CSR

Special Blog Post By: Alisa Tantraphol, Corporate & Foundation Relations Manager, Second Harvest Food Bank.

Anyone else stepping into the role of Food & Fund Drive Coordinator at Applied Materials would have found it daunting to inherit a drive that raised more than $850,000 for Second Harvest last year. Luckily, Nancy Nielsen is no stranger to corporate philanthropy. In addition to a wealth of experience from places like Harvard, the New York Times, and McKinsey & Co., her impressive resume includes seven years as the Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility at Pfizer.

Last August, Applied Materials hired Nancy to manage community involvement activities for Global Community Affairs. Less than six months into her role at Applied, Nancy has already proven herself as one of the hardest working food & fund drive coordinators toiling on behalf of the nearly quarter of a million clients relying on Second Harvest for food every month.Read more

There is still time to register for the Turkey Trot! Why register? Here are the top 10 reasons to participate and register for this year’s Turkey Trot.Read more

Applied Materials was featured in two recent issues of Profiles in Diversity Journal for its executive diversity leadership and corporate philanthropy.  In this month's 10th annual Women Worth Watching special issue, Applied's Dana Tribula is recognized among this year's top female executive award winners for her creative and technical leadership and initiative and achievements across her career.  Applied was also honored for its commitment to advancing women in leadership.Read more

I was talking to a cool science chic with pink hair who rides a hovercraft at The Tech Museum yesterday. She offered to show me her sweet, new game that teaches kids how to be climate change experts and learn about cutting-edge technology that will help save our planet. It was all in a day’s play in the virtual world, where my avatar explored The Tech Museum and played the new Bright Future Trivia Game.

Developed by Applied Materials and hosted by The Tech Museum through the KidsCom.com website, The Bright Future (BF) Trivia Game challenges kids’ environmental knowledge with well-researched, age-appropriate, green trivia. Questions cover such topics as renewable energy, biodiversity, green careers and climate change.Read more

I recently attended the Bay Area premiere of a powerful and sobering film entitled “Climate Refugees,” a 2010 Sundance Film Festival Selection. Filmmaker Michael Nash visited 47 countries over the space of nearly two years documenting the extraordinary human toll that climate related disasters are causing. The number and scope of these stories is sadly long: the narrow sandy atolls of Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean that are about to be engulfed by rising sea levels; the millions of Bangladeshis that are crowded into the slums of Dhaka after being displaced by cyclones; the Africans trudging for miles to find water and scratching out an existence as the once huge Lake Chad quickly dries up; the rural Chinese living in makeshift tents as both flooding and creeping desertification destroy their homes; the melting glaciers in Alaska that are imperiling time honored Native American traditions and livelihoods; and the wrenching social and economic changes wrought by Hurricane Katrina in our own backyard.Read more