Verizon is joining forces with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and many others in the It Can Wait campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving.

Take the pledge and spread the word. Texting and driving don't mix.

Guest blogger is Martha Delehanty, senior vice president of human resources for Verizon, writes about the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project's annual Voices Against Violence event and its honoree, Vice President Joe Biden, who has championed against domestic violence for more than two decades.

Verizon is investing $100 million in green energy to install solar panels and fuel cells at 19 Verizon buildings around the country as part of our commitment to cut carbon intensity in half by 2020.

The Verizon Wireless retail store in Toms River, N.J., place first among retails stores and third overall in the EPA’s 2012 Energy Star National Building Competition. Billed as “The Battle of the Buildings,” more than 3,000 schools, businesses, and government facilities across the country competed to see which could reduce its energy use the most in a year.

Verizon Wireless customers can now text to donate to support One Fund Boston, a charity established in the wake of the April 15 attacks in Boston. Text messaging fees will be waived, and 100 percent of each donation goes directly to One Fund Boston.

To mark Earth Day, we're launching two initiatives to help reduce our impact on the environment: our new ECO Specs label will list five key environmental factors of our wireless devices, and we'll help plant a tree for with the purchase of selected new wireless phone via our second annual Plant-a-Tree promotion, which runs through April 28.

To aid the victims of the April 15 Boston terror attacks and their families, the Verizon Foundation has pledged $100,000 to One Fund Boston, and it also will provide a 1-to-1 match of employee online donations to the fund.

In honor of the more than 13,600 Verizon employees who supported Earth Hour across 37 countries, Verizon is planting 6,000 trees, including 1,000 in Pillaiarkuppam Village in Puducherry, India, where American Forests is working to reforest an ecosystem along the Gingee River.

Chief Sustainability Officer James Gowen reports that Verizon Wireless a 2013 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year for our ongoing work to wring every possible kilowatt out of our retail store operations. We have worked closely with the EPA for more than six years, resulting in ENERGY STAR certification for all 116 of our eligible stores, and we’ve improved overall energy efficiency by 5.2 percent.

Attachments:

Energy Star Infographic.pdf ‏1702 KB

Verizon’s Chief Sustainability Officer Jim Gowen blogs about our participation in Earth Hour and five new environmental goals ranging from wireless device recycling targets to expanded public reporting of our carbon footprint.

Senior Vice President Kathy Brown writes about our just-released Annual Report and how it shows that the core of our growth strategy lies in a commitment to help solve some of the world’s biggest challenges in healthcare, energy and education. 

Our Chief Sustainability Officer James Gowen blogs about a simple idea that has a big impact: introducing a fleet of buses to take our field techs from job to job in New York City.

Attachments:

magic_bus_infographic.jpg ‏1578 KB

On behalf of the Verizon Foundation, guest blogger Justina Nixon-Sanitil congratulates the top 10 creative student teams that won the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. More than 470 student teams from across the country submitted app concepts that address a need or problem in their schools or communities. Winning team members get a tablet computer from Samsung, and team schools get a $10,000 grant for STEM education.

Guest blogger Susan Sullivan writes about Verizon's participation in the debut of NO MORE Day, a new annual event designed to increase awareness and spur action to prevent domestic violence and sexual assault in this country.

Guest blogger Justina Nixon-Saintil discusses the STEM Career Panel webcast held for the 70 top-scoring Best in State winners in this year's Verizon Innovative App Challenge. The webcast provided middle- and high school students with greater exposure to the career opportunities available for graduates with a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) backgrounds.

Blogger James Gowen discusses the recently released ranking of the top five traffic congested areas in the United States and examines one humble but powerful alternative: Telecommuting.

Teach For America director Aisha Gayle blogs about a Verizon-sponsored teacher training session held Wednesday in New York City that shared new approaches for using technology in the classroom.

The training session was conducted in partnership with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

Next Thursday, hundreds of domestic violence prevention advocates will gather for a Day to Connect, Inspire and Heal. The live-streamed event held Feb. 21, from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST, hopes to spur a national conversation about domestic violence and uncover new solutions to this critical issue. You can participate by submitting questions to expert panelists and moderators, including Dr. Richard Besser, chief health and medical examiner of ABC News; CBS sportscaster James Brown; and CNN anchor Christi Paul.

Just one day to go until our Twitter Chat marking National Digital Learning Day, which celebrates educators and highlights their effective use of technology in classrooms. Join us via Twitter hashtag #EdTechChat from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. ET. Educators and learning advocates from across the country will be discussing new and innovative ways to use digital technology in schools.

Educators will celebrate successful instructional practices and the effective use of technology in classrooms on the 2nd annual Digital Learning Day, Feb. 6. Justina Nixon-Saintil previews the event and outlines Verizon's role in providing tech-based resources to support digital learning and teaching.

Verizon's Kathy Brown writes about the significance of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. The Verizon Foundation is featuring the resources of the National Archives on Verizon’s Thinkfinity.org website.

We all have a role to play in preventing violence. The Verizon Foundation and CBS Sportscaster James Brown are helping to get the conversation going during a special #YourVoiceCounts Twitter Chat during the week before the Super Bowl on Thursday, January 31 from 4:00 – 5:00 pm ET. Talking about domestic violence prevention is one of the first steps to ending it.

Verizon will host a student intern from the Environmental Defense Fund's Climate Corps fellowship program. The Climate Corps Fellow will research our energy use patterns and help plan energy saving strategies. EDF stats show that on average, each company assisted by the EDF Climate Corps has found $1 million in energy savings.  This is the third consecutive year Verizon has participated in the program, and we look forward to collaborating with these bright sustainability innovators.

When it comes to tackling society’s biggest challenges, health care is at the top of the list. In his keynote at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show, Lowell McAdam discussed applying Verizon's networks in a powerful new way: to help solve big social challenges and change lives for the better.

In just a few hours at the stroke of midnight, it will be 150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln.  I will be among many others, honored to participate in the National Archives’ Watch Night to celebrate this monumental anniversary.

The Emancipation Proclamation, this "new birth of freedom", that has been so carefully and lovingly preserved, holds within it, the prayers, the struggle, the courage and the perseverance of our countrymen and women to be recognized as free people. In the words of Frederick Douglass, it was "the first step on the part of the nation in its departure from the thralldom of the ages."  Many years ago, on this night, we rang the bells to both rejoice in that first step and to remind ourselves, as President Lincoln would say 11 months later, "it is for us...to be here rededicated."

The original Emancipation Proclamation document is rarely on display so I encourage anyone in or near Washington D.C. to be in the presence of history and see it on display at the National Archives through January 1, 2013.

Guest post by A’Lelia Bundles, Chair and President, Foundation for the National Archives.

On January 1, 1863, as the nation entered its third year of civil war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”

It’s true that the Emancipation Proclamation was limited and its effects were gradual. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It exempted many parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Union control. Most importantly, the freedom it promised depended on the Union winning the war.

…In just a few days there will be a rare three-day viewing in the National Archives’ magnificent Rotunda of the original document of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Foundation for the National Archives is honored to be a part of this celebration.

As the private sector partner of the National Archives, we at the Foundation for the National Archives thank the Verizon Foundation for its generous support of this important celebration and for helping us promote the work of the National Archives and the role it plays in preserving the vital records of the U.S. government. The support from the Verizon Foundation enables us to fulfill our mission of educating, enriching, and inspiring our fellow citizens with the documents of American democracy.

This holiday season, Verizon is collaborating with FEMA on Resolve to be Ready, a public safety campaign designed to bring awareness to the tremendous resources that your smartphone can provide before, during and after an emergency or disaster.

Verizon Foundation President Rose Kirk spoke on Verizon's commitment to empower women and help them escape abusive relationships. The video address was delivered yesterday at the U.S. State Department’s South Asia Women’s Entrepreneurship Symposium in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The symposium convened more than 100 women entrepreneurs, private sector leaders and government officials from across South and Central Asia to discuss women's empowerment and the linkage to gender-based violence.

A new study concludes that broad use new high-tech solutions can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 16.5 percent by 2020 and help grow the world’s economies. The new GeSI SMARTer2020 report says that the broad use of smart grids, buildings and transport systems enhanced by information communications technology could yield $1.9 trillion in savings for consumers and businesses and create 29.5 million jobs globally.

Guest blogger Susan Sullivan announces a Twitter Chat on November 15 at 3:00 pm ET on the Foundation's "Your Voice Counts" campaign to help break the silence around domestic violence by equipping bystanders — especially men — with tools to begin speaking up.

Log on to Twitter (www.twitter.com) and search for the hashtag #YourVoiceCounts to follow the conversation. Add the hashtag to your own tweets to join the discussion.