From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions

These LOGIS alerts vary in the way they arrive to me. This week's list doesn't include anything from my RSS feeds - I haven't had time to look at them - what you see below is definitely just a selection of the amount of information that rolls in every week. If you want to check to see whether anything interesting may have come in via RSS, check out my Bloglines blogroll on the left. Apologies for the layout of this - still learning to tinker with the templates.

Business and management:
Wellington-based company Axo Shredders have taken their Mobile Shredding Trucks concept into the global marketplace and are providing businesses with the means to have secure document, CD, clothing or computer tape destruction onsite at their offices rather than needing to send materials out, thus minimising security risks for companies.
The Ministry of Economic Development has released reports in its Occasional Papers series, on topics such as “HR practices and firm performance”, “Just how innovative are NZ firms?”, “Practice makes profit: business practices and firm success”, and a number of reports around supporting innovation.
The Auckland division of an international finance and accounting firm Robert Half, is warning employers about losing their staff to overseas employers, as a result of their 2007 Auckland Salary Guide.

Health and wellbeing:
The Ministry of Health has released The Health and Independence Report 2007, providing a progress report on the government’s New Zealand Health Strategy, 39 Headline Indicators of health system performance and 10 national Health Targets.
The World Health Organisation has published a new standard for documenting the health of children and youth. This is the first internationally agreed upon classification code for assessing the health of children and youth in the context of their stages of development and the environments in which they live.
Statistics NZ has just released a report indicating that workers over 65 have the highest rate of work-related injuries.

Environment and sustainability:
NZ has its first purpose-built green office buildings with a 5-star rating from the NZ Green Building Council – Meridian Energy’s head office on Wellington’s waterfront, and Auckland’s 80 Queen Street BNZ Multiplex.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, has called the converting of food into biofuel a “crime against humanity”. You can hear a report from UN Radio.
At least 4 new species were discovered during Wellington’s recent Marine Bioblitz, the world’s first.

Law:
Thomson Brookers is presenting a seminar in November, Environmental Law: Top Cases of 2007. Either register online or contact the Thomson Brookers Events Team on 09 360 3712.

Government, local and central:
For those of you who don’t subscribe to the Local Government Online newsletter (see the What’s New box on the right), the Resource Management Law Association has made an award to the Kapiti Coast District Council and consultants Urbanism Plus for their Best Practice Subdivision Guidelines. The judges described the guidelines as an "outcomes focused approach to integrated resource management".
Statistics NZ has released its latest Local Government Connection newsletter. See the bottom of each newsletter if you want to subscribe to the listserv to be regularly alerted. This newsletter includes the latest National Population Projections – Subnational (ie at territorial authority level) are still to come. (Look out for a list of electronic newsletters that could be of interest to council staff, so that people can decide for themselves whether to subscribe – possibly on Citynet, rather than here.)
Research New Zealand has released the results of a recent poll, indicating that there are more NZer’s backing the government to spend its surplus on public works, than on tax cuts.

People, culture and diversity:
The first World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference will be held in Auckland in March 2008, with the theme “Reclaiming the future”, hosted by Maori Television.
The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development has released the results of a survey on overcoming NZ’s skill shortage, that indicates that NZer’s are happy to welcome migrants here but see low pay as a contributor to the skill shortage.

Transport:
David Engwicht, in his opening address to the Injury Prevention Network of Aotearoa New Zealand (IPNANZ) conference in Napier, said that when drivers perceive a situation as 'unsafe', they tend to take more care. Therefore we should get rid of road safety controls that make drivers feel safe.

From the LOGIS desk.