.
He concludes: “United tends to reflect what is happening in the wider economy, as we connect business, and the US economy, where we sell 70 per cent of our corporate tickets, is very strong at present.
“We are in a very strong revenue environment, with low unemployment and economic growth, while the strong relationship between the United Kingdom and United States endures – we are set fair.”
More Information
United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 4,700 flights a day to 356 airports across five continents.
The carrier claims the most comprehensive route network in the world, including US mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark/New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Turkey likely to see new big energy investments by 2020: Bank executive – Latest News
ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency
Banks in Turkey plan to restructure between $7 and $8 billion of current credit debt of energy companies so they can repay their debts by 2020-2021 and ease their ability to potentially participate in further energy investments during this term, Ebru Dildar Edin, executive vice president for corporate and investment banking at Garanti Bank, said Thursday.
Also Read: The Church in Asia chooses renewable energy, in harmony with Laudato Sì
Established in 1946, Garanti Bank is Turkey’s second largest private bank with consolidated assets of more than 398 billion Turkish liras ($75.7 billion) as of Dec. 31, 2018. Garanti has Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (BBVA) as its majority shareholder with a 49.85 percent share interest.
In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency, Edin reflected on the last two years which were challenging for the Turkish energy sector, with the dramatic decrease in the Turkish lira especially from August 2018, the decline in oil prices, the increased cost of electricity generation at a time when there were constraints of lowering electricity prices in the market because of surplus supplies.
“We foresee that electricity prices will rise to $0.60 per kilowatt-hour during this term when companies will again start earning money. This circle will open the way for new big investments in the Turkish energy sector because all investors need to see that the existing companies begin earning money,” she said.
When the banks formulated loans for energy companies, they foresaw electricity prices based on $0.70 per kilowatt-hour, however in reality, market prices fell to as low as $0.45 per kilowatt-hour, she explained.
“This difference between our calculations and the real prices led energy companies to have difficulties in their repayments,” she said, adding that investments of around $85 billion were made for the power generation sector from which $25 billion came from the capital of these companies.
“However, the remaining $60 billion investment was carried out with financing from the banks. The companies have paid $20 billion of the total, while $40 billion is yet to be paid. A total amount of $13 billion, including the debts of electricity distribution companies, is required to be restructured. Banks restructured $4 billion in 2017 and 2018,” she explained.
For 2019, banks will restructure a further $7 to $8 billion more credit, which has already been agreed with some energy companies. This, she explained, will enable all the companies to make repayments after the restructure is completed through 2020-2021.
Restructured finance includes local coal, natural gas and some hydroelectricity power plants, which are very important for the sustainability of the Turkish electricity generation sector, she said.
Banks could help support gas plants
Edin stated that some natural gas power plants should be excluded at this point because they work at very low capacities so they cannot sell enough electricity to market to be able to meet their repayments.
In order for these companies to weather the storm of financial difficulties, she proposed a new business model in which these plants, which are crucial in meeting the country’s peak demand, could obtain newly-created funds from some banks until a certain level of profitability and sustainability is reached.
She emphasized that with the country’s increased electricity consumption, which increased year on year by 0.8 percent in 2018, Turkey would need all these power plants in the coming five to seven years.
“Turkey does not have a problem in terms of supply security but as there is currently no big investment, we could face a threat in 2022-2023. As there will be a need for new capacities, we should sustain our existing plants to meet any potential demand,” Edin suggested.
She detailed that Garanti Bank has been financing only renewable energy projects over the last years and will continue to do so provided the project has a guarantee of purchase or support from any scheme like the Renewable Energy Sources Support Scheme (YEKDEM).
Edin concluded that YEKDEM should continue after 2020 even if it supports the projects at lower monetary levels.
The YEKDEM project, which started in 2011, has supported solar energy plants at $0.133 per kilowatt-hour, and wind and hydroelectricity plants at $0.73 per kilowatt-hour.
Turkey plans to end this renewable incentive scheme by 2020, however, it is unclear if the Turkish government will continue to support renewable projects with an alternative scheme.
Garanti Bank’s funding for the power generation sector stands at $9 billion, from which 60 percent includes 145 renewable energy projects amounting to over 7,000 megawatts in capacity.
After Venezuela Showdown, U.S. V.P. to meet Guaido in Colombia
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence plans to meet Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido in Colombia on Monday as a mark of support after a weekend of violence at the Colombia - Venezuela border.
source http://www.ncairways.co/world-news/after-venezuela-violence-pence-to-meet-with-guaido-in-colombia/
source http://www.ncairways.co/world-news/after-venezuela-violence-pence-to-meet-with-guaido-in-colombia/
Pulwama Terror Strike: Voices of Protest in Frankfurt
Indians who are residing in Germany held a protest march on Saturday against Pulwama terror attack. This incident took place on February 14 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama. Members of the Indian community, living in Germany’s Frankfurt city hold Anti-Pakistan protest to condemn this attack and defy terrorism which was perpetrated from Pakistan. They were […]
source http://www.ncairways.co/world-news/frank/
source http://www.ncairways.co/world-news/frank/
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