Recently, we announced a partnership with Certify My Company to assist self-classified suppliers in obtaining third-party diversity certifications.

The partnership furthers our commitment to increase overall spend with small and diverse suppliers to 25 percent by 2025. Our robust supply chain already includes more than 6,000 small or diverse suppliers, about 18 percent of which are third-party certified as diverse. A diverse business is generally defined as one that is 51 percent owned and controlled by women, ethnic minorities, veterans, LGBTQ, or disabled person(s).

It is a favorite pursuit of journalists and commentators at each year-end and the start of the new calendar year to look back and look forward to identify “top stories” and significant trends of the year past.  And to look ahead at “what might be” in the new year.  We present a few of these musing for you in this first newsletter of the year 2020.

by Lydia Miller, Senior Vice President, Dana Investment Advisors 

As we continue to order more online, get more delivered to our homes in boxes, and swap polluting materials for renewable fiber-based alternatives, what effect does this have on the future of our world’s forests?

Contrary to popular belief, the production and use of forest products, which includes everything from corrugated boxes and printing paper to the fiber used to make hygiene products, doesn’t necessarily lead to less forest. In fact, demand for forest products can actually lead to more forestland.