From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 06/03):

Business & management:
• Corporate “greenwash” concerns some leaders of industry and researchers, because it threatens the efforts of those companies that are taking steps to reduce emissions, mitigate climate change and minimize environmental destruction.
• The Centre for Housing Research has 2 new publications available, looking at the falling rate of home ownership in NZ. One trend noted, is the increasing tendency to buy homes further away from work, increasing the need for a long commute.
• We tend to think NZ is doing pretty well on a global scale in the travel and tourism industry, but the World Economic Forum’s “Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008” only ranks NZ as 19th overall. Australia ranks 4th, the UK 6th and the US 7th.
• Specialist recruiting company Hays says that just over half the jobseekers in a recent Australasian survey, say that the number of women in their senior management team does not reflect the number in their business overall.
• The whistle-blowing website Wikileaks is fighting to regain its online status in the US.
• Women professionals in Britain are often forced into taking jobs well below their skill levels after they have had a baby, according to a recent survey on the impact of motherhood on careers.
• The UK Speaker of the House of Commons has been accused of using his (work) air miles for his family. The Institute of Business Ethics there, suggests that in company codes of ethics or conduct an employer should have specific rules for use of company "perks" in order to avoid confusion.

Education
• Surveys shows 1 in 5 children at primary school show severe antisocial behaviour, and 1 in 7 primary teachers report being physically assaulted by students.
• Computer gaming has become a way to learn skills about business, production and management, and to have fun in a very competitive environment, while getting the advice of real economists from around the world. Eve Online is a science fiction trading game that lets you build a corporation in a vast online universe of more than 5,000 solar systems distributed over 66 regions.
• A survey in the UK has found that bullying in UK schools is the worst in Europe , but the survey also found that more students in the UK are happier in school most of the time, than students in the rest of Europe.

Environment & sustainability:
• In southwest England, Totnes is the first of many “Transition Towns” in the UK, working to reduce the impact of peak oil and improve the sustainability of their region. Their TT model has 10 working groups, who cover transport, energy, food, arts, education, local government, business, economics and livelihood, and Heart and Soul (an area that they feel is often neglected). • Celsias have published the 2008 Unenvironment Awards, and Portfolio magazine from Conde Nast has published “The Toxic Ten” of the worst corporate polluters.
• The renewable energy industry is rapidly expanding and has doubled electric generating capacity since 2004, according to the Renewable Energy Network for the 21st Century (REN21). Details are available in their free report Renewables 2007 Global Status Report.
• Plug-in hybrid-electric cars (eg the Chevrolet Volt) in the United States may lower emissions in some parts of the country, but could increase them in others, because 49% of US electricity comes from coal-burning power plants.
• A survey conducted for the global strategy company SustainAbility shows that 75% of the 2100 people surveyed internationally view current efforts on sustainability by governments, businesses, and multilateral organizations as being “very or mostly inadequate.”
• A day before Leap Day, Victoria University announced that it had hatched tiny (no larger than your littlest fingernail) Maud Island frogs for the first time on the mainland – very timely in the International Year of the Frog.
• A University of Otago study shows that lobbying, poorly informed and vacillating politicians and a bureaucracy that lacked technical expertise are all reasons why it took 20 years for petrol in NZ to become unleaded.

Health & wellbeing:
• The Dept of Labour has released the report “Health and safety makes good business sense”, saying that amongst the obvious benefits, safe workplaces enhance corporate reputations and improve staff recruitment and retention.
• Bugs are good – and scientists researching the microbes that live in our digestive systems are discovering that microbes can influence more than just digestion. They may also affect your immunity, modulate your weight or keep you from losing bone density.
• Cutting the amount of television your kids watch really will mean they’ll be healthier and less fat.

Law & Government:
• A recent posting on the Urban Land blog argues the question as to whether a high population density results in a higher crime rate, especially in areas with high-rise buildings.
• Government in the UK is encouraging businesses to get involved with their local communities, offering advice and expertise to help communities to convert disused buildings into vibrant community centers.
• Also in the UK, the government is promoting the concept of lifetime design for housing with a national strategy: “Lifetime homes, lifetime neighbourhoods: a national strategy for housing in an ageing society.” Inclusive design, universal design or accessible design are alternative names overseas for this approach, but these are often associated solely with disability – lifetime design in the UK & in NZ is being seen as design including every person in the house, to cater for all ages and abilities.
• The UN survey 'Criminal Victimisation in International Perspective: Key Findings from the 2004-2005 ICVS and EU ICS” shows that NZ has the best victim support after a crime, globally. However, NZ is ranked highly in terms of the prevalence rate of “conventional crime” (theft from or of vehicles, burglary, and contact crime i.e. robbery, assault, threats or sexual offences).
• The Human Rights Commission has just launched the Race Relations Report 2007, and says that local body representation is not as diverse as the communities served.
• The UK Improvement and Development Agency (I&DeA) has put together a series of pages on city regions covering policy (local and international), key contacts and links to online resources and publications.
• Local authority winners in the UK Beacon Awards have just been announced. The awards celebrate innovation, excellence and quality local services, with the winners sharing £3m of government funding to expand their work in sharing best practice and to motivate further innovation across public services.
• The personalised public services pilot in the UK is to be spread further, with a 'personalisation toolkit' to be produced to help councils pool information on what works so others can redesign social care services.

People, culture & diversity:
• The newly established permanent Catholic-Muslim Forum will meet every 2 years, with the first to be held in Rome in November and future meetings alternating between the Vatican and a Muslim country.
• The Organisation of American States, a pan-regional body, held an emergency meeting in Washington to seek a diplomatic solution to the threat of war, as Venezuela and Ecuador sent troops to the Colombian border. Colombia is a key ally of the US in Latin America.
• Are children growing up too fast? Life for children and teenagers in previous decades meant that adults have actually been debating the question for longer than we realise.

Science, technology & transport:
• Professor John Adams of University College London believes that traffic lights should be banned (and stop signs, zebra crossings, kerbstones and railings), because he believes that they kill people. Many European cities now make use of a “shared space” approach to traffic management.
• Research in the UK shows that while 39% of the population aren’t online, 75% of disadvantaged people are “digitally excluded”. A project that provides training and recycled computers to families is showing that even after the course is over, Internet use in this group increases.
• NZ researchers have found that in spite of concerns that production of ethanol from NZ’s softwood forests would be too difficult technically & too expensive, generating biofuel in this way is an option.
• A vault built into a frozen mountain in a remote part of Norway is to house the Global Seed Vault, which will house duplicates of unique varieties of the world’s most important crops.
• A US Dept of Transportation interim report confirms the climate benefits gained by a community that uses bicycle and pedestrian travel.
• 500 million people are estimated to log onto the internet from a cyber café every day, and a European company, Jooce, is offering a free web-based desktop that could prove valuable for those who can't afford their own PC. A review has called it “close to being all a Web OS needs to be”.
• Proposals to introduce a compulsory motorway toll system in the UK, enforced by satellite tracking, have caused protest, but now discussions are around the idea of adding an extra lane to some motorways for drivers willing to pay a premium to use them, or for those willing to share a car.
• The Ask website (formerly Ask Jeeves) will no longer operate as a general search engine, but will become a female-focused online query specialist providing answers to domestic questions about health, children's homework, recipes and hobbies.
• Encrypted information on laptops may be vulnerable to hackers. US researchers have shown that while the PC is in “sleep” or “hibernation” mode, it is possible for a hacker to retrieve the encryption key from a laptop.