Business & management:
• The Pew Center on Global Climate Change (in Arlington, Virginia, USA) has prepared a report on how businesses can approach climate change, and how a company can identify its potential risks from climate change and possible opportunities.
• Urban development and real estate professionals in the US are using social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook to gain advice, advertise land sales and create discussion groups, and the Urban Land Institute already has a presence on both Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Adobe has launched Acrobat.com, a community site that allows document creation, storage and sharing online, and web conferences to discuss the documents. Other such sites already exist, with Microsoft, Google and Zoho all making such services available.
• The FAO is predicting more spikes in global food prices for the next few seasons, in its report “Food Outlook: global market analysis” for June 2008.
Environment & sustainability:
• The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), which monitors urban design and planning, says that fewer than 10 out of over 700 large construction projects in the UK have made sustainability a priority, and suggests that “greenwashing” is being used, rather than a proper approach to sustainability.
• A 10 year research project in the UK on restoring landfill sites has shown that it is possible to restore these areas safely by planting certain trees, and as long as there is strict adherence to safeguards.
• The World Science Festival held in New York recently, had a panel called "Future Cities: Sustainable, Radical Designs" where some innovative solutions for sustainability in housing, transport and infrastructure were discussed.
• A forgotten aspect of the build-up of greenhouse gases and toxic effects on the environment, is the accumulation of “reactive nitrogen” in the environment, derived from nitrogenous fertilizers and burning fossil fuels.
• The UK’s Dept of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has released a report “The growth potential for microgeneration in England, Wales and Scotland” which indicates that if the government backed it enough, microgeneration could generate as much electricity per year as 5 nuclear power stations. The report comes at a time when the government is considering new nuclear power stations, while those already built cost British taxpayers millions of pounds.
• The Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority has reported on research findings about public perceptions towards renewable energy. 75% of New Zealanders support marine energy as a future electricity generation option – so it’s timely that an experimental prototype of a wave power generator has been approved for trials in Evans Bay, Wellington, after previous successful trials in Lyttleton Harbour.
• A CEO of a NZ wind energy company, speaking at the Energy Trusts of NZ conference, said that uneven supply generation from large wind projects affects the stability of electricity prices and that smaller and smarter wind energy projects would be better for NZ.
• A new edition of the “New Zealand Energy Information Handbook” is on order at Libraries, providing technical data on the energy sector.
• Keeping track of local sustainability initiatives in New Zealand will be easier with the launch of the “Our Future” website from Landcare Research. The site shows environmental projects and research sites, including ones in which people can become involved.
Health & wellbeing:
• UK researchers are noticing a trend amongst youth with regard to alcohol – the number of teetotal teenagers is rising.
• Findings in the report “A portrait of health: key results of the 2006/7 New Zealand Health Survey”, show that the proportion of adults unable to see a GP when they needed to in the previous 12 months has halved since 2002/03and there has been a decrease in the daily smoking rate. There has been a slowing in the rate of increase of obesity in adults, with no change in the rate of obesity for Māori adults since 1997.
People, culture & diversity:
• Virtual volunteering is on the rise, allowing people to fit their volunteer work in around the other commitments in their life.
Science, technology & transport:
• The Cato Institute, a public policy research foundation in Washington DC, has recently published an article suggesting that rail transit lines use more energy per passenger mile, and some schemes may generate more greenhouse gases than the average passenger vehicle.
• The huge impact of rising petrol prices on increasing rides on US public transport schemes has been confirmed by data on the first 3 months of 2008 released by the American Public Transport Association. Another knock-on effect of the economic crunch combined with higher travel costs, is the fall in business travel and its impact on the US hotel & hospitality industry.
• Due to the rising amounts of greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector, the UN expects transport stakeholders to play a key role in shaping the global climate change deal that countries will discuss next year.
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Thursday, 29 May 2008
From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 29/05):
Business & management:
• The WriteMark New Zealand Plain English Awards are now open to entries, promoted by the Write Group Limited. The awards promote the use of plain English in communication by businesses and government.
• NZ’s biggest annual tourism event, TRENZ (Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand) will be held in Auckland in June 2009
• Just as employers are now routinely checking Facebook profiles for prospective employees, computer game-playing skills are now increasingly recognised as more valuable than just as an entry in the “Hobbies” section of a person’s CV. Gaming can hone organisational, managerial and inter-personal skills and can reveal important personality characteristics.
• Businesses in the San Francisco Bay area will be required to pay fees according to the amount of carbon that they emit, the first fees of their kind in the US. Power plants and oil refineries in the region will be paying the biggest fees.
Environment & sustainability:
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature says another 11 species of sharks are threatened, including the shortfin mako and thresher sharks.
• The 2 NZ climate change reports released this week are “Climate Change Effects & Impacts Assessment Manual: A Guide for Local Government” and “The EcoClimate Report: Climate change and agricultural production”.
• If you have serious concerns about energy this winter, a new website has been created: “Winterpower Watch”. The site allows anyone to check for accurate and up-to-date information about the electricity supply situation.
• The Marine Energy Deployment Fund has provided its first grant, to a company that is waiting on resource consent to install 3 tidal turbines in the Kaipara Harbour.
• National Geographic has started an annual survey on how environmentally friendly consumers are in countries around the world, called “Greendex”. Only 14 countries are listed in the first report – US consumers rank as worst, while Indian & Brazilian consumers rank as most environmentally friendly.
• The US NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) has released a report on what climate change might cost the US economy: “The cost of climate change: what we’ll pay if global warming continues unchecked”.
• NASA has released the results of the first study to show a definitive link between human activity and climate change. The article is published in the Nature issue of 2008 May 15, but the article and supporting material can also be seen via NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies: “Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change.”
• Sir John Sorrell of the UK’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment has spoken recently about three tests that can indicate the sustainability of our cities.
Health & wellbeing:
• A speech-language therapy conference in Auckland last week heard that testing of young offenders in the UK shows that poor communication skills have an impact on childhood offending.
• The technical standard for national tsunami signage was announced this week, meaning that there will now be standardised signage around the country warning about tsunami zones, safe evacuation routes and safe locations.
• The UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has produced a guide for employers and professionals: “Promoting physical activity in the workplace”, because “people of working age are not active enough to benefit their health.”
• Rates of heavy drinking in the UK have doubled since 1995, raising concerns about the burden on the health system, and as a result, the president of the Royal College of Physicians has called for an end to cheap supermarket drink.
Law & Government:
• A UK report “Designing citizen-centred governance” was released this month. Research was drawn from a variety of areas including health, education, and a variety of community-based organisations and services.
People, culture & diversity:
• Most NZers don’t rate wealth as highly as they rate living a morally good life, and having enough time to do the things they want. The statistics come from research on the importance of values by UMR Research.
• A BBC-sponsored study of its virtual world for children “Adventure Rock” shows that virtual worlds are rehearsal spaces for the things children can try out, without fear of the consequences that would exist in the real world.
Science, technology & transport:
• Transport planners in Washington DC are concerned that a massive move of commuters out of cars and into the local Metro service is putting the “ailing” system under pressure, and that measures like flexitime might be needed to ease the rush of new riders. Projected increases in riders were based on population and job growth, but didn’t factor in the impact of the high petrol costs.
• Internet usability expert Jakob Nielsen (one of his reports on intranets is now available on Citynet) says in his latest report on web habits, that people are now less patient online, they ignore efforts to make them linger at sites and they are suspicious of promotions designed to get their attention.
• European researchers are using sensors, cameras and GPS on buses to analyse traffic conditions (ice, smog, bad weather, congestion) and provide additional information to the other means they use, to reduce traffic and improve road conditions.
• Dupont and BP are partnering to produce biobutanol for use as a biofuel, which can be manufactured from the same sources as ethanol. Previously, higher production costs prevented its use in transport, but because it is closer to a petrol substitute than ethanol, cars could use a biobutanol blend of 16% without the need for engine conversion.
• The WriteMark New Zealand Plain English Awards are now open to entries, promoted by the Write Group Limited. The awards promote the use of plain English in communication by businesses and government.
• NZ’s biggest annual tourism event, TRENZ (Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand) will be held in Auckland in June 2009
• Just as employers are now routinely checking Facebook profiles for prospective employees, computer game-playing skills are now increasingly recognised as more valuable than just as an entry in the “Hobbies” section of a person’s CV. Gaming can hone organisational, managerial and inter-personal skills and can reveal important personality characteristics.
• Businesses in the San Francisco Bay area will be required to pay fees according to the amount of carbon that they emit, the first fees of their kind in the US. Power plants and oil refineries in the region will be paying the biggest fees.
Environment & sustainability:
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature says another 11 species of sharks are threatened, including the shortfin mako and thresher sharks.
• The 2 NZ climate change reports released this week are “Climate Change Effects & Impacts Assessment Manual: A Guide for Local Government” and “The EcoClimate Report: Climate change and agricultural production”.
• If you have serious concerns about energy this winter, a new website has been created: “Winterpower Watch”. The site allows anyone to check for accurate and up-to-date information about the electricity supply situation.
• The Marine Energy Deployment Fund has provided its first grant, to a company that is waiting on resource consent to install 3 tidal turbines in the Kaipara Harbour.
• National Geographic has started an annual survey on how environmentally friendly consumers are in countries around the world, called “Greendex”. Only 14 countries are listed in the first report – US consumers rank as worst, while Indian & Brazilian consumers rank as most environmentally friendly.
• The US NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) has released a report on what climate change might cost the US economy: “The cost of climate change: what we’ll pay if global warming continues unchecked”.
• NASA has released the results of the first study to show a definitive link between human activity and climate change. The article is published in the Nature issue of 2008 May 15, but the article and supporting material can also be seen via NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies: “Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change.”
• Sir John Sorrell of the UK’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment has spoken recently about three tests that can indicate the sustainability of our cities.
Health & wellbeing:
• A speech-language therapy conference in Auckland last week heard that testing of young offenders in the UK shows that poor communication skills have an impact on childhood offending.
• The technical standard for national tsunami signage was announced this week, meaning that there will now be standardised signage around the country warning about tsunami zones, safe evacuation routes and safe locations.
• The UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has produced a guide for employers and professionals: “Promoting physical activity in the workplace”, because “people of working age are not active enough to benefit their health.”
• Rates of heavy drinking in the UK have doubled since 1995, raising concerns about the burden on the health system, and as a result, the president of the Royal College of Physicians has called for an end to cheap supermarket drink.
Law & Government:
• A UK report “Designing citizen-centred governance” was released this month. Research was drawn from a variety of areas including health, education, and a variety of community-based organisations and services.
People, culture & diversity:
• Most NZers don’t rate wealth as highly as they rate living a morally good life, and having enough time to do the things they want. The statistics come from research on the importance of values by UMR Research.
• A BBC-sponsored study of its virtual world for children “Adventure Rock” shows that virtual worlds are rehearsal spaces for the things children can try out, without fear of the consequences that would exist in the real world.
Science, technology & transport:
• Transport planners in Washington DC are concerned that a massive move of commuters out of cars and into the local Metro service is putting the “ailing” system under pressure, and that measures like flexitime might be needed to ease the rush of new riders. Projected increases in riders were based on population and job growth, but didn’t factor in the impact of the high petrol costs.
• Internet usability expert Jakob Nielsen (one of his reports on intranets is now available on Citynet) says in his latest report on web habits, that people are now less patient online, they ignore efforts to make them linger at sites and they are suspicious of promotions designed to get their attention.
• European researchers are using sensors, cameras and GPS on buses to analyse traffic conditions (ice, smog, bad weather, congestion) and provide additional information to the other means they use, to reduce traffic and improve road conditions.
• Dupont and BP are partnering to produce biobutanol for use as a biofuel, which can be manufactured from the same sources as ethanol. Previously, higher production costs prevented its use in transport, but because it is closer to a petrol substitute than ethanol, cars could use a biobutanol blend of 16% without the need for engine conversion.
Friday, 23 May 2008
From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 22/05):
Business & management:
• The UN has released a global report that predicts that world economic growth will fall steeply to 1.8 per cent this year and 2.1 per cent next year, down from 3.8 per cent in 2007.
• Researchers at the University of Bristol Centre for Market and Public Organisation have just published the results of a study on 4000 workers in the public sector, showing that almost half of them do regular unpaid overtime. They calculate that this saves UK public sector employers the costs of employing 60,000 more staff.
Education
• The Education Review Office has released a report “Partners In Learning: Schools’ Engagement with Parents, Whānau and Communities”, which indicates that parents are even more willing now to be involved with their child’s school than in the past.
• Massey University researchers in partnership with Wanganui District Library are to carry out a 4-year research project on identifying barriers to adult literacy and preferred learning options. It is hoped that new employment opportunities will be created due to higher literacy standards.
Environment & sustainability:
• The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, will be speaking at the University of Auckland on World Environment Day (4 June), describing options for a low-carbon global economy.
• An exhibition in Manchester that celebrates urban gardening shows that guerrilla gardening is active in the UK, but also shows the importance of the good old British allotment.
• A design competition in New York has produced a concept for an apartment building that is as green as it could get – it would have a working farm on the roof.
Health & wellbeing:
• The UN has created the High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis to work on a comprehensive plan to tackle problems caused by the worldwide rise in food prices. The FAO believes that an important part of the problem is the lack of biodiversity in the crop and animal species grown for food supply.
• Non-communicable diseases are now the biggest killers globally, with the world’s leading infectious diseases becoming less important causes of death over the next 20 years. The trend was reported in the WHO report “World Health Statistics 2008”. The WHO also says that the global food crisis, climate change and pandemic influenza are the main threats to human health.
Law & Government:
• The IMF report referred to this week on the status of NZ’s economy is available here.
• The UK Government is expected to introduce a bill to Parliament this year called the “Community Empowerment, Housing and Economic Regeneration Bill”. The new bill is intended to strengthen the rights of local people in having a say over their own area, including the right to force a debate on specific local issues onto the local council agenda.
• The UK Home Office has announced a decision to extend the British Crime Survey to include 11-16 year olds. A survey has shown that 1 in 5 London teenagers have had a cell phone or MP3 player stolen, and many of them routinely carry at least £100 worth of electronics with them.
• A survey of UK crime in 2003/4 has shown that crimes by girls aged between 10 and 17 had risen 25%, with the most common crimes being theft, violent attacks, criminal damage and public order offences.
• A UK study of the fear of crime shows that it is an important indicator of a society’s wellbeing and that where people were concerned about social change and declining morality, they were more likely to also fear crime, regardless of the local crime rate.
• Greater Manchester’s approach to local governance has not been to take the Lord Mayor approach of London, but to negotiate a multi-area agreement (MAA) between the individual councils and government.
People, culture & diversity:
• Statistics NZ's longitudinal immigration survey has produced results recently showing that lifestyle is the main reason for immigrants to choose in deciding to come to NZ.
Science, technology & transport:
• Broadband users in Australasia are spending more time watching video via the Internet, than by watching TV or going to the movies.
• Locals and environmental groups in east London are strongly opposed to plans for a £500m six-lane road bridge across the Thames. A new study of 6 options for crossing the river shows that there’s one option that could be the most sustainable, the cheapest, it would encourage cycling & walking and would be faster to build -- a cable-car across the Thames.
• A US woman faces charges over her masquerade as a boy on a Facebook profile. She used her online profile to bully a girl, who committed suicide when “he” ended their virtual relationship. However, the prosecution under computer laws may raise questions for other users of alternative identities or profiles on the Internet.
• The OECD has sounded a warning about the rate at which nations are moving to the new Internet addressing system.
• A US “drive-by-wire” automated car is getting a lot of interest because it is suggested that it could drastically cut traffic jams by increasing the flow of traffic up to 3 times.
• The UN has released a global report that predicts that world economic growth will fall steeply to 1.8 per cent this year and 2.1 per cent next year, down from 3.8 per cent in 2007.
• Researchers at the University of Bristol Centre for Market and Public Organisation have just published the results of a study on 4000 workers in the public sector, showing that almost half of them do regular unpaid overtime. They calculate that this saves UK public sector employers the costs of employing 60,000 more staff.
Education
• The Education Review Office has released a report “Partners In Learning: Schools’ Engagement with Parents, Whānau and Communities”, which indicates that parents are even more willing now to be involved with their child’s school than in the past.
• Massey University researchers in partnership with Wanganui District Library are to carry out a 4-year research project on identifying barriers to adult literacy and preferred learning options. It is hoped that new employment opportunities will be created due to higher literacy standards.
Environment & sustainability:
• The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, will be speaking at the University of Auckland on World Environment Day (4 June), describing options for a low-carbon global economy.
• An exhibition in Manchester that celebrates urban gardening shows that guerrilla gardening is active in the UK, but also shows the importance of the good old British allotment.
• A design competition in New York has produced a concept for an apartment building that is as green as it could get – it would have a working farm on the roof.
Health & wellbeing:
• The UN has created the High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis to work on a comprehensive plan to tackle problems caused by the worldwide rise in food prices. The FAO believes that an important part of the problem is the lack of biodiversity in the crop and animal species grown for food supply.
• Non-communicable diseases are now the biggest killers globally, with the world’s leading infectious diseases becoming less important causes of death over the next 20 years. The trend was reported in the WHO report “World Health Statistics 2008”. The WHO also says that the global food crisis, climate change and pandemic influenza are the main threats to human health.
Law & Government:
• The IMF report referred to this week on the status of NZ’s economy is available here.
• The UK Government is expected to introduce a bill to Parliament this year called the “Community Empowerment, Housing and Economic Regeneration Bill”. The new bill is intended to strengthen the rights of local people in having a say over their own area, including the right to force a debate on specific local issues onto the local council agenda.
• The UK Home Office has announced a decision to extend the British Crime Survey to include 11-16 year olds. A survey has shown that 1 in 5 London teenagers have had a cell phone or MP3 player stolen, and many of them routinely carry at least £100 worth of electronics with them.
• A survey of UK crime in 2003/4 has shown that crimes by girls aged between 10 and 17 had risen 25%, with the most common crimes being theft, violent attacks, criminal damage and public order offences.
• A UK study of the fear of crime shows that it is an important indicator of a society’s wellbeing and that where people were concerned about social change and declining morality, they were more likely to also fear crime, regardless of the local crime rate.
• Greater Manchester’s approach to local governance has not been to take the Lord Mayor approach of London, but to negotiate a multi-area agreement (MAA) between the individual councils and government.
People, culture & diversity:
• Statistics NZ's longitudinal immigration survey has produced results recently showing that lifestyle is the main reason for immigrants to choose in deciding to come to NZ.
Science, technology & transport:
• Broadband users in Australasia are spending more time watching video via the Internet, than by watching TV or going to the movies.
• Locals and environmental groups in east London are strongly opposed to plans for a £500m six-lane road bridge across the Thames. A new study of 6 options for crossing the river shows that there’s one option that could be the most sustainable, the cheapest, it would encourage cycling & walking and would be faster to build -- a cable-car across the Thames.
• A US woman faces charges over her masquerade as a boy on a Facebook profile. She used her online profile to bully a girl, who committed suicide when “he” ended their virtual relationship. However, the prosecution under computer laws may raise questions for other users of alternative identities or profiles on the Internet.
• The OECD has sounded a warning about the rate at which nations are moving to the new Internet addressing system.
• A US “drive-by-wire” automated car is getting a lot of interest because it is suggested that it could drastically cut traffic jams by increasing the flow of traffic up to 3 times.
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