Kickstart: Not everyone is backing ESG

Isn't sustainability supposed to be something good? A target for companies to pursue?

Not for everyone, apparently.

While major corporations as varied as Dow Inc., Berry Global Group and Ford Motor Co. publish environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports to indicate what they are doing to enhance cleaner production and better employee and community responsibility, there are also investors out there specifically targeting "anti-ESG" investments.

Bloomberg writes that Columbus, Ohio-based Strive Asset Management, for one example, launched this year and already has $250 million in assets. Its Strive U.S. Energy ETF operates under the New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol DRLL. As that name implies, it's an investment fund to encourage drilling and other energy sector activities. (Strive's website claims the fund offers "everyday Americans a way to invest in the stock market without mixing business with politics." But mixing politics with business seems to be exactly the point the fund is pursuing, if you ask me.)

I'm no investment guru, nor am I qualified to speak to whether ESG efforts by big corporations will actually make a difference. All I know is that I'm not going to be surprised if we soon start hearing some financial backers calling for less spending on sustainability. Based on the rapid embrace of carbon-neutral manufacturing and other sustainability efforts, though, I will be surprised if major corporations actually agree to back off of their ESG efforts.

What does it take to train a future mold maker?

The Society of Plastics Engineers' Mold Technologies division has just released the first in a planned Track the Apprentice video series following a high school apprentice, Taylor, at CDM Tool & Manufacturing in Hartford, Wis.

"I knew I could do or be anything I wanted because my parents and the rest of my family supported me. Plus, my teachers kept telling me they thought I'd be really good at this," she said in a news release that accompanied the first part. "I really liked it, and they could tell I really liked it."

You can follow the series on SPE Mold Technologies division's page on LinkedIn.

It's the 40th anniversary of the "Whammy Weenie," a hard plastic promotional tube-shaped rattle that was supposed to be the Buffalo Bills' version of the Pittsburgh Steelers' Terrible Towel — designed to ramp up excitement for the NFL franchise.

Erik Brady of the Buffalo News writes that they were backed by a local supermarket chain and sold for 49 cents (or given away free with $5 worth of purchases).

The Weenies survived only briefly before they were abandoned, Brady writes, although whether the cause was poor reception from fans or an issue with lead paint is up for dispute. In a video from the Buffalo History Museum, donor Greg Tranter maintains it was paint.

But here's the thing I find curious: While Buffalo claims it is home to the Weenie, it seems the rivals in Pittsburgh claim to have a similar item, the "Green Weenie," which debuted earlier than the Whammy Weenie.

Made by thermoformer Tri-State Plastics, the Green Weenie was a promotional item given out from 1967 to 1974, then revived in 1989, according to Wikipedia.

The biggest difference beyond the name? The Green Weenie was part of baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates, not football's Steelers.