A $29 billion corporation, the Aditya Birla Group is in the league of Fortune 500. It is anchored by an extraordinary force of 130,600 employees, belonging to 40 different nationalities. In the year 2009, the Group was ranked among the top six great places for leaders in the Asia-Pacific region, in a study conducted by Hewitt Associates, RBL Group and Fortune magazine. In India, the Group has been adjudged the best employer in India and among the top 20 in Asia by the Hewitt-Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007. Over 60 per cent of the Group's revenues flow from its overseas operations. The Group operates in 26 countries – Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Laos, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, UAE, UK, USA and Vietnam.

Becton Dickinson, a global medical technology company, supports the Earth Institute’s work related to HIV/AIDS in developing countries. BD’s commitment includes funding for the project’s global HIV/AIDS coordinator and other in-country health coordinators, as well as collaboration on diagnostic and clinical infrastructure and core competency needs. BD has also helped to identify top staff in Africa for the Millennium Cities Initiative, including our public health specialist in East Africa, whose previous experience at BD has helped her become a powerhouse in urban public health development in Kenya.

In addition to their participation in the Global Roundtable on Climate Change, Deutsche Bank Asset Management has initiated a collaboration with the Columbia Climate Center at the Earth Institute to support applied research that enhances our understanding of climate change science and policy.  For a current project, DB is sponsoring researchers at the Columbia Climate Center to develop a model to quantify the impact of government regulations and targets on emissions and concentrations of carbon dioxide over time.

eni is a major integrated energy company, committed to growth in the activities of finding, producing, transporting, transforming and marketing oil and gas. The company has global operations in 79 countries and employs more than 78,000 people. eni’s Strategic Partnership with the Earth Institute’s Corporate Circle is an extension of its commitment to sustainable development. As a Strategic Partner, eni currently supports the foreign direct investment initiatives of the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment in Timor-Leste. In addition, eni and the Earth Institute are building a broader partnership to promote achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Africa through initiatives that help local communities gain access to basic energy services while assuring sustainable resource management.

Through its unique private partnership with the Earth Institute, Ericsson continues to advance its vision of "communication for all" through innovation, technology and sustainable business solutions.  Ericcson has committed to bring voice and Internet connectivity to over half a million people in the Millennium Villages, working with pan-African operators MTN and Zain to improve existing coverage or to build new networks.

In all of the Millennium Villages, Ericsson is also supplying mobile phones to health workers and providing support for mobile applications that enhance the Earth Institute’s work in health, education, agriculture and small business development.  Most recently, Ericsson has facilitated the addition of weather monitoring devices on their cellular communication towers, providing a whole new source of data to enhance the Earth Institute’s climate science and adaptation efforts.  In 2009, Carl-Henric Svanberg, the president and CEO of Ericsson, joined the External Advisory Board of the Earth Institute and plays a critical role in helping the Earth Institute mobilize the latest technologies for sustainable development.

GE, one of the world’s most innovative companies, has long been committed to harnessing imagination to solve some of the most challenging problems facing the planet. Through its contribution to the China 2049 initiative, GE is supporting the unique collaboration of China’s top economic and planning agency – the National Development and Reform Commission – the Brookings Institution and the Earth Institute to develop research to help formulate policies to ensure that China’s long-term growth and development are economically efficient and environmentally sustainable. GE is also a partner of the Millennium Villages project through their support of essential health infrastructure as part of an integrated approach to public health provision.

GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company whose mission is to improve the quality of human life, is supporting the work of the Millennium Villages project through two grants.  The first, which went to the Earth Institute’s Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia, supports critical applied research into the control of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), helping the Earth Institute to pilot the integration of NTD control and reduction into existing malaria control or other relevant national programs in ten African countries.  The second grant is supporting work to improve hygiene in Mali, Senegal and across the Millennium Villages through integrated education and infrastructure development initiatives.

HSBC partnered with the Earth Institute to address climate change in the New York region by linking community groups, municipal agencies and environmental organizations with researchers and students.  The commitment includes funding for internships, research assistantships and conferences, all of which focus on climate change adaptation projects.  The projects are specific to the needs of the New York region, build upon expertise of the community organizations and include expansion of green roofs, increased permeable surfaces, coastal wetland restoration, strategies to deal with sea level rise and storm surges, climate change and environmental justice, water and energy conservation, economic impacts on local businesses, and public health impacts.

As part of their Global Corporate Citizenship Program, KPMG supports the efforts of the Millennium Cities Initiative in Africa by leveraging the skills and expertise of its employees.  The firm has seconded a full-time investment analysis specialist to the project who has been instrumental in helping to develop commercial due diligence analyses for the Millennium Cities and identifying viable sectors ripe for sustainable investment.  In addition, KPMG has given critical support to the development of investor guides to promote sustainable foreign direct investment in Kisumu, Kenya; Kumasi, Ghana; and Akure, Nigeria.  They are also looking to expand their engagement by sponsoring a Millennium Village and by creating a sustainable development corporate training program with the Earth Institute.

Merck & Co., Inc. is a global leader in fighting disease and addressing unmet medical needs worldwide.  Together with the Earth Institute, Merck is supporting the achievement of health-related Millennium Development Goals in rural Africa by funding the development of a sustainable rural healthcare system founded on a professional cadre of community health workers (CHWs).  Well-trained, remunerated and supervised CHWs can deliver critical preventive and curative services at the household level and thus address Africa’s human resources and infrastructure deficiencies in the health sector.  With Merck’s commitment, CHW education curriculum development, training and supervision capacity strengthening can now be expanded across all fourteen Millennium Villages, serving as a demonstration to spur a scale-up of the CHW system to the national level across Africa. 

National Grid is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world. In Britain and the Northeastern US, we run systems that deliver gas and electricity to many millions of people, businesses, and communities. We are at the heart of one of the greatest challenges facing society — delivering clean energy to support our world long into the future. We work with all our stakeholders to promote the development and implementation of sustainable, innovative and affordable energy solutions. In meeting this challenge, National Grid is supporting the Earth Institute and its research in energy efficiency, energy storage, renewable energy, and carbon capture and storage.

As a world leader in products aimed at improving nutrition, health and wellness, Nestlé currently works with over 600,000 small holder farmers to help them prosper economically while protecting the environment. Nestlé has partnered with the Earth Institute to advance progress towards eliminating hunger, increasing food security, and achieving the nutrition-related Millennium Development Goals in the 14 Millennium Villages across ten countries in Africa. Nestlé's “Creating Shared Value” business approach supports its objectives of preserving natural resources and minimizing waste, while creating value for both rural communities and Nestlé shareholders. As part of its commitment to these business principles, Nestlé is helping the Earth Institute work with Columbia University at large to develop a sustainable global food system that can provide food security for all.

Novartis, a pharmaceutical company committed to creating innovative products to prevent and cure diseases, is applying their belief in smart innovation by supporting the development of an electronic medical records system in each of the 14 Millennium Villages sites across Africa. This system is a key communications tool for individuals and communities in remote areas – empowering community health workers with critical information and enabling them to share best-practices with other health care providers in villages thousands of miles away. With Novartis’ support, this is just one initiative Earth Institute researchers are pursing to help achieve health-related Millennium Development Goals through adapted technologies. In addition, Novartis is a partner to the Millennium Villages project through its contributions of the anti-malarial drug Coartem®, which is helping to save lives and improve the health and productivity of people across the MV sites.

As part of Pepsi’s corporate-wide strategy for sustainability, PepsiCo, Inc. is working with the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute to identify means to reduce its carbon footprint and improve the sustainable design of its operations.  Pepsi is committed to designing an internal carbon calculator that is usable, robust and customizable and that can improve the measurement of greenhouse gases.  The results of the work will help identify high emissions phases of Pepsi’s operations and guide decisions regarding whether to reduce impacts in the supply chain through improved technology or alternative inputs.

Pepsi is also partnering with the Water Center of the Earth Institute to find lasting solutions to the water scarcity crises in Brazil, China, India and sub-Saharan Africa.  To reach the project’s goal, the Water Center team of top experts in the fields of hydrology, mechanical engineering, public policy and water politics is working closely with networks of governmental, academic, NGO and private sector actors in each of these countries.  To achieve increased water security, the initiative takes a systemic approach that includes infrastructure assessment and enhancement, financial system policy interventions, improvements in the efficiency and allocation of water to users through private-public partnerships, and the assessment of improved agricultural techniques to yield “more crop per drop.” This large, multi-year project is designed to scale up beyond the grant’s end through the national and regional policy initiatives the project is informing and the networks established with local and national actors.

With support from Pfizer Incorporated, the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company, health coordinators from 10 African countries and 14 Millennium Village sites have been able to come together in workshops to discuss key challenges and progress in the Millennium Villages and strategize for improvements and scale-up moving forward. Through the community health workers program that these coordinators are helping to initiate across Africa, primary health care is localized where rural populations can access it and the information gap between households and regional health centers is decreased through the use of innovative mobile technology. Pfizer is also an ongoing supporter of the Earth Institute through their Global Health Fellowship Program.

Through the P&G Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Procter & Gamble is contributing to applied research on drinking water safety improvements through the use of the PŪR® water filtration system, a technology developed in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control that has been shown to significantly improve water quality and thereby reduce diarrhea illness by an average of 50%. Based on its commitment to sustainability and helping to increase access to safe drinking water, P&G is providing PŪR® in Millennium Village research sites and supporting monitoring of the acceptance and impact of the technology and eventual planning for scale-up based on the results.

Con Edison is committed to meeting current and future energy needs in a safe, reliable, efficient, and environmentally sound manner. With the acknowledgement that climate change is a critically important and challenging issue, Con Edison is working to involve all sectors of the economy to mitigate this change. In New York, Con Edison’s EnergyNY Plan seeks to meet growing demand for power while also promoting energy conservation.

The EDF Group is a leading company in the European energy market active in all areas of the electricity value chain: generation, transmission, distribution, supply and trading. Thanks to nuclear and hydraulic production facilities, 95% of EDF’s domestic output in France is generated without CO2 emissions, and at the end of 2008, the Group’s green energy subsidiary EDF Énergies Nouvelles began operating one of the largest solar farms in Europe. As part of its business model, the EDF Group prioritizes climate change and biodiversity through investing in low-carbon energy facilities, modernizing fossil-fired plants to improve efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions, promoting energy-efficiency options for its customers, and practicing commitments to long-term monitoring of wildlife populations and restoration in areas surrounding its operations.

Enel is an international group active in the production and distribution of electricity and gas in 23 countries on four continents. Among Europe’s listed utility companies, Enel is the second largest by installed capacity and one of the leaders in terms of shareholder numbers, with 1.2 million investors. The group is also among the world’s largest utilities by market capitalization. Enel generates 288.9 TWh of electricity per year using a balanced mix of energy resources. Its generation plants have a total capacity of 95,491 MW, of which more than a third is powered by renewable resources; use of the latter is increasing constantly, especially in North, Central and South America. The Enel Group distributes energy over 1.7 million kilometers of power lines and sells electricity to 57.3 million customers and gas to 3.8 million households and enterprises.