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2025-02-26 19:55:00| Fast Company

TJX Companies, parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, among other retail brands, reported strong sales and operating results on Wednesday for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended February 1. For Q4, TJX exceeded Wall Streets revenue expectations, with sales of $16.35 billion. However, its revenue and earnings guidance for the coming fiscal year were below analyst expectations, according to a consensus estimate cited by CNBC. Key takeaways Here are the main points from the announcement: Q4 fiscal 2025 (13-week period): Net sales: $16.4 billion (flat compared to the prior years 14-week period) Consolidated comparable store sales: increased by 5% Net income: $1.4 billion Diluted earnings per share (EPS): $1.23, a 1% increase from the prior years adjusted EPS of $1.12 Growing retail footprint and store count In contrast to other retail giants that have faced recent bankruptcies and sweeping store closures or have gone out of business altogether, TJX has continued its expansion efforts, hitting a major milestone last year by opening its 5,000th store. During fiscal 2025, the company added another 131 stores globally, bringing its total count to 5,085 stores. TJX also grew its total retail square footage by 2% year-over-year. In the United States, store counts and gross square footage increased as follows: TJ Maxx: 1,319 to 1,333 stores, square footage from 35.7M to 36.0M Marshalls: 1,197 to 1,230 stores, square footage from 33.7M to 34.4M HomeGoods: 919 to 943 stores, square footage from 21.4M to 22.1M Sierra: 95 to 117 stores, square footage from 2.0M to 2.4M Homesense: 55 to 72 stores, square footage from 1.5M !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r

Category: E-Commerce
 

2025-02-26 19:45:00| Fast Company

President Donald Trump began dismantling his predecessors climate change and renewable-energy policies on his first day in office, declaring a national energy emergency to speed up fossil fuel development a policy he has summed up as drill, baby, drill. The declaration calls on the federal government to make it easier for companies to build oil and gas projects, in part by weakening environmental reviews, with the goal of lowering prices and selling to international markets. Democrats say that’s a sham. They point out that the U.S. is producing more oil and natural gas than any other country and the Biden administrations Inflation Reduction Act boosted renewable energy at a critical time, creating jobs and addressing the climate change threat  2024 was Earth’s hottest year on record amid the hottest 10-year stretch on record. Democrats were expected to offer a resolution in the Senate on Wednesday to terminate Trump’s declaration, a move likely to be only symbolic given their minority status. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has already made the U.S. an even friendlier environment for fossil fuels. Congress is helping, too, with the House set to vote on a measure to repeal a Biden administration-era methane fee on oil and gas producers. Here are some ways the Trump administration has done so: Lifting a pause on LNG exports The Biden administration last year paused evaluations of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals. That pleased environmentalists concerned that a big surge in exports would contribute to planet-warming emissions. The pause didn’t stop projects already under construction, but it delayed consideration of new projects. Trump reversed that pause. On Tuesday, oil and gas giant Shell said global LNG demand is forecast to rise by around 60% by 2040. The United States is expected to play a major role in meeting that demand, with its export capacity expected to double before 2030, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. I think investors have become much more comfortable that they can move towards final investment decisions without the concerns that they had over the last four years about potential roadblocks, said Christopher Treanor, an energy and environmental attorney at the law firm Akin. Drilling expansion Trump has opened more land for oil and gas lease sales, shifting away from Biden’s efforts to protect environmentally sensitive areas like Alaskas National Wildlife Refuge and to prevent large swaths of ocean from being available for offshore drilling, including major areas off coasts in the Pacific, Atlantic and parts of Alaska. Environmental groups are suing to stop Trump’s moves. Expanding the area available for companies to lease and drill doesnt necessarily mean that more oil and gas will be produced. When leases were made available in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, for example, only smaller companies bid and there were no buyers for a second lease sale. Army Corps appears ready to help projects sidestep the Clean Water Act The Army Corps of Engineers marked hundreds of Clean Water Act permits for fast-tracking, citing Trumps order on energy, then removed that notation in its database. The agency said it needed to review active permit applications before publishing which ones will be fast-tracked. They dont seem to be backing off,” said Tom Pelton, spokesman with the Environmental Integrity Project. They are just going to refine the list. Many of the permit applications that had been listed for expediting are for fossil fuel projects, but some others have nothing to do with energy, including a housing subdivision proposed by Chevron in southern California, according to the Environmental Integrity Project. David Bookbinder, the organizations director of law and policy, said the Trump administration is using the pretext of a national energy emergency to ask a federal agency to circumvent environmental protections to justify building more fossil fuel power plants. Bookbinder said theres no shortage of energy. Slashing the federal workforce Pat Parenteau, professor emeritus at Vermont Law & Graduate School, said Trump’s policy changes aren’t nearly as important as the deep cuts to the federal government that eliminate vital expertise. I think they are going to accomplish what no other administration has been able to do in terms of crippling the institutional capacity of the federal government to protect public health, to conserve national resources to save endangered species, he said. That is where we are going to see long-term, permanent damage. Trump’s energy emergency calls, for example, for undermining Endangered Species Act protections to ensure fast energy development, even assembling a rarely used committee the so-called God Squad that could have authority to dismiss significant threats to species. That move was coupled with recent deep cuts to the Fish & Wildlife Service, which administers the law. Parenteau said some species are likely to go extinct. Executive orders take aim at renewables Trump also targeted wind energy with an order to temporarily halt offshore wind lease sales in federal waters and pause federal approvals, permits and loans for projects both onshore and offshore. In another order, he listed domestic energy resources that could help ensure a reliable, diversified and affordable supply of energy. Solar, wind and battery storage were omitted, though solar is the fastest-growing source of electricity generation in the United States. Trump has vowed to end tax credits for renewables as well, which would push up prices. Substantially slowing renewables could leave the U.S. wedded to coal and gas for far longer as coal plants are extended and new gas plants are built, said David Shepheard, partner and energy expert at the global consultant Baringa. Shepheard said the U.S. is facing unprecedented growth in electricity demand largely to meet needs from data centers and artificial intelligence, and increasingly the deck is stacked against renewables to meet it. A Baringa analysis found Trumps policies will drive up emissions and put the agreed-upon intrnational climate threshold further out of reach. Michael Phillis and Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press Associated Press writers Matthew Daly and Patrick Whittle contributed reporting.

Category: E-Commerce
 

2025-02-26 19:30:00| Fast Company

President Donald Trump said he is planning to sell a $5 million gold card to wealthy foreigner investors, giving them the ability to work and live in the U.S. with a path toward becoming a citizen, as part of a program that would replace the current EB-5 investor visas. EB-5s are essentially a green card for permanent legal residency, created some 35 years ago to drum up foreign investment. The visa requires foreigners to spend $1 million (give or take) on a company that employs at least 10 people, according to the Associated Press. Of the potential buyers of the proposed gold card, Trump said Tuesday: Theyll be wealthy and theyll be successful, and theyll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people, and we think its going to be extremely successful.” Here’s what to know about Trump’s gold card. How does the gold card differ from a green card or EB-5 visa? Newly appointed commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump gold card would increase the financial bar for investors from $1 million to $5 million, and do away with what he calls the nonsense or fraud that he said now characterizes the EB-5 program. He said the change will happen in two weeks. The biggest difference between the gold card and a green card is the gold card provides a much faster route to unlimited residency and the ability to work in the U.S. for these wealthy foreign investors.How many gold cards would be available versus EB-5 visas? How many gold cards would be available versus EB-5 visas? A total of 18,786 EB-5 visas are available for the 2025 financial year. Meanwhile, Trump has suggested millions of gold cards could be sold, which would raise revenue which he desperately needs to fund his enormous tax cuts and domestic agenda. In the past, Trump and his family business have made use of the EB-5 program for their own benefit. When asked if Russian oligarchs could make use of the gold card program, Trump responded, Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.” Can Trump replace the EB-5 visa? The EB-5 visa program was created by Congress in 1990 to create jobs and increase foreign investment in the economy, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Congress has reauthorized the program through September 30, 2027 through the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act. While Trump said his “gold card” would not need Congressional approval, “the president does not have authority to strike down an act of Congress, including the existing EB-5 program,” according to legal experts at the law firm Greenberg Traurigs Immigration & Compliance Practice.

Category: E-Commerce
 

2025-02-26 18:55:27| Fast Company

Millions of social security recipients are about to receive retroactive payments, as well as get a permanent hike in their monthly check.The increase in social security payments is due to the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by President Biden. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), about 3.2 million recipients who previously only received partial payments will be impacted. The SSA made the announcement in a press release on Tuesday. The Social Security Fairness Act, which Biden signed in December shortly before leaving office, eliminated two major policies which reduced social security payments for millions: the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). Both policies barred employees with a public pension from collecting their full benefits under the federal retirement program and reduced survivor benefits for family members. The former administration previously said that it could take up to a year for the payments to go out. However, Tuesday’s announcement explained that the retroactive payments, which should include any funds due after January 2024, will now be expedited.Social Securitys aggressive schedule to start issuing retroactive payments in February and increase monthly benefit payments beginning in April supports President Trumps priority to implement the Social Security Fairness Act as quickly as possible, said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, in the press release. The agencys original estimate of taking a year or more now will only apply to complex cases that cannot be processed by automation. The American people deserve to get their due benefits as quickly as possible. The press release explained that recipients impacted will include “some teachers, firefighters, and police officers in many states; federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System; and people whose work had been covered by a foreign social security system.”“Most people will receive their one-time retroactive payment by the end of March, which will be deposited into their bank account on record with Social Security,” the release explained, noting that monthly increases, which will vary from person to person, should begin in April.A recent study on how COVID impacted social security pointed to a $205 billion increase in the nation’s social security fund. An extra 1.7 million deaths related to the pandemic meant that costs to the program were greatly reduced when people who had paid into the program prematurely passed, and therefore stopped collecting benefits. The Trump Administration did not point to the surplus as an explanation for expediting payments. 

Category: E-Commerce
 

2025-02-26 18:00:00| Fast Company

Meta Quest 3 users will now be able to explore detailed 3D scans of sculptures, rock formations, plant life, and other interesting objects from around the world.The 3D images, which users can virtually zoom in on or walk around, are part of a new app from Pokémon Go-maker Niantic called Into the Scaniverse. Last year, the company released the latest version of a smartphone Scaniverse app letting users create detailed images of public scenes or objects within their phones, with the ability to add public images to a shared map.Already, the map includes more than 50,000 3D scenes, including renderings of Stonehenge, ancient ruins in Europe, Japanese temples, and even a shrine to Elvis Presley, all captured with the Scaniverse app or through Niantic games like Ingress and Pokémon Go. With the new Quest app, users will be able to traverse a map of the world from a virtual hot air balloon, spotting and clicking pins on the map to explore in stereo 3D vision the sights that were scanned there.Our goal is really to get a large collection of high-quality scans that folks can visit around the world, says Brian McClendon, senior vice president of engineering at Niantic. You can walk up to it and look up at it, and you get a sense of scale of these objects that sometimes photos dont do justice.[Image: Ninantic]Making the scans, created using a mathematical modeling technique called the Gaussian splat, available through virtual reality will hopefully also incentivize more users to go out and scan and share the world around them, similar to how the rise of Instagram motivated people to take and share photos, he says. The scanning process generally takes only a few minutes, and users can view their own scans on their phones or Quest headsets before deciding whether to share them to the public map.This allows you to experiment with locations and try things out, and once you have what you like, you can then choose to publish to the map or not, says McClendon. The scan library is currently growing rapidly, with more than 11,000 published since December. Users on Niantic forums and in meetups also share tips on how to capture the best scans. McClendon, who is based in Arizona, has uploaded some scans of cactus and other desert foliage that not everyone sees in person, and hes hopeful that users continue to increase their coverage of the planet. [Animation: Ninantic]Though the scans might be most impressive in virtual reality, its not necessary to have a Quest to experience them, with the 3D images also accessible in the Scaniverse iPhone and Android apps or through the web. Scans taken with Niantics software and shared publicly are also available for developers to use in Niantic Studio, the companys tool for building XR and 3D games and experiences. Users also share some of their favorite scans through social media like X, Theads, and Bluesky. But McClendon anticipates that the Quest apps map view will lead to a new wave of discovery as people explore spots near them or places theyve visited in the past.[Image: Ninantic]The app can even be used to help plan vacations, with people exploring potential sites before they travel, McClendon suggests. And ideally, when they arrive, theyll be inspired to contribute more scans to the public collection.The real goal is to motivate more people to create more scans, McClendon says.

Category: E-Commerce
 

2025-02-26 17:46:00| Fast Company

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos announced Wednesday that the newspaper’s Opinions section would now essentially become a mouthpiece for his own beliefs on personal and economic freedoms. In response to this shift, opinion editor David Shipley decided to step away from his role.  In an announcement shared to the Post staff and online via X, Bezos wrote that the section would now publish opinion pieces in support and defense of personal liberties and free markets. The billionaire Amazon founder added that the Post will no longer publish op-eds opposing those viewpoints, saying that newspapers in the internet era need not reflect diverse opinions. There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the readers doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views, Bezos wrote. Today, the internet does that job. Reactions range from critical to baffled But journalists, including those on the Posts staff, are already expressing criticism and bewilderment over this change. Bezos reportedly offered Shipley the opportunity to lead this reimagined Opinions section, and Shipley instead chose to leave his position.  Jeff Stein, a reporter for the Post, called Bezoss new direction a massive encroachment in an X post, adding that Bezos makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated. He further threatened to quit if “Bezos tries interfering with the news side.” Ostensibly responding to the news, Philip Bump, a columnist at the paper, posted on Bluesky: “what the actual fuck.” NBC news editor Ben Goggin wrote that he thinks Bezos is using the Post as a personal mouthpiece. And Matthew Chapman, a reporter with progressive news site Raw Story, wrote that it appears the paper must take sides in favor of policy that makes Jeff Bezos rich. The Post has not yet responded to Fast Companys request for comment.  Heavy meddle Bezos promised editorial independence when he acquired the D.C.-based outlet in 2013. In a meeting with reporters at the time, he had said that he would defer to the editorial boards positions, saying: I dont feel the need to have an opinion on every issue.  But recently, the billionaire has started to meddle with the papers output. During the 2024 election, Bezos reportedly made the decision to kill an already-written endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. He framed it as a decision to end all Washington Post presidential endorsements. The paper reportedly lost a quarter million subscribers after this announcement. And in January, cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit the Post after the paper rejected publishing her political cartoon that depicted Bezos, among other billionaires, worshiping at the feet of President Trump and holding a money bag. A correspondent for left-leaning magazine The Nation wrote online that Bezos could have made his 250-plus-word announcement about the Opinions section change much shorter: The Opinions section will now be my opinions only, but written by others because I am a shit writer. Who wants to be my new sock puppet?

Category: E-Commerce
 

2025-02-26 17:36:32| Fast Company

Read Part I of this story here. YUKON, Pa.When government inspectors arrived at the hazardous waste landfill here in 2023, they found themselves in a barren and alien landscape carved from western Pennsylvanias green countryside. As they documented operations at Max Environmental Technologies, they climbed fields of blackened waste and photographed pits, mud, debris, stained walls, and unlabeled storage containers. Their images offer a startlingand largely hiddenjuxtaposition to the rolling hills, horse paddocks, and chicken coops around the 160-acre site. What the inspectors captured confirmed the worst fears of Yukons residents, who have blamed the landfill for serious health impacts and called on regulators to intervene for years. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found rusted open containers of waste, clogged pipes, and a containment building used to store untreated hazardous waste in pretty significant disrepair. They watched as rainwater mixed with that waste and flowed from the damaged building.  Government inspectors conducted sampling at the Max Environmental landfill in October 2023. [Photo: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection] There was a hole in the roof and it was raining during the inspection, said Jeanna Henry, chief of the air, RCRA and toxics branch in the enforcement and compliance assurance division of the EPAs Mid-Atlantic Region. RCRA is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which regulates hazardous waste.  The landfill accepts industrial waste like contaminated soils, acids, and dust, as well as waste generated by the oil and gas industry that contains heavy metals and radioactive materials. Pennsylvania is the countrys second-largest producer of natural gas, and much of the industrys solid waste ends up at landfills such as this one. After its March 2023 inspection, EPA alleged Max Environmental had failed to minimize the possibility of a release of hazardous waste at its Yukon site; failed to submit 26 required discharge monitoring reports; failed to report all sampling results of the waste the company had processed, or treated, to make it non-hazardous; failed to provide adequate training for employees; and failed to properly operate and maintain the facility in general, including leaks, damage and deterioration. The treated hazardous waste was not meeting the land disposal restriction requirements. It was actually still a hazardous waste, and samples that we took out of the landfill showed the same thing, Henry said. Thats very significant. So we have concerns that the treatment that Max is performing is not adequate. Carl Spadaro, the environmental general manager at Max Environmental, said initial testing of its treated waste showed compliance about 90% of the time, which he called consistent with historical results in a statement to Inside Climate News. Any treated waste that does not pass initial testing has always and continues to be re-treated until it meets required standards. This kind of practice is common in the hazardous waste management industry, Spadaro said. During EPAs March 2023 visit to the landfill, inspectors found that treated samples exceeded standards for cadmium, lead, and thallium, a tasteless, odorless metal that was once used as a rodenticide but was banned because of its toxicity. Thallium can come from materials released by the oil and gas industry and a few other sectors.  Tall trees shroud most of the Yukon landfills operations from public view. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] In 2024, EPA issued administrative orders under RCRA and NPDES, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, that require Max Environmental to fix problems inspectors found. The RCRA order temporarily halted disposal of hazardous waste on the sitethat work has now restartedand mandated that the company hire an approved third-party contractor to make repairs and test treated waste. In a November interview, Henry said the landfill was meeting its deadlines under the RCRA order but was not yet in compliance with its permit under the hazardous-waste law. Spadaro told Inside Climate News in late December that the company is in compliance with our permits. But on January 16, the EPA said that was not the case: Max is not currently in compliance with either RCRA or NPDES permits related to the Yukon site. We take this very seriously. There are significant violations at this facility, Henry said. Our mission is to protect human health and the environment. We do want to ensure that the residents have access to clean drinking water and their land is not being contaminated. Lauren Camarda, a spokesperson at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said the state agency has worked collaboratively with the EPA on compliance and enforcement actions related to Max Environmental. DEP will continue to support the EPA, which is the lead environmental agency on the consent orders, and will continue to inspect the facility to ensure MAX is in or comes into compliance with applicable laws and addresses the issues identified in the consent orders, she said in a statement.  Since those orders were issued in April and September 2024, residents have noticed a change in the landfills operations. They have these great big spotlights that light up the facility. I havent noticed lately that theyve been turned on, said Debbie Franzetta, a longtime Yukon resident. She said she has observed less noise, dust, and light in the last year. This is not the first time the government has cited the company and its predecessor for wrongdoing. From the late 1980s onward, the DEP noted violations at the site on more than 110 occasions, but little seemed to change. Given this history, residents are skeptical of the governments commitment. As the Trump administration lays off hundreds of EPA employees and plans to roll back environmental regulations, what will happen to the agencys orders for the Yukon landfill is a question mark. I think they should close it, Franzetta said of the site. But she worries about what would come next. One of my greatest fears is that if that happens, theyre just going to get out of Dodge, is my comical way of saying things. But its not any laughing matter, believe me.   A Continuous Hive of Industry A few minutes from the tangle of off-ramps where the Pennsylvania turnpike meets I-70 about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, Yukon emerges as a cluster of homes and farms set on sloping Appalachian hills. Big yards are filled with tractors and trampolines.  This is really the heart, the fire hall back there, said Stacey Magda, the managing community organizer at the Mountain Watershed Association, a local nonprofit that works to protect the Youghiogheny River watershed and has fought for stricter enforcement of the regulations governing the Max Environmental landfill. Magda sat in the passenger seat as her coworker, Colleen ONeil, steered the MWA truck past the volunteer fire departments nondescript building where they often hold meetings and through the areas winding roads, the tree line bright with the copper foliage of October.  Stacey Magda, managing community organizer at the MWA, rides along Sewickley Creek near the Yukon landfill. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] Magda describes herself as someone with roots stretched deep in the Pennsylvania dirt. She grew up in a small town in the central part of the state and came to love the rivers and trails of the Laurel Highlands, a region of southwestern Pennsylvania that includes this county, Westmoreland. The drive through the community took her past heaps of coal spoil, where she said kids liked to ride bikes, and the ancient-looking stone ruins of the old coal company. Mining gave the town its name; one of the mines the landfill was built on top of is called Klondike. Yukon once lay at the center of a continuous hive of industry; a local history from 1906 describes a valley of hamlets in Westmoreland County where manufacturing of almost all kinds is carried out and from almost every hill, coal mines, shafts, tipples may be seen in every direction. Hundreds of coke ovens, burning coal, filled the horizon with smoke. Yukon has a long history of coal mining. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] In the early 20th century, the valley was roiled by a mining strike that lasted for more than a year and involved 10,000 miners protesting for better wages and an eight-hour workday. The strikers, many of them Slovakian immigrants, were defeated. In the Catholic cemetery next to the landfill, you can see this heritage in generations of chiseled Eastern European names. Except for the distant rumble of truck traffic on the highways, the valley was quiet as ONeil and Magda drove, the sky a sharp blue. But that extractive past isnt truly gone; its buried in the layers of the Max Environmental landfill. From coal mining and steel manufacturing to oil and gas drilling, the story of the landfill mirrors Pennsylvanias. Theres a lot of pride in this town about being a town where industry and coal mining is a part of their heritage, Magda said, but having Max Environmental come to town has been a whole different kind of side of industry thats been really brutal on the people that live here. And its been going on for so long, over 40 years now. A home beside the cemetery has two banners hanging out front. One is crammed with red and black text. No more hazardous waste in our backyards, it says, listing the violations found at Max Environmental by the EPA and the DEP in recent inspections. No more excuses! No more chances! Shut down Max and clean it up! The second sign is more concise: Trump 2024: F Your Feelings. Conservative yard signs are displayed on a small farm in Yukon, Pa. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] Some days the landfills outfall at Sewickley Creek, a tributary of the Youghiogheny River where treated wastewater is released, is barely dripping. But on other days, it foams and smells. When the pipe is really full and running, it has a very yellow tinge and has a very strong effluent smell, said Eric Harder, the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper at the MWA. The most noticeable change is the amount of foam that is created where the discharge dumps into Sewickley Creek.  A sign opposing Max Environmental is displayed next to a Catholic cemetery by the landfill. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] To Harder, his observations at the outfall and the monthly testing done by the MWA show that Max Environmental is still not doing enough to meet the standards outlined in its permits. EPAs testing also shows violations for four of Max Environmentals 10 total outfalls at Yukon between 2021 and 2024. As of January 2025, Outfall 001, the one at Sewickley Creek, was listed as non-compliant or in violation for more than 15 kinds of water pollution, including oil and grease, zinc, cyanide, and cadmium. If you have a polluter like Max who is handling some of the most dangerous solid waste you can create in the eastern part of the United States, they should really be on top of their wastewater treatment system, Harder said.  The danger to residents and the environment isnt just from one exceedance, he added, but from the cocktail of all those exceedances mixed into one outfall. Harder said he has seen toy shovels and pails on the shoreline downstream of the pipe. Personally, I wouldnt let my kids play in the water there. [Image: Paul Horn/Inside Climate News] John Stolz, a professor of environmental microbiology at Duquesne University, echoed Harders concerns. Stolz has accompanied Harder to Sewickley Creek to sample the water. I was shocked at what the discharge was, he said. Conductivity is used as an indicator of water quality, measuring how electricity moves through liquids, and changes can indicate increases in pollution. Stolzs reading of 20,000 microsiemens was far beyond the EPAs typical range for rivers in the U.S. of 50 to 1,500. Its double the number the EPA gives for typical industrial water. After an October 2023 inspection, Spadaro emailed Sharon Svitek, program manager at DEPs Bureau of Waste Management, to ask if the visit was prompted by a request from the Mountain Watershed Association.  Can you shed some light on why DEP sent a small army of people to conduct waste sampling at our Yukon facility today? he asked in an email later released through a public records request. Spadaro called the inspection unnecessarily disruptive to our operations and said the company should have been given a heads up.  Spadaro also asked why DEP had given the association a copy of the EPAs July 2023 report about an earlier inspection of the landfill. We dont know why DEP would do that especially since it is an EPA document, he wrote.  A view of Sewickley Creek in Yukon, Pa. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] DEPs Svitek explained that the Mountain Watershed Association had obtained the document through an informal file review and the department was required to comply because it is a public record. The MWA later published the document on its website. Svitek clarified that the inspection was requested by DEPs central office and had been used as a training opportunity for new employees. When news of the EPAs inspection and consent orders reached the Mountain Watershed Association and Yukon residents, there were mixed feelings.  Everyone was validated. It was this moment of, My gosh, every single persons instinct was right, Magda said. And that was horrifying.  The Concerned Residents of the Yough The MWA is only the most recent local group to call for change at the landfill. Prior to us, residents in Yukon have been working on the issue of Max Environmental for many years, and theyve been saying the same thing over and over and over again, Magda said. In the 1980s, residents worried about the health impacts of the landfill, then known as Mill Service and under different ownership, formed a grassroots citizens group called CRY, for Concerned Residents of the Yough. Diana Steck was one of the founding members. When she moved to Yukon in 1978, she didn’t know about the landfills existence, though she noticed an orange glow in the sky near her house on some nights, and sometimes the air outside smelled terrible.  Steck said she began to get frequet respiratory infections, coughs, and hives. She developed joint pain and muscle weakness. Her infant son was stricken with nosebleeds, ear infections, and asthma. Her daughter had seizures. Her husband came down with a chronic rash. Stecks childhood asthma returned. She would later be diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease.  Many residents in Yukon have signs in their yards protesting the landfill and Max Environmental. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] It was only after reading a newspaper article about the landfill that she wondered if the health problems she and her family were experiencing could be connected to pollution. Steck was a nurse, and she set out to investigate the possible impacts of chemical exposure from the site. What she read convinced her that it was the cause of her familys problems since coming to Yukon. Later, going door to door in her neighborhood with a petition about the landfill, Steck discovered she wasn’t alone. One street, almost every home, somebody had cancer. There were so many kids that were sick with asthma, chronic rashes, the nosebleeds, frequent infections, a lot of neurological problems, Parkinsons, seizures, things like that, she said. I just couldnt believe it. Steck and the members of CRY held demonstrations and press conferences, requested state records, traveled to the state capital, fundraised, and wrote letters to regulators and politicians. They sought help from environmental and public health experts outside Pennsylvania, including Lois Gibbs, the organizer who fought to raise awareness about pollution at her home in Love Canal, where her childrens elementary school had been built on top of a toxic landfill.  None of it seemed to make a difference.  It was so frustrating, Steck said. I thought in my heart that if somebody elected to public office heard a mother telling them that this facility was making her kids sick, that they would shut it down, clean it up, and that would be the end of it. I was raised to think that the governments there to protect you. Well, so much for that.  Steck said she was told by an EPA official in the 1980s that Yukon had been deemed as expendable.  She told me, The waste has to go somewhere. Those were really hard words to hear, she said. In 1990, members of CRY filed a lawsuit against the then-owner of the landfill alleging that residents have suffered severe and substantial impairments to their health, property damage, damage to their livestock and pets. According to CRYs litigation records, housed at the University of Pittsburgh, the lawsuit was abandoned by the group in 1994 for financial reasons. Eventually, Steck said, her declining health forced her to move about 10 miles away from Yukon and resign from the group she had helped to found, but she continues to advocate for change at the landfill.  I was a 30-year-old mom when I was the most active, and I fought so hard and almost died. I never, ever thought that, here I am, at age 70, Id still be in this fight. She paused. I just want to see justice done. In 2022, at a hearing related to the companys permit application to expand the landfill site, the testimony of resident Misty Springer transported Steck to when she was also a young mother trying to persuade the state government to acknowledge her familys struggles. Springer said she had suffered six miscarriages after being exposed to runoff from the landfill. She had a question for the DEP: How many people on your block have cancer? How many people in your town? Because I bet your town is bigger than mine, and I bet you my town has more people with cancer than yours. The Yukon landfill sits behind a locked gate. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] Driving on Millbell Road, a narrow street that runs along the northern boundary of the landfill, Magda ticked off the cancers and illnesses of each homes inhabitants. At least one of the houses sat empty. The MWAs involvement has brought some residents a renewed sense of optimism. I kind of gave up on the whole deal, until these kids from the Watershed got involved, said Craig Zafaras, who has lived in Yukon for decades. I commend them for their effort. There is an easy affection between Magda, who is in her 30s, and the older residents shes come to know through her work. She looks out for them, jokes with them, walks them to their cars. But rallying the town to speak out against Max Environmental has been difficult. Distrust in any information about the landfill is high. Residents are unconvinced of the governments promises, and wary of hope. For so many of them, it has been a very long road. When Magda knocks on doors to tell residents about the next meeting or hearing, just as the women of CRY used to do, she has been laughed at by people who ask her, What are you going to do about it? Debbie Franzetta lives near the Max Environmental landfill in Yukon, Pa. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] People have gotten older, and a lot of the community has died, and people just get discouraged, said Debbie Franzetta, the longtime Yukon resident. Its kind of like banging your head against the wall. You knock on doors to try to get people to come to meetings. You spend the time to go and write letters, and nothing really comes of it. Despite the obstacles in her path, Magda remains resolute: I can tell you, were never going to give up. ‘Our Battle Against the Dump’ Residents wonder what will happen to the site and its six decades worth of waste. In 1985, the state shut down disposal at the Yukon site because of leaks and failure to abide by new rules governing waste, but the next year, Pennsylvanias environmental protection agency approved a permit for expansion. Opened in 1988 and covering 16.5 acres, the Yukon sites Landfill 6 is the last active impoundment and is nearing capacity. In 2024, the company estimated the impoundment would be filled by 2026.  Max Environmental had planned a new expansion that would add space for more than 1 million tons of waste, but in 2023 it withdrew the permit application following resistance from residents and environmental groups, saying it would resubmit the application at a later date. Spadaro said the company withdrew because it did not have enough time to respond to comments from state regulators. DEP has a very restrictive review timeline for new commercial hazardous waste treatment and disposal permits, he said. Spadaro said Max Environmental has not scheduled any other plans for expansion at this time.  We are focused on addressing all items in EPAs consent orders, he said. EPA has no plans of going anywhere, said Henry, the official at the EPA. Were going to be focused on this facility for quite some time.  Photographs taken by government inspectors in October 2023 reveal what the Yukon landfill looks like behind the fenceline. [Photo: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection] She gave that interview in the waning months of the Biden administration, and it’s unclear how the EPA will approach regulating Max Environmental and sites like it under the new Trump administration. EPA funding and staff have been early targets of its efforts to dismantle federal agencies, and 388 employees were cut in mid-February amid a push for large-scale layoffs and resignations. All of that could make it more difficult for the EPA to keep its focus on Max Environmental. In a 1998 scholarly article, Dan Bolef, an academic and activist who was involved with CRY, described the torments of Melbry and Tony Bolk, whose farm lay across the road from the landfill. The Bolks saw their health deteriorate, their herd of cows strangely sicken and die, their rural world of peace and security shattered by the noxious effects of the dump, he wrote.   For Bolef, who died in 2011, Yukons experience had become a horror story, an endless montage of people who tried to fight back but got sick, moved away or gave up, defeated by the intractable landfill. What, then, is one to do? How are we to react when our community suffers? he asked. There is nothing left for us to do but continue the struggle. A view from the kitchen of a home near the Max Environmental landfill in Yukon, Pa. [Photo: Scott Goldsmith/Inside Climate News] By 1998, the site had been open for more than 30 years. Bolef echoed a sentiment that would sound familiar to Yukons residents today, 27 years later. Despite the impression locals had been given that the landfill would soon run out of space, he wrote, it increased its operations, even as the number of residents dwindled around it. In our battle against the dump, he wrote, the dump usually wins. This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.

Category: E-Commerce
 

2025-02-26 16:45:00| Fast Company

Donald Trump recently surprised the world again by signing an action to end what he describes as the forced use of paper straws. Although there is some merit in the argument the White House presents that paper straws simply arent fit for purpose, what the paper straw revolution represents is the power of individual change in enacting progressive policy. Much like recent EU legislation which required all plastic bottles to have caps attached by a tether, the removal of items that tend to be easily littered is a way to help people be more environmentally cautious without any extra effort. Unfortunately, the paper straw appears to have failed in this endeavour. We should not stop this trajectory because of one fail, however. Even if paper straws are not a viable option, we mustnt let their fate undermine all initiatives to reduce the impacts of single use plastics. The story behind the move away from plastic straws began in 2015, when a disturbing video of a turtle having a plastic straw removed from its nose went viral. Unfortunately this appears to be a common occurrence, with a video of a turtle with a plastic fork in its nose posted only a few months later. This shows plastic straws themselves are not the issue and that there is a wider problem that everyone should be aware of: plastic that ends up in the ocean is often mistaken for food and eaten by wildlife. Paper problems Admittedly, anyone who has used a paper straw will agree that they are not a viable alternative to plastic. The obvious complaint is that they get soggy too quickly. But there are several unseen components that show the switch to paper may not be as great as we once thought. To begin with, in an effort to keep them water-resistant, paper straws themselves are coated in plastic. This means they cannot be recycled. As they are an organic material, they release greenhouse gas when they decompose in landfillthey can however safely be incinerated, something that is not widely recommended for their plastic counterparts. As the demand for paper straws skyrocketed, this created a deficit in production, leading to the development of new manufacturing facilities, construction that in itself has a significant environmental impact. Meanwhile, the heavier weight of paper straws can lead to an increase in freighting fuel consumption and associated emissions. Flimsy plastics are more likely to be littered Anything, however, is better than plastic. A somewhat misleading statistic that plastic straws account for a mere 0.025% of ocean plastics has been circulating in the argument to bring them back. Although this is true by volume, it is not a correct representation of the sheer number of individual straws recorded in the environment which is suspected to be as many as 8.3 billion, about one per person on earth. The fact straws are so small and lightweight is a big part of the problem, since smaller and more easily fragmented items are far harder to collect. As litter, they punch above their weight. A childs plastic beach toy may weigh as much as a few hundred plastic straws, but if littered the straws would do more harm to the environment and wildlife, and would look worse. As straws are made of polypropylene, a flimsier more brittle type of plastic, it doesnt take much effort for them to break apart into bite-size pieces. Because of this, straws turn into microplastics much quicker than the toy, which has a higher chance of eventually being picked up. To this day, straws continue to be on the top 10 types of plastics found on beaches, and we have yet to see any videos of larger pollutants like those beach toys being pulled from the nose of any animal. Although we could argue indefinitely as to which straw materials are worse (reuseable metal or glass straws require water and a cleaning agent, another potential contaminant) the overarching sentiment is the most alarming component of Trumps announcement. Paper straw pressure came from below The move towards paper straws was a refreshing direction in environmental preservation, in that it was initiated locally and by producers, not through legislation. In the summer of 2018 Seattle became the first U.S. city to enforce a ban on plastic utensils, straws and cocktail sticks. Soon thereafter, McDonalds, Starbucks, Alaska Airlines, and many others announced they would stop the sale of plastic straws. Later that year, the U.K. government and European Union began consultations for national bans which came into effect in 2020 and 2021 respectively. In 2019 Canada followed suit with a ban coming into law in 2022. It was not until July of 2024 that the then U.S. president, Joe Biden announced his plan to phase out single-use plastics (although the fact sheet and official press release has now been removed from the White House website). This was several years after the global movement got underwayaccompanied by the first complaints from Trump on the topic in 2019. It is important to note that both the EU and U.K. bans on plastic straws inluded stirrers and cotton bud sticks. However their removal from the market caused little to no controversy, mostly because there are adequate alternatives. Litter producers can drive change What the movement towards paper straws represents is the power of producers to drive change, in a bottom-up approach. A similarly encouraging scenario can be seen in attitudes towards polystyrene. Back in 2019 Dunkin Donuts announced it would stop using foam cups in certain U.S. markets, and delivered a full removal of the cups in the U.S. by early 2020, while in January 2025 California introduced a state wide polystyrene ban. Meanwhile, negotiations on a global plastics agreement remain indecisive. In the wake of a pattern of stalemate and regressive policy, it is on the consumers and producers to take action. We must continue to support producers who invest in innovation to address these issues in a way that makes our lives easier and cleaner. Randa Lindsey Kachef is a research affiliate at King’s College London. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Category: E-Commerce
 

2025-02-26 16:00:00| Fast Company

As a leadership advisor, Ive worked with countless executives who wrestle with failuresome fearing it to the point of paralysis, others glorifying it without extracting real lessons. Failure is inevitable. Growth is optional. The difference between leaders who thrive and those who stagnate isnt the absence of failureits how they respond to it. Fear of failure holds many organizations back, stifling creativity, slowing innovation, and fostering a culture of risk aversion. But failure, when embraced correctly, is one of the most powerful catalysts for growth. The problem? Too many leaders either avoid failure altogether or celebrate it without reflection. The key is courageous failurethe kind that fuels insight, builds resilience, and sets the stage for transformative breakthroughs. Why leaders fear failure Despite the lip service given to failing fast, many leaders still operate in fear of mistakes. The reasons are clear: Ego and Identity: Leaders often tie their worth to their success, making failure feel deeply personal. When setbacks occur, they dont just see it as a professional challenge but as a reflection of their own competence and value. Cultural Stigma: Organizations reward wins but often penalize failure, even when it leads to progress. This creates an environment where employees become risk-averse, opting for predictable outcomes over bold innovation. Short-Term Pressures: Quarterly earnings, investor expectations, and performance metrics discourage experimentation. Leaders feel the pressure to deliver immediate results, making it difficult to justify long-term bets that may initially appear as failures. Psychological Safety Issues: When failure is punished rather than examined, employees hide mistakes instead of learning from them. This lack of psychological safety stifles open communication, preventing valuable lessons from emerging and limiting the organization’s ability to adapt. When fear dominates, organizations fall into a risk-averse cycledefaulting to safe decisions, missing opportunities, and becoming stagnant. The courageous failure framework Not all failures are created equal. Reckless failures, failures due to negligence, lack of preparation, or poor execution, should be avoided. But courageous failuresthose that come from thoughtful experimentation, calculated risks, and boundary-pushing innovationare the seeds of progress. Leaders who want to leverage failure must foster an environment where learning is valued more than perfection. Heres how: Define What Good Failure Looks Like. Not all failures are worth celebrating. A good failure is one that teaches something valuable, aligns with strategic goals, and moves the organization forward. Clearly define the difference between reckless mistakes and courageous failures. Reframe Failure as Data. Instead of seeing failure as a dead end, treat it as an information-gathering exercise. Amazons Fire Phone flopped, but the underlying technology led to Alexas developmentone of its most successful innovations. Encourage Micro-Failures. Instead of placing massive bets that can sink an initiative, create low-risk experiments to test ideas before scaling. This approach minimizes damage while maximizing insights. Normalize Transparent Debriefs. Establish post-failure debrief rituals that focus on what was learned, not who was to blame. Bridgewater Associates, for example, operates with radical transparency, analyzing mistakes openly to prevent them from repeating. Publicly Recognize Productive Failures. If employees only see success being rewarded, theyll avoid risk. Celebrate well-intentioned failures that led to key learnings, just as you would a big win. Lessons from leaders who failed forward When Sara Blakely started Spanx, she made countless mistakes in manufacturing and marketing but saw each misstep as part of the process. She credits her father for encouraging her to talk about what she failed at each dayinstilling a mindset of resilience and growth. Another great example is Oprah Winfrey, who, when she was fired from her first TV job, used the setback to refine her approach and ultimately built one of the most influential media empires in history. Companies that fear failure more than stagnation are already losing ground. The leaders who fail forward fasterlearning, iterating, and growingwill define the future. So, before your next big decision, ask yourself: Am I playing it safe to avoid failure, or am I willing to take a calculated risk that could lead to something extraordinary? Failure isnt the opposite of successits the bridge to it. The only real mistake is not learning from the ones you make along the way.

Category: E-Commerce
 

2025-02-26 15:59:30| Fast Company

Sensitive financial and health data belonging to millions of veterans and stored on a benefits website is at risk of being stolen or otherwise compromised, according to a federal employee tasked with cybersecurity who was recently fired as part of massive government-wide cuts.The warning comes from Jonathan Kamens, who led cybersecurity efforts for VA.govan online portal for Department of Veterans Affairs benefits and services used by veterans, their caregivers and families. Kamens was fired February 14 and said he doesn’t believe his role will be filled, leaving the site particularly vulnerable.“Given how the government has been functioning for the last month, I don’t think the people at VA . . . are going to be able to replace me,” Kamens told the Associated Press Monday evening. “I think they’re going to be lacking essential oversight over cybersecurity processes for VA.gov.”Kamens said he was hired over a year ago by the U.S. Digital Service, whose employees’ duties have been integrated into presidential adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is leading the downsizing effort. Kamens was a digital services expert and the VA site’s information security lead when he was fired by email at night, along with about 40 other USDS employees, he said.Millions of people use the VA.gov website monthly, Kamens said, and the department is responsible for securing private health and financial information including bank account numbers and credit card numbers. Others on the team will focus on protecting the site, but his expertise can’t be replaced, he said, noting he was the only government employee with an engineering technical background working on cybersecurity.“VA.gov has access to a huge number of databases within VA in order to provide all of those benefits and services to veterans,” Kamens said. “So if that information can’t be kept secure, then all of that information is at risk and could be compromised by a bad actor.”Peter Kasperowicz, a Veterans Affairs spokesman, said the loss of a single employee wouldn’t affect operations, and noted that hundreds of cybersecurity workers are among the department’s staff of nearly 470,000.Meanwhile, more than 20 civil service employees who’d also previously worked for USDS resigned Tuesday from DOGE, saying they refused to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”Kamens said he was required to have a background check and a drug test before he was allowed to access any system containing veterans’ data. He said he doesn’t understand why Musk and DOGE shouldn’t have to jump through the same hoops.“I don’t think they should have access to that data,” Kamens said. “These are people who have never been background-checked. They’re not confirmed to be trustworthy.”Kamens also said he’s worried that DOGE is “trying to break down the walls of decentralization” that have kept data isolated in individual agencies. Centralization, he said, could increase the chances for abuse. He also described confusion since DOGE became involvedpeople didn’t know who their manager was, work became isolated, and people were “frozen out.”“The only motive that I can think of,” Kamens said, “is exactly because they want to be able to use that data to harm citizens that they perceive as enemies of the state.” Brian Witte and Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press

Category: E-Commerce
 

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