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French prosecutors have launched a probe over allegations of "planned obsolescence" in Apple's iPhone.

Under French law it is a crime to intentionally shorten lifespan of a product with the aim of making customers replace it.

In December, Apple admitted that older iPhone models were deliberately slowed down through software updates.

But it insisted it was because the phones' battery performance diminished over time.

The French investigation is being led by the economy ministry's consumer protection agency.

It follows a legal complaint filed in December by pro-consumer group Stop Planned Obsolescence (Hop).

Hop said France was the third country to investigate Apple after Israel and the US, but the only one in which the alleged offence was a crime. Penalties could include up to 5% of annual turnover or even a jail term.

The group alleged that Apple had both deliberately slowed down some iPhone models through a software update and timed the update to coincide with the release of the newer model, the iPhone 8.

"The slowing down of older devices seems to have the deliberate aim of pushing Apple customers towards purchasing the new model," the group said.

Hop has previously filed legal complaints against printer manufacturers Epson, Canon, HP and Brother, alleging that the firms deliberately shorten the life of print cartridges.

Buyers of the iPhone have shared anecdotes about the devices slowing down with age for many years.

The company issued a public apology in December when confirmation came from users running in-depth tests on their own devices and publishing the results.

Apple said the update was designed to extend the life of older phones as their batteries became less capable of providing the power for high-speed operations.

"Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands... as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components," the company said.

It said its update was made "to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed".

It slashed the price of replacing an aged battery by two-thirds, which it said would restore devices to their former speed, and pledged to be more transparent in future.

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French prosecutors have launched a probe over allegations of "planned obsolescence" in Apple's iPhone. Under French law it is a crime to intentionally shorten lifespan of a product with the aim of making customers replace it. In December, Apple admitted that older iPhone models were deliberately slowed down through software updates.

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It's excellent to have good news, plus this extremely evocative picture, from The Key Fund, now the biggest regional Community Development Finance Institution in the UK, which is marking its tenth anniversary with a bright idea.

After helping to arrange financial support for 2000 organisations in the region's social economy, helping 175 new business start-ups and the creation of 6500 traineeships plus safeguarding 1822 existing jobs, the fund has published a Top Ten of social enterprises in Yorkshire. Here they are:

Arts & Creative Finalist: Higher Rhythm Ltd
Doncaster's Higher Rhythm, which was set up in 2001 as a recording studio by two ex-college lecturers using their own personal donations, has since grown into a multi-faceted sector leading creative organisation.

Community Support & Information Finalist: Action for Business Limited
Action for Business Limited was established in 1992 to support economic development and social cohesion in the severely disadvantaged area of Manningham in inner city Bradford.

Training & Education Finalist: Barnsley Community Build
Barnsley Community Build delivers training and employment in the construction industry to those at risk or unlikely to achieve anything meaningful without support, including young people not in work or education.

Health & Social Care Finalist: CASA
CASA was established in 2004 to provide essential support services to older and disabled people through developing a franchise network of employee owned social care providers. Its pioneering model is considered to be the most successful example of social franchising to date.

Community Assets/building Finalist: Darnall Forum Post Office
Darnall Post Office is run by charitable company Darnall Forum which works for the regeneration of Darnall, one of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Sheffield. They became the first charity in the UK to run a Post Office in a UK city.

Childcare Finalist: Cawthorne Children's Centre
Set in the heart of Cawthorne's rural community, the Cawthorne Children's Centre provides high quality affordable childcare for local working families.

Leisure & Sports Finalist: Chapeltown Baths & Community Business
In 1996 the baths were threatened with potential closure by Sheffield City Council. A Trust was formed from local residents and users of the facility. With grant funding and Key Fund loans, the baths stayed open. They have operated to benefit the community for over 15 years as a not-for-profit organisation.

Hospitality & Catering Finalist: The Create Foundation CIC
The Create Foundation, a Community Interest Company launched in 2007, provide innovative training and employment opportunities. It helps people who are homeless, marginalised, or vulnerable to rebuild their lives. Working in West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and the North East, today Create operates premium corporate food services in three locations, a café, and a Good Food Guide listed restaurant.

Recycling Sector Finalist: Doncaster Refurnish
Doncaster Refurnish formed in response to two factors: the lack of affordable furniture for disadvantaged people and the vast amounts of reusable furniture being buried in landfill. Refurnish currently works in partnership with Doncaster Council and SITA UK under contract arrangements to deliver a borough wide collection service for bulky household waste.

Renewable Energy Sector Finalist: Settle Hydro
Settle Hydro was established as an 'Industrial and Provident Society for the Benefit of the Community' with the specific purpose of owning the Settle Weir Hydro Electric Scheme. The Society generates revenue by selling 'green' hydro-electricity. Any surplus revenue is used by the Society to benefit the local community through its twin aims of regenerating the local economy and promoting the environmental sustainability of Settle District.

The next step in the jamboree is a ceremony at Magna science museum in the old Templeborough steelworks at Rotherham this Thursday, 25 October, when three of the ten will share £15,000 as part of the fund's birthday present to itself.

Key's fund manager Matt Smith says:

All of the top ten demonstrate truly entrepreneurial and social spirit. They make a significant impact on local people and our environment. Some of them are pioneering, even revolutionary, all of them offer inspiration to anyone who is thinking of setting up a social enterprise. It's amazing with the right access to finance what can be achieved.

Andy Simpson, chief executive of Doncaster Refurnish, chips in:

The Key Fund delivers. It always has done. There are lots of funding institutions out there that make promises, that talk a good story and shine in the eyes of the powers that be, but none deliver like the Key Fund. The Key Fund truly understands our sector, it lives and breathes it, it believes in what we strive to achieve.

Steve Palmer, operations manager at Barnsley Community Build - the guys pictured above - adds:

Without the Key Fund support, we'd be finished. They've handed us at least two 'get out of jail' cards. I can't praise them enough. It's not just the financial support but the advice, support and trusting relationship with the staff.

And Steven Mundin, senior manager of Higher Rhythm, says:

The Key Fund has been instrumental at key strategic points in our development. We started as one thing, but now we deliver many different services through various strands and the Key Fund has provided vital investment at every stage, allowing us to launch these new brands and concepts.

Are you involved in the sector or do you know someone who is? Find out more about The Key Fund here. And remember to wish them a very happy birthday. Topics

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It's excellent to have good news, plus this extremely evocative picture, from The Key Fund, now the biggest regional Community Development Finance Institution in the UK, which is marking its tenth anniversary with a bright idea.

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A Canadian scheme that tries to stabilise alcoholics by giving them measured amounts of wine is to be tested in Scotland.

Once an hour, residents of the Managed Alcohol Project in downtown Ottawa line up for what is called "the pour".

They take their mugs, emblazoned with the names of ice hockey teams and local cafes, to get a glass of white wine.

The wine is made in plastic barrels by residents up the road at the Oaks project where longer-term clients live.

Before the pour - which takes place between 07:30 and 21:30 - there is a quick assessment by the nurse on duty. If they are intoxicated, they do not get their measure.

Today, Brian McMahon is cooking spaghetti at the project for a group of people he has only recently met but considers to be his friends.

They live in shared rooms where they are learning to stabilise lifelong addictions to alcohol.

It is a semi-clinical setting but one notable difference is that the hand sanitiser on the wall has been replaced with sunscreen because the residents were drinking it for its alcohol content.

Brian used to run a bakery and took pride in the popularity of his homemade apple pies. But while he worked, he drank heavily.

The 46-year-old comes from a family of alcoholics and has been drinking since he was eight.

His drinking got so bad that his body would go into seizures without alcohol. He lost his job and ended up homeless.

"I started passing out in the snow and on the streets," he told BBC Scotland's The Nine. "I started getting put in ambulances and hospitalised."

Brian says that after one alcoholic seizure he ran out of the hospital as the doors opened at 7am, desperately searching for a drink.

While hunting for alcohol he found another homeless man buried under the snow of a freezing Canadian winter. "Just his boots were showing," he says.

Brian dragged him across the snow to the hospital he had just run away from. He does not know if the man survived but for Brian it was a wake-up call.

After 14 months on the managed alcohol programme, Brian is talking about his hopes of getting back to work and coming off alcohol altogether.

Abstinence is a potential effect of the project, but not necessarily its overall aim.

The aim is to stabilise people's addiction, stop them from drinking paint thinner and hand sanitiser, stop them passing out on the streets, and give them some dignity, says Dr Jeff Turnbull.

He and nurse Wendy Muckle set up the Managed Alcohol Project (MAP) after four people died on the streets of Ottawa in a short space of time and a well-known homeless "character" called Eugene had all of his toes amputated after passing out drunk in a doorway. Eugene released himself from hospital and ran out in the snow in his bandaged stubs to get his next drink.

Ms Muckle explains that Dr Turnbull chased Eugene down the street with a vial of antibiotics in a desperate bid to keep him alive.

That, they say, was when they realised they needed to do something different.

The idea was to stop alcoholics thinking about where they could get their next drink by providing it for them.

To begin with the project had little budget and resources but 19 years later they have local and central government funding and two residential centres in Ottawa for chronically alcoholic homeless people.

There are now 14 MAPs across Canada and plans to build more.

It is a harm reduction model which, when some people first heard about it, led to death threats for Dr Turnbull.

Interestingly, he says, some of their biggest critics have become their strongest advocates.

The local police chief officially opened the Oaks project after seeing the benefits for his own officers who no longer have to spend hours and hours taking drunk people to hospital or police cells.

Instead they take them directly to the specialist team at MAP.

In response to accusations that people are just being parked on alcohol, she responds by asking if diabetics are being parked on insulin. Her point is that alcoholism is a disease, which for some cannot be cured.

She says it is about providing people with some quality of life and a community.

Why do it in Scotland?

Karyn McCluskey is well known for her leadership of Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit, which cracked down on Glasgow's knife crime rates, and now runs Community Justice Scotland.

She also volunteers with homeless charity the Simon Community and has seen first hand people dying on the streets of Glasgow because of alcohol.

Ms McCluskey visited the project in Canada to see how it could work in Scotland and was impressed. When she returned, she looked at seven men who would fit the profile in Glasgow - homeless, addicted to alcohol and who had had multiple failed treatment attempts.

She found that in the previous three years those seven men had been recorded for 1,630 crimes. One had been taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary 427 times. They were costing services hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Ms McCluskey admits the pilot scheme will have its critics but says no-one has come up with an alternative other than letting people drain public resources and then die on the streets.

"The evidence is that they will drink less and that their health is better and they use much less public resources," she said.

For the Glasgow pilot project there is already a building and a steering group in place, made up of health and justice experts including Ms McCluskey.

But there are going to be critics.

Prof Jonathan Chick is medical director at Castle Craig Hospital in the Scottish Borders, which treats people suffering from alcohol and drug addictions.

He says Canada has specific problems with people drinking non-beverage alcohol - which Scotland does not.

Prof Chick said he would not support the introduction of a MAP in Scotland, and would prefer to see greater investment in traditional abstinence programmes.

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A Canadian scheme that tries to stabilise alcoholics by giving them measured amounts of wine is to be tested in Scotland. Once an hour, residents of the Managed Alcohol Project in downtown Ottawa line up for what is called "the pour".

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Climate change: Half world's biggest airlines don't offer carbon offsetting

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Climate change: Half world's biggest airlines don't offer carbon offsetting

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Many airlines 'don't allow' CO2 offsetting

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Half the world's biggest airlines are not giving flyers the opportunity to offset the CO2 from their flights.

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Donald Trump was thinking about the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg when he took aim at what he called the "prophets of doom" at Davos in January. But just as easily he could have been targeting global investors whose trenchant criticism of hydrocarbons has led to a shift in investment away from the traditional energy sector and into renewables.

This move represents a big problem for energy groups such as Exxon, BP and Saudi Aramco. Vast swaths of their oil, gas and coal reserves may never be extracted and burnt because doing so would intensify global warming, worsening freak weather events and threatening the loss of farmland and huge population displacement. That could leave them with large numbers of what are known as "stranded assets ".

In that context of the climate emergency, the cost of writing off stranded assets could be seen as a small price to pay. But the amounts involved would be breathtaking. According to Lex estimates, around $900bn - or one-third of the current value of big oil and gas companies - would evaporate if governments more aggressively attempted to restrict the rise in temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for the rest of this century.

Even in what the industry might see as the more benign case of a 2C rise - which was the target countries agreed to meet at the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change - energy producers, including coal miners, would have to write off over half of their fossil fuel reserves as stranded. If the 1.5C threshold were to be met then the pain would be greater, leaving over 80 per cent of hydrocarbon assets worthless.

Carbon emissions were once thought of as a costless "externality" by business. But as evidence of climate change has mounted and public opinion shifted, energy companies have begun to look at the real financial consequences. This has been most notable in the rising cost of capital for hydrocarbons groups and ever-cheaper money for renewables.

After much hand-wringing, BlackRock, the world's largest investment manager, signed up to the Climate Action 100+ initiative, a group of 370 fund managers controlling some $35tn of assets. These investors want action on greenhouse gases, and energy producers with large stores of hydrocarbon reserves are an obvious target.

These companies have 2,910 gigatonnes of potential CO2 emissions locked away in their assets. Two-thirds of that is coal, the rest crude oil and natural gas. The question investors must ask is how long these assets can hold their value. Ben Caldecott, director of Oxford university's Sustainable Finance Programme, says: "Oil companies need to think about [preparing] themselves for when their cost of capital soars."

That cost has already begun to rise. Most international oil companies, and some national ones, have shares and bonds trading on the capital markets. The share prices of oil, gas and coal producers have lower valuations than five years ago. The threat is clear. Hundreds of billions of dollars of value could be lost. NOCs, many of which have much more oil and gas in reserves than they can produce in a generation, face even greater risks regardless of their relationship with the capital markets.

On the assumption that the commitments made at the Paris climate conference hold, global warming must be kept to an additional 2C. Pursuing an even tougher target of 1.5C may well be necessary to put a brake on global warming, say climate change experts.

According to academics at Duke University in the US, since the pre-industrial period human activities have increased Earth's global average temperature by about 1C. This number is rising by 0.2C every decade. At that rate, global warming is likely to reach 1.5C above pre-industrial levels sometime between 2030 and 2052, with a best estimate of around 2040.

The International Energy Agency defines stranded assets as "those investments which have already been made but which, at some time prior to the end of their economic life, are no longer able to earn an economic return". These investments may involve the purchase of rights to explore in a given area, or assets with infrastructure in place actually producing hydrocarbons.

Switching decisively away from fossil fuels will be hard. The Paris agreement set carbon budgets - allowable amounts of emissions - that would permit a certain amount of global warming. This was done on the assumption that expecting economic activity to halt abruptly was not reasonable, or even acceptable, to many countries.

Assuming a 50 per cent chance of meeting the 2C warming limit by the end of the century, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change set out a carbon budget of 1,200 GT for fossil fuels which could be burnt by the year 2100. To meet the tougher 1.5C limit, only 464GT would be allowed, far below the equivalent of 2,910 GT of CO2 held in the remaining oil, gas and coal assets, according to Bernstein Research.

Last year about 33GT of carbon emissions were released according to the IEA. How quickly emission levels rise depends on factors ranging from population growth to macroeconomic activity. The increased take-up of non-fossil fuels for energy will also have an impact.

The various carbon budgets give some sense of just how much is at risk for energy producers, including the state-owned energy companies. In the best case for them, a rise of 3C, almost all of the remaining carbon stock - 96 per cent - could be burnt. But at the lower bound of 1.5C, using the IPCC allowance, a mere 16 per cent of the carbon is usable. In other words, over 80 per cent of carbon in the ground would be stranded and theoretically worthless. Even at 2C, 59 per cent of fossil fuel reserves would be stranded.

Most IOCs understand the threats ahead, even if they do not all appear to have accepted how much action is needed to solve the problem of excess carbon emissions. Some of the largest, such as Total of France and Royal Dutch Shell, have invested in renewable energy projects ranging from solar power to biofuels.

But the proportion of total capital expenditure by the largest oil and gas companies, going to low carbon businesses, represents less than 1 per cent of investment, says the IEA. For the most part these are consumer-facing retail businesses which many IOCs should be comfortable with. "Exxon and Shell both started out in the refining and marketing of fuels," says Martijn Rats at Morgan Stanley. "The IOCs understand branding, the NOCs not so much."

Can oil companies reinvent themselves? Denmark's Orsted, previously DONG Energy, has become a wind farm specialist. Of the larger oil companies, Neil Beveridge at Bernstein can only think of one that has done so. India's Reliance Industries has shifted its focus away from oil refining towards telecoms and online retailing.

To assess how much shareholder value is at risk, both the reserves under threat and the type of fuel involved must be considered. Coal accounts for two-thirds of potential carbon emissions held in reserve. There is a lot of it in the ground and it contains the largest proportion of carbon of the fossil fuels, according to the IEA. By weight, coal on average holds half again as much carbon as crude oil and twice that of natural gas.

In a 2C scenario, less than a quarter of coal reserves could be burnt, the rest stranded. Stock markets have priced in this likelihood. So to get a glimpse of what could happen to oil and gas producers unwilling or unable to do something about their collective impact on emissions, look at the share prices and valuation of coal mining groups such as Peabody Energy and Yancoal Australia.

As the first target for asset owners keen to decarbonise their portfolios, coal miners have performed disastrously over the past decade. Bloomberg's index global coal miners, the largest of which are in China, has plunged 74 per cent from its peak in early 2011. These miners have become "value traps", trading cheaply but without any obvious incentives to attract investors. That drop adds up to $300bn of market value for these 30 or so coal miners.

Using the same 2C scenario, much of the world's oil (71 per cent) and gas (92 per cent) reserves could be burnt. That suggests relatively little economic impact on the producers. The market has made the distinction from coal. Of course, it is fair to say that cheap US natural gas, trading near 10-year lows, has also put pressure on thermal coal prices in that region. Collectively, world oil and gas company market values have fallen about half as much as coal miners since their own decade peak in 2011.

Calculating the value of these stranded reserves involves asking not just which warming scenario to use, but also making a stab at how stock markets value reserves generally. Putting natural gas specialists aside, stock markets have traditionally attributed a higher worth to companies with greater amounts of oil reserves. For the largest listed oil companies, there is a positive relationship between enterprise value (market capitalisation plus net debt) and their reported proven reserves, for assets with the highest probability of development.

On the basis of this relationship and assuming a 2C scenario, that would leave 29 per cent of oil reserves stranded, expect about $360bn to be wiped off the value of the world's top 13 IOCs by reserves. That is well over a sixth of their total enterprise value. But to meet the stricter warming target of 1.5C then that figure would more than double to nearly $890bn.

Separate estimates for the value of these oil assets from Rystad Energy, that depend on very long-term oil prices, would lessen the impact. But the decline would nonetheless still be significant.

Given that these producers have lost roughly $400bn in market value over the past three years, it is fair to assume that they could survive such a drop. However, should policymakers, driven by public fears about the environment, push climate change to the fore these declines may accelerate. A sudden drop in asset value could bring a disorderly decline for all oil and gas stocks.

Those companies with the highest carbon intensity in their oil and gas reserves face the greatest risk of writedowns as a result of changes in climate change policy. These include Canadian oil sands producers Suncor Energy and Imperial Oil, but also US shale oil drillers Pioneer and EOG.

The oil and gas producers exposed to the biggest potential hits are those that will need the longest time to use up their reserves. This is known as reserve life. If you focus on those groups with high carbon intensity and long reserve lives - those with the most to lose - the names that appear are Rosneft, ExxonMobil, PetroChina and BP, according to Bernstein Research.

That leaves the largest overseers of hydrocarbons, NOCs. A number of countries, particularly within the Opec cartel, have very long reserve lives. They produce crude relatively slowly compared with what they have. About 71 per cent of the oil in the ground belongs to these countries, from Iran to Iraq and Venezuela.

While the 50 largest listed international oil companies have sufficient oil and gas assets to last them for between 10 and 20 years, these countries on average would need 68 years to exhaust their supplies. A breakdown of the world's oil and gas production into a top 50 reveals that 35 per cent is controlled by international groups, and the rest by national organisations. Use those percentages on the allowable carbon budgets, and it is clear that state-controlled producers have a lot more to lose.

In a 2C scenario, applying the 65 per cent for NOCs to a carbon budget of 433GT leaves 281GT for country producers. But that means nearly half of sovereign oil reserves would remain in the ground.

Of course, any NOC depends on its sovereign state and vice versa. Adopting carbon friendly policies may not suit a country such as Venezuela or Nigeria which depend so much on oil and gas for government revenues, but suffer less pressure to change their behaviour from the investment community. Following its listing of Saudi Aramco, that would be less true for Saudi Arabia.

Markets will price in the risk of asset writedowns by the world's oil and gas companies. That may happen gradually, but unless a solution is found for climate change in the coming decade, the risk of a sharp collapse in asset prices of IOCs is possible, one that goes beyond the scenarios here.

The greatest threat is faced by economies that have become dependent on oil and gas. However, the effects of writing off stranded assets would be felt across the business world. It would be one of the biggest ever shifts in the allocation of capital.

Moral Money

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Lex in depth: the fossil fuels that could be worthless

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Donald Trump was thinking about the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg when he took aim at what he called the "prophets of doom" at Davos in January. But just as easily he could have been targeting global investors whose trenchant criticism of hydrocarbons has led to a shift in investment away from the traditional energy sector and into renewables.

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Some collected winnings, others drowned sorrows and there were those who watched back the Jennifer Lopez and Shakira half-time performance.

But Kansas City Chiefs' Derrick Nnadi had other ways of marking his team's victory at the Super Bowl - following their win against the San Francisco 49ers.

He paid all the adoption fees at a Kansas City dog shelter - after he made snow angels in confetti on the pitch.

The fee is normally around $150 (£115).

The KC Pet Project posted on Facebook that the player - who plays defence - has stumped up the costs for every single adoptable dog at all of their locations.

It means families will be able to take dogs home for free.

Since Nnadi's donation a spokesman said around 20 dogs had been adopted - double what is usually expected in a working day.

"All my life, I always wanted a dog," Nnadi told CNN, explaining he got one when he was in his final year at college.

"When I first got him, he was very timid. It made me think of how other animals, whether they're owned or in a shelter, are feeling scared and alone."

During the rest of the NFL season Nnadi paid for the adoption fee of a dog every time the Chiefs won.

They won 15 times.

The Super Bowl win means more than 100 dogs will have their fees paid for.

"I've never been a champion before," Nnadi said following the Chiefs' first Super Bowl win in 50 years. "All the years of me playing football, that first time honestly feels like the best day of my life."

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

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Super Bowl winner pays dog shelter adoption fees

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Some collected winnings, others drowned sorrows and there were those who watched back the Jennifer Lopez and Shakira half-time performance. But Kansas City Chiefs' Derrick Nnadi had other ways of marking his team's victory at the Super Bowl - following their win against the San Francisco 49ers.

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Shell - Scandalous

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Eight Shell scandals and their contempt for the planet

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These eight Shell scandals prove that the company has a history of contempt for people and the planet, and that they should be brought to justice. Read more.

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Netflix has made a lot of news this past week, and it's not because of the Ted Bundy documentary or all those fools doing the Bird Box challenge. No, it's something that is even more galling, particularly to those who oppose corporate greed and income inequality: the company paid virtually no US taxes in 2018.
We shouldn't declare Trump's $1tn tax cut a failure just yet | Gene Marks
According to a blogpost from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the company posted its largest ever profit in 2018 - $845m - but paid no federal (or state) income tax.

"After a year of speculation and spin, the public is getting its first hard look at how corporate tax law changes under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affected the tax-paying habits of corporations," senior fellow Mathew Gardner wrote. "The law sharply reduced the federal corporate rate, expanded some tax breaks and curtailed others. The new tax law took effect at the beginning of 2018, which means that companies are just now closing the books on their first full year under the new rules."

This story kind of validates a post I wrote last week about how the beneficial effects of the 2017 tax reform really won't kick in until this year, when companies and people start doing their 2018 returns. Think about it: how many other companies will see their tax bill go down like Netflix? And remember, this isn't a onetime thing: how will these lower rates affect future spending and investment?

We can debate these issues and whether these companies will use their savings to reinvest or hire more people. But for now what I'd like to explain is how. How did Netflix not pay any taxes on all this income?

The company hasn't disclosed a lot of details so I can only make a few educated hunches. Its publicly available information has certainly given us some clues. In fact, when you look at Netflix's reported deferred tax assets - which represent the future tax savings that will someday be realized - the answer starts to clarify.

The explanation has to do with just two words: tax credits. Remember, a tax "credit" is not a deduction. You apply a credit directly against the tax you owe. If you don't use the credit it can carry forward to future years.

Which is why even though when Netflix actually paid $131m in foreign taxes during 2018 - which would be about 15.5% of its income (the US corporate tax rate is now 21 %) - it didn't have to do the same in this country. US tax law - going well back before the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act - has allowed for companies (and individuals) to claim a tax credit on certain foreign earnings to avoid double taxation. How did Netflix, a US company, allocate so much of its income overseas? I don't know, and that would make an interesting story. But the bottom line is that Netflix still paid taxes, just not in the US.
Topics

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How did Netflix get away with not paying income tax in 2018? | Gene Marks

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Netflix has made a lot of news this past week, and it's not because of the Ted Bundy documentary or all those fools doing the Bird Box challenge. No, it's something that is even more galling, particularly to those who oppose corporate greed and income inequality: the company paid virtually no US taxes in 2018.

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Sainsbury's has promised to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero over the next 20 years.

The supermarket chain, which is the second largest in the UK, has said it will spend £1bn to reach the target.

It pledged to reduce emissions from areas like refrigeration and transport.

But, while the 2040 target puts Sainsbury's ahead of rivals, critics noted that it does not extend to the supermarket's supply network, which accounts for most of its emissions.

Currently, Sainsbury's produces one million tonnes of carbon each year, although, the supermarket said that figure had fallen by a third in the last 15 years.

Over the next two decades, Sainsbury's will spend an average of £50m a year on things like converting some of its vehicles to use alternative fuel and redesigning stores to be more energy efficient in order to achieve the goal.

'Not soon enough'

The plan is one of Mike Coupe's final actions as the boss of Sainsbury's. Last week he announced he will step down in May.

"We are committing to reduce our own carbon emissions and become net zero by 2040, ten years ahead of the government's own targets, because 2050 isn't soon enough," he said in a statement.

He said the chain had spent £260m on things like energy-efficient lighting and refrigeration over the last decade.

'Tip of the iceberg'

The 2040 deadline, however, only targets emissions that Sainsbury's directly controls, like heating and lighting. It does not extend to the firm's supply chain.

"Direct operations is just the tip of iceberg," Dexter Galvin from charity, the Carbon Disclosure Project, told the BBC. He said there were no details on supply chain, which he described as a "big gap".

"[Sainsbury's is] too late to the party. Tesco and Co-Op have approved targets already including supply chain," he said.

Mike Childs, head of policy for Friends of the Earth, said: "The influence supermarket chains have over suppliers is also huge - they must use that to encourage better environmental standards while still ensuring a fair deal for farmers."

While governments struggle to meet their ambitions on climate change, many businesses are putting words into action. In fact, there's something of a climate "arms race" between consumer-facing firms like supermarkets.

Sainsbury's promise of net zero emissions by 2040 is a full decade earlier than Tesco's target.

But the plan's not quite as impressive as it seems because Sainsbury's target applies only to its own emissions - NOT the much higher emissions of its suppliers. The full accounting will come later, the firm says.

There's a target on water too - Sainsbury's says it's reducing water usage by capturing rain on roofs, and recycling water from car washes and ice on fish counters.

But most radical is its initiative to halve plastic packaging by 2025. This is said to be very ambitious.

Experts warn, though, that in their rush to ban plastic, firms shouldn't use substitutes that are even worse for the planet.

Sainsbury's said it will work with suppliers to set their own "ambitious" net zero commitments.

And Mr Childs, from Friends of the Earth, said: "It's encouraging to see Sainsbury's stepping up to the plate on the climate emergency - the rapid transition to a net zero economy is urgently required.

"Supermarkets have a huge influence on our personal carbon footprints, so the more they can do to embrace and encourage greener lifestyles the better for us all."

Rival, Tesco has said it plans to achieve net zero by 2050, 10 years later than Sainsbury's. However, it has also set targets for its suppliers demanding they reduce carbon emissions by 7% this year.

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Sainsbury's pledges £1bn to cut emissions to zero

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Sainsbury's has promised to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero over the next 20 years. The supermarket chain, which is the second largest in the UK, has said it will spend £1bn to reach the target. It pledged to reduce emissions from areas like refrigeration and transport.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51040155

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Cheetah Reintroduction to combat Distinction threat

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Cheetah Reintroduction to combat Distinction threat

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India's top court has said cheetahs can be reintroduced to the wild, more than 70 years after it went extinct.

Responding to a plea by the government, the Supreme Court said African cheetahs could be introduced in a "carefully chosen location".

Cheetahs are an endangered species, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

Only 7,100 cheetahs are left in the wild, at least 90% of them in Africa.

The Asiatic cheetah, which once roamed parts of India, is now only found in Iran, where there are thought to be about 50 left.

India's Supreme Court said the animal would have to be introduced on an experimental basis to find out if it could adapt to Indian conditions.

Studies show that at least 200 cheetahs were killed in India, largely by sheep and goat herders, during the colonial period. It is the only large mammal to become extinct after the country gained independence in 1947.

India's former environment minister Jairam Ramesh welcomed the decision to reintroduce the animal.

For more than a decade, wildlife officials, cheetah experts and conservationists from all over the world have discussed the reintroduction of the spotted big cat to India and have agreed that there is a strong case for it.

But leading conservationists have harboured doubts about the plan. They fear that in its haste to bring back the cheetah, India will end up housing the animals in semi-captive conditions in huge, secured open air zoos rather than allowing them to live free.

They add that without restoring habitat and prey base, and given the high chances of a man-animal conflict, viable cheetah populations cannot be established.

They have also pointed to India's chequered record of reintroducing animals to the wild.

Lions were reintroduced in the Chandraprabha sanctuary in northern Uttar Pradesh state in the 1950s, but were then poached out of existence. Tigers were reintroduced in Dungarpur, Rajasthan, in the 1920s, but they were all shot dead by the end of the 1950s.

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However, conservationists who have led the initiative insist that these fears are unfounded. They say a decision will only be taken after shortlisted sites are fully examined for habitat, prey and potential for man-animal conflict.

The first cheetah in the world to be bred in captivity was in India during the rule of Mughal emperor Jahangir. His father, Akbar, recorded that there were 10,000 cheetahs during his time.

Much later, research showed that were at least 230 cheetahs in India between 1799 and 1968 - and the cat was reportedly sighted for the last time in the country in 1967-68.

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India cleared to bring cheetahs back to forests

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India's top court has said cheetahs can be reintroduced to the wild, more than 70 years after it went extinct. Responding to a plea by the government, the Supreme Court said African cheetahs could be introduced in a "carefully chosen location". Cheetahs are an endangered species, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

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More than 400 employees have launched an equal pay claim against the Co-op supermarket chain in the latest retail pay battle.

The Co-op shop workers, mostly women, say they are being underpaid compared with warehouse workers, who are mostly men.

The claim comes after similar actions against Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.

The Co-op said it was "confident that our reward practices are fair".

'We should all be treated as equals'

Co-op supermarket team manager Christine Green, 57, from Pointon, Lincolnshire, was one of the women to start the equal pay case. Christine has worked at the Co-op for six years.

"I feel personally that the job we do - we're front of house, we're dealing with customers, cash, money, shoplifting, we're having to do all of the deliveries, on our own... I feel that we should be equally paid for the job that we are doing," she said.

"I think the warehouse staff have an important job. We have an important job - to make the company run. And we should all be treated as equals.

"I love my job. I enjoy the people I work with.

"I enjoy where I am, but I just feel that sometimes we're a little bit overlooked, and it would be nice to be thought of in the same vein as warehouse staff."

The first hearing for the claim was at Manchester Employment Tribunal on Friday.

Law firm Leigh Day is representing the workers, who are asking for up to six years of back pay.

The claim came about after the shop floor employees found they were being paid less than the men in the warehouses, said Chris Benson, Leigh Day's head of employment.

They felt that they were getting "underpaid for the same effort", and that their work was of equal value, he said.

The store employees were often working by themselves at the front of shops, with a colleague on hand at the back. They have "quite a lot of responsibility", with little time to have a break or to go to the toilet, Mr Benson said.

The difference in pay between shop floor and distribution staff ranges from £1.50 to £3 an hour, which is "quite a chunk of their wages", he said.

The average worker could be entitled to up to £10,000 in back pay, he said.

The workers were "amazed and disappointed" to find out the difference in pay, he added. "They are loyal to the Co-op."

He continued: "The Co-op are a good employer. You wouldn't expect them to discriminate on the grounds of gender".

Mr Benson added that around 40,000 people may be eligible to bring claims.

'Our practices are fair'

The Co-op said in a statement: "We have received a small number of equal pay claims. Unlike some of the bigger food retailers, we do not have large scale multiple claims.

"It wouldn't be appropriate to comment on individual claims, but we will be defending these claims and are confident that our reward practices are fair."

The first UK supermarket to face equal pay claims on differences in pay between shop workers and distribution staff was Asda, which has been fighting a long-running legal dispute over the issue.

Pay actions have followed against Sainsbury's, Tesco and Morrisons.

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Co-op faces equal pay claims from shop workers

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More than 400 employees have launched an equal pay claim against the Co-op supermarket chain in the latest retail pay battle. The Co-op shop workers, mostly women, say they are being underpaid compared with warehouse workers, who are mostly men. The claim comes after similar actions against Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.

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Hundreds of Amazon employees publicly attack its climate record

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Hundreds of Amazon employees publicly attack its climate record

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More than 350 Amazon employees have publicly criticised the company's climate change record, defying policies that say doing so could cost them their jobs, in a co-ordinated action that mirrors similar internal battles emerging across several of the big technology groups.

In a post titled "Amazon Employees Share Our Views on Company Business", published on the blogging platform Medium, named staffers called on the company to drop its cloud-computing contracts with clients in the oil and gas industry, which according to Amazon's website include BP, Shell and GE Oil & Gas.

Meanwhile, the post also touched on other controversial areas of the business such as Amazon's approach to emerging surveillance technologies, and the working conditions of its warehouse employees.

"It's not humane to have people scared to go to the bathroom," noted the employees.

The co-ordinated action, which follows growing internal activism at Google and Microsoft, signals a new confidence among tech employees to publicly express their discontent to executives.

In September Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040, and operating on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030, while the company said it would publish regular progress reports.

But the protesting workers have said the goal falls short, making reference to Microsoft's recent announcement that it planned to be carbon negative by 2030 - a decade ahead of Amazon.

"I'm applauding this announcement even more and I hope Bill Gates scratched Jeff's competition-nerve," wrote Annett Stapf, a program manager at Amazon.

Amazon has so far enforced a like-it-or-lump-it strategy towards outspoken employees.

"People are entitled to their opinions," Mr Bezos said of employee anger at the company's involvement with the US military last year, "but it is the job of a senior leadership team to say no."

There are signs that the hardline approach may be backfiring. Organisers of a walkout on climate change last year said they were threatened with dismissal for breaking the company's policies, which stipulate that employees must not engage with the press, or speak publicly about the business or any company matter, without going through an approval process.

Amazon said the policy was not new, and that employees were encouraged to express their opinions internally.

"While all employees are welcome to engage constructively with any of the many teams inside Amazon that work on sustainability and other topics," a spokesperson said, "we do enforce our external communications policy and will not allow employees to publicly disparage or misrepresent the company or the hard work of their colleagues who are developing solutions to these hard problems."

Over the past year rival Google has grappled with escalating employee backlash, leading it to abandon at least two major initiatives, including plans to work with the US military on cloud computing and to re-enter the Chinese market with a Beijing-friendly search engine, codenamed Dragonfly.

Amazon's activists have used these "wins" to reassure workers that there will be strength in numbers.

"Expecting its employees to maintain silence on these issues, and Amazon's impact on them, is really a reprehensible over-reach," wrote Amazon engineer Michael Sokolov. "I am proud to take this opportunity to demonstrate my unwillingness to comply."

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Hundreds of Amazon employees publicly attack its climate record

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More than 350 Amazon employees have publicly criticised the company's climate change record, defying policies that say doing so could cost them their jobs, in a co-ordinated action that mirrors similar internal battles emerging across several of the big technology groups.

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Shell accused of abuses in Nigeria's Ogoniland

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Shell accused of abuses in Nigeria's Ogoniland

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Oil giant Shell should be investigated for alleged complicity in" horrific crimes" committed by the military in Nigeria in the 1990s, Amnesty International has said. Shell encouraged a crackdown, which led to killings and the burning of villages in the oil-producing Ogoniland region, the rights group added.

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Corporate OIl giants - false information about climate change

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Corporate OIl giants - false information about climate change

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America's oil companies are trying to rebrand themselves as part of the solution to the climate crisis, launching a campaign to counter top Democrats' proposals to rapidly cut pollution from the power plants and cars that run on the industry's petroleum and natural gas.

They say natural gas - a fossil fuel that emits heat-trapping carbon dioxide - is helping to slow climate disruption by providing an alternative to coal.
How vested interests tried to turn the world against climate science
"We're taking our message of energy progress to every corner of the country to show just what's at stake in Washington and in state capitols around the country," said Mike Sommers, CEO of the oil trade group the American Petroleum Institute (API), on a press call announcing the plan.

The campaign is part of a strategy in which the oil industry has funneled billions of dollars into its defense, threatening to outpace climate action advocates, say frustrated environmental activists who are increasingly calling on Democrats in Congress to take a tougher line on the sector.

But Sommers depicted a dark future if a presidential candidate who wants to ban fracking for natural gas wins the 2020 election: millions of jobs lost, hundreds of billions of dollars more for household energy costs and a global recession.

However, opponents of the industry say the only path to significant US climate action is through legislation and that lawmakers won't be able to legislate unless they reveal how the industry has controlled the public dialogue around climate change and put a stop to its misdeeds.

Geoffrey Supran, a research associate who studies global warming politics at Harvard University, is urging House committees to demand more information from oil companies about their influence over public policy. Supran said obtaining corporate documents is "one of the most important actions Congress could take to address the climate crisis".

"The reality is that as much as we know about fossil fuel interests' denial and delay, we've really found those skeletons in the closet just by looking through a tiny keyhole - everything we know is based on just a few hundred documents scrounged from various sources," Supran said. "From my perspective every indication of this evidence is once that closet door gets blown open, the skeletons are going to come tumbling out."

Walking through Washington's national airport this holiday season, travelers saw a type of advertisement that is becoming more mainstream - it pops up on social media, in commercial breaks for streaming video services, in newspapers and on the radio. A friendly-looking older woman in a hard hat beams at the camera. "Thanks to natural gas, the US is leading the way in reducing emissions," the sign reads.

The ad campaign, called We're On It, is sponsored by API - which represents the oil companies that have contributed significantly to the climate crisis.

While it's true that US climate pollution is declining in large part because of the switch from coal to natural gas, scientists say far more drastic action is needed to slow climate change. And forecasts show natural gas threatening continued progress.

As the American public has become more aware of the climate crisis, oil companies have fought back.

Over roughly the last three decades, five major US oil companies have spent a total of at least $3.6bn on advertisements - not counting their investments in public relations programs like sponsored beach clean-ups, or their influence through trade associations, dark money groups and campaign donations.

Advertising spending has increased as politicians have paid more attention to climate change and API's campaign comes as progressive candidates bidding for the White House, such as the US senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, propose to ban fracking - a drilling method that has unlocked huge supplies of natural gas and driven down the cost of the fuel.

Any renewed investigation from Congress could reveal more about how the industry has tried to sway public opinion.

oil corporate spending advertisement

Investigative reporting has already shown that Exxon has known since at least the 1960s that its products were causing global warming. But Exxon has fought back, saying it is the victim of "a coordinated campaign perpetuated by activist groups with the aim of stigmatizing ExxonMobil".

Exxon touts itself instead as an answer to the climate crisis. The top advertisement on Exxon's YouTube page touts research on making biofuels from algae in order to cut climate pollution, but the technique is currently prohibitively expensive, and the research represents a tiny portion of Exxon's budget.

In response to questions from the Guardian, an Exxon spokesman, Casey Norton, said Exxon is "committed to doing our part".

"The world faces a dual challenge: meeting growing demand for energy while also reducing environmental impacts, including the risks of climate change," Norton said.

Norton maintains that "all forms of energy are needed", including natural gas and renewables, although scientists have concluded humans will have to stop using fossil fuels entirely to stem the crisis.

In the call with reporters, API's CEO took a similar stance. He acknowledged the industry has a responsibility to help slow emissions that are causing rising temperatures, but he said the demand for affordable energy is growing and American fossil fuel companies will meet it.

Pressed to commit to any significant goal to curb emissions, Sommers said API could back some bipartisan legislation to incentivize technology that would capture carbon dioxide so that it cannot enter the atmosphere.

"That's legislation that's supported by far-right Republicans and far-left Democrats, but it's some place in the middle where we think we can meet and we can work together on this key priority," Sommers said.

Critics of the oil industry say the Democrat-led House should be aggressive in seeking to counter the industry's narrative. Some want Democrats to call executives into hearings and subpoena internal records about their influence campaigns - one of the most powerful tools available to Congress.

But that hasn't happened. Instead of going directly for the oil companies, House committees have instead been holding dozens of hearings and introducing legislation about ways to cut pollution and help people affected by the climate crisis.

"Our oversight staff decided that OK, rather than kind of punching an industry that's already pretty down in the public image, there are plenty of other things they also needed and wanted to pursue, so subpoenaing big oil just didn't really rise to the top of the heap," the staffer said.

Supran, who works with Harvard climate politics expert Naomi Oreskes, says they have a collection of information that could help Democrats determine which questions to ask and which documents to demand.

"Historical record points to a number of individuals, documents, and questions that could help Congress get to the bottom of how the fossil fuel regime misled America," Supran said.

The other route - which Democrats are already pursuing - is state lawsuits against companies. But those challenges could take much longer and aren't guaranteed to succeed.

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Activists hold a press conference in Manhattan and delivered a letter to then New York attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, in support of his investigation of ExxonMobil in 2017. Photograph: Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Robert Brulle, a visiting professor of environmental sociology at Brown University who co-authored the research tallying oil spending on ads, said the findings are just the tip of the iceberg. Brulle has previously found that more than $2bn was spent lobbying Congress on climate legislation between 2000 and 2016.

He says lawmakers should investigate the oil industry the way the former congressman Henry Waxman took on tobacco companies in the 1990s.

"I think what we'll find is that the fossil fuel campaigns are going to dwarf what the tobacco industry did. It's an order of magnitude larger," Brulle said.

Some accuse Democrats of fearing a backlash from the oil industry - which still donates to Democratic campaigns. They say moderate Democrats might be trying to stay civil with major companies because it will be easier to pass climate legislation with their support.

But it's hard to imagine the industry backing substantial action that would limit oil production and use - which scientists say is required to avoid catastrophe.

I think what we'll find is that the fossil fuel campaigns are going to dwarf what the tobacco industry did

Robert Brulle

So far, congressional efforts have only scratched the surface of the sector's influence. In October, the oversight committee reviewed evidence of how much Exxon has known about the climate crisis and for how long. The Democrat-only climate committee in the Senate also held a hearing on dark money and climate change. The Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse urged his colleagues in the House to use their majority to get tougher with oil companies - subpoenaing their records if necessary.

"When we catch the fossil fuel industry spending money in these campaigns, we're only seeing a sliver of the total operation," Whitehouse said in a more recent interview with the Guardian. "I think it's hard to counter their message effectively because remember - they have a $600bn annual subsidy that they're defending, according to the [International Monetary Fund].

"The idea that some other entity, particularly some struggling charitable organization, is going to be able to go toe-to-toe in spending and outspend them is not really feasible."

Despite fossil fuel companies massive spending, they have continued to lose public support. Elected officials just haven't followed the shift.

A majority - 60% of Americans - want to "dramatically reduce" fossil fuel use in 10 or 20 years, according to Gallup. And between 2013 and 2019, the percentage of people who wanted to emphasize oil production has dropped from 46% to 28%.

"If you take climate change seriously, then you have to think about what your path is to getting a serious climate bill," Whitehouse said. "And the path to a serious climate bill requires disabling the fossil fuel industry's obstruction apparatus that has been the thing that has prevented that from happening."
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How the oil industry has spent billions to control the climate change conversation

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America's oil companies are trying to rebrand themselves as part of the solution to the climate crisis, launching a campaign to counter top Democrats' proposals to rapidly cut pollution from the power plants and cars that run on the industry's petroleum and natural gas.

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Almost a third of the world's oceans and land should be protected by the end of the decade to stop and reverse biodiversity decline that risks the survival of humanity, according to a draft Paris-style UN agreement on nature.

To combat what scientists have described as the sixth mass extinction event in Earth's history, the proposal sets a 2030 deadline for the conservation and restoration of ecosystems and wildlife that perform crucial services for humans.

The text, drafted by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, is expected to be adopted by governments in October at a crucial UN summit in the Chinese city of Kunming. It comes after countries largely failed to meet targets for the previous decade agreed in Aichi, Japan, in 2010.

As well as calling for a commitment to protect at least 30% of the planet, the 20-point draft plan, which has been likened to the 2015 Paris agreement on the climate crisis, aims to introduce controls on invasive species and reduce pollution from plastic waste and excess nutrients by 50%.

The draft text has been welcomed by environmental campaigners, who have called on governments to treat the targets outlined in the accord as the minimum acceptable level for which to aim.

The director of Campaign for Nature, Brian O'Donnell, said: "Today's draft shows that countries are listening and that they recognise the increasingly important role that protecting land and water must play in confronting climate change, preventing wildlife extinctions, and supporting people and local communities. This is a very encouraging first step.

"Much work remains to be done in the coming months to ensure that the rights of indigenous people are advanced, and bold conservation and finance targets are included in the final agreement."

By 2030, the trade in wild species must be legal and sustainable, according to the draft document, which also aims to promote the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in decision-making about biodiversity.

Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, in all its forms and all its interactions. "Without biodiversity, there is no future for humanity," says Prof David Macdonald, at Oxford University. It is comprised of several levels, starting with genes, then individual species, then communities of creatures and finally entire ecosystems, such as forests or coral reefs, where life interplays with the physical environment.

Without plants there would be no oxygen and without bees to pollinate there would be no fruit or nuts. The services provided by ecosystems are estimated to be worth trillions of dollars - double the world's GDP. Biodiversity loss in Europe alone is estimated to cost the continent about 3% of its GDP, or €450m (£400m), a year.

The extinction rate of species is now thought to be about 1,000 times higher than before humans dominated the planet, which may be even faster than the losses after a giant meteorite wiped out the dinosaurs 65m years ago. The sixth mass extinction in geological history has already begun, according to some scientists. Billions of individual populations have been lost, with the number of animals living on Earth having plunged by half since 1970. Researchers call the massive loss of wildlife a "biological annihilation".

Changes to the climate are reversible, even if that takes centuries or millennia - but once species become extinct, there's no going back.

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The planned agreement forms part of a long-term international framework that aims to ensure biodiversity is sustainably valued and conserved by 2050.

Enric Sala, explorer-in-residence at National Geographic, and co-author of the Global Deal for Nature, said: "If adopted, this target could achieve what our children have been calling on governments to do - listen to the science. If we are to stay below 1.5C (34.7F), prevent the extinction of 1 million species and the collapse of our life support system, we need to protect our intact wilderness, and ensure at least 30% of our land and oceans are protected by 2030.
Earth's sixth mass extinction event under way, scientists warn
"But this is the floor, not the ceiling. Now every government on Earth must get behind this bold mission and drive through a global agreement for nature this year."

In May, the world's leading scientists warned that nature is being destroyed at a rate up to hundreds of times higher than the average for the previous 10 million years, due to human activity.

The destruction of the planet's coral reefs, rainforests and other vital ecosystems have placed human society in jeopardy, with the report's authors warning of "ominous" consequences such as freshwater shortages and climate instability unless radical action is taken.
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UN draft plan sets 2030 target to avert Earth's sixth mass extinction

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Almost a third of the world's oceans and land should be protected by the end of the decade to stop and reverse biodiversity decline that risks the survival of humanity, according to a draft Paris-style UN agreement on nature.

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The deadly truth about almond milk in California

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The deadly truth about almond milk in California

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Dennis Arp was feeling optimistic last summer, which is unusual for a beekeeper these days.

Thanks to a record wet spring, his hundreds of hives, scattered across the central Arizona desert, produced a bounty of honey. Arp would have plenty to sell in stores, but more importantly, the bumper harvest would strengthen his bees for their biggest task of the coming year.

Like most commercial beekeepers in the US, at least half of Arp's revenue now comes from pollinating almonds. Selling honey is far less lucrative than renting out his colonies to mega-farms in California's fertile Central Valley, home to 80% of the world's almond supply.

But as winter approached, with Arp just months away from taking his hives to California, his bees started getting sick. By October, 150 of Arp's hives had been wiped out by mites, 12% of his inventory in just a few months. "My yard is currently filled with stacks of empty bee boxes that used to contain healthy hives," he says.

This shouldn't be happening to someone like Arp, a beekeeper with decades of experience. But his story is not unique. Commercial beekeepers who send their hives to the almond farms are seeing their bees die in record numbers, and nothing they do seems to stop the decline.

A recent survey of commercial beekeepers showed that 50 billion bees - more than seven times the world's human population - were wiped out in a few months during winter 2018-19. This is more than one-third of commercial US bee colonies, the highest number since the annual survey started in the mid-2000s.

Beekeepers attributed the high mortality rate to pesticide exposure, diseases from parasites and habitat loss. However, environmentalists and organic beekeepers maintain that the real culprit is something more systemic: America's reliance on industrial agriculture methods, especially those used by the almond industry, which demands a large-scale mechanization of one of nature's most delicate natural processes.

Environmental advocates argue that the huge, commercially driven proliferation of the European honeybees used on almond farms is itself undermining the ecosystem for all bees. Honeybees out-compete diverse native bee species for forage, and threaten the endangered species that are already struggling to survive climate change. Environmentalists argue a better solution is to transform the way large-scale agriculture is carried out in the US.

Like all bees, honeybees thrive in a biodiverse landscape. But California's almond industry places them in a monoculture where growers expect the bees to be predictably productive year after year.

Commercial honeybees are considered livestock by the US Department of Agriculture because of the creature's vital role in food production. But no other class of livestock comes close to the scorched-earth circumstances that commercial honeybees face. More bees die every year in the US than all other fish and animals raised for slaughter combined.

"The high mortality rate creates a sad business model for beekeepers," says Nate Donley, a senior scientist for the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's like sending the bees to war. Many don't come back."

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Beehives stand stacked along a blooming almond orchard near Shafter, California. The bees pollinate many crops, including almond trees in February, and are essential to the food chain. Photograph: Ann Johansson/Corbis via Getty Images

Nuts for almonds

California's $11bn (£8.4bn) almond industry has grown at an extraordinary rate. In 2000, almond orchards occupied 500,000 acres. By 2018 that had more than doubled - almond groves in the Central Valley now blanket an area the size of Delaware, producing 2.3bn lb (1m tonnes) of almonds annually sold around the world.

The average American eats 2lb (900g) of almonds every year, more than in any other country. US almond milk sales have grown 250% over the past five years to reach $1.2bn, over four times that of any other plant-based milk, according to a 2018 Nielsen report.

"We don't see a cap on growth at this point, especially with the incredible versatility of almonds in foods," says Richard Waycott, president and CEO of the Almond Board of California, a not-for-profit advocacy organization representing the majority of farmers.

But these enormous orchards can't function without bees.

It wasn't that long ago that beekeeping was mostly a boutique pursuit of the gentleman apiarist. When European immigrants introduced their own version of agriculture to North America, they also imported the art of beekeeping, along with boxes of Apis mellifera, the domesticated European honeybee.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, beekeepers earned a modest living selling beeswax and honey. But in the late 20th century there was a titanic shift, exemplified by the career of Dennis Arp.

Arp, 67, got into beekeeping nearly four decades ago when he established his Mountain Top Honey company in Flagstaff, Arizona. A commanding presence with biceps toned from hoisting heavy bee boxes, Arp is the sort of diligent beekeeper who spends his days driving between apiary sites, and his nights studying online forums, reading articles on the latest mite treatment.

When cheap imported honey began cutting into Arp's profits in the 1980s, he decided to send some of his hives with a beekeeper friend to pollinate almonds in California. A decade later he struck up a deal of his own with an almond grower in California's Kern county. With that strategic move, Arp joined the growing ranks of migratory beekeepers in the US who still sell honey but mostly travel the country from one pollination site to the next with stacks of bee boxes in tow.

dennis arp works on hives
Left: Dennis Arp works his hives outside Rye.Right: A colony of honeybees hard at work for Mountain Top Honey Company outside Rye.

In the early 1980s, when Arp was just selling honey, he would lose about 5% of his hives per year to disease or weather conditions. Around 2000, Arp's bees started dying in greater numbers.

First, he experienced a nearly 100% loss of his hives from an infestation of tracheal mites. Then he had to cope with the intrusion of Africanized "killer" bees. And finally, what he still considers the bane of his business, a parasitic mite called Varroa destructor literally sucked the life out of his bees. The mite feeds on the bee's plump body, destroying the insect's immune system and other vital functions. If Arp doesn't apply regular chemical treatments for the mites, his colonies will die.

Now Arp finds himself in a vicious circle: he is constantly battling to keep enough bees alive to meet the requirements of his almond contract. But if he was not pollinating almonds, maybe his bees would be healthier.

This year Arp's bees, like more than two-thirds of the United States' commercial honeybee population, will spend February in the toxic chemical soup of California's Central Valley, fertilizing almonds one blossom at a time.

Pesticides are used for all kinds of crops across the state, but the almond, at 35m lb a year, is doused with greater absolute quantities than any other. One of the most widely applied pesticides is the herbicide glyphosate (AKA Roundup), which is a staple of large-scale almond growers and has been shown to be lethal to bees as well as cause cancer in humans. (The maker, Bayer-owned Monsanto, denies the cancer link when people use Roundup at the prescribed dosage. So far this year three US courts have found in favour of glyphosate users who developed forms of lymphoma; thousands more cases are pending.)

On top of the threat of pesticides, almond pollination is uniquely demanding for bees because colonies are aroused from winter dormancy about one to two months earlier than is natural. The sheer quantity of hives required far exceeds that of other crops - apples, America's second-largest pollination crop, use only one-tenth the number of bees. And the bees are concentrated in one geographic region at the same time, exponentially increasing the risk of spreading sickness.

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An almond tree blooms near Visalia, in California. Photograph: Ann Johansson/Corbis via Getty Images

"Bees are exposed to all kinds of diseases in California," says Arp. "There can be hundreds of thousands of hives from multiple beekeepers in one staging area. It is like letting your bees go into a singles bar and then they have unprotected sex."

The almond business has been good to Arp - last February, for instance, he installed 1,500 of his hives in one grower's orchard at $200 per hive - so he is reluctant to make a direct connection between the constant health challenges with his bees and the time spent every spring in the almond groves. "The bees like working on the almonds," says Arp. "But it obviously exposes them to risks."

Now he routinely loses 30% or more of his bees a year, mirroring national statistics. In any other industry, the death of a third of your workforce would cause an international outcry - but this staggering loss is now considered the normal cost of doing business.

"The bees in the almond groves are being exploited and disrespected," says Patrick Pynes, an organic beekeeper who teaches environmental studies at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. "They are in severe decline because our human relationship to them has become so destructive."

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Arp and his son Adam. Photograph: Caitlin O'Hara/The Guardian

The high price of growth

When the phenomenon called colony collapse disorder was first identified in 2006, after a record number of honeybees mysteriously disappeared or died outside their hives, it was linked to a variety of factors including loss of habitat and climate change. But the primary culprit was pesticides. Researchers found that a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids was especially lethal to bees.

Last May, the EPA pulled a dozen "neonics" from the market following a successful lawsuit brought by beekeepers and environmental groups.

But there are many chemicals that are not labeled as bee toxic, even though they can make bees sick and weaken their immune systems. While bees may survive the pollination season, they may not last the winter or may take back substances that gradually poison the entire colony.

Those on the almond growers' side acknowledge there is a huge problem. "The bee mortality rate is too high and is unacceptable," says the entomologist Bob Curtis, a pollination consultant for the Almond Board of California. "It is only because of the hard work and creativity of beekeepers that [almond growers] have gotten the bees they need."

The almond board's "best practice" guidelines encourage beekeepers to spend as little time in California's Central Valley as possible. Honeybees can travel up to three miles in search of varied forage, so even if the almond grower is doing everything right to protect a pollination investment, the cotton or grape farmer down the road may be spraying bee-toxic chemicals on crops.

Even as almond production has steadily ramped up for decades, the number of commercial hives in the US has remained at a steady 2.7m colonies since the early 2000s. With all the challenges beekeepers face, just maintaining the bare minimum is a struggle.

photos of queen bees being replaced and colony of honey bees hard at work.
Left: Dennis Arp replaces queen bees in hives that rejected or were missing them outside Rye. Arp drove to California to purchase the new queens.Right: Honeybees working for Mountain Top Honey Company.

One coping strategy pursued by the almond industry has been to breed almond varietiesthat require only one hive per acre to pollinate, instead of two. And last January, a pollinator protection law went into effect in California as part of the state's "Bee Where" initiative. For this program, beekeepers are required to register the location of their hives with the county's agricultural commissioner and farmers must notify the commissioner in advance of any plans to spray pesticides.

Even so, the costs beekeepers incur trying to keep their bees alive are constantly rising. Arp has spent approximately $50,000 in the past year buying new hives to compensate for the 35% colony loss he experienced last year. He also spends at least $50,000 a year on mite treatments, not to mention other more aggressive measures the industry is taking just to maintain the status quo.These include splitting robust hives in half, introducing mail-order queens to new hives and fattening bees on corn syrup or on simulated pollen substances called "pollen patties".

Experts say that simply working around the pesticide problem isn't enough and that farming itself must be changed from the ground up.

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A smoker deters bees while Adam and Dennis Arp work on the hives. Photograph: Caitlin O'Hara/The Guardian

The search for a solution

Hope is being found in a new certification program that, similar to "organic" or "fair trade" labels, will help consumers choose products that have been made with bee-friendly methods.

The "Bee Better" certification program, launched in 2017 by the not-for-profit Xerces Society, introduces biodiversity into almond groves to naturally control pests and nourish honey bees. Xerces is working with almond growers to plant California wildflowers, mustard and clover in between the rows of trees and native flowering hedges along the perimeter of the orchard - a kind of eco-friendly fence to keep bees in the orchard.

The program scored a victory when Häagen-Dazs ice cream became the first food company to carry products with the Bee Better seal. The company's bee-friendly vanilla milk chocolate almond bar was rolled out in December at Costco, Sam's Club and BJ's Wholesale Club, with three more bee-friendly almond ice cream flavors to be available in early 2020.

Letting nature take its course is nothing new for 81-year old Glenn Anderson. He is the first and still one of the few organic almond growers in California's San Joaquin Valley. His 40-year-old orchard is small - just 20 acres - and has always been chemical free.

"We don't have pests; we have biodiversity," says Anderson, who primarily sells directly to individual customers through his Anderson Almonds company. Unlike large industrial almond farms that strip the orchard ground bare to more efficiently treat for insects and fungi, Anderson allows a rich understory to grow, which naturally nourishes the soil and strengthens the trees.

Anderson hires a "beekeeper hobbyist" from northern California every spring to install about 20 hives in his orchard. "We have the opposite of colony collapse at my farm," says Anderson. "My beekeeper brings weak hives down that he wants to recharge on my property."

I didn't want to fly - so I took a cargo ship from Germany to Canada

Anderson says the tradeoff for not using pesticides is that his annual crop yield is lower - typically about 10,000 pounds - and he keeps his orchard small in order to manage its wildness. "I'm averse to an expansion model," he says. "It doesn't suit me much."

And as for industrial-grown almonds? "They taste like cardboard," he says.

Back in Arizona, Dennis Arp and his son Adam are just trying to make it through the next few months with as many healthy bees as possible.

There are days when the costs seem overwhelming, and Arp wonders if he should hang up his honey-stained bee suit. But beekeeping is what he knows best, and he wants to pass the business on to his son.

"I don't know how we will pull it off yet," he says. "But we will make it work."

* This article was amended on 8 and 10 January 2020 to clarify how the almond industry is breeding nuts that require fewer hives-per-acre to pollinate. The piece has also been updated to include Monsanto's stance on glyphosate and cancer, and to note that commercially driven proliferation of the European honeybees is itself undermining diversity among US bee species.
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'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond-milk obsession

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Dennis Arp was feeling optimistic last summer, which is unusual for a beekeeper these days. Thanks to a record wet spring, his hundreds of hives, scattered across the central Arizona desert, produced a bounty of honey. Arp would have plenty to sell in stores, but more importantly, the bumper harvest would strengthen his bees for their biggest task of the coming year.

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The world must eradicate pesticide use, prioritise nature-based farming methods and urgently reduce water, light and noise pollution to save plummeting insect populations, according to a new "roadmap to insect recovery" compiled by experts.

The call to action by more than 70 scientists from across the planet advocates immediate action on human stress factors to insects which include habitat loss and fragmentation, the climate crisis, pollution, over-harvesting and invasive species.

Phasing out synthetic pesticides and fertilisers used in industrial farming and aggressive greenhouse gas emission reductions are among a series of urgent "no-regret" solutions to reverse what conservationists have called the "unnoticed insect apocalypse".

Insects are crucial to the health of functioning ecosystems that are vital for food production and security. Pollinators like bees get a lot of attention because three quarters of crops producing fruit and seeds for human consumption depend on them, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Other types of insects include herbivores, detritivores, parasitoids and predators that are crucial to ecosystems humans rely on to survive, acting as pest controllers, recycling nutrients and performing other tasks.

How do humans harm insects?
Habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution, invasive species, the climate crisis and over-harvesting are all human-caused issues that put pressure on insects, say experts. The heavy use of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers is the primary driver of harm to insects by humans, according to the first global scientific review of the literature in 2019.

How bad is it?
Bad. Insect populations around the world are plummeting, with 40% of species declining and a third endangered, according to the same literature review. On average, insect biomass on Earth has fallen 2.5% a year for the last three decades or so, which could mean they vanish within the next 100 years.

What happens if insects become extinct?
The survival of mankind would be at stake. With no insects to pollinate the crops humans rely on to eat or perform vital functions in ecosystems, humans would be in trouble.

What can we do about it?
Insect experts have devised a roadmap for conservation and recovery. In the short term, humans must phase out pesticide use, prioritise nature-based farming methods and reduce light, noise and water pollution. In the long term, scientists have called for an international body to monitor the health of insect populations and action taken to help them.

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Alongside these measures, scientists must urgently establish which herbivores, detritivores, parasitoids, predators and pollinators are priority species for conservation, according to a new paper published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. The animals are crucial to the healthy functioning of ecosystems by recycling nutrients, serving as pollinators and acting as food for other wildlife.

The paper comes amid repeated warnings about the threat of human-driven insect extinction causing a "catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems", with more than 40% of insect species declining and a third endangered, according to the first worldwide scientific review, published in February 2019.

In July 2017, researchers warned human overpopulation and overconsumption were driving the sixth mass extinction event in world history, pointing to the "biological annihilation" of wildlife.

Lead author Prof Jeff Harvey of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, said: "As scientists, we want to gather all available knowledge and put it to action together with land managers, policymakers and everyone else involved.

"Essentially, we are thinking strategically and this is novel. Now and down the road, all to reverse insect declines.

"Most importantly, we hope that end-users and land managers now can use this roadmap in, for instance, farming, habitat management and urban development as a template for true insect recovery."

The scientists have called on governments to follow the example of Germany, which announced a €100m action plan for insect protection in September 2019, adding that there is a strong consensus among experts that the decline of insects, other arthropods and global biodiversity is a serious threat that society must address.

In the short term, the roadmap advocates immediate action on rewilding and conservation programmes, avoiding and mitigating the impact of alien species and prioritising imports that are not produced at the cost of species-rich ecosystems. Enhancing citizen science projects to improve data quality and inform academic study was also deemed a priority.

"Most importantly, we should not wait to act until we have addressed every key knowledge gap. We currently have enough information on some key causes of insect decline to formulate no-regret solutions whilst more data are compiled for lesser known taxa and regions and long-term data are aggregated and assessed," the roadmap states.

"Implementation should be accompanied by research that examines impacts, the results of which can be used to modify and improve the implementation of effective measures. Furthermore, such a 'learning-by-doing' approach ensures that these conservation strategies are robust to newly emerging pressures and threats. We must act now."

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Moths swarm around lights. Light pollution has emerged as an overlooked driver of plummeting insect populations. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

In the long term, the scientists are calling for the establishment of an international body to document and monitor the effects of the roadmap on insect biodiversity under the auspices of existing bodies such as the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Public-private partnerships to restore, protect and create new insect habitats and manage threats are also advocated by the roadmap.

Coauthors on the roadmap for insect conservation recovery originate from Europe, North America, South and Central America, Asia, Africa, Oceania and Asia. They include biology professor Dave Goulson, known for his books on the ecology of bees and other insects, and scientist Hans de Kroon, renowned for his work on insect biomass decline.

In February 2019, analysis published in the journal Biological Conservation found that the total mass of insects had fallen by 2.5% a year for the last 25-30 years, with intensive agriculture the primary driver of falling populations.

Light pollution has also emerged as an overlooked driver of plummeting insect populations by luring them to predators, affecting the development of juvenile insects and disrupting light and dark cycles, according to a study published in November 2019. Scientists said insect deaths could be reduced by switching off unnecessary lights.
Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features Topics

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Urgent new 'roadmap to recovery' could reverse insect apocalypse

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The world must eradicate pesticide use, prioritise nature-based farming methods and urgently reduce water, light and noise pollution to save plummeting insect populations, according to a new "roadmap to insect recovery" compiled by experts.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/04/mexico-water-brewery-mexicali-constellation-brands

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Carmelo Gallegos used to sow wheat in the cool winters and cotton in scorching-hot summers of the Mexicali valley. These days, water is so scarce he can only plant one crop a year.

But on top of drought and a sinking water table, the 61-year old farmer now has another preoccupation. A huge brewery is being built in the nearby city of Mexicali, and Gallegos - like many others - fears it will suck up what little water remains to make beer for export to the US.

Gallegos and other farmers see themselves as the victims of an unhealthy deal between the state government of Baja California and Constellation Brands, the third biggest brewer in the US.

"They're managing the water as if it were loot to be divvied up among them," he said. "The government's intention is to leave us with nothing, without land and without water."

The new plant is projected to start production in 2019, churning out nearly 4m bottles a day of beers including Corona, Modelo and Pacífico.

But the project has provoked a fierce backlash among local farmers and residents who have come together in a movement known as Mexicali Resists. Last summer, thousands of people joined angry demonstrations outside the state government offices, and blocked deliveries to the construction site.

Since the new year, unrest has flared up again after riot police and private security guards clashed with protesters who had blocked the construction of a new water pipe to the factory. Dozens of activists have set up a protest camp near the construction site, with huge signs reading "Constellation go home".

"We're already having water shortages," said protester Ana López. "Now imagine when the plant starts working."

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) was signed 25 years ago, foreign manufacturers have flocked to Baja California. Border cities such as Tijuana and Mexicali have expanded rapidly.

Nafta transformed Mexico's closed economy into one focused on exports. But it has also caused discontent among farmers in the Mexicali valley, who say the country has lost sight of the principles of sovereignty and self-sufficiency.

Older farmers fondly recall a time when the government provided credit and gave subsidies for fuel and fertilizer (even though such schemes were often plagued by corruption).

In the 1940s, more than 100 communal properties known as ejidos were created in the Mexicali valley by breaking up a vast foreign-owned cotton-growing company. With the land came water rights - which the farmers still jealously defend.

"If this brewery was such a good deal wouldn't it be [across the border] in Calexico or Las Vegas?" asked farmer Eduardo Cisneros, 75. "They just want cheap water and cheap labour."

Many are seething at the idea that precious water rights are being handed over to gringos.

"What they consider a good, we consider our heritage," said Ernesto Díaz, a farmer and senior ejido official. "They're being naive if they think this [brewery] will not cause water problems in the Mexicali valley."

Since 2010, when Mexico overtook the Netherlands to become the world's biggest beer exporter, breweries have sprung up across its arid borderlands, and this is not the first time that concerns have been raised over the region's water supplies.

Last year, a mayor in the town of Zaragoza in Coahuila state accused another Constellation Brands brewery of sucking up so much water that it left his town without drinking water.

Constellation Brands denies that its breweries threaten water resources. A company spokesman said Zaragoza had a problem of "old pipes". The plant in Mexicali will be sustainable and is being built with the proper permits and support from city, state and national governments, he said.

Americans' taste for Mexican beer sucking up water supply, mayor says

Constellation Brands says it is buying water rights at fair prices and that the plant, in its first phase of operations, will consume only 0.1% of the available water in the region.

But farmers fear that the brewery will bring long-term problems. Mexico's National Water Commission (Conagua) has declared the area's aquifer overexploited and prohibited the drilling of new wells.

Constellation Brands isn't the only brewery expanding in the borderlands. Heineken, which owns Mexican brands such as Sol, Tecate and Bohemia, has announced plans for expanding its brewery in Tecate - which would require water from the Mexicali area.

"Until now there has not been a single project to mitigate these water issues. It's been the opposite: to bring investments," said Rigoberto Campos, local leader of the National Campesino Confederation. "We're worried because we have an overexploited aquifer."

Opponents of the brewery express suspicions over a series of infrastructure projects in the state such as a massive desalination plant in Rosarito, being built through a private-public partnership. The state government also tried to pass a water privatisation law in 2016, sparking mass protests in Mexicali.

Alejandra León, a lawyer representing some of the farmers, says she has encountered secrecy at every step of her actions.

Léon had to sue the Baja California state government to obtain the brewery's environmental impact study. The study revealed some rude surprises - such as which wells would supply water to the brewery.

"The company carried out studies to identify the wells they wanted without the actual owners of the wells knowing about it," said León, a member of the state's environmental protection council. "It's as if they were already taking over."

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Mexico protesters fear US-owned brewery will drain their land dry

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Carmelo Gallegos used to sow wheat in the cool winters and cotton in scorching-hot summers of the Mexicali valley. These days, water is so scarce he can only plant one crop a year. But on top of drought and a sinking water table, the 61-year old farmer now has another preoccupation.

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One-third of China's Yellow river 'unfit for drinking or agriculture

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One-third of China's Yellow river 'unfit for drinking or agriculture

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One-third of China's Yellow river 'unfit for drinking or agriculture'

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Factory waste and sewage from growing cities has severely polluted major waterway, according to Chinese research

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The Yemeni Civil War has to tens of thousands of deaths, but the international community is just starting to appreciate the gravity of a humanitarian crisis that has preoccupied Yemeni policymakers for years: water scarcity. As Iranian-backed Houthi rebels battle Emirati- and Saudi-trained militias across Yemen, the country's already-strained water-supply networks are running dry. The ongoing gridlock on the battlefield has obscured a reality that should concern all Yemenis: the longer the conflict persists, the greater the danger that desertification, drought, and famine will damage Yemen beyond repair.

In 2013, two years before the Yemeni Civil War began in earnest, some experts that the Yemeni capital of Sana'a would lose its water supply within 10 years. Since then, a deadly combination of climate change and political violence has aggravated water scarcity in the country.

"Yemen is considered the most water-poor country in the world," claims Abdoul Razaz Saleh, a former Yemeni water and environment minister. "It is one of the countries with no rivers, and rainfall has decreased significantly over the last three decades. Many Yemeni cities and villages suffer from water scarcity-especially in the winter. These days, Taiz is practically without water."

by the Houthis since 2016, the Yemeni city of Taiz has struggled with water scarcity for decades. The World Bank the "dire and worsening water situation" there as far back as 2000. The siege has inflamed this problem, Taiz's residents to buy water on the black market.

Elsewhere in Yemen, droughts have agriculture, which just under half of Yemenis in 2018. The cultivation of water-intensive crops such as khat, a narcotic popular throughout the country, has only made matters worse. The aid agency Mercy Corps has that Yemen could find itself "on the brink of famine" in no time.

"Agriculture-namely crops such as khat, fruit, and vegetables-consumes the lion's share of the available water in Yemen, about 90 percent," says Tawfeeq al-Sharjabi, the Yemeni deputy water and environment minister. "For their part, only 55 percent of Yemeni households have access to safe drinking water, and this number shrinks to 35 percent in rural areas. Most of the wells drilled for agricultural purposes are illegal, but the Yemeni government's ability to enforce these rules is weak."

The Yemeni government neither Sana'a nor much of Yemen's north and west, where the majority of the country's population lives. Meanwhile, militias loyal to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have the rule of law in the few cities where Yemeni officials do have a presence.

Dedicated Yemeni civil servants have long to overcome these obstacles, trying to develop a plan for mitigating the dangers of water scarcity in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.

"The Yemeni government has been working on water resource management since the 1990s," notes al-Sharjabi. "For its part, the Yemeni Water and Environment Ministry was established in 2003 as an expression of the Yemeni government's high level of interest in problems related to water. Subsequent reforms improved the size and type of water supply networks in rural and urban areas alike."

Political violence has slowed the Yemeni Water and Environment Ministry's ability to deal with the humanitarian crisis as both parties to the conflict access to water.

"Civil war caused the suspension of many projects meant to address water scarcity," Saleh tells LobeLog. "In 2013, the government had a strategy for handling this problem, but the offensive launched by the Houthis in 2014 hindered many initiatives, desalination foremost among them."

In 2015, 13 million Yemenis reliable access to drinking water. The dearth of potable water and destruction of sewerage during the Yemeni Civil War has contributed to recurring outbreaks of cholera in Yemen, a crisis that the United Nations barely has the resources to . The sectarian violence has also prevented Yemeni officials from dealing with global warming, which will water scarcity in the country in addition to increasing the frequency of extreme weather.

"The availability of water in Yemen has been severely affected by current events," observes al-Sharjabi. "All wells associated with the public electric grid have stopped working. At the same time, the price of fuel has increased substantially, raising the cost of extracting water with diesel-powered pumps. With the continued clashes and militias in control of many cities, the ability of Yemeni institutions to function has decreased significantly. All these developments have accompanied the deterioration of the national currency and political interventions by the militias, contributing to the problem."

If the international community wants to stop the Yemeni Civil War from becoming a permanent ecological and humanitarian crisis, regional and world powers must accelerate Yemen's peace process and help the Yemeni Water and Environment Ministry respond to climate change and water scarcity. Though intergovernmental organizations such as the UN Development and Environment Programs have Yemeni efforts to for global warming, the international community must go further.

"The Yemeni government is struggling with a lack of possibilities at the moment," notes Saleh. "Local authorities have found temporary solutions by drilling wells, but they are not enough to meet the needs of Yemeni citizens. Yemen must arrive at a strategic solution through the desalination of seawater, but this proposal requires stability that has not existed in Yemen for over four years."

Only an end to the Yemeni Civil War can deliver the divided country the peace and unity that it will need to devise a long-term solution to water scarcity. Although a wide gap remains between the Houthis and the Yemeni government, Yemenis across the political spectrum recognize that a future of perennial droughts and famines a far greater threat to Yemen than sectarianism and terrorism. For their part, officials at the Yemeni Water and Environment Ministry warn that Yemenis and their partners in the international community must act fast to prevent water scarcity from spiraling out of control.

"All water supply networks in Yemen are still operating-but at the lowest capacities possible," al-Sharjabi tells LobeLog. "Prices have risen far beyond what the population can pay, especially in the context of the current economic conditions that affect almost every Yemeni citizen."
Austin Bodetti studies the intersection of Islam, culture, and politics in Africa and Asia. He has conducted fieldwork in Bosnia, Indonesia, Iraq, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Oman, South Sudan, Thailand, and Uganda, and his research has appeared in The Daily Beast, USA Today, Vox, and Wired.

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The Yemeni Civil War has to tens of thousands of deaths, but the international community is just starting to appreciate the gravity of a humanitarian crisis that has preoccupied Yemeni policymakers for years: water scarcity. As Iranian-backed Houthi rebels battle Emirati- and Saudi-trained militias across Yemen, the country's already-strained water-supply networks are running dry.

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How Cape Town was saved from running out of water

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Reusing shower water, limiting toilet flushing and night-time irrigation were among measures that saved South Africa’s second city from running dry

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Water usage calculator| My Account| United Utilities

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this block gives the information about the amount to pay on a meter and the water consumption per day and the cost to heat the water

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Huge amount of wasted water due to pipe leaks in France

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Huge amount of wasted water due to pipe leaks in France

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https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2014/03/20/1300-milliards-de-litres-d-eau-potable-perdus-chaque-annee-en-france-dans-des-fuites_4386044_3244.html

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Within 25 years England will not have enough water to meet demand, the head of the Environment Agency is warning.

The impact of climate change, combined with population growth, means the country is facing an "existential threat", Sir James Bevan is expected to say in a speech.

He wants to see wasting water become "as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby".

"We all need to use less water", he is expected to say at a London conference.

Sir James Bevan was appointed chief executive of the Environment Agency - the public body responsible for protecting the environment and wildlife in England - in 2015 after a career as a diplomat.

He is expected to say that, in around 20 to 25 years, England will reach the "jaws of death - the point at which, unless we take action to change things, we will not have enough water to supply our needs".

Half of the problem is climate change, which means hotter and drier summers in the UK, he will add.

And the other half of the problem is the UK's rising population, which is expected to increase by eight million people by 2050 (from 67 million now to 75 million).

"So: climate change plus growth equals an existential threat," he is expected to say.

"To our economy, environment, security, happiness, way of life. We can choose to ignore this problem. Or we can choose to tackle it."

'Use 40 litres less a day'

Alongside action being taken by the government, water companies and regulators, Sir James wants the public to use less water, and use it more efficiently.

Currently, people in England use an average of 140 litres of water a day. Sir James is calling on people to cut their usage to 100 litres - the target set by Waterwise, which campaigns for water efficiency.

"In the last few decades we've radically changed behaviour on smoking (everybody did it) and seatbelts (nobody wore them)," he is expected to say.

"In the last two years we've changed behaviour on plastic. We need water wastage to be as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby or throwing your plastic bags into the sea."

He is expected to set out some tips for people to cut their water usage, including: getting a low flush toilet; taking short showers and not deep baths; turn the tap off when brushing your teeth; and not to water your lawn as "it will survive without you".

The Environment Agency has previously warned of water shortages by 2050 and the government has already suggested that people's water use be reduced, in its 25-year plan published last year.

Its report in May last year found enough water to meet the needs of 20 million people is lost through leakage every day.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have separate public bodies responsible for environment protection, because the environment is a devolved matter.

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England water shortage 'within 25 years'

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Within 25 years England will not have enough water to meet demand, the head of the Environment Agency is warning. The impact of climate change, combined with population growth, means the country is facing an "existential threat", Sir James Bevan is expected to say in a speech.

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Is fast fashion giving way to the sustainable wardrobe?

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Throwaway garments contribute more to climate change than air and sea travel. Now clothing retailers are bracing for a backlash

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Planned obsolescence has hit the headlines again, with a French lawsuit against Apple for slowing down phones and 17 US states pushing for new legislation allowing people to fix their own products.

But what is the impact of this on consumers and what should be done about it?

Firstly, what is planned obsolescence?

Planned obsolescence means manufacturers deliberately designing products to fail prematurely or become out-of-date, often to sell another product or an upgrade - a practice that is barred in some countries. Some manufacturers also restrict consumers' ability to repair their products - by using digital locks or copyrighted software, using incompatible screws or gluing components together, or by refusing to share their repair manuals. Some add clauses to their user agreements so people (often unknowingly) agree not to fix their own products. Although sometimes this is within the law, as consumers purchase more connected products their expectations of what they can and can't do with a product they have bought are challenged.

For consumers this means their products don't last as long as they could, and even small problems have to be dealt with by an approved repairer - sometimes at greater expense, distance and delay, especially if they don't want to invalidate the warranty. This is an inconvenience for many, and one which arguably hits poorer and geographically isolated consumers harder.

The lifespan of electronic goods is becoming shorter, with the number of defective appliances replaced within five years increasing from 3.5% in 2004 to 8.3% in 2013. At the same time, with increasingly smarter tech, such as that used in phones, e-waste and resource requirements increase with each new model. Not to mention the danger to health associated with the kind of recycling of components that takes place in the informal sector, particularly in developing countries.

So why are popular tech companies coming under the spotlight?

In December, it was found that Apple was deliberately 'throttling' - slowing down and turning off features in older models of its phones. They claim this will ensure the batteries function better and the phone won't turn off suddenly. But others suspect it is a strategy topush consumers towards a new upgrade. Now French prosecutors, following lawsuits from users in the US and Israel, are investigating Apple over the allegations under the country's law against planned obsolescence. Italy's antitrust organisation is also investigating both Apple and Samsung for the same issue. Against this backdrop, Apple announced it would allow throttling to be turned on and off on its phones.

What next?

We recently produced a set of recommendations for Securing Trust in the Internet of Things which included calls for:

connected products to be easily upgradeable

updates to be made available to consumers regardless of location

devices, adaptors and other connection points to be made compatible with each other

Clear, comparable and credible information to be provided concerning expected lifetime and reparability of products

Products to be designed and built with resource efficiency in mind, from using sustainably produced materials and construction methods; to providing clear guidance to consumers on the most efficient use, re-use/repair and disposal of the product and its components.

The recommendations echoed those taken up by the G20 on the idea of fair use and clear ownership, which stated that 'consumers need guarantees of their right to fair use. Controls that producers can exercise over the use of a product and its related data should be legitimate, fair and proportionate'. A commitment from the Argentinean presidency of the 2018 G20 to continue improving trust in the digital world gives consumer organisations and other groups the opportunity to further develop this work and identify practical solutions.

Consumers International member Test-Achats/TestAankoop has set up a reporting tool called Trop-vite-use on its website, aimed at creating a list of products which people feel have stopped working or worn out too quickly. Once enough information is collated, they will be able to target their product testing and advise on which brands to avoid. Although the reporting tool is not only for Internet of Things products, difficulties with fixing or keeping connected devices secure in the long term are key issues for durability in the Internet of Things.

Any other solutions?

There's a role for legislation too. Through our UN programme on consumer information for sustainability, we've been working with UN Environment, the French government and others to provide policy recommendations. Together we have recommended a number of policy and industry actions to increase product lifespan and reduce environmental waste - a law against planned obsolescence; minimum durability criteria; product lifetime labelling; affordable and accessible repairs; Right to Repair legislation; monitoring of trends in product lifetimes; and consumer education and information.

Or is consumer demand something that could turn the tide on this issue? Take for example Fairphone, an ethically produced and easy to self-repair phone launched in 2013, which sold 25,000 handsets before production had even started. They now have 100,000 plus customers. Could smaller disrupter companies offer consumers ethically sourced and environmentally friendly alternatives?

Or do we need to look at new business models altogether? Maybe instead of owning products we should rent tech from companies, sending back our old tech for reuse when we're ready for a replacement. That might be a good move for tech companies who have faced a barrage of criticism recently over various issues and are under increasing pressure to take more responsibility for the impact they have in our world.

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Built to fail: is planned obsolescence really happening?

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We use cookies to track usage and preferences I understand Privacy policy Planned obsolescence has hit the headlines again, with a French lawsuit against Apple for slowing down phones and 17 US states pushing for new legislation allowing people to fix their own products.

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Is it true that manufacturers have deliberately set out to make stuff obsolete after ever shorter periods or is that not the case at all?
We've weakly argued or at least hinted on this website that it seems that there is a deliberate policy to make appliance lifespans shorter and, from our perspective as repairers and a spare parts retailer that on the face of it, that does seem to be supported by facts.

But we don't actually think it's just as straightforward as that and the topic is in reality immensely more complex in many ways.

Now regardless of what we say and, regardless of cold hard facts we expect that there will be some people that think it's a nefarious plan by big business to elicit more cash from the poor punters.

If only big companies were that smart!

There's stupidity almost for sure, yes, there's even some planning that leads to stuff being obsolete, yes and there are some design choices on manufacture that are, will we say, questionable without a doubt. But deliberately to force people to replace stuff, we're not entirely convinced.

What we are convinced of is that there's a series of failings, most of them leading to unintended consequences that largely seem to stem from poor foresight.

We'll try to expand and explain how and why we think that.

Yes, that's right everyone, we all buy stuff and the stuff we buy in droves are what manufacturers make.

After all, there's not a lot of point in making stuff people don't want.

When you get into the appliance market it's now a commodity market, that's to say there's not really a lot to choose between products other than the shape, size, colour and whatever flavours of features come with those.

At least, that's the way the bulk of buyers appear to see things.

As a result of that, it becomes a price driven industry, who does whatever it is cheapest, wins.

Compounded by internet shopping in many regards as, stuff people should know about appliances regards quality, build and so on you can't explain well there. So people buy on price.

Manufacturers are forced to compete or die. They compete.

In order to cut costs so as to achieve ever lower prices, they cut in areas you can't see. Areas like durability, quality, service, spares support... all these things are open to the axe to get that low, low price in the store.

After all, none of all that sort of stuff happens for free.

Once that's all done and dusted makers then look at how else they can reduce production costs.

One way is to start using sealed assemblies internally that allows them to buy boatloads of the things in for production at a lower overall cost. Now to many people that might seem well, mental but if you think about it from the manufacturer's perspective trying to attain a low in-store price so as to actually see the stuff they make, it makes complete sense.

Now it's a "thing" in the industry and, we feel a trend that's gone too far.

It needs to be addressed. Now.

Sealed Assemblies

We first wrote about sealed tubs or tanks way back in 2011 but we knew about this before then.

Back then it wasn't really all that common to see these things, it was only the odd model here than there that had seam welded plastic tanks that, when the bearings went or something got stuck in it you were as well to just bin the machine and buy another.

Fast forward to now and you'll struggle to find a washing machine that doesn't have a sealed tank.

All in the drive and need to get lower costs, cheaper machines for people to buy. Only for them to find out that they can't repair them and have to bin them a few years later.

That few pounds saving up front ends up cost a lot more down the track.

Stupidity, nefarious planning or simply serving the needs of the market? You decide.

More Complete Assemblies

This trend has expanded though.

Now we regularly see complete assemblies only for the likes of:

Washing machine doors

Dishwasher basket wheels, you need to buy a whole basket to get

Sealed fridge and freezer doors, you can't replace the seals

Dishwasher motor with integrated heaters

Oven doors you can't split

Tumble dryer heaters you cannot replace thermostats on

Motors that you can't buy carbon brushes for

Hobs you have to buy heating banks costing hundreds of pounds

Pumps you can't get filters for, only full pump and filter assemblies

And, that's just a flavour of the things lurking in the world of spare parts.

Many people seeing this will probably have already been a victim of such a thing, hence the interest and that's a real shame as, it's too late by then, you've been stung already.

For those that haven't been stung (YET!!) as well as those that have there are a few economic effects of all this that might be of interest that ultimately leads to complete obsolescence of these types of parts, and unintended consequence we expect of this madness.

Availability Issues

For a start, the cost of these assemblies will generally be much if not massively higher than say, a set of basket wheels for a dishwasher at £10 or so as opposed to a whole basket and £50 plus.

In turn, that means that nobody wants to hold any more in stock that they absolutely have to.

That constrains supply.

Makers will tout (as some have) that the items are obviously more reliable as they are selling less.

They're being muppets and spinning it of course as, naturally, they use less as people refuse to pay 25-200% the cost of the product to replace a single item!

But lower use figures mean lower stocks produced means they are eventually not produced at all in a relatively short time and... there's your built-in obsolescence!

Admirable Ingenuity

In some ways, you have to admire the manufacturers and the people that work in these companies for having the gumption to make stuff ever cheaper.

We often wonder if it is all that smart though in some ways as, despite all that cleverness the manufacturers aren't making any more money it seems so, wasted effort? Or is it just eroded away through providing the products ever cheaper?

Just look at induction (microwaves, dishwashers and more if you want) where they start out expensive, hailed as the saviour of the industry and yet, a few years on, the price is eroded away making it, well, nothing special at all. It's just another boring product that everyone has, and it's all a bun fight over who has the lowest price. Again.

Ingenious perhaps. Beneficial, only to consumers that enjoy more affordable products.

Ehm sorry... there is none.

Manufacturers are under no obligation to provide spare parts. End of story. Done. No seriously, they are under absolutely no legal obligation whatsoever to provide parts at all, ever, even in warranty.

For starters, they are not consumer goods so, in large part, normal consumer legislation doesn't really apply but try as we did, the government and various consumer interest people have, nobody can find any legislation on parts. It just doesn't exist.

If you've got an appliance that seems young and you're hacked off as a part is obsolete, this is how any manufacturer (any, not just appliances) can legally get away with it. Simply as they never had any obligation in the first place!

Sadly, we've looked up parts for some brands, who will remain nameless here, where parts are obsolete in under two years, some in less than eighteen months and, we don't think that's okay. We think that this is another area that needs to be addressed by legislation and, we're not the only ones.
More about that here
Who's Fault It Is Anyway?

You might think from the tone in this article that we'd like to blame consumers but, that's not entirely the case.

Sure they have a role to play and it's a big one as, if someone makes a £100 washing machine, there are people that'll buy it, even if it is complete garbage. Then often bemoan that it's rubbish and died early!

Fact is, where the demand is there will be a maker that tries to fulfil that demand, it's just the way of a free commercial market.

The maker will cut and chop, dodge and dive and do whatever to get that product into people's hands at the best possible price and, as much as they can for it with an acceptable margin.

Therefore manufacturers have a role here as well and part of the blame must fall on them also.

Likewise, retailers, pushing manufacturers constantly to produce stuff cheaper so they can offer lower prices than competitors are also in the firing line for blame.

But it's okay if it's rubbish, they can sell you an extra warranty so when it breaks you can get it fixed, or a new one. Increasing their sales back to where they probably would have been selling something decent. The irony of which is not lost on us at all.

So long as they or more accurately, we all buy into this system, we'll have what we have and we'll never escape this wasteful cycle of cheap products with a shorter and finite life through, probably, unintended obsolescence.

Or, the legislation calls time on it.

Either way, change is needed to put a stop to this insanity.

Until then the e-waste will continue to pile up.

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Is it true that manufacturers have deliberately set out to make stuff obsolete after ever shorter periods or is that not the case at all? We've weakly argued or at least hinted on this website that it seems that there is a deliberate policy to make appliance lifespans shorter and, from our perspective as repairers and a spare parts retailer that on the face of it, that does seem to be supported by facts.

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"They don't make 'em like they used to," as the idiom goes. So it would seem for the Centennial Light. An astonishing, record-setting 115 years after someone first flipped it on, this light bulb is still faintly shining in a fire station in Livermore, California. (You can see it for yourself on a webcam that refreshes every 30 seconds.)

For the multiple generations of us who have since swapped out more burned-out light bulbs than we can remember, the Centennial Bulb's longevity must seem like a slap in the face. Surely, if an incandescent bulb made with 19th Century technology can last so long, why not new-fangled, 20th and even 21st Century bulbs?

The Centennial Light is often pointed to as evidence for the supposedly sinister business strategy known as planned obsolescence. Lightbulbs and various other technologies could easily last for decades, many believe, but it's more profitable to introduce artificial lifespans so that companies get repeat sales. "That's sort of the conspiracy theory of planned obsolescence," says Mohanbir Sawhney, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University.

So is this conspiracy theory true? Does planned obsolescence really exist?

The answer: yes, but with caveats. Beyond the crude caricature of greedy companies wantonly fleecing their customers, the practice does have silver linings. To an extent, planned obsolescence is an inevitable consequence of sustainable businesses giving people goods they desire. In this way, planned obsolescence serves as a reflection of a ravenous, consumer culture which industries did create for their benefit, yet were hardly alone in doing so.

"Fundamentally, firms are reacting to the tastes of the consumers," says Judith Chevalier, a professor of finance and economics at Yale University. "I think there are some avenues where [businesses] are kind of tricking the consumer, but I think there are also situations where I might put the fault on the consumer."
An illuminating example
Sticking with light bulbs as a product, they provide amongst the most emblematic case studies of planned obsolescence.

Thomas Edison invented commercially viable light bulbs circa 1880. These early, incandescent bulbs - the Centennial Light included - relied on carbon filaments rather than the tungsten that came into widespread use almost 30 years later. (Part of the reason the Centennial Light has persevered so long, scientists speculate, is because its carbon filament is eight times thicker and thus more durable than the thin, metal wires in later incandescent bulbs.)

Initially, companies installed and maintained whole electrical systems to support bulb-based lighting in the dwellings of the new technology's rich, early adopters. Seeing as consumers were not on the hook to pay for replacement units, lighting companies therefore sought to produce light bulbs which lasted as long as possible, according to Collector's Weekly.

Greater sums of money could be reaped, companies figured, by making bulbs disposable

The business model changed, however, as the light bulb customer base grew more mass-market. Greater sums of money could be reaped, companies figured, by making bulbs disposable and putting replacement costs onto customers. Thus was born the infamous "Phoebus cartel" in the 1920s, wherein representatives from top light bulb manufacturers worldwide, such as Germany's Osram, the United Kingdom's Associated Electrical Industries, and General Electric (GE) in the United States (via a British subsidiary), colluded to artificially reduce bulbs' lifetimes to 1,000 hours. The details of the scam emerged decades later in governmental and journalistic investigations.

"This cartel is the most obvious example" of planned obsolescence's origins "because those papers have been found," says Giles Slade, author of the book Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, a history of the strategy and its consequences.

The practice cropped up in all sorts of other industries, too. For instance, competition between General Motors and Ford in the fledging 1920s auto market led the former to introduce the now-familiar model year changes in its vehicles. GM had pioneered a way to entice customers to splurge on the latest, greatest car, to satisfy themselves and impress those in their social circles. "It was a model for all industry," says Slade.

Although the term "planned obsolescence" didn't enter common usage until the 1950s, the strategy had by then permeated consumerist societies.
Alive and well
In various forms, from subtle to unsubtle, planned obsolescence still very much exists nowadays. From so-called contrived durability, where brittle parts give out, to having repairs cost more than replacement products, to aesthetic upgrades that frame older product versions as less stylish - goods makers have no shortage of ruses to keep opening customers' wallets.

For a fully modern example, consider smartphones. These handsets often get discarded after a mere couple years' use. Screens or buttons break, batteries die, or their operating systems, apps, and so on can suddenly no longer be upgraded. Yet a solution is always near at hand: brand new handset models, pumped out every year or so, and touted as "the best ever".

As another example of seemingly blatant planned obsolescence, Slade mentions printer cartridges. Microchips, light sensors or batteries can disable a cartridge well before all its ink is actually used up, forcing owners to go buy entirely new, not-at-all-cheap units. "There's no real reason for that," Slade says. "I don't know why you can't just go get a bottle of cyan or black [ink] and, you know, squirt it into a reservoir."

Taken this way, planned obsolescence looks wasteful. According to Cartridge World, a company that recycles printer cartridges and offers cheaper replacements, in North America alone, 350 million (not even empty) cartridges end up in landfills annually. Beyond waste, all that extra manufacturing can degrade the environment too.
A nuanced view
Though some of these examples of planned obsolescence are egregious, it's overly simplistic to condemn the practice as wrong. On a macroeconomic scale, the rapid turnover of goods powers growth and creates reams of jobs - just think of the money people earn by manufacturing and selling, for instance, millions of smartphone cases. Furthermore, the continuous introduction of new widgets to earn (or re-earn) new and old customers' dough alike will tend to promote innovation and improve the quality of products.

As a result of this vicious, yet virtuous cycle, industry has made countless goods cheap and thus available to nearly anyone in wealthy Western countries, the Far East, and increasingly so in the developed world. Many of us indulge in creature comforts unimaginable a century ago.

"There's no doubt about it," says Slade, "more people have had a better quality of life as a result of our consumer model than at any other time in history. Unfortunately, it's also responsible for global warming and toxic waste."

Planned obsolescence isn't nakedly exploitative, as it benefits both the consumer and the manufacturer

Oftentimes, planned obsolescence isn't nakedly exploitative, as it benefits both the consumer and the manufacturer. Chevalier points out that companies tailor the durability of their goods per customer's needs and expectations. For instance: children's clothing. "Who buys super durable clothes for their kids?" Chevalier asks. Depending on their age, children might grow out of their clothes sometimes in mere months. It's not so bad, then, that the clothes might relatively easily stain, tear, or go out of style, so long as they're inexpensive.

The same argument can apply to consumer electronics. Relentless innovation and competition for market share means that the underlying technologies in smartphones, for instance, keep surging ahead, with faster processors, better cameras, and so on.

"If ever there was true obsolescence, it's in technology," says Howard Tullman, a serial entrepreneur and chief executive officer of 1871, a digital startup incubator. "It's almost as if the technology takes care of itself - this will obsolete itself whether you like it or not."

Many owners might therefore appreciate paying less for a smartphone upfront whose, say, batteries can no longer hold a useful charge in three years. "Because the technology is evolving so rapidly, many people are not going to value the extra lifespan of a more durable battery," says Chevalier.

A revealing counter-perspective to this nexus of customer desire and affordability mediated by planned obsolescence is the luxury goods market. Customers will opt to pay a substantial premium for products that often have finer craftsmanship, greater durability, and resale value - heck, many luxury goods consumers expect their investment to increase in value over time, instead of falling apart and being eventually rubbished. "If you buy a Rolex, you know it's going to last you and you expect to be able to drive a truck over it," says Slade.

Of course, people don't just binge on a Rolex so it'll be the last watch they or their grandchildren ever need to buy. To varying degrees, high-end brands serve to stroke clients' egos as symbols of elevated social status. "Luxury goods are socially coded," says Slade.

As the years go by, though, hallmarks of a luxury version of an item can work their way into the mass market as their production grows cheaper and customers come to expect the perks. Few would argue that the increased availability of safety devices, like air bags in cars, once only found in pricier models, has not been a net positive. So in its admittedly self-interested, halting way, the competition at the heart of planned obsolescence-influenced capitalism can work in looking out for consumer's interests as well.
The future of obsolescence
Accordingly, though examples clearly exist to the contrary, some business academics feel that it's a bit over the top to assume many companies sit around plotting how to precisely engineer a product to self-destruct.

"If you have a market that's kind of competitive, then the expected lifespan of the product is certainly something the firms compete over," says Chevalier. "For a lot of products it's not like consumers aren't savvy enough to try to choose products that won't [soon] be obsolete."

Indeed, there are forces that could encourage manufacturers to lengthen lifespans.

In the auto market, Chevalier says "everybody thinks about and looks up how quickly does this car depreciate relative to others". Indeed, in this arena, cars now stay on the road longer than they once did.

There are forces that could encourage manufacturers to lengthen lifespans

"The auto industry for years has been sort of a fashion-driven business, where your car had fins and five years later, fins were out of style," says Tullman. Yet that's changing: he cites United States Department of Transportation figures showing that the average age of a passenger vehicle on the road in that country now stands at 11.4 years; in 1969, the figure was 5.1 years.

With internet reviews, it's easier than ever to find out if your intended purchase has a short lifespan - and that goes for lightbulbs as well as cars.

And as environmental consciousness of the terrible amounts of waste generated by a throwaway culture has risen, consumer goods might become less disposable. Google's Project Ara, for instance, is developing a smartphone-like device with six slots for swapping out technologically outdated components, versus traditionally binning the entirety of an aging smartphone.

A business-minded approach to smarter recycling, reuse and repurposing has arguably made a big dent and will so in future, says Sawhney. For instance, Tesla, the electric automobile manufacturer, has plans to take back the spent batteries in its clients' cars and repurpose them for home energy storage. The company also auto-downloads and upgrades the software in its clients' cars as the vehicles charge overnight. Sawhney, who is a Tesla owner, says the company planned ahead for these sorts of upgrades by including "basically future-proof" sensors and hardware in the vehicle.

"Instead of selling model after model of the car to me, [Tesla] just changed the software," Sawhney says. "So that's an antidote to planned obsolescence in a way - it makes obsolescence obsolete."

--

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Here's the truth about the 'planned obsolescence' of tech

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"They don't make 'em like they used to," as the idiom goes. So it would seem for the Centennial Light. An astonishing, record-setting 115 years after someone first flipped it on, this light bulb is still faintly shining in a fire station in Livermore, California.

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Air Pollution - ban cars from idling near schools

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Air Pollution - ban cars from idling near schools

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Ban cars from idling near schools, says UK public health agency

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Public Health England calls for raft of urgent measures to tackle air pollution

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One of the main results of this year's benchmark is that 40 out of 101 major extractive, agricultural and clothing or footwear companies ranked are failing to demonstrate respect for human rights on paper or in practice (1).

Prada, Starbucks and Kraft Heinz among companies scoring poorly

Majority of clothing and agricultural companies failing to do enough to prevent child labour

Leading companies include Adidas and Rio Tinto

CHRB measures how companies perform across 100 indicators based on the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights. It uses publicly available information on issues such as forced labour, protecting human rights activists and the living wage to give companies a maximum possible score of up to 100% (2). In this year's ranking, two-thirds of companies scored less than 30% overall.

"While we see clear progress from some companies, the majority are failing to make the grade. Seventy years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this is very concerning. If businesses will not clearly demonstrate their respect for human rights, then governments should step in with tougher laws to protect people," said Margaret Wachenfeld, CHRB Independent Director and co-lead of the CHRB Methodology Committee.

The average score across all companies has increased since the pilot in 2017, but remains unacceptably low at 27%. The research shows that overall businesses need to get better at 'walking the talk' by matching their paper commitments with clear, consistent action when human rights abuses or risks are identified.

Forced and child labour, gender equality and protecting activists are some of the most pressing issues of our time. Companies need to show how they're addressing these challenges, to protect themselves from legal penalties or action from investors and consumers," said John Morrison, Chief Executive of the Institute of Human Rights and Business.

Companies at the top end of the rankings demonstrated that identifying and managing risks is a key part of their core business. They scored particularly well on transparency of human rights policies and practices. Meanwhile companies at the bottom of the ranking failed to show any engagement with human rights concerns. This should raise urgent questions for investors and consumers as to whether these companies are serious about avoiding harm to people in their pursuit of profits.

Other key findings include:

Virtually no companies demonstrate strong commitments to ensuring living wages are paid to workers in their own operations and supply chains.

Less than 10 per cent of companies commit to respecting human rights defenders (HRDs), including those HRDs exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, public assembly and protest.

There is a clear gap between companies acknowledging allegations and actually engaging with those affected.

CHRB is calling on companies to improve their performance on human rights, and to use the scoring system to understand where such improvements can be made. It is also calling on investors to challenge poorly performing companies and to use their leverage to drive improvements. Aviva, APG and Nordea, who manage over a trillion dollars between them, have all confirmed that the 2018 benchmark will be used to inform their investment decisions.

"This ranking should serve as a wake-up call for businesses everywhere. Too many are still not doing enough to respect the rights of those involved in or impacted by their operations, despite increasing investor scrutiny and the negative impact it has on a company's long-term performance and prospects. While some businesses are showing the way forward, the overall picture is deeply concerning," said Steve Waygood, Chief Responsible Investment Officer, Aviva Investors.

As an organisation dedicated to the relevance of benchmarks within the sustainable development agenda, the World Benchmarking Alliance is incredibly encouraged by the publication of CHRB's 2018 results. We are proud that we are in an alliance together and will continue to learn from each other's experiences and findings.
Editor's notes:

1. Of the 101 companies surveyed, 40% failed to show any evidence of identifying or mitigating human rights issues in their supply chains, as required by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

2. The CHRB Methodology is the result of extensive multi-stakeholder consultation, involving representatives from over 400 companies, governments, civil society organisations, investors, academics and legal experts. Grounded in the UN's Guiding Principles on Human Rights, it produces a proxy for corporate human rights performance across six key themes: governance and policies, embedding respect and human rights due diligence into the business, remedies and grievance mechanisms, human rights practices, responses to allegations of serious human rights impacts and transparency. The research, delivered with our partner EIRIS Foundation, is based on public information, supported by (optional) company engagements and is made freely available to all interested stakeholders.

3. Following some improvements to the methodology, CHRB redrew the 2017 scores using 2018 rules, to enable meaningful comparisons to be made. The adjusted 2017 average score is 18%. CHRB estimates that two thirds of the 9% increase in average score is due to improvements in company disclosures, policies, processes and practices. The other third is due to changes in the methodology that enabled companies to score more points.

4. CHRB is a UK based not for profit, supported by a mix of investors, civil society organisations and European governments. It produces in-depth assessments and rankings of how well companies in high-risk sectors perform on human rights issues. CHRB aims to harness the competitive nature of the markets to drive better corporate human rights performance, by providing companies, investors, consumers, governments and civil society with the information to make better decisions on the allocation of capital, purchasing, procurement, legislation and campaigns. CHRB is an ally of the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA).

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'4 in 10 companies 'failing' on human rights' - World Benchmarking Alliance

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One of the main results of this year's benchmark is that 40 out of 101 major extractive, agricultural and clothing or footwear companies ranked are failing to demonstrate respect for human rights on paper or in practice (1). Prada, Starbucks and Kraft Heinz among companies scoring poorly Majority of clothing and agricultural companies failing to ...

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The surgeon who signed patients' livers was silly, not criminal. The law is an ass | Henry Marsh

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Physicians like me walk a tightrope between compassion and detachment. Recklessly threatening them with the courts does more harm than good, says neurosurgeon and author Henry Marsh

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Decathlon fights to protect muslim women rights in France

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Decathlon fights to protect muslim women rights in France

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Decathlon drops French sports hijab after politicians threaten boycott

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Retailer faced outrage from some of Macron's ministers against Muslim head-coverings

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North Korea’s human rights: What's not being talked about

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North Korea’s human rights: What's not being talked about

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After decades in the political wilderness, North Korea has spent the past year in a flurry of diplomatic activity.

But talks with the US, China and South Korea have so far focused entirely on trade and denuclearisation. North Korea's woeful human rights record is one topic that is yet to come up - and it's likely to remain that way.

The UN says North Koreans live under "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations". Here are just some of the issues:

Total government control

Isolated from the rest of the world, North Korea has been ruled by the Kim family for three generations, and its citizens are required to show complete devotion to the family and its current leader, Kim Jong-un.

The state controls everything, and actively spies on its citizens using a vast surveillance and informer network.

The economy is also strictly controlled and the government funnels money into its nuclear and missile programme despite widespread shortages of food, fuel and other basic necessities.

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), told the BBC that North Korea has only been able to develop an expensive nuclear programme because it is a totalitarian state, and it's done so by "taking food out of the stomachs of hungry North Koreans".

Media control

North Korea's media is arguably the most tightly controlled in the world. Reporters without Borders (RSF) ranks it last in its World Press Freedom Index.

North Koreans get all their news, entertainment and information from state media, which unfailingly praises the leadership.

According to RSF, citizens can be sent to prison for viewing, reading or listening to content provided by international media outlets.

Mobile phones are more common than they used to be, but making an overseas phone call doesn't come easy.

"You would have to get a Chinese cell phone on the black market, drive to the Chinese border and then even along the way state agents may stop you," Arnold Fang, a researcher from Amnesty International, explained to the BBC.

Internet access is available for the elite few in the capital, Pyongyang, who lead relatively comfortable lives. Others may have restricted access. The country has its own very basic intranet - a closed network which certain people are allowed to use.

But most North Koreans will likely never go online.

Religious freedom

The constitution promises a "right to faith" and there are Buddhists, Shamanists and followers of Chondoism - a native Korean religion - North Korea. State-controlled churches also exist.

But Mr Fang says this is all largely for show.

"In reality, there is no freedom of religion. Everyone is indoctrinated to treat the Kim family almost as something to worship."
A 2014 UN report said Christians face "persecution and severe punishments" if they practiced their religion outside state-controlled churches.
North Korea also takes a dim view on foreign missionaries. Among its most famous detainees was Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American evangelist who ran Christian tours to North Korea.

He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in 2013 for "anti-government" crimes. He was released in 2014 on health grounds.

Prison camps and conditions

"North Korea has been said to be the world's biggest open prison camp," said Mr Adams. "I don't think that's unfair."
According to a report by the US State Department, there are between 80,000 and 120,000 people in prison in the North.
People can be jailed for almost anything, activists say, with crimes ranging from watching a South Korean DVD to trying to defect.

People convicted of political crimes are often sent to brutal labour camps, which involve physical work such as mining and logging.

Amnesty has described the prison camps as "harsh beyond endurance". Detainees face torture and beatings by guards, and women are left especially vulnerable to sexual coercion and abuse.

Not all those in prison have actually committed crimes. North Korea practices collective punishment, so if one member of a family is found guilty it's possible that their whole family gets punished.

North Korea makes liberal use of the death penalty and has been known to conduct public executions.

Foreign detentions

Foreign nationals in North Korea have been arrested and detained for extended periods of time - often kept as prisoners for political reasons and used as diplomatic pawns at opportune moments.

Three US citizens, who were jailed for anti-state activities and placed in labour camps, were freed from North Korean prison as a gesture of goodwill ahead of the US-North Korea leadership summit in 2018.

But US student Otto Warmbier was not so lucky. Mr Warmbier was arrested in 2016 for stealing a propaganda sign. He was released after 17 months in detention on health grounds, but was seriously ill - he died days after returning home. His parents, who believe he had been tortured, sued North Korea over his death.

Six South Korean prisoners are still believed to be in detention.

North Korea has also admitted to kidnapping at least 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s, who they used to train their spies in the Japanese language and customs.

Among other noted kidnappings were a famous South Korean actress and her ex-husband, a film director, who were taken in the 1970s. They were forced to make films for the state but later managed to escape.

Forced labour
A significant majority of North Koreans undertake unpaid labour at some point in their lives, according to a HRW report.
Former students who defected from North Korea told HRW that their schools forced them to work for free on farms twice a year - at ploughing and harvest time - for one month at a time.

North Korea also sends hundreds of thousands of people to work overseas as low-cost labour - with many of them essentially working under slave-like conditions.

It has sent workers to places like China, Kuwait and Qatar - though most countries have stopped renewing work visas to North Koreans to comply with UN sanctions. However, reports have emerged that North Koreans are still working in some places despite sanctions.

"Many overseas workers live in a monitored dormitory where there is no freedom of movement, rendering them essentially prisoners," said Mr Adams.

A large percentage of workers' salaries are usually seized by the state - a huge source of income for the country.

Women's rights

Discrimination against women very much exists, but "there isn't a way to measure inequality in the North like how you measure the wage gap between males and females", says Mr Fang.

Though North Korea presents itself as nominally equal society, women are said to be deprived of education and job opportunities.

"Women are really vulnerable - sexual violence exists but if someone assaults them they have no-one to complain to," says Mr Adams.

Reports are also rampant of women facing torture, rape and other sexual abuses while held in detention facilities - and of widespread sexual abuse in the military.

Children and malnutrition

Children in North Korea do receive education, though some have to drop out of school early to help their families survive economically, according to Mr Fang.

The school curriculum is "dominated by the country's political agenda, restricting their knowledge from a very early age".

According to Unicef, 200,000 North Korean children are suffering from acute malnutrition - of which 60,000 would have become "severely malnourished".

North Korea routinely rejects criticism of its rights records - it has said its citizens "feel proud of the world's most advantageous human rights system" - and points the finger at the flaws of other countries.

But Mr Adams of HRW says the topic of human rights in North Korea is "a bottomless pit".

"Everyone's looking out for their own interests. No-one's looking out for the interests of North Korea's citizens".

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North Korea's sidelined human rights crisis

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After decades in the political wilderness, North Korea has spent the past year in a flurry of diplomatic activity. But talks with the US, China and South Korea have so far focused entirely on trade and denuclearisation. North Korea's woeful human rights record is one topic that is yet to come up - and it's likely to remain that way.

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Ireland's fishing industry breaches Human Rights

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Ireland's fishing industry breaches Human Rights

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UN experts condemn Ireland's migrant fishing workers scheme

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System leaves migrant workers vulnerable to modern slavery, four UN special rapporteurs say

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Phone-hacking trial was officially about crime; but in reality, it was about power

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Phone-hacking trial was officially about crime; but in reality, it was about power

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Phone-hacking trial was officially about crime; but in reality, it was about power

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With Rupert Murdoch funding Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson's defence, the crown faced an uneven fight. Nick Davies examines how the case embodied its era - and overlooked key issues

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Use ecosia to search the web and raise money to plant trees

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Use ecosia to search the web and raise money to plant trees

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https://www.ecosia.org/?c=en

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https://www.gripple.com/gb/en/about-us#charity

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As shareholders, each one of us has a vested interest in contributing to the process of driving through growth and promoting innovation in all areas of the business. Everyone has the right to express their opinions in a responsible and constructive manner. Likewise, we all have a duty to listen to and explore the validity of those opinions.
"We aspire to work in a challenging, innovative world class business infused with fairness, respect, learning and fun."
The beginnings of GLIDE...

In the summer of 2011, GLIDE was formed. All shareholders are members of GLIDE which is a private company limited by guarantee. This means that it has been set up, for example, on the same basis as a sports club, where the individual shareholder's liability is limited to £1.

Since the mid 1990s, Hugh Facey, the founder and executive company chairman of Gripple Limited and Loadhog Limited, has been examining ways to pass on his legacy to subsequent generations of employees. In establishing GLIDE, many considerations had to be taken into account, not least the culture and how to instil our inherent values into everyone that works in the company both now and in the future. Promoting new product development and experimentation in new processes represent key elements of the innovation process.

Hugh Facey, and subsequently Roger Hall, vice chairman of Gripple Ltd and Loadhog Ltd, have both decided to make a gift donation of their personal shares to GLIDE. Their respective donations will be gifted annually over a ten year period, ceasing in 2021. These shares become known as 'permanent shares' and can never be sold. They will, over time, generate significant revenue from dividends for GLIDE.

Why was GLIDE established?

To harness our unique culture and pass it on to future generations

To act as custodian / protector of its gifted share dowry from Hugh Facey and Roger Hall, and to ensure they are never sold

To act as market maker in the buying and selling of members' shares

To exercise its right to use the Golden Share, in order to prevent the break-up of companies for the sole purpose of profit

To establish an employee elected board of directors to represent its members

To charge the board with the responsibility of determining the best way to distribute dividend income from the gifted shares on behalf of their members

GLIDE has been established to preserve and develop employee culture; to look after the interests of its members and to generate engagement by everyone in their company. It's great to feel that everyone is an owner of their business.

Our goals and the Articles of Association

The operation of GLIDE is controlled under a set of guidelines and goals contained in a document known as the Articles of Association. GLIDE is committed to encouraging each investee company to achieve:

An annual growth in turnover of 10%

25% of annual turnover from products which are less than 4 years old; innovation is key to long term prosperity and independence

A contribution of 1% of budgeted profits to charitable causes

The promotion and support of employee ownership to other businesses in the wider economy

In addition, GLIDE has a responsibility to invest any income under its custodianship for the benefit of:

Its investee companies by investing in new products, machines and processes

Its members by investing in sports, social and other leisure facilities

Other businesses in the manufacturing and service sectors, offering unique patented products or value added features

Its members, by considering when appropriate, the social, healthcare and financial hardships affecting any of its members

We expect our people to be charitable and lend their support wherever possible; its a value engrained in our culture. Activities aren't simply driven by our charities team, but individually, by our people too. We were able to donate £9,000 to our latest 'charity of the year' in the UK - a figure raised through fundraising activities organised by our people in Sheffield.

Our support is not just financial; we also donate our time on what we call 'people power' projects. With 700 employees across the globe, we have a wide range of skillsets which we often put to good use on renovation and volunteering projects.

Recent work has included transforming an outside space into an accessible school playground for children with complex disabilities in Sheffield; a regular volunteering slot at Illinois Food Bank, and running English lessons for children living in poverty in New Delhi.

Gripple Technical Services offers a full suspension system design service. Drawings can be submitted in either .dwg or .pdf file formats and are returned fully annotated and costed. Bespoke bracket design, and assistance with minimising suspension elements and cost can also be provided. In order to reduce programme time and installation costs further, Gripple Catenary Systems can be employed to span structural steels and suitable building components. Gripple's Installation Design service provides the contractor with annotated drawings showing the location and length of each catenary wire to simplify the installation process.
Catenary Tension Analysis
Catenary systems can impose loads on building structures far in excess of the vertical loads applied to each free span. It's for this reason that Gripple Technical Services offers computer modelled catenary tension analyses to determine both final catenary sag and more importantly, anchor point loading. This ensures that all catenary systems installed meet the requirements of the structural engineer.
BIM
Building Information Modelling (BIM) is now a mandatory requirement for centrally funded government projects in the UK, and this highly collaborative way of working is fast becoming the preferred method for carrying out progressive private sector projects.

Gripple Ltd. is the only supplier of wire rope suspension systems that offers consultants and contractors full BIM support in the form of 3D model families. This allows designers to add both fixed and suspended supports for building services, and carry out clash detection in the virtual project environment.

Models are available in a range of file formats including .rfa, .ifc and .dwg and offer full connectivity to product data which can be used to aid cost management, construction collaboration and facilities management. Detailed schedules of Gripple components can be created meaning only the correct quantity of product is ordered, minimising cost and waste.

Gripple Technical Services has recognised the advantages that BIM brings to construction projects and is committed to working with consultants and contractors to develop their BIM capabilities.

Contact Gripple Technical Services for the latest BIM models.
Embodied CO2 Assessment and BREEAM or LEED Accreditation
Gripple Ltd. recognises that today's buildings need to be designed to the highest environmental standards. In order to facilitate this, Gripple Technical Services is able to provide calculations, based on drawing submissions or site surveys, to determine the ECO2 savings when switching to lightweight wire rope suspension systems. This supporting evidence can then be submitted to BREEAM assessors in order to obtain BREEAM credits or to LEED assessors for LEED points.
Seismic Bracing & Blast Protection Services
Gripple Ltd. is a leading provider of seismic bracing and blast protection systems. In contrast to standard wire bracing, Gripple's seismic system is fully tested and approved to OSHPD OPA-2123-10 and UL NEBS GR 63 Core Certification and has SMACNA verification, recognised as the most demanding requirement in the world.
Gripple Technical Services can offer:

Engineering seismic bracing calculations based on design category, occupancy, importance and relevant site specific seismic specifications

Detailed engineer's sealed drawings (electronic format) prepared in AutoCAD or .pdf files (submitted by the consultant/contractor) indicating the location of seismic bracing points and bracket type

Gripple on-site training on seismic product installation.

Completion visit by Gripple Seismic Authorised Representative to ensure correct installation.

Gripple Seismic Bracing products per engineering calculations, including:

1. Seismic wire rope kit with End Fixing and colour coded verification tag

2. Seismic component bracket

3. Gripple Seismic Hanger

Acoustic & Vibration Performance
Gripple wire suspensions offer vastly improved acoustic performance over traditional installation methods. Gripple Technical Services can supply independent test data which confirms the levels of attenuation that Gripple wire rope suspensions achieve over a range of audible and inaudible frequencies, when compared to threaded rod.
Technical Specifications & Best Practice Guides
Along with industry leading certified CPD presentations on a range of subjects, Gripple Technical services offers a range of published material to ensure that installations are done in accordance with the best standards. Titles include 'A Guide to the use of Wire Suspensions in Swimming Pool Environments', 'Suspension of Ductwork and Associated Services with Steel Wire Ropes' and 'Suspension of Pipework and Associated Equipment with Steel Wire Ropes'. A generic specification is also available should you wish to include wire rope suspension systems in your design without specifying Gripple products. Gripple Technical Services can also offer advice should Fire Rated Suspension Systems be required.

Pre-commencement site surveys, on-site pull testing to verify substrate suitability, progress reports and completion certificates can all be requested from Gripple Technical Services. Toolbox Talks are also available on a range of Gripple products and time saving installation methods.

Contact the Technical Services team by email or call 0800 018 4264 to speak to the team.

Based in our dynamic offices at Hawke Street in Sheffield, our in-house 10-strong Ideas & Innovation team, works to bring ideas to reality in a world class innovation environment.

With an extensive engineering workshop featuring CAD and rapid prototyping capabilities, the team are fully equipped to explore ideas and problems encountered on site. Working closely with our Sales and Marketing teams, we strive to consistently deliver complete solutions to our customers.

Innovation has been the beating heart of Gripple since its beginnings in 1988. We aim to deliver 25% of our turnover every year from products less than four years old, and as such there's a culture engrained in us to constantly search for new ways of doing things and better ways to serve our customers.

The key to our success is undoubtedly the collaborative work we do with our customers; you are at the heart of everything we do and we love to solve your problems. We also love to listen and as such, always encourage you to come to us. Maybe you have a problem; maybe you think there's a better way of doing something. The I&I team can rationalise problems and develop solutions. This is what we love to do. So challenge us! Get in touch

Winners in the Innovation category at last year's Baxendale Awards, Gripple Automation offers bespoke design and build of machines to improve manufacturing processes and significantly increase performance.

Gripple Automation combines the experience of being a successful UK manufacturer, exporting worldwide to over 100 countries, with the expertise of designing and building high volume, precision automated machines.

This unique combination gives an inherent understanding of the needs and expectations of the customer, delivering an intelligent machine that results in every competency within a business, from production to maintenance to accounting, all achieving better results.

Specialising in industrial automation for production

Machines designed for manufacturers by manufacturers

Inherent appreciation of requirements, enhancing the design process and the finished product

Specialist mechanical, electrical, programming & project engineers with practical manufacturing knowledge

Select supply chain of quality equipment and parts

Real-time monitoring

Energy efficient machines

Intelligent process checks, improving efficiencies

Whatever the requirement, small or large, visit www.grippleautomation.com or contact us for an initial review.

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Gripple - time-saving innovation & problem-solving simplicity from one of the country's most exciting employee-owned GLIDE businesses. | Gripple

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As shareholders, each one of us has a vested interest in contributing to the process of driving through growth and promoting innovation in all areas of the business. Everyone has the right to express their opinions in a responsible and constructive manner. Likewise, we all have a duty to listen to and explore the validity of those opinions.

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Innocent smoothie denies sell-out after Coca-Cola gets majority stake

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Innocent insists founders will keep operational control despite 58% of shares going to Coca-Cola

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https://www.theoceancleanup.com/system001/

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On September 8, we will launch the world's first ocean cleanup system from our assembly yard in Alameda, through the San Francisco Bay, toward the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch. To celebrate this historic moment, we would like to invite you to watch the deployment live, either online or in person.

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How a social enterprise react to a scandal vs Volkswagen 

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How a social enterprise react to a scandal vs Volkswagen 

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At 602, we talk a great deal about corporate responsibility. We are proud to provide so many corporate responsibility examples for you to learn from, in our resource library. Usually, we present our corporate responsibility examples as something positive. We hold up the best examples and spotlight companies who are getting it right. Today we are going to take a slightly different tack. We would like to give you a non-example- a large, well-known company that faced a scandal and did not react the way customers expected. Then we will contrast the company's non example with a more positive story of corporate responsibility. We hope the contrast will help you see what to do and what not to do when it comes to being a conscious business. Non-examples or failures can be just as instructional as success stories.

Volkswagen's emission scandal took place in 2015. The EPA issued a statement that emissions systems on VW cars were set up only to function when they were being tested. This meant that the cars could pass emissions, but were still putting pollutants into the environment the rest of the time. Longtime customers felt betrayed, and took to the internet to say so. The CEO lost his job, and upper level management faced congressional committee hearings.

The Rest of the Story

The company's deception was not the whole scandal. Just as damaging was the fact that the company never admitted to any wrongdoing. Instead, they issued a half hearted apology. Stock prices plummeted. The company still has not recovered. By deceiving its customer base, and then not holding itself accountable, Volkswagen permanently changed its public perception-and not in a good way. The company recently pleaded guilty to charges in U.S. court.

Odwalla Steps Up

Contrast Volkswagen's saga with the scandal facing Odwalla organic juice drinks in 1996. A young girl died from drinking one of Odwalla's E. coli infected drinks. This could have been the end of the company. Negative publicity ran rampant, and many people called for a boycott of Odwalla's products. Things couldn't have been much worse, but the company stepped up in a major way. Odwalla became completely transparent about its manufacturing process and took steps to change that process, preventing another tragedy and keeping the company solvent. Through it all, Odwalla welcomed criticism and did not attempt to sidestep accountability for what they did.

Volkswagen seemed to show no remorse for their faulty products. Odwalla took full responsibility for their failure to protect the public. Volkswagen did not mend its ways; Odwalla did, and now the company is in a much better place. We hope all companies can follow Odwalla's corporate responsibility example and avoid the poor choices that Volkswagen made in handling its crisis.

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how the best social enterprise companies handle a scandal - 602 Communications

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At 602, we talk a great deal about corporate responsibility. We are proud to provide so many corporate responsibility examples for you to learn from, in our resource library. Usually, we present our corporate responsibility examples as something positive. We hold up the best examples and spotlight companies who are getting it right.

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A Green Movement with 300 Million Participants and 13 Million Trees

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A Green Movement with 300 Million Participants and 13 Million Trees

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In April, Pandaily went to Ordos, China with Ant Forest and its users, to participate in a green movement involving 300 million people - Ant Forest. Ant Forest is a special feature of Alipay, a payment app and platform under Ant Financial, that was created as a social corporate responsibility (SCR) project. As the number of Internet users in China reached 772 million in December 2017, with 97.5% of them using mobile phones to surf the Internet, Ant Forest allowed more than a quarter of Chinese netizens to participate in charity programs through the mobile Internet.

Personal carbon accounts and virtual tree planting

When you decide to activate the feature through the Alipay app, Ant Forest will open a carbon account for you. There is a list of 16 different actions that you can perform in real life to reduce your carbon footprint; these are activities such as using public or green transportation, buying tickets onine, going paperless in the office, and more. You can then claim carbon points for the actions you've performed every day and save them into your personal carbon account. These points can then be used to water and grow your own virtual trees on Ant Forest.

After the virtual saplings have grown to become virtual trees with the constant watering of carbon points, Ant Financial and their charity partners will plant real trees somewhere in the world. This is their way of motivating users to form more carbon-reducing habits.

In addition to planting trees, Ant Forest is exploring other innovative SCR models. In September 2017, Ant Forest launched a land protection project, where users can "adopt" or virtually claim five square meters of forestland and protect the it with NGOs.

On the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, Ant Financial and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) also jointly launched the Green Digital Finance Alliance (GDFA), to explore the possibility of promoting Ant Forest carbon accounts globally.

300 million users and 13.14 million real trees

In August 2016, Ant Financial officially launched Ant Forest on the Alipay payment platform. In March of 2018, over 300 million people, or more than one fifth of the Chinese population, participated in the Ant Forest project, with a daily carbon emission reduction of 8 thousand tons.

By the end of 2017, 13.14 million real trees had been planted and 12111 mu (8 k㎡) of forestland were adopted. The Ant Financial company has been in cooperation with environmental NGOs, such as the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology (SEE) and the China Green Foundation. They jointly plant trees and maintain forests in Alxa, Ordos and Bayannur in Inner Mongolia, and Wuwei in Gansu Province and other regions. They have planted nearly 12.14 million saxauls, 1 million willows, and 3000 scots pine trees.

Xie Mingyu, the deputy director of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region afforest workstation, said that the Ant Forest project brought hope of green to Inner Mongolia. Since last year, Ant Forest project has and is planting 17 million saxauls, 14 million willows, and 710,000 scots pine trees. The trees are planted in five cities: Bayannur, Ordos, Chifeng, Tongliao and Alxa. When projects are finished, Inner Mongolia will have another 360,000 mu (240 km²) of forested area, which is an amazing figure.

Satellite monitoring of trees and field visits

With the introduction of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, drones and remote sensing satellite, users can now see directly the real impact of their actions.

Ant Forest works with GaGo Group to monitor trees via satellites. Two remote sensing satellites took images of the desert regions in Inner Mongolia before and after the tree planting to show users how their every day actions can positively impact the planet.

In order to enable 300 million users to watch their seedlings grow up, Ant Forest and XAIRCRAFT jointly launched a new function enabling users to see the trees' growth. XAIRCRAFT intelligent monitoring stations take photos and sends them back everyday in part of the region. Assisted by drones, managing staff can accurately calculate the change of tree number and their health status. Users can see the growth of saplings thousands of miles away on their mobile phones.

On April 24, a delegation consisting of members of the press and eight Ant Forest users from different parts of the country visited the No. 89 and No. 95 plots of forested land. The total area of the two forests is 7,726 mu (5150,000 ㎡), where 1051,000 willows were planted. The delegation also visited the homes of local farmers and got to hear the experiences shared by Ant Forest project director, the deputy director of afforest workstation, staff from XAIRCRAFT and Gago Group, as well as local farmers.

At the end of the trip, farmers, staff, media and users together planted nearly 100 willows under the guidance of planting experts, and broadcasted the event.

Fintech and public welfare

On March 12th, Arbor Day in China, the chairman and CEO of Ant Financial Jing Xiandong said that Ant Forest is planning to invest more. It is expected that their total investment in ecological protection will exceed 500 million yuan ($79M) by the end of 2018. If the 300 million Ant Forest users continue to participate actively, the next five years will see an afforestation area of 6 million mu (4000 k㎡), the size of five New York Cities.
SEE ALSO: Ant Forest to invest $79M over next 5 years to plant 500M trees
An Ant Forest was born under the backdrop of a green financial strategy proposed by Ant Financial. The plan was for Ant Forest to open a carbon account for every user, record their daily low-carbon activities, plan real trees for virtual ones to encourage users to adopt more environmentally friendly behaviors. This model is turning doing good into an every day action. Whether it is through walking, or other points generating activities like mobile payments, or paying for utilities, the every day actions are adding together to contribute to public welfare, to growing a tree in the real world. It is the action of using the Internet mentality to diversity the way NGOs and SCRs operate.

The openness and connectivity of the Internet has made everyone an important node in this movement, letting technology to play its part in doing social good. Internet connected the virtual world with the real world, and expanded the scale of ecological protection. This innovative method easily accepted by the younger generations are helping those born after the year 1995 to become more aware of and to take action in environmental protection.

Growing in the Ant Forest are not only trees, but also the spirit of exploration and innovation of the Chinese youth. There is a limit to how many trees can be planted in the future, but there is no limit to how far innovations can go.

Ant Forest Milestones

In August 2016, Ant Forest was established.

In September 2016, Ant Financial signed a strategic cooperation agreement with UNEP. Erik Solheim, UN Deputy Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNDP, used the Ant Forest feature to experience it.

In January 2017, Ant Forest users exceeded 200 million.

In January 2017, Ant Financial and UNEP jointly launched the Green Digital Finance Alliance (GDFA) on the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, exploring ways to promote Ant Forest globally.

In March 2017, Ant Forest users visited the forestation site for the first time.

In September 2017, Ant Forest launched the land protection project, enabling the public to adopt existing unmanaged forests to help restore forest ecology in addition to planting trees.

In September 2017, Ant Financial ranked third in the Fortune magazine's Change the World List of top 50 companies. It is mainly due to Ant Forest that Ant Financial made the list.

In November 2017, Ant Forest worked with GaGo Group and XAIRCRAFT to launch tree monitoring features via satellites and drones.

By the end of 2017, 13.14 million real trees had been planted and 12111 mu (8 k㎡) of land were adopted. Ant Forest had planted nearly 12.14 million saxauls, 1 million willows, and 3000 scots pine trees, covering an area of more than 190,000 mu (126.67 k㎡).

In March 2018, Ant Forest users exceeded 300 million.

On March 12, 2018, Ant Forest announced its plans to increase investments in ecological protection, and the total investment in ecological protection is expected to exceed 500 million yuan ($79M) by the end of 2018.

In April 2018, Ant Forest users visited the site for the second time.

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A Green Movement with 300 Million Participants and 13 Million Trees - Pandaily

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Ant Forest is a special feature of Alipay, a payment app and platform under Ant Financial, that was created as a social corporate responsibility (SCR) project. Ant Forest allowed more than a quarter of Chinese netizens to participate in charity programs through the mobile Internet.

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The winners of the annual UK Social Enterprise Awards were announced on Wednesday evening 28 November during a ceremony at London's Guildhall. The Awards ceremony is the biggest celebration of social enterprise in the sector, and a truly inspiring evening.

See photos from the evening here.

Category 1 - UK Social Enterprise of the Year (Sponsored by NatWest)

The overall award for a social enterprise that has a clear vision, excellence in impact, and that has demonstrated and promoted social enterprise beyond the sector.
Cafédirect
Cafédirect's mission is to champion the work and passion of smallholder growers, delivering great tasting hot drinks to improve livelihoods, whilst pioneering new and better ways of doing business. Cafédirect is an award-winning, social enterprise and 100% Fairtrade coffee company. Half of Cafédirect's profits are invested back into farmer communities through its farmer-led charity, Producers Direct, Cafédirect has invested over £6m to date.

Judges' comments: From decline to success! The turnaround in Cafédirect's fortune this last year has paved the way for a successful application. Re-branding, acquisitions and, increased performance all aiming at improving the lives of smallholder farmers in developing countries, whilst conducting business ethically and fairly make this a worthy winner.

Category 2 - One to Watch (Sponsored by GLL)

For a social enterprise that can clearly articulate their future vision and how they are going to achieve it.
Caledonia Cremation
Caledonia Cremation is a social enterprise funeral directors, owned by anti-poverty charity Community Renewal Trust. Every five minutes another bereaved family falls into poverty due to unaffordable funerals. We offer a single, simple, dignified Direct Cremation for £995 - equal for anyone anywhere across Scotland, rich or poor. We help families arrange their own cheaper more personalised celebration away from the crematorium and we invest in counselling, an advice helpline and education around bereavement, funerals and death.

Judges' comments: This new business already delivers 1 in every 300 funerals in Scotland. Whilst providing better funerals, they address widespread funeral poverty and provide bereavement support.

Category 3 - Prove It: Social Impact (Sponsored by Employers For Childcare)

For a social enterprise that can truly demonstrate and communicate their impact with their stakeholders.
Company Shop
Community Shop is the UK's first social supermarket chain. Located in areas of disadvantage, we offer surplus food to our members at heavily discounted prices. When members shop in store the revenue raised powers our Community Hub, where we engage, inspire and connect with every member who comes through the doors. From debt advice and employability skills, cook club to home budgeting, we are building stronger individuals and more confident communities.

Judges' comments: Community Shop clearly operate in areas of highest need. Their planning and development from learning is notable. Their impact is outstanding, which is expressed in a number of ways. They are continuously refining their approach no doubt helps their impact. They have also shown strong growth and excellent links with suppliers as well as customers.

Category 4 - 'Buy Social' - Market Builder (Sponsored by PwC)

For a social enterprise, public sector body or private sector organisation that has demonstrably made efforts within its own organisation and remit to create more opportunities to buy from social enterprises.

We create safer, smarter, and sustainable places to live, work and travel. By designing, building, maintaining and investing in our country's services and infrastructure we make a difference including engineering, facilities management, utilities, transport, environmental services, defence and justice. We know these are the services that matter - the ones you rely on at home and on the move. That makes us the faces behind the services you use every day - and together, we're helping to create better places to live, work and travel.

Judges' comments: Amey has embraced the "Buy Social" concept throughout the whole organisation and consciously embeds social enterprise in its supply chain and procurement practices. Amey is large enough to make a substantial difference and to act as a pathfinder for similar businesses.

Category 5 - Social Investment Deal of the Year (Sponsored by Big Society Capital)

For an organisation that has been part of a great investment deal in the last 12 months that has helped the social enterprise to grow or the movement as a whole to develop and flourish.

HCT's primary social purpose is to tackle social isolation, a problem characterised by and compounded by a lack of affordable and convenient mobility options and experienced most acutely by the poorest and most marginalised people. ClearlySo work exclusively with high-impact businesses, charities and funds, supporting their capital raising activity through financial advisory work, and introducing them to institutional and individual investors who share their objectives and values. HCT secured £17.8 million in investment with the help of ClearlySo. The funding is being used to accelerate HCT's growth, providing the working capital to continue their rapid expansion. The capital will also enable HCT to refinance significant existing debt obligations and includes substantial additional funds to fuel the Group's growth.

Judges' comments: ClearlySo has generated one of the largest social investment deals this year, bringing together a range of investors to provide £17.8 to help community transport operator HTC grow and consolidate its position. The HTC Group can now expand its work in reducing social isolation.

Category 6 - Health & Social Care Social Enterprise (Sponsored by Pinnacle)

For a social enterprise in the health and social care sector with excellent vision and strategic direction, clear leadership and clear evidenced social, environmental and community impact.
Baby Lifeline Training
Baby Lifeline Training Ltd delivers high-quality multi-professional training to the maternity sector. Our Mission is to ensure safety for mother and baby by promoting best practice. Training courses are 'cutting edge' and evidence based - planned and delivered by leading experts. Content is constantly updated and modified to reflect changes within maternity service provision; encouraging best clinical practice and communication to improve outcomes from care given to pregnant women, their unborn and new-born babies.

Judges' comments: Feedback from participants of the programme was extremely positive and the impact of the training on practice is clear to see. Where they have monitored impact on institutions over a long period of time, the results are remarkable. The growth in their revenue in the past year is significant and will enable them to diversify and grow.

Category 7 - Consumer Facing Social Enterprise (Sponsored by Co-op Group)

For a social enterprise that produced or delivers a retail product or service to the general public. The winner of this category was selected via a readers' choice vote in our media partner publication The Big Issue.

Madlug was founded in 2015 by Dave Linton. A man whose only experience in the luggage industry was bags of enthusiasm. This 40-something Youth Worker was heartbroken to learn that most children in care transport their worldly belongings in a bin bag. In that moment, Dave set out to do something about it. With just £480, he started Madlug and came up with our 'Buy one Give one' approach: with every bag you purchase, one will be given to a child in care.

Category 8 - Education, Training & Jobs Social Enterprise (Sponsored by Deloitte)

For a social enterprise in the education, training or employment sectors that can demonstrate excellence in vision and strategic direction, and clearly evidence their social, environmental and community impact.
The Growth Company
The Growth Company (GC), are a not-for-profit commercially driven organisation which is widely recognised as a key player in delivering transformational growth for Greater Manchester and further afield. Our mission is to enable growth, create jobs and improve lives and this is delivered by drawing upon our collective expertise. This range of expertise enables us to deliver an integrated, client focussed approach to service provision, focussed on the creation of added value, improving people's lives.

Judges' comments: The Growth Company is succeeding in its mission to create jobs and improve lives by placing impressive numbers of people, many of them disadvantaged into training, apprenticeships and jobs. Strong ethical values underpin all their work and help marginalised people to progress in society.

Category 9 - Environmental Social Enterprise (Sponsored by Landmarc)

For a social enterprise in the green and environmental sector with a clear, evidenced environmental impact.
Point and Sandwick Trust
Point and Sandwick Power built and operates the UK's largest community wind farm distributing its profits for community benefit via the Point and Sandwick Trust.

Judges' comments: A classic example of how a social enterprise can generate profit for social good whilst nurturing the environment. Plans for the world's first sea-going hydrogen powered ferry are particularly exciting.

Category 10 - Tech for Good: Technology Social Enterprise (Sponsored by Linklaters)

For a social enterprise that uses technology to achieve social impact.

NOW Group is a social enterprise that supports people with learning difficulties and autism into jobs with a future. It is the parent organisation of two social enterprise businesses - Loaf Catering & Cafes and Gauge NI, a research and evaluation business - the profits of both go back into the work of NOW. It is also the organisation behind the JAM Card initiative.

Judges' comments: Now Group deploys a simple but effective approach to technology to harness the power of digital media, both for clients and businesses. They offer a large range of services to their clients, such as codesign, and their impact is increased by their engagement with employers. The amount of money they have saved the public sector and the number of employees who have benefited from their services is phenomenal. Their strategic planning is impressive, and will no doubt also help them to further increase their impact.

Category 11 - Women in Social Enterprise (Sponsored by Santander)

For a woman working in the senior leadership team of a social enterprise who represents excellence in her field of work.

Liz Tapner is the CEO of Lancashire's social enterprise network, Selnet and is a recognised leader in UK social enterprise. Liz is well known in Lancashire as an advocate for social enterprise. Since 2003 Liz has been a SE business adviser, guiding the development of large and small enterprises in a variety of business areas throughout the north west. A chartered business adviser and mentor, she has extensive experience of business support having worked for, and with, local authorities across the north west throughout her career.

Judges' comments: Liz is a powerful advocate for the Social Enterprise sector in the Lancashire area successfully developing and delivering EU and Lottery funded programmes to support the sector in the North West of England.

Category 12 - International Impact (Sponsored by British Council)

For a social enterprise working internationally and are having a big impact in their field.

Cafédirect's mission is to champion the work and passion of smallholder growers, delivering great tasting hot drinks to improve livelihoods, whilst pioneering new and better ways of doing business. Cafédirect is an award-winning, social enterprise and 100% Fairtrade coffee company. Half of Cafédirect's profits are invested back into farmer communities through its farmer-led charity, Producers Direct, Cafédirect has invested over £6m to date.

Judges' comments: The impact of Café Direct's rebrand has been phenomenal. They provide skills support for farmers, as well as financial loans. Their grower-focussed approach and high levels of reinvestment in the communities they serve naturally results in excellent engagement with farmers and growers. A truly extraordinary transformation over the past 12 months.

Category 13 - Transformative Community Business (Sponsored by Power to Change)

For a locally rooted social enterprise that trades for the benefit of their community.
Company Shop
Community Shop is the UK's first social supermarket chain. Located in areas of disadvantage, we offer surplus food to our members at heavily discounted prices. When members shop in store the revenue raised powers our Community Hub, where we engage, inspire and connect with every member who comes through the doors. From debt advice and employability skills, cook club to home budgeting, we are building stronger individuals and more confident communities.

Judges' comments: Company Shop made an excellent application detailing the impact they are having on the communities they work in. Their impact covers alleviating food poverty, diverting waste, improving health and well-being through healthy eating and training.

Category 14 - Employee Engagement (Sponsored by Prospectus)

For a social enterprise that is genuinely engaging employees in all aspects of the business.
Community Dental Services CIC
CDS-CIC is an employee owned social enterprise with a clear ambition; to ensure everybody, especially vulnerable and marginalised groups, receives the oral healthcare and information they need to thrive. Working with the NHS, businesses, schools, community groups and other organisations, we bring the best dental services and oral health information to the people that traditional dental services are unable to reach; people in situations or locations where good dental health care is harder to deliver.

Judges' comments: A n inspiring application from an organisation that seeks to deliver a quality service to the most vulnerable in society. The depth and breadth of employee engagement at CDS is so well embedded and demonstrated. CDS is a fully employee owned company with exceptional results from its employee and patient survey alike.
The 2018 UK Social Enterprise Awards was generously sponsored by: 2018 UK Social Enterprise Awards media partner:

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Winners of the 2018 UK Social Enterprise Awards

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The winners of the annual UK Social Enterprise Awards were announced on Wednesday evening 28 November during a ceremony at London’s Guildhall. The Awards ceremony is the biggest celebration of social enterprise in the sector, and a truly inspiring evening. See photos from the evening here.

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charge 1p per item of clothing to reduce waste

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charge 1p per item of clothing to reduce waste

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The environmental audit committee made the comments in its final report on the sustainability of the fashion industry, released today. It said a charge of 1p per garment as part of a new extended producer responsibility scheme could raise £35m for investment in better clothing collection and recycling in the UK.

The committee also said taxation should be reformed to reward companies that offer clothing repairs and reduce the environmental footprint of their products.

Committee chair Mary Creagh said: "Fashion shouldn't cost the earth. Our insatiable appetite for clothes comes with a huge social and environmental price tag: carbon emissions, water use, chemical and plastic pollution are all destroying our environment.

"In the UK we buy more clothes per person than any other country in Europe. 'Fast fashion' means we overconsume and under use clothes. As a result, we get rid of more than a million tonnes of clothes, with £140m worth going to landfill, every year.

"Fashion retailers must take responsibility for the clothes they produce. That means asking producers to consider and pay for the end-of-life process for their products through a new extended producer responsibility scheme. The government must act to end the era of throwaway fashion by incentivising companies that offer sustainable designs and repair services. Children should be taught the joy of making and mending clothes in school as an antidote to anxiety and the mental health crisis in teenagers. Consumers must play their part by buying less, mending, renting and sharing more."

The committee's key recommendations

* Mandatory environmental targets for fashion retailers with a turnover above £36m.

* A new extended producer responsibility scheme to reduce textile waste with a 1p charge per garment on producers.

* The scheme should reward fashion companies that design products with lower environmental impacts and penalise those that do not.

* The report calls on the government to use the tax system to shift the balance of incentives in favour of re-use, repair and recycling to support responsible fashion companies.

* The government should follow Sweden's lead and reduce VAT on repair services.

* Lessons on designing, creating, mending and repairing clothes should be in the school curriculum.

* The government should publish a publicly accessible list of retailers required to release a modern slavery statement. This should be supported by an appropriate penalty for those companies who fail to report and comply with the Modern Slavery Act.

* The fashion industry must come together to set out their blueprint for a net zero emissions world, reducing their carbon consumption back to 1990 levels.

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MPs call for green levy of 1p per garment

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The environmental audit committee made the comments in its final report on the sustainability of the fashion industry, released today. It said a charge of 1p per garment as part of a new extended producer responsibility scheme could raise £35m for investment in better clothing collection and recycling in the UK.

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As soon as I meet Andras Forgacs we head outside into the freezing cold of Davos. Naturally he reaches for his coat, but I am slightly surprised at what he pulls out - it's just a normal, black puffer jacket.

As the founder and chief executive of a start-up firm that has created a vegan alternative to leather, I expected him to be wearing a coat made out of his own material.

In reality it's a bit too soon for that. Modern Meadow, the company he set up eight years ago, is still producing the fabric he has designed only in small quantities.

Nonetheless, in the same way that the rapid growth in the popularity of vegan food - from hamburgers to sausage rolls and chicken alternatives - has shaken up the food industry, he believes his firm can help do the same to the $200bn (£153bn) leather industry.

"It's a massive market with massive shortcomings. You have to raise an animal in a field using up water, gas and creating greenhouse emissions and then transfer the hide half way around the world."

Apart from the environmental harm, there is huge wastage in the industry. Up to half of a cow-hide can be wasted due to imperfections such as bites.

With alligator and crocodile skin, he says it's even worse, with up to 90% of the material wasted because of the need for a perfect pattern.

Business consulting firm Grand View Research (GVR) has predicted the global faux leather market will hit $85bn by 2025.

It cites the lower cost of producing animal-free products along with the increasing number of consumers opting for animal-free materials.

"As textile technology is evolving consumers are preferring vegan fashion," it said.

Permanent display

Mr Forgacs says the first product made from the material will be launched this year, but refuses to say what it will be.

Instead, like a travelling car salesman showing off his wares he pulls out several samples from a folder he is carrying around with him.

The pieces vary in colour, thickness and texture but share one key thing in common - no cow was killed in their creation.

The product is created from yeast cells that are fermented in a similar way to beer to create collagen, the protein that gives skin its strength and elasticity. From here the collagen is purified and assembled into unique material structures that can be adapted in various ways depending on its purpose.

A T-shirt made using the new material, called Zoa, was commissioned and acquired to the permanent collection by the Museum of Modern Art in New York as an example of the future of fashion, but Mr Forgacs says his firm is targeting more than just the fashion industry.

Eventually, he expects the fabric to be used for a variety of purposes, including clothing, shoes, handbags, car and plane interiors and furniture.

Mr Forgacs is confident there will be demand for it, particularly from luxury brands seeking out alternatives to animal products amid growing consumer interest.

Well-known designer brands including LVMH, Furla and Michael Kors have already started substituting fur and leather with alternative animal-friendly materials.

Stella McCartney has gone further, with her brand shifting to "vegan fashion", using fungi instead of leather, and replacing silk with yeast proteins.

It's a trend that seems to have escaped the gathering of political leaders and company bosses at the World Economic Forum, many of whom are decked out from head to toe in fur to ward off the cold.

But Mr Forgacs says it's unrealistic to expect people to change their habits.

He believes presenting a viable alternative to such a common and popular fabric like leather is an easier way to drive change.

"It's hard to forsake what you love. If you can do what you love and still not harm the planet, that's better," he says.

In fact, it was while he was tucking into an imported steak while living in China that he had the idea for the company.

"It's one thing to read about it and another to live it. I just saw firsthand the explosion in consumption and the shift from an export-driven economy to a more affluent class," he says.

'Warmth and softness'

His ambitious aim is not only to imitate leather but to improve on it.

"We're using the aspects of leather such as its warmth and softness, but looking at how to make it better, more durable, more lightweight, more breathable."

The fact that they are creating the material - instead of taking it off a cow - means they can vary it however they like, creating different shapes, sizes and thicknesses depending on its purpose.

"With traditional material, you get what you get from the back of the animal and that's it," he says.

This is Mr Forgacs' third start-up firm. He has launched all of them with his physicist father and all of them are science-based.

While his background is in finance and he previously worked on Wall Street and in venture capital, he says his scientist parents instilled in him a love of science and the environment.

His first firm was called Organovo and used 3D printing to create human tissue that could be used for medical research.

"As we developed that technology, other adjacent opportunities built up. If you can make skin you can make leather, if you can make muscle you can make meat," he says.

Initially, Modern Meadow focused on creating both vegan food and the leather-like material, but Mr Forgacs eventually decided the industries were simply too different.

As a result, the food technology was spun out to a separate business called Forke & Goode, and Modern Meadow's sole focus now is on creating alternative vegan materials.

Will we start to see people using products made from his material soon? He is adamant that we will.

While the company currently employs 90 people, it has now partnered with a firm to brew its yeast in large quantities.

But don't expect to see clothes made from it in a High Street shop near you any time soon. "It's not enough to support a Black Friday holiday shopping spree, we'll have to build up to that," he says.

But perhaps it's enough to make sure that when he next returns to Davos, he'll be wearing a coat made out of his own vegan material.

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As soon as I meet Andras Forgacs we head outside into the freezing cold of Davos. Naturally he reaches for his coat, but I am slightly surprised at what he pulls out - it's just a normal, black puffer jacket.

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Parents and carers fear disabled people could lose their jobs because of possible changes to a work placement scheme run by Wrexham council.

Its provides 65 people with learning difficulties unpaid work placements in council-run services such as a cafe.

A council review estimates closing the service could save it £460,000 by 2020.

It said it was consulting on its review but one woman, who cares for her sister with Down's syndrome, said work made her feel "she's doing her little bit".

Karen Hughes, from Holt, is concerned that, if it is scrapped, workers like her sister Helen, 41, would struggle to find employment elsewhere.

The council's Day and Work Opportunities scheme currently provides placements in laundry services, portable appliance testing (PAT) as well as catering.

Karen and Helen's story

Karen Hughes cares for her sister Helen, 41, who has Down's syndrome and works at the Alyn Waters cafe three days a week.

She said: "Eighteen months ago, mum died and I became Helen's carer.

"We're all very much a working family... and Helen working at Alyn Waters gives her a sense of identity which makes her feel part of our family - that she's doing her little bit.

"If she does lose her job, Helen will lose her independence, her self-worth, and this is why it is important that Helen remains at Alyn Waters."

Ms Hughes said closing the service may cost the council more because it could end up having to provide support care.

"The future is looking quite bleak for disabled people in Wrexham," she said.

The council said individuals were not in paid employment but they do receive a bonus payment paid by the local authority.

A spokesman said proposed changes would see a reduction in management posts within the service which would achieve savings along with reducing the need for support.

Councillor Joan Lowe, lead member for adult social care, said the review was part of the authority's budget cuts, and concerns and feedback would be considered before any decision was taken.

The authority has previously said it needs to save £13m in the next two years.

Ms Lowe added: "We fully recognise the anxiety that this review and any potential changes will cause for individuals and their families.

"Any changes that are brought forward will be managed sensitively with the people we support."

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Parents and carers fear disabled people could lose their jobs because of possible changes to a work placement scheme run by Wrexham council. Its provides 65 people with learning difficulties unpaid work placements in council-run services such as a cafe. A council review estimates closing the service could save it £460,000 by 2020.

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A key decision that could reshape the UK's supermarket sector is due at the end of April, with Sainsbury's and Asda waiting to hear if their proposed merger can go ahead.

But initial indications do not look good.

The UK's competition watchdog has said the proposed tie-up could push up prices and cut choice for customers.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was "likely to be difficult" for the chains to "address the concerns".

The CMA also said the merger could lead to a "poorer shopping experience".

Should the deal go through in spite of those concerns, the combined group would knock Tesco off its perch as the UK's biggest supermarket chain.

Sainsbury's and Asda - which is owned by US retail giant Walmart - are the second and third largest supermarket chains in the UK.

Why do the companies want to get together?

The UK's grocery market is fiercely competitive. Sainsbury's and Asda are looking to respond to pressure from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, to be more competitive against Tesco, and to be able to counter online threats such as the rise of food delivery apps and Amazon.

Richard Lim, chief executive of research consultancy Retail Economics, says the "biggest driver here is about scale". For example, by combining their businesses, the firms can push for the lowest prices from suppliers.

The idea is that if one supermarket is paying 10p for a tin of beans, while the other is paying 11p, both supermarkets would now be able to pay the lower price.

Sainsbury's expects to make cost savings of £350m just from this kind of "price harmonisation", Mr Lim says.

However, MPs have warned it would not be easy to get the big suppliers to agree to this, meaning thousands of small suppliers could get squeezed.

Chief executive Mike Coupe has said Sainsbury's would seek to make the savings from large suppliers, which provide the majority of its goods, rather than squeezing small suppliers.

What will it mean for the price of food?

The supermarkets have pledged that as a result of the merger, prices would drop "by around 10% on many of the products customers buy regularly".

Mr Lim says that, assuming Brexit goes smoothly, Sainsbury's and Asda would be able to pass cost savings on to consumers.

However, critics have pointed out that Sainsbury's has not laid out which products would see falls in price, over what time scale, and exactly where the savings are going to come from.

The most detail Sainsbury's has given was when Mr Coupe told the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee: "We will lower the prices of everyday items. It's 18 months in the future, it's a very competitive market. It is impossible to speculate exactly about what those items will be, but they will be the kinds of things that people buy week in, week out: tinned tomatoes, pasta."

What will it mean for jobs?

Gary Carter of the GMB union says members are "worried and stressed" due to uncertainty about their positions.

"People don't know what the merger will bring," he says. "We've had a lot of comments from people: 'Will I have a job?', 'Will I be made redundant?', 'If I have a new job, who will my new employer be?'"

Asda employees are also wondering whether they would get pay parity with Sainsbury's colleagues, who get higher wages, he says.

Mr Lim thinks it's inevitable that there will be job losses as the two firms combine operations.

"In the end it's inevitable to have fewer people working in the combined unit," he says. "The motivation [for the merger] is driving down costs."

Will the companies need to sell stores?

A merger between Sainsbury's and Asda, who plan to keep their brands separate, could potentially create a retail giant with more than 2,800 shops in the UK.

The CMA launched its investigation into the proposed deal in August 2018.

If it decides the merger can go ahead, it is likely to say that the two retailers must sell a certain number of stores to competitors.

But the number of stores they have to get rid of, and how profitable those stores are, will determine whether the deal will turn out to be viable.

Estimates range from between 70 to 300 stores that would have to be offered for sale.

As part of its investigation, the CMA is looking at how closely Sainsbury's and Asda would compete with each other in stores and online, and whether competition from other retailers would be stifled.

The scope of the investigation includes groceries, fuel, toys, electrical goods and children's clothing, and it is also looking at the impact on supermarkets' power over suppliers.

Now that the CMA has published its provisional findings, supermarkets and other interested parties will be able to comment before the final decision.

Chief executive Mike Coupe has described the CMA's analysis as "fundamentally flawed" and said the firm will be making "very strong representations" to it about its "inaccuracy and lack of objectivity".

The supermarkets could decide to appeal against the final decision, should it go against them.

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Supermarket mega-merger faces crunch decision

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A key decision that could reshape the UK's supermarket sector is due at the end of April, with Sainsbury's and Asda waiting to hear if their proposed merger can go ahead. But initial indications do not look good. The UK's competition watchdog has said the proposed tie-up could push up prices and cut choice for customers.

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After decades in the political wilderness, North Korea has spent the past year in a flurry of diplomatic activity.

But talks with the US, China and South Korea have so far focused entirely on trade and denuclearisation. North Korea's woeful human rights record is one topic that is yet to come up - and it's likely to remain that way.

The UN says North Koreans live under "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations". Here are just some of the issues:

Total government control

Isolated from the rest of the world, North Korea has been ruled by the Kim family for three generations, and its citizens are required to show complete devotion to the family and its current leader, Kim Jong-un.

The state controls everything, and actively spies on its citizens using a vast surveillance and informer network.

The economy is also strictly controlled and the government funnels money into its nuclear and missile programme despite widespread shortages of food, fuel and other basic necessities.

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), told the BBC that North Korea has only been able to develop an expensive nuclear programme because it is a totalitarian state, and it's done so by "taking food out of the stomachs of hungry North Koreans".

Media control

North Korea's media is arguably the most tightly controlled in the world. Reporters without Borders (RSF) ranks it last in its World Press Freedom Index.

North Koreans get all their news, entertainment and information from state media, which unfailingly praises the leadership.

According to RSF, citizens can be sent to prison for viewing, reading or listening to content provided by international media outlets.

Mobile phones are more common than they used to be, but making an overseas phone call doesn't come easy.

"You would have to get a Chinese cell phone on the black market, drive to the Chinese border and then even along the way state agents may stop you," Arnold Fang, a researcher from Amnesty International, explained to the BBC.

Internet access is available for the elite few in the capital, Pyongyang, who lead relatively comfortable lives. Others may have restricted access. The country has its own very basic intranet - a closed network which certain people are allowed to use.

But most North Koreans will likely never go online.

Religious freedom

The constitution promises a "right to faith" and there are Buddhists, Shamanists and followers of Chondoism - a native Korean religion - North Korea. State-controlled churches also exist.

But Mr Fang says this is all largely for show.

"In reality, there is no freedom of religion. Everyone is indoctrinated to treat the Kim family almost as something to worship."
A 2014 UN report said Christians face "persecution and severe punishments" if they practiced their religion outside state-controlled churches.
North Korea also takes a dim view on foreign missionaries. Among its most famous detainees was Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American evangelist who ran Christian tours to North Korea.

He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in 2013 for "anti-government" crimes. He was released in 2014 on health grounds.

Prison camps and conditions

"North Korea has been said to be the world's biggest open prison camp," said Mr Adams. "I don't think that's unfair."
According to a report by the US State Department, there are between 80,000 and 120,000 people in prison in the North.
People can be jailed for almost anything, activists say, with crimes ranging from watching a South Korean DVD to trying to defect.

People convicted of political crimes are often sent to brutal labour camps, which involve physical work such as mining and logging.

Amnesty has described the prison camps as "harsh beyond endurance". Detainees face torture and beatings by guards, and women are left especially vulnerable to sexual coercion and abuse.

Not all those in prison have actually committed crimes. North Korea practices collective punishment, so if one member of a family is found guilty it's possible that their whole family gets punished.

North Korea makes liberal use of the death penalty and has been known to conduct public executions.

Foreign detentions

Foreign nationals in North Korea have been arrested and detained for extended periods of time - often kept as prisoners for political reasons and used as diplomatic pawns at opportune moments.

Three US citizens, who were jailed for anti-state activities and placed in labour camps, were freed from North Korean prison as a gesture of goodwill ahead of the US-North Korea leadership summit in 2018.

But US student Otto Warmbier was not so lucky. Mr Warmbier was arrested in 2016 for stealing a propaganda sign. He was released after 17 months in detention on health grounds, but was seriously ill - he died days after returning home. His parents, who believe he had been tortured, sued North Korea over his death.

Six South Korean prisoners are still believed to be in detention.

North Korea has also admitted to kidnapping at least 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s, who they used to train their spies in the Japanese language and customs.

Among other noted kidnappings were a famous South Korean actress and her ex-husband, a film director, who were taken in the 1970s. They were forced to make films for the state but later managed to escape.

Forced labour
A significant majority of North Koreans undertake unpaid labour at some point in their lives, according to a HRW report.
Former students who defected from North Korea told HRW that their schools forced them to work for free on farms twice a year - at ploughing and harvest time - for one month at a time.

North Korea also sends hundreds of thousands of people to work overseas as low-cost labour - with many of them essentially working under slave-like conditions.

It has sent workers to places like China, Kuwait and Qatar - though most countries have stopped renewing work visas to North Koreans to comply with UN sanctions. However, reports have emerged that North Koreans are still working in some places despite sanctions.

"Many overseas workers live in a monitored dormitory where there is no freedom of movement, rendering them essentially prisoners," said Mr Adams.

A large percentage of workers' salaries are usually seized by the state - a huge source of income for the country.

Women's rights

Discrimination against women very much exists, but "there isn't a way to measure inequality in the North like how you measure the wage gap between males and females", says Mr Fang.

Though North Korea presents itself as nominally equal society, women are said to be deprived of education and job opportunities.

"Women are really vulnerable - sexual violence exists but if someone assaults them they have no-one to complain to," says Mr Adams.

Reports are also rampant of women facing torture, rape and other sexual abuses while held in detention facilities - and of widespread sexual abuse in the military.

Children and malnutrition

Children in North Korea do receive education, though some have to drop out of school early to help their families survive economically, according to Mr Fang.

The school curriculum is "dominated by the country's political agenda, restricting their knowledge from a very early age".

According to Unicef, 200,000 North Korean children are suffering from acute malnutrition - of which 60,000 would have become "severely malnourished".

North Korea routinely rejects criticism of its rights records - it has said its citizens "feel proud of the world's most advantageous human rights system" - and points the finger at the flaws of other countries.

But Mr Adams of HRW says the topic of human rights in North Korea is "a bottomless pit".

"Everyone's looking out for their own interests. No-one's looking out for the interests of North Korea's citizens".

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North Korea's sidelined human rights crisis

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After decades in the political wilderness, North Korea has spent the past year in a flurry of diplomatic activity. But talks with the US, China and South Korea have so far focused entirely on trade and denuclearisation. North Korea's woeful human rights record is one topic that is yet to come up - and it's likely to remain that way.

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A group of 50 Deliveroo couriers will share a six-figure payout from the takeaway delivery firm in a settlement of an employment rights claim.

The riders, who were represented by the law firm Leigh Day, argued that they had been unlawfully denied rights, including the legal minimum wage and paid holiday, after being labelled self-employed contractors.

The case was to be the latest in a string of similar employment rights claims, against Hermes, Uber, Addison Lee, City Sprint, Excel and eCourier, which have that ruled gig economy drivers and couriers have "worker" status with more rights than independent contractors.

Annie Powell, a solicitor in Leigh Day's employment department who represented the riders, said: "Deliveroo has paid out a material sum to settle these claims. In our view, this shows that Deliveroo knew that they were very likely to lose at the employment tribunal.

"This settlement will make a real difference to our clients' lives. Some of the riders we represented were on the breadline, earning hundreds and in some cases thousands of pounds below the national minimum wage over the time that they worked for Deliveroo."

Powell called on the company to change its practice and implement a compensation scheme for all riders on similar contracts.

Deliveroo said it was pleased to have reached the settlement, which was first reported by Sky News, without an admission of liability.

A spokesperson for the London-based firm said: "This settlement has no impact on Deliveroo riders or our model; and allows us to continue to focus on creating the well-paid, flexible work that our riders value. Courts have repeatedly considered Deliveroo's model and judged that riders working with us are self-employed."

The settlement of the case, which was due to be heard by an employment tribunal in mid-July, comes after the high court backed a decision by the central arbitration committee, which considers union recognition cases, that Deliveroo riders were self-employed contractors.

The committee concluded that because riders were able to pass on a job to a substitute, they were not obliged to provide a "personal service" and therefore could not be classified as workers.

However, the high court gave the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain permission to launch a full judicial review of the workers' rights to collective bargaining based on human rights grounds. Deliveroo's hiring conditions are also to be scrutinised by MPs.
Topics

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Deliveroo couriers win six-figure payout in employment rights case

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A group of 50 Deliveroo couriers will share a six-figure payout from the takeaway delivery firm in a settlement of an employment rights claim. The riders, who were represented by the law firm Leigh Day, argued that they had been unlawfully denied rights, including the legal minimum wage and paid holiday, after being labelled self-employed contractors.

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Amnesty International's "toxic" work culture

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Amnesty International's "toxic" work culture

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Amnesty International has toxic working culture, report finds

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Bullying, public humiliation and discrimination threaten rights group's credibility

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41274202

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Three women who used to work at Google have filed a lawsuit against the technology giant, alleging it pays women less than men for comparable work.

The suit says Google is aware of the situation, but has not moved to fix it.

It comes as companies in Silicon Valley face growing scrutiny over gender relations.

Google is also under investigation by the US Department of Labor over its pay practices.

"It is time to stop ignoring these issues in tech," said Kelly Ellis, a former software engineer at Google and one of the women who filed the suit.

She posted on Twitter that she hopes the suit will force Google and other companies to change their practices.

The lawsuit, filed in a San Francisco court, says Google discriminates against female staff with lower pay, more limited promotion, and fewer advancement opportunities compared to men with comparable qualifications.

Ms Ellis, for example, was hired in 2010 at a level typically assigned to college graduates, although she had four years of experience, according to the lawsuit. A male colleague with similar levels of experience started on a higher rung.

She was also assigned to a less prestigious engineering role, the suit says

Ms Ellis resigned from Google four years later "because of the sexist culture", the lawsuit said.

Previous allegations

The complaint is seeking class-action status that would cover women working at the company in California for the last four years. They are looking for unpaid wages, among other remedies.

Google said it would review the lawsuit but disagreed with the "central allegations".

"Job levels and promotions are determined through rigorous hiring and promotion committees, and must pass multiple levels of review, including checks to make sure there is no gender bias in these decisions," spokeswoman Gina Scigliano said in a statement.

Like other companies in Silicon Valley, the company has faced questions about how it treats women before.

About 70% of Google's workforce are men, according to the company. Men represent about 80% of staff in "tech" roles and 75% of leadership positions.

The Department of Labour found systematic pay disparities at the firm during a 2015 audit, according to the lawsuit. The government in January sued Google to get access to more information to see if the patterns held true across a more extensive probe.

A spreadsheet with data from 1,200 employees also found disparities, the New York Times recently reported.

Google also made headlines earlier this summer, when a memo written by a senior Google employee that criticised diversity programmes and hiring practices became public.

Google later fired him.

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Three women who used to work at Google have filed a lawsuit against the technology giant, alleging it pays women less than men for comparable work. The suit says Google is aware of the situation, but has not moved to fix it. It comes as companies in Silicon Valley face growing scrutiny over gender relations.

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Strike over pay at Department for Business 

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Strike over pay at Department for Business 

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Catering staff earning as little as £7.83 an hour danced and sang outside their work at the business department as they staged a 26-hour strike in protest at what they described as poverty pay.

Many of the outsourced catering team at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) earn no more than the minimum wage, well below the £10.55 that the Living Wage Foundation calculates is necessary for an adequate life in the capital.

They were joined by cleaners, porters, receptionists and security guards at the department who are fighting for enough money to survive without hardship.

Damien Gayle (@damiengayle)
"We are living in poverty in this company."

Ana Joaquim, a barista at @beisgovuk, on the picket as she and colleagues strike for the #livingwage. pic.twitter.com/2PBipw1H3m

Ana Joaquim, from Wood Green, who is originally from Portugal, earns £8.50 an hour as a barista at BEIS, which outsources its catering to a company called Aramark.

"We are living in poverty in this company," she said. "They pay the minimal national wage; we are not entitled to 28 days' holiday."

Her colleague Novlette Hurd, from Wandsworth, who is originally from Jamaica, earns even less - £8.19 per hour - despite 21 years' service at the department. "We can't live because, for starters, I've got dependent children and it's just not going anywhere," Hurd said. "I've been meaning to shop for my son since Christmas and I have to save for months just to take him shopping.

"The £8.19 I'm getting, I'm only getting it because before they asked me to supervise, so there's 50p extra - it was £7.79. Like, you think, why do I bother to work? It just makes you desperate some days. You just get up and you think: does it make sense to go to work?"

Damien Gayle (@damiengayle)
"You think why do I bother to work? It just makes you desperate some days. You just get up and you think does it make sense to go to work?"

Catering workers Novlette Hurd and Merline Chambers outside @beisgovuk on the @BEIS_PCS_LS picket as they strike for the #LivingWage pic.twitter.com/Q2niqCGP9N

The strike, which began on Wednesday and continues until Thursday at 7pm, comes after joint strike action on 22 January, when support staff in the United Voices of the World union at the Ministry of Justice joined the BEIS workers for a one-day strike and demonstration in Westminster.

The business secretary, Greg Clark, who is responsible for workers' rights nationally, has been leading talks with trade unions and Labour MPs to try to win support for the government's Brexit deal.

However, the public-sector union PCS, which represents the support staff, said his department has repeatedly refused to negotiate with them on an increase in pay to the London living wage and a return to the terms and conditions support staff enjoyed before they were outsourced.

Damien Gayle (@damiengayle)
"Get up stand up, stand up for your rights"

Catering staff with @BEIS_PCS_LS sing Bob Marley as they picket @beisgovuk for the #livingwage. Some are paid just £7.79 an hour. #Solidarity #HeartUnions @pcs_union pic.twitter.com/bWPVww3gmH

Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of PCS, said: "Our members are determined to do whatever it takes industrially, to get decent pay and conditions at work. The private contractors Aramark and Engie should be ashamed of themselves for not paying staff the London living wage.

"BEIS who awarded the contracts to these companies also share the responsibility for resolving this dispute. Ministers need to step in and ensure that outsourced workers are paid the same as other BEIS colleagues and ultimately bring the jobs back in-house."

A BEIS spokesperson said: "All our staff are valued members of the BEIS team and all deserve a fair and competitive wage, whether directly employed or working for our contractors.

"Following a review of contractor pay, the department has agreed with its contractors that they will align the pay of their cleaning, catering, mailroom and security staff with pay rates for workers in comparable roles."
Topics

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'Living in poverty': workers at business ministry go on strike

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Catering staff earning as little as £7.83 an hour danced and sang outside their work at the business department as they staged a 26-hour strike in protest at what they described as poverty pay.

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Mass extinction of insect and other forms of life

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Mass extinction of insect and other forms of life

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In recent years, scientists have been warning us about the disappearance of a type of creature we think we wouldn't miss much - but the dramatic fall of insect numbers across the world has been driven into sharp focus by a new report which warns of a "catastrophic" collapse of natural ecosystems.

A newly published review of 73 reports on insect decline around the world has found that over 40 percent of insect species are threatened with extinction. For some comparison, that rate of local species extinction is eight times faster than we're seeing in vertebrates such as mammals, birds, and reptiles.

Insects play a crucial role in the animal food chain, as well as pollinating plants and recycling nutrients in the environment. If they go, they take other animals with them, and that's a major problem in maintaining a world we can all live in.

"Our work reveals dramatic rates of decline that may lead to the extinction of 40 percent of the world's insect species over the next few decades," write study authors Francisco Sánchez-Bayo from The University of Sydney and Kris Wyckhuys from the University of Queensland.

According to the researchers, the main driver of this massive decline is habitat loss due to our increasingly intensive agriculture practices, including heavy pesticide use.

Drawing data from 73 historical reports, mostly from Europe and North America, the pair found that the "biodiversity of insects is threatened worldwide."

"Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades," write the researchers. "The repercussions this will have for the planet's ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least."

As land is farmed more aggressively, the researchers note, insect habitats have been obliterated - with bare fields replacing areas of vegetation. The team also points out increased urbanisation, climate change, pollution and a rise in invasive species that prey on insects as additional contributing factors.

When it comes to the contribution of climate change in particular, the authors note that warming temperatures in temperate regions might benefit some species, but in tropical regions insects have little tolerance for increased heat, and would thus be hit harder.

"Global warming has increased the populations of certain butterflies in northern Europe, expanded their geographical distribution and caused altitudinal shifts of certain species, yet populations of half of the world's insects are declining counter to that trend," they write.

The analysis revealed that specialist butterflies and moths are some of the most affected populations, with animals that feed on insects likely to be the first to be impacted - birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish.

While there are gaps in the research in terms of figures for some kinds of insects, the study authors say there's no reason to believe any insect species are bucking the overall trend. A small number of species may end up thriving though, as their insect enemies disappear, particularly bugs like cockroaches and houseflies.

"The evidence all points in the same direction," biologist and conservationist Dave Goulson from the University of Sussex in the UK, who wasn't involved in the research, told Damian Carrington at The Guardian.

"It should be of huge concern to all of us, for insects are at the heart of every food web, they pollinate the large majority of plant species, keep the soil healthy, recycle nutrients, control pests, and much more. Love them or loathe them, we humans cannot survive without insects."

We've heard warnings about this before: a report published last year found insect numbers plummeting in several pockets of the world. Now it's clear that the issue is a widespread one that needs addressing urgently.

In fact, this alarming development is part of what scientists are calling a modern mass extinction: a substantial drop in species numbers across all kinds of animals and plants, the size of which we've only seen five times in the last four billion years.

Whereas previous mass extinctions have been caused by ice ages and volcanic eruptions, this one is going to be largely down to human activity, scientists say - and we can include insects in that assessment.

Unless we start seriously limiting our impact on the planet, the future looks very bleak indeed. The researchers are calling for a massive change to our agricultural practices before it's too late.

The research has been published Biological Conservation.

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A New Mass Extinction Has Started, And Its First Victims Are Disappearing Fast

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In recent years, scientists have been warning us about the disappearance of a type of creature we think we wouldn't miss much - but the dramatic fall of insect numbers across the world has been driven into sharp focus by a new report which warns of a

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Business in the Community CSR Index 2017

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Business in the Community CSR Index 2017

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The winners of the 2017 Responsible Business Awards ( listed below) underline how the drive to maximise profit can be balanced by approaches that stress positive social and environmental impact. Both business academics and the winning chief executives themselves warn that if sustainability remains a marketing message rather than being deeply rooted in an organisation's culture, companies risk losing the trust of staff, the public and investors.

"People can smell inauthenticity," says David Grayson, director of the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield School of Management. "If business is claiming one thing and is operating in another way, that is a dangerous position to be in."

For Business in the Community (BITC), the UK charity that runs the awards announced at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Tuesday night, winners must show tangible social and environmental impact. Two companies receive the Responsible Business of the Year Award: the regional utility Anglian Water Services and - in the small and medium enterprises category - We Are Vista, a creative communications agency.

The judges were impressed by Anglian's wide-ranging Love Every Drop strategy, which promises to "fundamentally change" how the company works. Goals include cutting pollution, waste and water leakages. Starting in 2010, Anglian cut its operational carbon footprint by 10 per cent by 2015 and carbon emissions from capital construction projects by half. It aims for net carbon neutrality by mid-century. The company built solar arrays and wind turbines and favours suppliers that support its goals.

We Are Vista takes a similarly broad approach. The agency promotes diversity, personal development and employee volunteering while also reducing its environmental impact. A five-year sustainability plan includes a 20 per cent cut in office energy consumption and a 30 per cent decrease in waste to landfill by 2019.

While both companies have set ambitious sustainability targets, their leaders stress that meeting these requires businesses to go beyond statements from executives or handing over the work to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) department. Anglian made a conscious decision not to create such a unit, says Peter Simpson, chief executive. "We don't have a separate strategy associated with being a responsible business - that is the strategy. There is only one."

James Wilkins, managing director of We Are Vista, also warns of the dangers of treating sustainability as an add-on. "If you're not careful, it becomes a series of measures that you manage and audit rather than something you're mobilising people [to tackle]," he says.

Companies must clearly articulate sustainability goals and create targets that are ambitious but tangible and related to their business, he adds.

Businesses' definitions of sustainability vary and this is reflected in the diversity of award winners. National Grid, a winner of the BITC Award for Environmental Leadership, focused on greenhouse gases from energy generation. The company included a requirement for carbon reduction in its tendering process.

Related article

National Grid has helped young people get in to employment and stay out of trouble

Tesco - winner of the Experian Award for Building Stronger Communities - focused on food poverty. The company launched Community Food Connection, which uses an app to connect stores that have surplus food with local charities.

Creating a culture of sustainability can be difficult when employees are also juggling demands ranging from pressure to cut costs to meeting sales targets.

"It's making the linkage to the strategy and thinking about how that relates to the nature of the business," says Prof Grayson. "Then it is the hard slog of aligning that with compensation, executive development, training and communications messages."

For some, sustainability may mean saying no to business. "We recently turned down working with a Middle Eastern bank and with a large tobacco company," says Mr Wilkins of We Are Vista. He adds that external factors create hurdles to pursuing a sustainable strategy. "The current level of disruption and the pace of change could give lots of people an excuse for not doing it."

For some companies, however, a responsible business strategy helps to navigate disruption. This has been the case for Unipart, a winner of the Fujitsu Award for Responsible Business in the Digital Age. Rather than using digital technology to replace workers, the UK manufacturer is training employees to create new digital products and services, increasing their value to the company and enhancing their employability.

For Mr Wilkins, establishing a culture of sustainability helps build a collaborative spirit, equipping companies to respond quickly to shifts in the business landscape. "You end up with a group of people connected to a bigger idea," he says. "So you get more cross-working and a willingness to change."

The 2017 Responsible Business Awards winners

Business in the Community's Responsible Business of the Year

Anglian Water Services

We Are Vista*

The Aviva Award for Championing an Ageing Workforce

The Barclays Award for Building Resilient Business

The BITC Award for Environmental Leadership, supported by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

National Grid

The Lakes Free Range Egg Company*

Highly commended: British Sugar

The Experian Award for Building Stronger Communities

Tesco

Highly commended: Engie, Energy and Services

The Fujitsu Award for Responsible Business in the Digital Age

The UBS Award for Education

Esh Group

Dragon LNG*

Highly commended: British Land

The Unilever Global Development Award, supported by Business Fights Poverty

SunnyMoney

WaterHealth International

The Unipart Award for Outstanding Employment

The UPS International Disaster Relief & Resilience Award, supported by the Department for International Development
*Small company winner For more information visit awards.bitc.org.uk

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The 2017 Responsible Business Awards winners

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The winners of the 2017 Responsible Business Awards ( listed below) underline how the drive to maximise profit can be balanced by approaches that stress positive social and environmental impact. Both business academics and the winning chief executives themselves warn that if sustainability remains a marketing message rather than being deeply rooted in an organisation's culture, companies risk losing the trust of staff, the public and investors.

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Two brothers who trafficked 18 people from Poland to the UK and conned and threatened them have been jailed.

Erwin and Krystian Markowski, both from Nottingham, recruited the vulnerable men to work at the Sports Direct warehouse in Shirebrook, Derbyshire.

The pair controlled their victims' bank accounts and kept most of their wages, totalling £35,000, between 2015 and 2016, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

They have both been sentenced to six years in prison for modern slavery.

Erwin, 38, of Cedar Road, and Krystian, 35, of Harcourt Road, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to arrange travel with a view to exploitation and fraud by false representation.

They were given a two-and-a-half year sentence for fraud to run at the same time as the six years.
Updates on this story and more from Nottinghamshire
The Markowskis paid for the Polish men to travel to the UK, but when they arrived their passports were taken and they were "totally isolated".

Some victims spoke of being treated "like a piece of rubbish" and said the brothers "destroyed their lives".

One man was promised a flat but received a urine soaked mattress.

The case came to light when one of the victims reported his ordeal to police in January 2016.

During the sentencing, Judge Stephen Coupland, said it was a "planned and systematic" scheme of "human trafficking".

He said: "You employed a spotter in Poland to identify people who were vulnerable. Your intention, by selecting vulnerable people, was to make it easier to control them over here.

"You controlled their ability to contact others by using physical and verbal threats, using actual violence on occasions."

The prosecution accepted it was not "forced labour" but said the workers had "very little choice".

Chief crown prosecutor Janine Smith said: "The Markowskis preyed on vulnerable people in Poland and promised them accommodation and a tempting wage in order to lure them to the UK.

"The reality upon arrival was a life of squalid living conditions and near total control by the defendants."

Det Con Sarah Fearn, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "The Markowski brothers financially benefited from the hard work of others and in return the victims were left feeling used, distressed and manipulated."

In a statement, Sports Direct said it welcomed the conviction and "will not tolerate these kinds of behaviour".

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Two brothers who trafficked 18 people from Poland to the UK and conned and threatened them have been jailed. Erwin and Krystian Markowski, both from Nottingham, recruited the vulnerable men to work at the Sports Direct warehouse in Shirebrook, Derbyshire.

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Fracking firms denied permission to relax earthquake rules

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Cuadrilla and Ineos say strict regulations around earthquakes hinder their work

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Hermes - self employed status not upheld

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Hermes - self employed status not upheld

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Hermes are workers and not self-employed, according to an employment tribunal ruling.

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A group of 65 Hermes couriers took the delivery service to the tribunal after they said they had been denied basic workers' rights .

The tribunal found that the couriers were not independent contractors, which Hermes argued, but instead were workers, and therefore entitled to rights such as the national living wage and holiday pay.

The decision was described by the GMB union as a "landmark" ruling.

Tim Roache, GMB general secretary, said: "This is yet another ruling that shows the gig economy for what it is - old fashioned exploitation under a shiny new facade.

"Bosses can't just pick and choose which laws to obey. Workers' right were hard won, GMB isn't about to sit back and let them be eroded or removed by the latest loophole employers have come up with to make a few extra quid.

"Not only will this judgement directly affect more than 14,000 Hermes couriers across the country, it's another nail in the coffin of the exploitative bogus self-employment model which is increasingly rife across the UK."

Frank Field MP, who chairs the Work and Pensions Committee and previously delivered a scathing report on working conditions at Hermes , said the ruling "ranks among the most substantial judicial interventions ever to support vulnerable workers in this country".

"Can even the World Cup produce a better result than this? The decision is a mega knockback to those companies still using old means of exploiting vulnerable workers," he added.

A Hermes spokesperson said: "We will carefully review the tribunal's decision, but we are likely to appeal it given that it goes against previous decisions, our understanding of the witness evidence and what we believe the law to be.

"Nevertheless we have always been fully prepared for any outcome of this decision and its impact on 15 couriers and former couriers. In the meantime it is business as usual and we remain committed to providing couriers with the benefits of flexible working and the ability to earn well in excess of the National Living Wage."

Simon McVicker, director of policy at IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed) said uncertainty about who is and is not self-employed needs to stop.

"It is unacceptable that policymakers are relying on costly, time-consuming court cases as the first port of call in determining employment status," he added.

"We should be cautious, however, not to take today's case as being representative of the 'gig economy' or wider self-employment, and then try to regulate these ways of working into oblivion.

"The reality is that the vast majority of self-employed engagements are what they claim to be: genuine business-to-business engagements which are beneficial to both parties, and to the wider UK economy."

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Hermes couriers deemed workers and not self-employed in 'landmark' tribunal ruling

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Hermes are workers and not self-employed, according to an employment tribunal ruling. For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Without the ads - for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month A group of 65 Hermes couriers took the delivery service to the tribunal after they said they had been denied basic workers' rights .

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47057870

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Fashion retailers JD Sports, Sports Direct and Boohoo, are "failing to commit" to reducing their environmental and social impact, MPs say.

Amazon, TK Maxx and Missguided were also described by the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) as being among the "least engaged" in sustainable fashion and labour market initiatives.

The EAC said it was "shocking" the firms were "failing to take action".

Boohoo said the report did not reflect its commitment to sustainability.

The findings are part of the EAC's inquiry into the sustainability of the fashion industry.

The inquiry was prompted by the popularity of "fast fashion... cheap clothing, with quick turnover that encourages repurchasing".

Disposable fashion has come under fire, not only for the amount that ends up in landfill, but also because it can release toxic chemicals in production and plastic fibres when it is washed.

Last summer the committee wrote to 16 fashion retailers asking what they were doing to cut the environmental and social impact of the clothes and shoes they sell.

Specific questions included what the brands were doing about using organic or sustainable cotton; limiting the discharge of hazardous chemicals and the re-use or recycling of unsold stock.

The interim report ranks brands according to how "engaged" they are in their commitment to sustainable fashion and labour market initiatives.

The "most engaged" were named as Asos, Marks & Spencer Tesco, Primark and Burberry.

All of them use organic or sustainable cotton and old materials and encourage customers to return old clothing.

The "moderately engaged" retailers were Next, Debenhams, Arcadia Group and Asda.

The EAC said each of them had taken "some steps" to address environmental sustainability issues.

All of them except Next run a return scheme for discarded clothes and all of them except Asda use organic cotton in some clothes.

Kurt Geiger was also approached but did not respond to requests for written evidence, the EAC said.

'Re-iterate commitment'

The retailers were also asked if they were members of the ACT (Action, Collaboration, Transformation) labour rights and living wage agreement and the SCAP (Sustainable Clothing Action Plan) to reduce their carbon, water and waste footprint.

With the exception of Burberry all the other "moderately engaged" and "most engaged" retailers participated in one or other or both of these schemes.

Of the six "least engaged" retailers none was a member of either of these initiatives,

In a statement, Boohoo said it wanted to "re-iterate its commitment to being involved in the ongoing discussion on the sustainability of fashion.

"This initial report does not fully reflect the policies and procedures and independent initiatives that we have in place, or the extent of our ongoing commitment in the area of sustainability."

JD Sports said "As a business, we participate in a number of ethical initiatives which fall outside the narrow list referred to in the Committee's report."

It added that most of the group's sales came from third party brands, including "two [Nike and Adidas] internationally recognised as industry leaders with regards to driving sustainability".

"Private label sales make up the rest of the Group's sales and there is an ongoing project to review options on improving the sustainability of our manufactured garments," it added.

Amazon declined to comment.

'Customers can choose'

EAC chair Mary Creagh said: "It's shocking to see that a group of major retailers are failing to take action to promote environmental sustainability and protect their workers.

"By publishing this information, customers can choose whether they want to spend money with a company that is doing little to protect the environment or promote proper wages for garment workers.

"We hope this motivates underperforming retailers to start taking responsibility for their workers and their environmental impact."

The committee concluded that the UK fashion industry's current business model was "clearly unsustainable, especially with a growing middle-class population and rising levels of consumption across the globe".

How did the fashion brands do?

"Least engaged": JD Sports, Sports Direct, Boohoo, Amazon, TK Maxx, Missguided

"Moderately engaged": Next, Debenhams, Arcadia Group, Asda.

"Most engaged": Asos, Marks & Spencer Tesco, Primark and Burberry.

Kurt Geiger did not respond to the EAC's requests

The committee said it intended to publish its final report in the coming weeks in which it will outline recommendations for government policies to "encourage a more transparent, fair and sustainable fashion system".

Francois Souchet of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation said the committee was right that the "fashion industry's current business model cannot work in the long term".

He said worldwide one truckload of clothing was landfilled or incinerated every second, while less than 1% of old clothing goes on to be used to make new clothes.

"We need a redesign for the fashion industry, so business models increase clothing's use, clothing is made from safe and renewable materials and old clothing is used to make new clothes."

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Fashion retailers JD Sports, Sports Direct and Boohoo, are "failing to commit" to reducing their environmental and social impact, MPs say. Amazon, TK Maxx and Missguided were also described by the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) as being among the "least engaged" in sustainable fashion and labour market initiatives.

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Ikea is to start allowing customers to lease rather than buy furniture.

A pilot project in Switzerland is looking at hiring out furniture as part of an environmentally-friendly policy by the Swedish flat-pack company.

It said it was looking at ways for customers to "buy, care for and pass on products".

It has already introduced programmes designed to reduce waste, such as services to take back old beds or sofas which it then donates to charity.

Kate Hardcastle, retail analyst at Insight With Passion, told the BBC it marked a "pendulum shift" for a company which focused on cheap and cheerful furniture but was now trying to take a more sustainable approach to business.

Kitchens and office chairs are among the items that could be offered for hire, according to the Financial Times.

Torbjorn Loof, chief executive of Inter Ikea, told the FT: "We will work together with partners so you can actually lease your furniture. When that leasing period is over, you hand it back and might lease something else.

"And instead of throwing those away, we refurbish them a little and we could sell them, prolonging the lifecycle of the product".

Inter Ikea controls the brand rights of the company, which was created in 1943 and is named after its late founder Ingvar Kamprad (IK) as well as the farm he grew up on - Elmtaryd (E) - and the nearby village Agunnaryd (A).

The leasing plan is the first in a series of ideas which could lead to customers subscribing for services with a view to items being refurbished rather than thrown out.

While office furniture such as desks and chairs are expected to be the first items to be included in the trials, and targeted at businesses, leases on kitchens are also a possibility.

"It's interesting if you as a customer say 'I can change and adapt and modernise my kitchen if that's a subscription model," Mr Loof told the FT.

An Ikea spokesperson said the business was aiming to encourage "people to play an active role in making the circular economy a reality, which we can support by developing new ways for people to buy, care for and pass on products.".

"In certain markets, such as Switzerland, we're exploring and testing potential solutions and have a pilot project to look into the leasing of furniture, but it's still too early to confirm exactly what this will look like," the spokesperson said.

As well as a service to return old furniture, in the UK it offers a service to take back unwanted textiles and, at its new store in London opening on Thursday, it will have its first Learning Lab to examine ways to extend the lifecycle of products.

The chain has started to make other adaptations to its model - which was traditionally focused on out-of-town stores by trying new formats. It opened a small format "planning Studio" on London's Tottenham Court Road last year and has said the format could be rolled out more widely.

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Ikea is to start allowing customers to lease rather than buy furniture. A pilot project in Switzerland is looking at hiring out furniture as part of an environmentally-friendly policy by the Swedish flat-pack company. It said it was looking at ways for customers to "buy, care for and pass on products".

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Facebook profits at an all time high despite all the scandals 

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Facebook profits at an all time high despite all the scandals 

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Facebook recorded a strong fourth quarter as profits climbed to $6.9bn (£5.3bn) - an all-time record - despite a year of scandals plaguing the social media giant.

The platform managed to boost its global user database and revenue shot up 30% from a year ago to $16.9bn (£12.9bn).

The number of monthly users on Facebook, which makes most of its money from online advertising, went up 9% to 2.3 billion, the firm said in its latest update.

Net profit was up 61% from the same period last year.

Shares in the tech giant jumped 11.5% to $167.67 (£127.80) in after-market trades following the release of the earnings.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's co-founder and chief executive, said the platform's "community and business continues to grow".

The update showed the social network had increased its user base in the US and in Europe, where the platform has faced challenges over data protection.

Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst from research firm eMarketer, said the results showed Facebook had "clearly demonstrated that the challenges of 2018 have not had a lasting impact on its ability to increase both revenues and usage".

"Advertisers are clearly still very reliant on Facebook," she added.

It comes after Facebook pledged to hire thousands of workers and invest in new technology in response to concerns about abuse, manipulation and data protection.

Mr Zuckerberg said: "We've fundamentally changed how we run our company to focus on the biggest social issues, and we're investing more to build new and inspiring ways for people to connect."

However, Facebook executives warned that expenses this year would soar 40% to 50% as they invest in data centres and security.

In September last year, Facebook said 50 million users were affected by a security breach which potentially enabled hackers to take over people's accounts.

Earlier this month, Martin Lewis, the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, dropped his lawsuit against the platform for running scam advertisements featuring his name and image.

The platform also removed 364 pages and accounts linked to employees of Russian news agency Sputnik from its platform this month as part of investigations into networks of accounts created to "mislead others".

It also emerged that Facebook paid children as young as 13 to install software on their phones which allowed the company to collect data on how they used its competitors' apps.

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Facebook profits at all-time high despite year of scandals

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Facebook recorded a strong fourth quarter as profits climbed to $6.9bn (£5.3bn) - an all-time record - despite a year of scandals plaguing the social media giant. The platform managed to boost its global user database and revenue shot up 30% from a year ago to $16.9bn (£12.9bn).

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Men working for the BBC earn an average of 9.3% more than women, a report into the corporation's staff pay has found.

The figure covers all staff, on and off air, and has been put down to the fact there are more men in senior jobs.

It compares with a UK average of 18% and BBC director general Tony Hall said it showed the BBC was "in a better place than many organisations".

It follows a row over star salaries, in which it was revealed that most of the top-earning presenters were men.

Lord Hall has pledged to close the pay gap by 2020 and said the corporation should be "an exemplar of what can be achieved when it comes to pay, fairness, gender and representation".

The gender pay report has been published alongside an equal pay audit, which has been conducted by consultancy firm PwC and legal firm Eversheds, and was overseen by former Court of Appeal judge Sir Patrick Elias.

Sir Patrick said the reason behind the 9.3% figure was "an under-representation of women in the more senior jobs".

The report says 59% of staff in the lowest four grades are women, while 59% of those in the top two grades and among senior managers are men.

'Failings' in procedures

But Sir Patrick said there was no evidence of "systemic discrimination against women" at the BBC.

The audit "does not, and could not, categorically establish that there is no discrimination in relation to groups or individuals", however, he added.

There were also a number of "failings" in procedures that need to be improved, the audit found.

But Sir Patrick added: "These failings apply across the board, affecting both men and women alike."

'A problem of unequal pay'

Gerry Morrissey, head of Bectu, a trade union which represents some of the BBC's workforce, said: "The BBC must not rest on its laurels in respect of the overall gender pay gap.

"The report finds that the gap is much less than the national average but that should not obscure the fact that inequality is a factor for some staff day in and day out."

Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said there was "a problem of unequal pay".

She said she was aware of "a significant amount of cases" where women say they're being paid less for doing the same or similar work.

A separate review into the BBC's arrangements with on-air presenters, editors and correspondents will be finished by the end of the year.

'Real change' called for

When the star salaries were published in July, it was revealed that 35% of those earning more than £150,000 a year were women.

Chris Evans was top of the list on £2.2m, followed by six more men. Strictly Come Dancing's Claudia Winkleman was the best-paid female presenter - joint eighth overall - earning between £450,000 and £500,000.

Last month, female presenters demanded "real change" before the end of the year.

The government has ordered all charities, private and public sector employers with 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay details by April 2018.

The BBC's report also looked at pay gaps in other areas. The disability pay gap is 3.3%, it found, while the gap affecting black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff is 0.4%.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk .

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Men working for the BBC earn an average of 9.3% more than women, a report into the corporation's staff pay has found. The figure covers all staff, on and off air, and has been put down to the fact there are more men in senior jobs.

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Europe's competition authorities have launched an in-depth investigation into Nike's Dutch tax arrangements, first revealed in ICIJ's Paradise Papers reporting.

The probe is likely to be one of the most significant launched by the European Commission and, if it results in a finding against Nike, could lead to the sportswear maker being forced to pay billions of dollars in back taxes to cover under-payments stretching back to 2006.

This would be many times the amount recovered from Amazon, Starbucks and Fiat following similar tax-related European Union competition probes. However, it would still be far short of the record-breaking $16.5 billion (€14.3 billion) in Irish back taxes recovered from Apple - another company that featured in ICIJ's Paradise Papers reporting.

Responding to news of the Nike investigation, the company said: "We believe the European Commission's investigation is without merit." It added that Nike was "subject to, and rigorously ensures that it complies with, all the same tax laws as other companies operating in the Netherlands."

After more than a decade of aggressive profit-shifting, by May 2017, Nike's financial statements showed it had amassed $12.2 billion in foreign earnings, parked offshore. Much of this income had been shifted out of Europe before it could be taxed, ICIJ investigations found.

How Nike's Dutch tax avoidance mechanism worked

Selling running shoes and other goods across Europe, Nike immediately pooled the resulting income in the Netherlands. Then, in a second step, it used large royalty payments to push a lot of that same income onwards, into other Nike subsidiaries that were not subject to tax at all.

The European Commission's investigation will examine five tax rulings dealing with these controversial royalty payments. The rulings were granted to Nike by the Dutch tax authorities over many years. Two of them are still in force.

Lots of countries provide confidential tax rulings to multinational corporations to help such companies understand how their subsidiaries will be taxed locally.

But some EU countries - including the Netherlands, but also Luxembourg, Ireland and Belgium - have used rulings to secretly provide sweetheart tax deals to businesses that locate their European headquarters locally.

The Commission said: "[Our] investigation will focus on whether the Netherlands' tax rulings endorsing these royalty payments may have unduly reduced the taxable base in the Netherlands of Nike European Operations Netherlands BV."

It pointed out that while Nike's Dutch subsidiaries had more than 1,000 employees, the royalty payments were made to subsidiaries that had no employees and no economic activity.

In response to the Nike investigation, the Dutch government said: "This does not mean that the Commission has already reached a verdict, but merely that they have doubts whether or not there was state aid. Of course we will fully support the work of the Commission."

Tax rulings should "do nothing else than give certainty in advance on the application of tax laws, and should not lead to preferential treatment," it added.

Nike routed payments to tax haven

In November 2017, ICIJ reporting revealed how Nike's first tax ruling, in 2006, allowed large royalty payments to be made from Nike in the Netherlands to a subsidiary in the tax haven of Bermuda.

This had a swift and dramatic effect on Nike's financial performance, cutting the group's tax bill and boosting returns to stockholders, a pattern that has continued ever since. Despite this significant impact, chief executive Mark Parker only briefly referred to Nike's Dutch tax rulings in a 2006 conference call with Wall Street analysts.

He said Nike had won "a more favorable long-term tax agreement in Europe," according to a transcript of the call. This had, he added, "secured a big advantage."

Now, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has launched an investigation into whether this advantage amounted to a sweetheart tax deal that secretly gave the sportswear maker an illegal advantage over competitors in European markets.

If so, the tax ruling would violate European competition laws designed to prevent EU member states from providing state aid to favored companies.

"Member States should not allow companies to set up complex structures that unduly reduce their taxable profits and give them an unfair advantage over competitors," Vestager said. "The Commission will investigate carefully the tax treatment of Nike in the Netherlands, to assess whether it is in line with EU state aid rules."

In June last year, Nike's chief tax officer Patti Johnson gave evidence to a committee of the European Parliament, which was conducting a follow-up investigation in the wake of the Paradise Papers.

She denied there was anything artificial about Nike's tax arrangements, saying: "Nike's tax structure reflects our business structure. It is designed to facilitate the delivery of our products and services in the most efficient and cost-effective way to our consumers."

The 'ghost companies' of the Netherlands

As ICIJ reporting showed, Nike's Dutch units stopped making royalty payments to Bermuda in 2014, but went on to pay similar royalties to another subsidiary - this time a specially configured Dutch entity, called Nike Innovate CV, that was not subject to tax at all.

These kinds of subsidiaries, sometimes called "ghost companies," are a common feature of tax avoidance arrangements for multinationals because they are not tax-resident anywhere the world.

As part of its Paradise Papers reporting, ICIJ reviewed stock market filings for America's 500 largest publicly traded multinationals, using data available in June 2017, and found 214 subsidiaries that were formed as Dutch CVs.

The Netherlands has pledged to stop multinationals using CVs in tax avoidances arrangements, but the necessary reforms are not yet in effect.

Europe's tax probes intensify after Paradise Papers

The commission has no direct powers to police the tax rules of EU member states but since 2013 it has increasingly been using its ability to challenge illegal state aid as a way of combating tax avoidance in Europe.

The Commission will investigate carefully the tax treatment of Nike in the Netherlands, to assess whether it is in line with EU state aid rules.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager

As part of this process, the commission has requested several member states share with competition investigators all confidential tax rulings granted to multinational companies. This has led to several full-blown probes, with more expected to follow.

In an emailed statement, a commission spokesperson told ICIJ: "The commission had already received some information on [Nike] rulings in the course of its overall investigation on tax rulings practices in all Member States before the Paradise Papers were leaked. Following the Paradise Papers allegations, the Commission intensified its investigation and requested additional information from the Netherlands, which led to the doubts the Commission is expressing in its opening decision of today."

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Nike Could Owe Billions In Tax If New EU Probe Finds Against It - ICIJ

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Europe's competition authorities have launched an in-depth investigation into Nike's Dutch tax arrangements, first revealed in ICIJ's Paradise Papers reporting. The probe is likely to be one of the most significant launched by the European Commission and, if it results in a finding against Nike, could lead to the sportswear maker being forced to pay billions of dollars in back taxes to cover under-payments stretching back to 2006.

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The amount annually lost to people who defraud the benefit system (£2 billion) is much smaller than the cost the taxpayer from individuals and companies who evade paying tax (£5.9 billion).

Benefit Fraud

In 2016/17, the Department for Work and Pensions estimates that £174.1 billion was spent on welfare.

According to their annual report into benefit fraud and payment errors by the department, 22 million people were administered welfare this year.

Of the total spent on welfare, £3.5 billion (two per cent) was given out in overpayments.

Of the total overpayments, £2 billion worth of claims were considered fraudulent.

The official definition of fraud used by the department is when the following three conditions apply to a claimant who has been 'overpaid'.

The basic conditions for receipt of benefit, or the rate of benefit in payment, are not being met

The claimant can reasonably be expected to be aware of the effect on entitlement

Benefit stops or reduces as a result of the review.

The 'tax gap'

In 2015/16, HM Revenue and Customs reported that they failed to collect £34 billion of the tax that they were due.

Among the break down of reasons for the 'gap', £5.2 billion was attributed to tax evasion (illegal), and £1.7 billion was attributed to tax avoidance (legal).

Tax evasion: is the illegal evasion of taxes by individuals, corporations, and trusts.

Tax avoidance: Tax avoidance involves bending the rules of the tax system to gain a tax advantage that Parliament never intended.

Benefit fraud vs tax evasion and tax avoidance

In October 2017, HMRC announced that the 6 per cent tax gap was significantly lower than the 7.9 per cent lost a decade earlier.

The department attributed this to 75 measures since 2010 to reduce tax evasion, avoidance, and non-compliance, which they also claim has secured £160 billion in addition tax revenue.

In their report, the DWP notes that fraud is at its highest recorded rate, of 1.2 per cent of overpayments.

However, it also noted that the way overpayments were categorised had been altered since 2014/15.
More: A Tory Cabinet Minister's defence of the 55p per minute Universal Credit helpline is horrendous

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Show this to anyone who says benefit cheats cost the taxpayer more than tax dodgers

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Government statistics show the amount Britain loses to tax avoidance and evasion dwarves the cost of benefit fraud. The amount annually lost to people who defraud the benefit system (£2 billion) is much smaller than the cost the taxpayer from individuals and companies who evade paying tax (£5.9 billion).

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Personal data of 50m US voters from Facebook was gathered and then allegedly used by the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. The developing scandal has not only wiped billions off the social network's market value, it has also raised questions about its role in the democratic process. Here is the best of the FT's news coverage

© FT montage / Getty

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Personal data of 50m US voters from Facebook was gathered and then allegedly used by the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. The developing scandal has not only wiped billions off the social network's market value, it has also raised questions about its role in the democratic process.

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On his first visit to Davos, Rutger Bregman dismisses 'stupid philanthropy schemes', saying the real issue that needs tackling is tax avoidance. 'We can invite Bono once more but come on we've got to be talking about taxes ... all the rest is bullshit in my opinion,' he says. The Dutch historian feels like he's 'at a firefighters conference and no one's allowed to speak about water'

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'This is not rocket science': Rutger Bregman tells Davos to talk about tax - video

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On his first visit to Davos, Rutger Bregman dismisses 'stupid philanthropy schemes', saying the real issue that needs tackling is tax avoidance. 'We can invite Bono once more but come on we've got to be talking about taxes ... all the rest is bullshit in my opinion,' he says.

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OECD pushes ideas for global corporate tax overhaul

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OECD pushes ideas for global corporate tax overhaul

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The OECD has said there is growing consensus behind a US proposal for an overhaul of global corporate tax rules, as countries try to strike a deal on how to levy multinational companies in the digital era.

Under the plans companies would pay taxes based on where they make their sales - a significant change from today, when tax on companies largely depends on where their employees, offices and other assets are located.

The club of richer nations is spearheading efforts to rethink international agreements underpinning corporate tax, as part of a crackdown on how multinationals move profits between jurisdictions. Countries in the EU led by France have sought action against mainly US-based tech companies, arguing that they do not pay their fair share of tax in countries where they sell digital services.

The OECD on Tuesday presented four different proposals to rewrite corporate tax rules to take account of the growing digital economy. Of the four, a plan led by the US was "forceful" and would radically alter how countries share the right to tax multinationals, Pascal Saint-Amans, head of tax at the OECD, told the Financial Times.

"It needs to be refined but the philosophy of the US tax proposal is pretty strong. They have the US, Brazil, China, India and other emerging economies lined up," Mr Saint-Amans said.

The new regime, which would limit the opportunities for companies to shift profits from high to low tax jurisdictions, would apply to all multinational groups, not just the digital companies the action initially targeted. The OECD would like to reach agreement by the end of 2020.

The change would shift multinational tax revenues out of tax havens and away from some exporting nations and towards countries with large numbers of consumers.

Mr Saint-Amans said Washington's position on digital tax reform had undergone "a fundamental change", which he suggested was driven by a need to protect the US tax base after cuts to tax rates in 2017.

The proposals put forward by the OECD on Tuesday have been agreed by 127 countries. They include narrower plans from some European member states that focus only on digital companies.

Mr Saint-Amans said: "It may be a challenge for European countries to explain (that) their approach would result in taxing only Google."

The US-led proposal is broadly in line with European Commission proposals made last year.

The commission said it was "glad to see this progress from the OECD, which echoes our own efforts to tackle these issues at EU level. We have been unwavering in our support . . . to achieve an international solution to this global challenge as soon as possible."

Last year Brussels also proposed an interim EU-wide tax on digital services revenues to prevent a patchwork of taxes on digital companies in different member states. EU finance ministers are still haggling over that stopgap initiative, which requires unanimous approval, but a dozen EU countries - including Austria, France and Spain have approved or are planning special levies on digital companies.

Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, said on Tuesday that the OECD had made "an important announcement".

"We have been fighting for months to advance the topic of fair taxation of the digital giants, and we are starting to see the results: 127 countries are committed to changing tax rules," he wrote on Twitter.

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OECD pushes ideas for global corporate tax overhaul

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The OECD has said there is growing consensus behind a US proposal for an overhaul of global corporate tax rules, as countries try to strike a deal on how to levy multinational companies in the digital era.

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Gillette brand engages with the MeToo movement through new ad

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Gillette brand engages with the MeToo movement through new ad

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Shaving company Gillette has been bombarded with both praise and abuse after launching an advertising campaign promoting a new kind of positive masculinity.

Engaging with the #MeToo movement, the company's new advertising campaign plays on its 30-year tagline "The best a man can get", replacing it with "The best men can be".

The advertisement features news clips of reporting on the #MeToo movement, as well as images showing sexism in films, in boardrooms, and of violence between boys, with a voice over saying: "Bullying, the MeToo movement against sexual harassment, toxic masculinity, is this the best a man can get?"

The film, called We Believe: the Best Men Can Be, immediately went viral with more than 4m views on YouTube in 48 hours and generated both lavish praise and angry criticism.

"This commercial isn't anti-male. It's pro-humanity," wrote Bernice King, daughter of the late civil rights legend Martin Luther King. "And it demonstrates that character can step up to change conditions."

The Emmy-award winning actor and prominent Donald Trump supporter James Woods meanwhile accused Gillette of "jumping on the 'men are horrible' campaign" and pledged to boycott its products.

Far-right magazine The New American attacked the advertisement's message, saying it "reflects many false suppositions", adding that: "Men are the wilder sex, which accounts for their dangerousness - but also their dynamism."

But Duncan Fisher, head of policy and innovation for the Family Initiative, welcomed the company's revolutionary shift in messaging and said it played into a new narrative about positive masculinity. "There are a lot of men who want to stand up for a different type of masculinity, but for many there has not been a way for men to express that, we just need to give them a voice," he said. "Obviously this is an advert created by an agency to sell razors but it represents an attempt to change the dialogue."

Others remarked that the intensity of the backlash revealed the necessity for a wider acknowledgement of the damage done to men and women by toxic masculinity.

The comments under the @Gillette toxic masculinity ad is a living document of how desperately society needs things like the Gillette toxic masculinity ad.

Seriously: if your masculinity is THAT threatened by an ad that says we should be nicer then you're doing masculinity wrong.
- Andrew P Street (@AndrewPStreet) January 15, 2019

Among the objections were that the video implied most men were sexual harassers or violent thugs, that it was "virtue-signalling" by a company that doesn't care about the issue, and that the advertisement was emasculating.

The film's YouTube page quickly became a cultural battleground, with negative responses outnumbering positive on the platform - which has faced criticism for not doing enough to curtail misogyny in its comments - and many commenters saying they would never buy a Gillette razor again.

I wonder how the "toxic men" who stormed the shores of Normandy to liberate the world from pure evil would feel about the moralizing of @Gillette / @ProcterGamble. The folks who do not understand why people are upset at the obnoxious virtue signalling are blind to the TOXIC
- Gad Saad (@GadSaad) January 15, 2019

The advert threw TV presenter Piers Morgan into an apoplexy, prompting him to declare a boycott of the company and dedicate a column condemning it as part of a "pathetic global assault on masculinity".

I've used @Gillette razors my entire adult life but this absurd virtue-signalling PC guff may drive me away to a company less eager to fuel the current pathetic global assault on masculinity.
Let boys be damn boys.
Let men be damn men. https://t.co/Hm66OD5lA4
- Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 14, 2019

Responding to Morgan's angry tweets, American broadcast journalist Soledad O'Brien simply tweeted: "Oh shut up Piers," while Canadian comedian Deven Green, as her character Mrs Betty Bowers imagined Gillette's response to Morgan's rage, tweeting: "Piers Morgan thinking he is a spokesperson for rampant masculinity is adorable."

The advertisement shows men intervening to stop fights between boys and calling other men out when they say sexually inappropriate things to women in the streets.

"We believe in the best in men: To say the right thing, to act the right way. Some already are in ways big and small. But some is not enough. Because the boys watching today will be the men of tomorrow," the voiceover says.

PR expert Mark Borkowski called the advert part of a "fantastically well-thought through campaign", adding that it appealed to a younger generation that were very aware of the power of advertising and marketing on society.

"It is no longer enough for brands to simply sell a product, customers are demanding that they have a purpose - that they stand for something," he said. "Masculinity is a huge part of Gillette's brand, and there is a recognition in this ad that the new generation is reworking that concept of masculinity, and it is no longer the cliche is once was."

Writing in more detail about the thinking of the advert Gillette, which is owned by Procter & Gamble, said the advertisement was part of a broader initiative for the company to promote "positive, attainable, inclusive and healthy versions of what it means to be a man.

"It's time we acknowledge that brands, like ours, play a role in influencing culture," it wrote on its website. "From today on, we pledge to actively challenge the stereotypes and expectations of what it means to be a man everywhere you see Gillette. In the ads we run, the images we publish to social media, the words we choose, and so much more."

Gillette has also promised to donated $1m a year for three years to non-profit organisations with programs "designed to inspire, educate and help men of all ages achieve their personal "best" and become role models for the next generation".

The ad was directed by Kim Gehrig of the UK-based production agency, Somesuch. Gehrig was behind the 2015 This Girl Can advertising campaign for Sport England and "Viva La Vulva", an advertisement for Swedish feminine hygiene brand Libresse.

Some people took issue with the advertisement because it was directed by a woman. The Conservative Canadian political commentator Ezra Levant wrote: "A shaving ad written by pink-haired feminist scolds is about as effective as a tampon ad written by middle aged men ... Count this 30-year customer out."

But many praised the campaign, including Iceland's foreign ministry, and the Tyler Clementi Foundation, named after a student who jumped to his death after being outed online as gay.

Thank you @Gillette for reminding us that there can be no going back from how far we as a society have come in confronting the issue of bullying & harassment of others. Help us share this message about the importance of being an Upstander. #TheBestMenCanBe https://t.co/4HtjwHgFyk
- Tyler Clementi Foundation (@TylerClementi) January 15, 2019

The campaign follows other campaigns by major international brands that have dealt with social and political issues. In 2018 Nike ran a campaign featuring NFL star Colin Kaepernick, who drew criticism from Donald Trump for kneeling during the national anthem to protest against racism.

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Gillette #MeToo razors ad on 'toxic masculinity' gets praise - and abuse

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Backlash includes call for boycott of P&G, complaining commercial 'emasculates men'

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Vaping by young people remains a burning issue among health experts

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Despite much debate in UK and US there is still little agreement over how safe e-cigarettes are

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UK fashion retailers fail to engage in sustainability 

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UK fashion retailers fail to engage in sustainability 

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Major UK fashion retailers are failing to promote environmental sustainability or to protect their workers, a parliamentary committee has said.

The six companies, which include Amazon UK, JD Sports, Sports Direct and TK Maxx, have not taken any action to reduce their carbon, water and waste footprint. None of them use organic or sustainable cotton and only two - Sports Direct and Boohoo - use recycled material in their products.

The interim report by the environmental audit committee singles out Amazon UK for its notable lack of engagement in sustainability.

It said: "Though Amazon and TK Maxx are subsidiaries of international corporations that manage their initiatives, the committee believes this does not absolve them of their responsibilities."

None of the six retailers singled out as the least engaged, have signed up to the Action, Collaboration, Transformation living wage initiative (Act) or to voluntary targets in the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan to reduce the carbon, water and waste footprint of UK firms.

The committee wrote to 16 leading UK fashion retailers in autumn after revelations that Burberry burned £28.6m worth of unused products in 2017 to protect its brand and prevent excess stock from being sold at knockdown prices. The committee said it welcomed a commitment by Burberry to end its burning of unsold stock.

Its report said Next, Debenhams, Arcadia Group and Asda Stores were "moderately engaged", while Asos, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Primark and Burberry were the "most engaged" in addressing issues of sustainability and fair wages. Kurt Geiger did not respond to requests for written evidence.
Bright future? Fashion's watershed year as it moves from waste to woke
Mary Creagh, the Labour chair of the committee, said: "It's shocking to see that a group of major retailers are failing to take action to promote environmental sustainability and protect their workers.

"It's disappointing that only a third of the retailers we wrote to are signed up to Act, an important global initiative working towards getting a living wage for all garment workers."

She said she hoped the report would motivate underperforming retailers to start taking responsibility for their workers and their environmental impact.
The report concluded that the business model for the UK fashion industry was unsustainable. It said exploitative practices must end and that retailers must lead change.

The final report will be published in the coming weeks, setting out recommendations to government.
Topics

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Six UK fashion retailers fail to cotton on to sustainability

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Major UK fashion retailers are failing to promote environmental sustainability or to protect their workers, a parliamentary committee has said. The six companies, which include Amazon UK, JD Sports, Sports Direct and TK Maxx, have not taken any action to reduce their carbon, water and waste footprint.

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Unilever, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble among nine household names contributing to labour abuse

The world's most popular food and household companies are selling food, cosmetics and other everyday staples containing palm oil tainted by shocking human rights abuses in Indonesia, with children as young as eight working in hazardous conditions, said Amnesty International in a new report published today.

The report, The great palm oil scandal: Labour abuses behind big brand names, investigates palm oil plantations in Indonesia run by the world's biggest palm oil grower, Singapore-based agri-business Wilmar, tracing palm oil to nine global firms: AFAMSA, ADM, Colgate-Palmolive, Elevance, Kellogg's, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever.

Corporate giants like Colgate, Nestlé and Unilever assure consumers that their products use 'sustainable palm oil', but our findings reveal that the palm oil is anything but.

Meghna Abraham, Senior Investigator at Amnesty International.

"Companies are turning a blind eye to exploitation of workers in their supply chain. Despite promising customers that there will be no exploitation in their palm oil supply chains, big brands continue to profit from appalling abuses. These findings will shock any consumer who thinks they are making ethical choices in the supermarket when they buy products that claim to use sustainable palm oil," said Meghna Abraham, Senior Investigator at Amnesty International.

"Corporate giants like Colgate, Nestlé and Unilever assure consumers that their products use 'sustainable palm oil', but our findings reveal that the palm oil is anything but. There is nothing sustainable about palm oil that is produced using child labour and forced labour. The abuses discovered within Wilmar's palm oil operations are not isolated incidents but are systemic and a predictable result of the way Wilmar does business.

"Something is wrong when nine companies turning over a combined revenue of $325 billion in 2015 are unable to do something about the atrocious treatment of palm oil workers earning a pittance."

Amnesty International says it will campaign to ask the firms to tell customers whether the palm oil in popular products like Magnum ice-cream, Colgate toothpaste, Dove cosmetics, Knorr soup, KitKat, Pantene shampoo, Ariel, and Pot Noodle comes from Wilmar's Indonesian operation.

Systematic abuses in supply chain of major firms

Amnesty International spoke to 120 workers who work on palm plantations owned by two Wilmar subsidiaries and three Wilmar suppliers in Kalimantan and Sumatra in Indonesia. The investigation exposed a wide range of abuses including:

Women forced to work long hours under the threat of having their pay cut, paid below minimum wage - earning as little as US$2.50 a day in extreme cases - and kept in insecure employment without pensions or health insurance,

Children as young as eight doing hazardous, hard physical work, sometimes dropping out of school to help their parents on the plantation,

Workers suffering severe injuries from paraquat, an acutely toxic chemical still used in the plantations despite being banned in the EU and by Wilmar itself,

Workers being made to work outdoors without adequate safety equipment despite the risks of respiratory damage from hazardous levels of pollution caused by forest fires during August to October 2015,

Workers having to work long hours to meet ridiculously high targets, some of which involve highly physically demanding tasks such as operating heavy manual equipment to cut fruit from trees 20 meters tall. Attempting to meet targets can leave workers in significant physical pain, and they also face a range of penalties for things like not picking up palm fruits on the ground and picking unripe fruit.

Wilmar acknowledged that there are ongoing labour issues in its operations. Despite these abuses, three of the five palm growers that Amnesty International investigated in Indonesia are certified as producing "sustainable" palm oil under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a body set up in 2004 to clean up the palm oil sector after environmental scandals.

"This report clearly shows that companies have used the Roundtable as a shield to deflect greater scrutiny. Our investigation uncovered that these companies have strong policies on paper but none could demonstrate that they had identified obvious risks of abuses in Wilmar's supply chain," said Seema Joshi, Head of Business and Human Rights.

Findings cast doubts on "sustainability" claims

Using export data and information published by Wilmar, Amnesty International researchers traced
palm oil to nine global food and household companies. When approached, seven of the firms confirmed they buy palm oil from Wilmar's Indonesian operations, but only two - Kellogg's and Reckitt Benckiser - were willing to give any level of detail about which products were affected. [Detail on company responses available here]

All but one of these companies are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, and claim they use "sustainable palm oil" on their websites or product labels. None of the companies Amnesty International contacted denied that the abuses were taking place, nor did any provide examples of action taken to deal with labour rights abuses in Wilmar's operations.

Companies must be more transparent about what goes into their products.

Seema Joshi, Head of Business & Human Rights

"Customers will want to know which products are connected to abuses and which are not. Despite being confronted with such terrible abuses in the operations of a major supplier, companies have been very secretive about which specific products are affected," said Seema Joshi.

"Companies must be more transparent about what goes into their products. They must disclose where the raw materials in the products on our supermarket shelves come from. Until they do, they will be benefiting from and contributing in some way to the labour abuses happening. They are showing a total lack of respect for customers who think they are making ethical choices at the checkout counter."

Worst forms of child labour exposed

The report documents how children aged from eight to 14 years old are carrying out hazardous work on plantations owned and operated by Wilmar's subsidiaries and suppliers. They work without safety equipment on plantations where toxic pesticides are used, carrying heavy sacks of palm fruit that can weigh from 12 to 25kg. Some have dropped out of school to work with their parents for all or most of the day. Others work in the afternoon after attending school, and on weekends and holidays.

A 14-year-old boy who harvests and carries palm fruits on a plantation owned by Wilmar told Amnesty International that he dropped out of school when we was 12 because his father was sick and unable to meet his work targets. He said his 10 and 12-year-old siblings also work on the plantation after school:

I left school to help my father because he couldn't do the work anymore.

14-year-old palm oil worker

"I have helped my father every day for about two years. I studied until sixth grade in school. I left school to help my father because he couldn't do the work anymore. He was sick...I regret leaving school. I would have liked to have gone to school to become smarter. I would like to become a teacher."

The physically demanding and tiring work can cause physical damage for young children. A 10-year-old boy who also dropped out of school to help his father, who works for a Wilmar supplier, when he was eight said he gets up at 6.00 AM to gather and carry away loose palm fruit. He said he works for six hours every day, except Sunday:

"I don't go to school...I carry the sack with the loose fruit by myself but can only carry it half full. It is difficult to carry it, it is heavy. I do it in the rain as well but it is difficult...My hands hurt and my body aches."

Women workers face forced labour, low wages, discrimination and exposure to toxic chemicals

The report highlights a discriminatory pattern of hiring women as casual daily labourers, denying them permanent employment and social security benefits such as health insurance and pensions.

Amnesty International also documented cases of forced labour and of foremen threatening women workers with not being paid or having their pay deducted in order to exact work from them.

A woman, who works in a unit involved in maintaining palm plants told Amnesty International how she was pressurized to work longer hours with implicit and explicit threats:

"If I don't finish my target, they ask me to keep working but I don't get paid for the extra time...my friend and I told the foreman that we were very tired and wanted to leave. The foreman told us if you don't want to work, go home and don't come again. It is difficult work because the target is horrifying...My feet hurt, my hands hurt and my back hurts after doing the work."

Indonesia has strong labour laws under which most of these abuses can amount to criminal offences. However, the laws are poorly enforced. Amnesty International is calling on the Indonesian government to improve enforcement and to investigate the abuses set out in the report.

Background: How Amnesty International traced the supply chain from plantation to multinational

Amnesty International researchers traced palm oil from specific refineries or mills directly supplied by the plantations investigated to seven of the companies - Colgate-Palmolive, Reckitt Benckiser, Nestlé, ADM, Elevance, AFAMSA, and Kellogg's through its joint venture. The other two companies - Unilever and Procter & Gamble - confirmed that they source palm oil from Wilmar and Indonesia but did not respond to Amnesty International's questions about which refineries they source from. Given that they source from Indonesia and that Amnesty International traced palm oil from the plantations it investigated to 11 out of Wilmar's 15 refineries, it is highly likely that they are supplied by at least one or more of these refineries.

Amnesty International asked the companies to confirm whether the palm oil in a list of their consumer products came from Wilmar's Indonesian operations: only two of the companies (Kellogg's and Reckitt Benckiser) would confirm. Colgate and Nestlé acknowledged that they receive palm oil from Wilmar refineries in Indonesia. Amnesty International linked these refineries to plantations investigated for this report. However, Colgate and Nestlé said none of the products Amnesty International listed contained palm oil from Wilmar's Indonesia operations, but did not say which of their products do. Two others (Unilever and Procter & Gamble) did not correct the list. The other three offered vague or no responses.

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Palm Oil: Global brands profiting from child and forced labour

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The world's most popular food and household companies are selling food, cosmetics and other everyday staples containing palm oil tainted by shocking human rights abuses in Indonesia, with children as young as eight working in hazardous conditions, said Amnesty International in a new report published today.

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UN - No Country can Tackle Global Problems Alone

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UN - No Country can Tackle Global Problems Alone

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https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/01/1031152

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"In the regions today, no country is alone. Our borders don't make any difference in the Sahel when we talk about issues of terrorism, migration, and climate change", Ms. Mohammed said on Tuesday at the opening of the Kaduna State Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs) Acceleration Conference 2019.

"No country, no region can tackle the global challenges of today", she spelled out.

Under the theme "Building effective partnership for accelerated progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals", the two-day conference aims to fortify partnerships to fast-track implementation of the global goals, which each country is adapting to reach ambitious targets on poverty and hunger eradication, among other challenges.

Ms. Mohammed advocated strongly for gender parity saying that "part of our population, especially women and girls, has to be put at the centre of the results" and not only "at the centre of our policies".

Moreover, she continued, "we need to see young people at the centre of the impact that is made on everyone's life. Because they are not the future tomorrow; they are the future today."

Calling the rise in global hunger over the past few years "a great concern", Ms. Mohammed underscored that the world has enough to feed itself two to three times over, but inequalities mean that millions go to bed hungry and "short change us in the revenue [that] otherwise would have been put into governance."

Despite a global decline in the number of people living in poverty, the Deputy Secretary-General observed that there are many reasons why extreme poverty remains. She singled out the two explanations of "when there is no enabling environment and when there is no stability".

Ms. Mohammed stressed the importance of using a national outlook, within a regional context, to drive what are global goals.

The Deputy Secretary-General also argued that effective partnerships are vital to achieving the SDGs. As a case in point she focused on the room, where federal and state governments, members of the international community, civil society, and local and community authorities, were all participants.

Also speaking at the conference, Governor Mallam Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai said that Kaduna state stood out as an SDG pacesetter. He noted that his administration has adopted the targets and indicators, and developed an integrated, sustainable infrastructure that would make Kaduna a leading investment destination in Nigeria and provide it with a "comparative advantage'' to make it globally competitive.

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'No country, no region' can tackle global challenges alone says UN's Mohammed

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"In the regions today, no country is alone. Our borders don't make any difference in the Sahel when we talk about issues of terrorism, migration, and climate change", Ms. Mohammed said on Tuesday at the opening of the Kaduna State Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs) Acceleration Conference 2019.

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Mylan's life-saving epinephrine auto-injector EpiPen now has a generic rival, the Food and Drug Administration triumphantly announced.

Teva Pharmaceuticals USA now has FDA approval to market a direct generic competitor of the device, as well as a version for pediatric patients, a generic EpiPen Jr. Both products are used in emergency situations to auto-inject a dose of epinephrine into a person's thigh to thwart deadly allergic reactions, namely anaphylactic shock.

The approval comes years after Mylan outraged patients and lawmakers by ruthlessly hiking the price of its product by more than 400 percent. Mylan purchased the rights to EpiPen in 2007 and gradually raised the list price from about $50 per auto-injector to slightly over $600 for a two-pack. The move boosted EpiPen profits to $1.1 billion a year. In step, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch saw her salary soar by millions, reaching nearly $19 million in 2015- a point lawmakers hammered her for during a House Oversight Committee hearing in September of 2016.

Amid the intense scrutiny, Mylan announced that it would release its own "authorized generic" version of the EpiPen. But the product debuted with a list price of $300 per two-pack, still triple the price of what the product cost prior to Mylan's 2007 takeover.

Epinephrine alone is already a generic drug, and the dose in an auto-injector costs less than a dollar to make. But the EpiPen is a drug-device "combination product," which has been tricky for rivals to replicate exactly in order to get FDA approval. Mylan has also been accused by fellow pharmaceutical companies of trying to squash rivals.

In 2009, Mylan had Teva sued for patent infringement, leading to a settlement that kept Teva off the EpiPen market until 2015. Then, in 2016, the FDA found " major deficiencies" in Teva's application to market a rival EpiPen generic. Since then, other makers have made different types of epinephrine auto-injectors, most notably Adrenaclick and the pricy Auvi-Q, but they work differently from EpiPen and can't be used interchangeably like a generic version.

Teva's long-sought generic now offers patients that option-and the potential for lower prices.

In a statement, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb trumpeted the approval as a win in the effort to drag down skyrocketing drug costs:

Today's approval of the first generic version of the most-widely prescribed epinephrine auto-injector in the U.S. is part of our longstanding commitment to advance access to lower cost, safe and effective generic alternatives once patents and other exclusivities no longer prevent approval.

Still, Teva has yet to name the price of its generic, ensuring that the FDA's hopes are indeed true. Two Teva spokespeople declined to reveal any hints on the device's list price to Ars. They only provided a written statement:

Today's approval of our generic version of EpiPen(epinephrine injection, USP) Auto-Injector 0.3 mg and 0.15 mg in the US marks an important step forward in bringing patients additional prescription medications that have met the FDA's rigorous standards.

We're applying our full resources to this important launch in the coming months and eager to begin supplying the market.

Once launched, Teva's product will be the only generic, AB-rated/therapeutically equivalent version of EpiPen.

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Years after Mylan's epic EpiPen price hikes, it finally gets a generic rival

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Mylan's life-saving epinephrine auto-injector EpiPen now has a generic rival, the Food and Drug Administration triumphantly announced. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA now has FDA approval to market a direct generic competitor of the device, as well as a version for pediatric patients, a generic EpiPen Jr.

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Carlos Ghosn, Nissan & Renault boss scandal 

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Carlos Ghosn, Nissan & Renault boss scandal 

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46321097

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Where there is great expansion, there is almost always great decay. This is the way of life, that when things grow, they do so by processes which neglect certain parts of their composition, necessarily leaving behind things which no longer suit the needs of the organism (or superorganism) so that it can adapt to its surroundings. This happens from the smallest organisms passing waste from themselves to make room for a new meal to the largest of societal structures, which often forget their roots, their purpose, and the individuals of which they're composed.

We find ourselves in a world today where we look around at large, cumbersome, extremely powerful institutions that have often grown to an uncontrollable size, wondering what should we do if and when they turn on us. Sometimes, tragically, that's precisely what happens, where the very institutions in which we place our trust turn against us in both overt and covert ways. When those who wield the power to make the decisions for such massive behemoths are wrong, they're often gravely wrong, and people suffer as a consequence. Here are ten times corporations actually poisoned people and the stories surrounding each instance.

10 Michigan Chemical Corporation

The mistake was as simple as it was tragic, and the fallout still lives on to this day, more than 40 years later. The year was 1973, and a company called Michigan Chemical Corporation in, you guessed it, the state of Michigan, accidentally shipped their product to the wrong place-and the results were catastrophic. The company made two very distinct products, one called Nutrimaster and the other called Firemaster.

Nutrimaster was a trade name for magnesium oxide, and when it was put into the food and water sources of livestock, it would increase the milk production of the animals. Firemaster, on the other hand, was an extremely toxic flame retardant called polybrominated biphenyl (PBB). Both where very similar in appearance. One day, a truck was accidentally loaded with the wrong bags, grabbing Firemaster instead of Nutrimaster, and a highly toxic flame retardant was delivered to farms all over Michigan.

Guess what happened next: The fire retardant got into the food supply and was absorbed into the animals as would be expected, with the most nightmarish of results. While most received relatively low doses, 70 to 90 percent of Michigan's population are estimated to have become contaminated with the toxic substance through food intake, with some receiving rather high doses. While studies are still being conducted to this day to assess the extent of the damages, boys had genital and urinary tract problems, girls had menstrual problems and even a higher rate of miscarriages as adults, and many fetuses were exposed in utero. The reproductive effects seem quite severe at this point and may even prove to be worse as we discover more. This is how a single slipup can end up having far-reaching consequences for massive parts of the population.

9 Disneyland

When Richard Ramirez said, "See you in Disneyland," this may or may not have been what he had in mind, but the next poisoning on the list didn't come about from a contaminated food supply but rather a swimming pool. One day in August 2018, the guests of the New York Hotel at Disneyland Paris began to experience nausea and felt very sick while staff scrambled to figure out the cause. Tourists and staff alike were affected, and 22 people were ultimately poisoned by what turned out to be chlorine gas.

What had happened was an incorrect mixture of two chemicals for the pool at the hotel, when bleach and sulfuric acid were added to the water to treat it and keep it clean. The mixture released chlorine, which is a common chemical used in liquid form to keep pools clean, but in its gas form, it can be highly toxic when breathed in high concentrations . . . and that's exactly what happened. People were rushed to the emergency room, but ultimately, everyone survived, thankfully.

8 Camelford

In what became known as the Camelford water pollution incident, a similar mistake to that made by Michigan Chemical Company was made in North Cornwall, England, in 1988. Investigations ruled out foul play or any sort of malevolent attempts to harm people; the incident was just an accident with massive repercussions. Aluminum sulfate is sometimes added to water, making it easier to clean, and it was this chemical which was involved in the poisoning incident.

It all happened when a worker dumped 20 tons of the stuff into the water supply by accident, putting it in the wrong tank. The Lowermoor Water Treatment Works, where the mistake was made, supplied water to over 7,000 homes, and people quickly began suffering some horrible effects, such as terrifying skin irritations and even their hair turning blue. While the total cost of these types of situations are hard to accurately measure, it's thought that thousands suffered in total as a result, though thankfully most of the aluminum sulfate was processed by the bodies of the residents.

7 Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation

Believe it or not, use of asbestos goes back a long time, dating back to prehistory, up through the ancient times, and through the Industrial Revolution, when it rose to prominence. We should have known there was something not quite right about using the substance when we found Egyptian mummies wrapped in asbestos cloth to prevent degradation of the corpses.

The first asbestos-related victory in United States courts came in 1973 against a company called Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation, which had been using it as insulation without investigating the possible damages it could inflict-and those damages were vast. Most notably, it can lead to mesothelioma, a cancer which happens when asbestos fibers become lodged in the lung, causing cellular mutations. Countless thousands of people were affected by it, even after the court case was won. In a terrifying turn of events, when the company was acquired by the Louisiana-Pacific Corporation in 1976, and later by Owens-Corning in 1997, these companies didn't stop using asbestos, which was put into products still, even after the dangers had become known, until the 2000s.

Even by DuPont's own admission, the chemical known as PFOA would affect the lives of over three million people over the course of 60 years, as it was put into a whole slew of products. Its harmful effects wouldn't become known until the 1970s, and it would astonishingly take until 2015 before the product was completely phased out due to a series of lawsuits. PFOA stands for perfluorooctanoic acid and has been used in the production of Teflon as well as various other commercial applications since the 1940s.

In 2001, DuPont had a leak at a plant in West Virginia which released the likely carcinogenic substance into the local water supply, and it would be successfully sued for the damages on the behalf of the residents who'd been exposed to the chemical. The entire local water supply was contaminated with the substance, which also caused other illnesses. The really scary thing about PFOA is that it stays in the body ridiculously long and doesn't get processed like most chemicals do, such as aluminum sulfate.

DuPont settled for a whopping $671 million in 2017 for all of the incalculable individuals who'd been affected. PFOA has been linked to testicular cancer, thyroid disease, hypertension and high cholesterol in some cases, and other various ailments. The company settled but still denied any wrongdoing in the incident.

5 Bhopal Disaster

The next on the list, the Bhopal disaster, has been called the worst industrial disaster in history. On the night of December 2, 1984, a pesticide gas managed to leak out of a factory in Bhopal, India. The highly toxic gas lingered and spread to the nearby neighborhoods. Unlike the other disasters on this list, thousands of people would die instantly as the gas crept in and slowly reached them. Tens of thousands of people fled in a sheer panic, terrified as others were dropping dead around them.

In total, around 600,000 people were exposed to the highly toxic gas, and the death toll was estimated between 3,800 and an astonishing 16,000 people. The company responsible was US-based Union Carbide, and some humanitarian groups say that toxic materials still remain buried underneath the ground at the site of the incident.

4 US Radium Corporation

The United States Radium Corporation was responsible for painting the glowing parts on glow-in-the-dark watches during World War I and afterward. This was done at a facility in Orange, New Jersey, from 1917 to 1926. The paint they were using, of course, was radium, and seeing as the men were off to war, the women were the ones who painted the watches for the war effort back at home. Suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, many of the women started falling ill with varying symptoms . . . and then they started dying with a quick rapidity.

Their deaths were particularly quick because of the method the women were told to use while painting the dials on the watches, which included dipping the brush tips into the radium and then making a sharp, fine point with their mouths at the tip of each brush. They ingested straight radium and got quickly sick from radiation poisoning, and some were dying. Eventually, a lawsuit would come about, as the women had been told that radium was harmless.

3 Agent Orange

In 2018, Vietnam would start to make demands for reparations for damages they'd suffered roughly half a century earlier. A school janitor had sued the company Monsanto after contracting terminal cancer from using their product Roundup, setting a legal precedent.

Agent Orange is an herbicide that was used to eliminate foliage in Vietnam and deprive the Vietnamese of cover and food by killing all the plants they were growing and hiding in, but it is a highly cancerous substance that ripped through the Vietnamese civilian population as well. The effects of its use in the 1960s are still felt today. Birth defects and other diseases are known to have resulted from coming into contact with Agent Orange, and plenty of Vietnamese people suffered from birth defects after the war.

But this wasn't the only case of the ingredients of Agent Orange poisoning people. US citizens were also poisoned by one of its components in the town of Nitro, West Virginia. Dioxin is one of the ingredients in the compound, and in 1949, an explosion in a plant in Nitro caused the workers there to be covered in it. Studies at the time somehow found dioxin nonpoisonous, though it definitely was poisonous, as the later use of it in Vietnam would prove. Decades later, in 2014, Monsanto was ordered by the West Virginia Supreme Court to pay Nitro $93 million after all of the facts about the dangers of the substances being produced there came out.

2 Minamata Disease

Minamata disease is a relatively unheard-of ailment that was first learned of in Japan in 1956. A company called Chisso Corporation would be the culprit responsible and poisoned many people slowly over several decades. Between 1938 and 1968, mercury-laced water runoff flowed out from the factory and into Minamata Bay in Kumamoto Prefecture.

It wouldn't be until 1956 that a lone doctor would notice an incredible leap in the amount of patients he was treating for damage to their nervous systems. These patients were having spasms and seizures and were even dying on him. The condition he observed would later come to be called Minamata disease, and Chisso Corporation would be sued for the damages which resulted from the mercury-laced poisoning of a population over decades.

1 Depleted Uranium

Depleted uranium is a war crime, or so the Anti-Flag song goes. Ordnance tipped with depleted uranium has been linked to lymphoma, birth defects, kidney disease, bone cancer, neurological problems, other types of cancers, and a slew of other nasty health issues. But that didn't stop the United States from employing it against Iraq during Desert Storm, and that wouldn't be the last time-when Operation Iraqi Freedom came around, defense contractors galore dug out the depleted uranium munitions and decided to have a party, with catastrophic consequences.

Depleted uranium caused cancer in American troops thanks to the contractors who decided to employ it, along with other compounds used to tip munitions and make them more deadly, on the battlefield alongside the United States military. This doesn't even begin to touch on how many Iraqis may have been poisoned through explosions or shrapnel. The results have been catastrophic, and the US Department of Veterans Affairs, which cares for veterans who come back from war, still can't keep up with the need for health care among the former troops.

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10 Times Corporations Poisoned People En Masse - Listverse

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Where there is great expansion, there is almost always great decay. This is the way of life, that when things grow, they do so by processes which neglect certain parts of their composition, necessarily leaving behind things which no longer suit the needs of the organism (or superorganism) so that it can adapt to its surroundings.

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Founders of plastic waste alliance 'investing billions in new plants'

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European NGO says firms are likely to be at centre of global boom in plastic production

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The new elite's phoney crusade to save the world - without changing anything

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The long read: Today's titans of tech and finance want to solve the world's problems, as long as the solutions never, ever threaten their own wealth and power

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January 19, 2019 by Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Good news, Earthlings! An international team of scientists reports that it is indeed possible to feed everyone on the planet a healthy and environmentally sustainable diet by the year 2050.

All it will take is a wholesale, radical change to what foods we eat and the way we produce them.

"We call it the Great Food Transformation," said Jessica Fanzo, director of the Global Food Ethics and Policy Program at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. "While that may sound dramatic, we need big transformation and massive cooperation to meet this global challenge."

In a report published Wednesday in Lancet, Fanzo, along with 36 colleagues from 16 countries, released a set of scientifically determined targets to guide food producers, food consumers and policy makers toward creating a food system that will improve human health and the health of the planet.

The proposed diet, based on a two-year review of hundreds of nutrition studies, is not as scary as one might think. Insects are not required eating. No one is asking anyone to become a vegan.

The reference diet includes 2,500 calories per day, which is close to the global average today of 2,370.

In the U.S., men consume 2,800 calories per day while women consume between 2,000 and 2,200, according to the report.

The authors say that red meat can still be on a globally sustainable menu but in drastically reduced quantities. The diet allows for roughly 1 tablespoon of red meat per day. That's the equivalent of one decent-sized hamburger a week, or one steak a month.

Dairy is not off the table, either. The target diet includes up to one glass of milk or other dairy product per day.

For other protein sources the researchers recommend roughly two servings of fish per week, and 1 { eggs per week. The majority of calories on this diet comes from grains as they do today, but the authors emphasize that we need to shift to whole grains.

They also want to see a 100 percent increase in the amount of legumes, nuts and fruits and vegetables most of us consume and for added sugars to become just 5 percent of our total caloric intake.

"It is very consistent with many traditional diets including the Mediterranean diet," said Walter Willett, Professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who co-chaired the report. "This is not radical at all in many culinary traditions."

It would also lead to global improvements in human health. If everyone on the planet adapted these dietary rules 11 million premature deaths would be avoided each year, he said.

In order to keep this diet sustainable as the world's population grows, the authors set goals for how our food is produced as well.

These include a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions associated with food production from 8.5 to 13.7 gigatons today to about 5 gigatons by 2050.

Environmental targets also require a 50 percent reduction in food waste, and a strict zero expansion of farmland. Sustainable food production will also require big changes in irrigation and fertilizer use, the authors said.

Of the 7.6 billion people on Earth today, nearly 1 billion don't have enough food, 2 billion are overweight or obese and another 2 billion don't get enough nutrients, the authors wrote. In addition, unhealthy diets are responsible for more deaths than unsafe sex, drugs, alcohol and tobacco use combined.

Environmentally, global food production is currently responsible for 30 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions and 70 percent of freshwater use, the authors said. Meanwhile the conversion of natural ecosystems to farmland is the No. 1 driver of extinction.

Considering that the world is expected to have a population of 9.8 billion people by 2050, it is clear that a massive change is needed, the authors said.

"It's a win-win," said Johan Rockstrom, professor of environmental science at Stockholm University, who worked on the study. "Adopting a healthy diet helps us deal with the climate and meet sustainable development goals."

Now all they have to do is get everyone on the planet to go along with it.

©2019 Los Angeles Times
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Your sustainable diet for the year 2050: More nuts, less sugar and red meat

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January 19, 2019 by Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times Good news, Earthlings! An international team of scientists reports that it is indeed possible to feed everyone on the planet a healthy and environmentally sustainable diet by the year 2050. All it will take is a wholesale, radical change to what foods we eat and the way we produce them.

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The problem of plastic recycling

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Most people are trying their best to recycle plastic - but the many different ways in which recycling is collected by councils across the UK has left them confused over what can be recycled and what can't.

New plans on how plastic is recycled in England are being put forward by the government. In the rest of the UK, the strategy for recycling is a devolved issue.

Each council collects its plastic recycling differently. BBC analysis shows there are 39 different sets of rules for what can be put in plastic recycling collections:

Most collect bottles

Others collect pots, tubs and trays

Some collect a much wider range

Around the UK, all four nations are hoping to improve their recycling rates. The review sticks to the aim that 50% of waste will be recycled by 2020 and aims to recycle three quarters of plastic packaging by 2035.

Scotland has a target to recycle 70% of waste by 2025, as does Wales. Northern Ireland has a proposal that 60% of municipal waste is recycled by 2020.

Waste plastic is collected in different ways too:

Some local authorities collect all their recycling in one bin

Others ask households to separate their plastics from the rest of their recycling

Councils also employ many different companies to collect and sort their plastics.

And having different recycling schemes in different areas - for example, in some areas you can recycle margarine tubs and in other areas you cannot - makes labelling difficult.

Most people in Britain regularly recycle plastic but almost half have had disagreements at home about what type they can put in which bin, a ComRes poll for the BBC suggests.

And more than a quarter have these disagreements at least once a month.
How is the government proposing to tackle plastic recycling?

Tackle the current postcode recycling lottery under which different materials are recyclable in different areas

Introduce consistent labelling on packaging so consumers know what they can recycle

Make the firms that produce materials responsible for the cost of disposing of those items

Encourage manufacturers to design products that last longer and increase the levels of repair and re-use

Crack down on waste crime by introducing electronic tracking of waste shipments

Introduce a tax on plastic packaging made of less than 30% recycled plastic

Ban plastic packaging where an alternative material could be used

Improve the quality of plastic being exported

Plastic can often become too contaminated for recycling and have to be sent to landfill or incinerated instead. This happens for several reasons:

People are confused about what goes in which bin

People are not always very careful about what they put in

The plastic is contaminated with food waste

In areas where all recycling is collected in one bin, one type of waste can contaminate another

Bottles are mainly made of PET and HDPE and these are easy to collect and recycle

Most trays are made from polypropylene and this is pretty easy to recycle too but not all councils have access to the right facilities

LDPE, used to make some carrier bags and cling film, is easy to process but more difficult to sort and can often be contaminated with food

Polystyrene, used to make some yoghurt pots and plastic cutlery, is not widely recycled

PVC makes up small amount of packaging but can contaminate other plastic recycling

Biscuit wrappers and meat trays can be made from a mixture of many different types of plastic, making them the most difficult type of packaging to recycle

Bottles attract the best prices, especially clear ones, which is why almost all councils recycle them

Coloured plastic is less desirable because the colour cannot be removed, restricting its reuse

Polystyrene is almost never recycled because there is no market for it

All plastic can be recycled - but it is not always economical to do so.

Most bottles will be sent for reprocessing in this country.

But plastic that is less valuable - about two-thirds collected for recycling - goes overseas and this figure has been rising.

Earlier this year, the National Audit Office reported the plastic sent abroad could be highly contaminated, meaning it may not be reprocessed and could end up in landfill or contributing to pollution.

China, Malaysia, and Vietnam have banned waste imports

Thailand will introduce a ban in 2021

Some countries are refusing to take any more of our waste.

These bans are having an effect on the prices paid for waste plastic.
Design: Debie Loizou. Development: Eleanor Keane.
And this year the prices of the more contaminated plastics have fallen below zero, meaning companies are now expecting to be paid to take them away.

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Most people are trying their best to recycle plastic - but the many different ways in which recycling is collected by councils across the UK has left them confused over what can be recycled and what can't. New plans on how plastic is recycled in England are being put forward by the government.

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Aftermath of Volkswagen’s scandal 3 years on..

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Aftermath of Volkswagen’s scandal 3 years on..

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If you had invested in Volkswagen a day before the diesel scandal was exposed in September 2015, your stock would not only be up 10 per cent by now, it would have outperformed BMW and Daimler - rival carmakers that have both posted seven straight years of record sales.

In the chaotic days after the scandal was revealed by US regulators - when the share price nearly halved and some analysts estimated it could cost the company as much as $80bn - such a turnround would have seemed impossible. Some questioned whether VW would be forced to break up after admitting it installed software to cheat emissions tests in up to 11m cars worldwide. Martin Winterkorn, chief executive, resigned that month as the company plunged into crisis, at first denying its luxury unit Audi was also involved - then conceding it was.

The German carmaker is not just outselling Toyota and General Motors by volume, it is also raising profitability and pushing further into new technologies than any of its rivals, with group chief executive Matthias Müller saying it will spend €20bn on electrification and €14bn on shared mobility and self-driving technology by 2025.

Rather than destroying the company, some, including Mr Müller, go as far as to suggest that the scandal forced long overdue changes that might have saved it.

"The crisis, of course, was a huge problem and it was also rather costly," Mr Müller says at his Wolfsburg office. "But it actually worked as a kind of accelerator to address issues that, before, were unable to be addressed."

Figures released on Wednesday show sales at the group, whose 12 brands include Audi and Porsche, climbed 4.3 per cent in 2017 to 10.7m vehicles. Even in the US, where Reputation Management Consultants said last April that Volkswagen had "destroyed brand trust", the mass-market VW brand stole market share with a 5.2 per cent rise. It has been helped by an upswing in the market, with car sales at peak levels in every major region.

Damages from the scandal so far amount to $25bn although other legal action is possible. But instead of raiding its cash reserves, Volkswagen has paid off close to two-thirds of the compensation and fines from improved cash flow and profitability. Comparing the group's most recent annual balance sheet with one before the scandal shows no discernible evidence that the company experienced difficulty in between, let alone the biggest calamity in its eight-decade history.

"It's astonishing," says José Asumendi, analyst at JPMorgan. "You wouldn't be able to recognise that they had gone through the diesel crisis."

Volkswagen's net cash pile - cash and securities, minus debt - actually rose from €21.5bn in mid-2015 to €25.4bn in late 2017. That was achieved through big cost cuts, simplifying how it builds cars by reducing options - for instance the number of possible steering wheels on a Golf fell from 117 to 43 - trimming administrative expenses and building models fit for each regional market. The increases in efficiency expanded its margins, giving VW extra cash and guaranteeing its investment grade credit ratings.

"At the time of the scandal there was talk of a need to sell assets to pay the bill, but all they did was press a few buttons and turn a few screws in the business," says Max Warburton, analyst at Bernstein. "They've generated all the cash they needed to pay the fines and they generated a business that is significantly more profitable."

To cut costs, the group clamped down on bloated spending. Capital expenditure, which was 6.8 per cent of sales in 2015, according to Bernstein, is expected to be 5.9 per cent in 2017 and just 4.8 per cent this year. A key challenge now will be to maintain this discipline as it invests in electrification. The VW passenger car brand, which accounts for half of group revenue but historically has suffered from low margins, more than doubled profitability from 2 per cent in the first half of 2016 to 4.5 per cent a year later. It is targeting a 6 per cent profit margin by 2025, even with battery-powered cars likely to lose money in the first year.

"This is a dramatic change from the way VW has been run for 20 years," says Mr Asumendi. Under Mr Winterkorn, group revenue rose more than €50bn between 2011 and 2015, but operating profits barely budged as margins shrank from 12 per cent to 6 per cent.

"It's obviously never, ever, a net positive to have done something illegal and to have had such negative press, but actually this was a company that was going down the wrong path," says Kristina Church, analyst at Barclays. "They are definitely back, fighting to prove it and winning back customer support."

The question being asked of Volkswagen and its management is whether the lessons learnt over the past two years have actually created a sustainably better company just as the car industry undergoes its biggest overhaul since the invention of the internal combustion engine.

Mr Müller, 64, a VW lifer, first joined Audi in 1972. By the time the emissions scandal enveloped the group, he had worked his way up to leading Porsche where in five years he had doubled sales and produced some of the fattest margins in the car industry. He says he was given just 12 hours to decide if he wanted the job and took over one week after the US Environmental Protection Agency exposed the scandal.

Two colleagues say he was reluctant to take on the role and only agreed on the condition that he would have carte blanche to overhaul the company.

"When Winterkorn finished and retired, that was exactly the starting point to make up [our] mind to turn the whole group in a new direction," Mr Müller says.

The task has been compared to making an elephant dance. Volkswagen, then and now, is seen by analysts as a complex group that is difficult to manage. It had revenues of €217bn in 2016, has 620,000 employees at 170 locations worldwide and produces 43,000 cars each weekday.

Moreover, managers have to deal with "a completely dysfunctional supervisory board", says Arndt Ellinghorst, analyst at Evercore ISI, referring to how the board is dominated by labour unions, the Lower Saxony government and the Porsche-Piech family - descendants of Beetle designer Ferdinand Porsche - who still hold 52 per cent of the voting rights in the carmaker.

Institutional Shareholder Services, a UK-based proxy adviser, has consistently rated VW's corporate governance at its lowest level, citing "a lack of sufficient independent directors to oversee management".

Christian Strenger, a corporate governance expert, says: "I haven't seen any material changes. Quite often the people - in terms of changing compliance - are people of the old guard, so it doesn't look convincing."

Recognising some of the problems, Mr Müller says he has taken steps to revamp the group's leadership model by undertaking a "major renewal process".

The latest radical change in direction came in September when Mr Müller revealed Roadmap E - a promise to unveil 50 new all-electric car models by 2025. The Audi e-Tron SUV, a 500km-range electric vehicle to rival the Tesla Model X, arrives later this year. Porsche's Mission E will hit shop floors in 2019. A year later its mass-market brands VW, Seat and Skoda will roll out their electric options.

VW shares have shot up 38 per cent since the announcement, attracting investors who had shunned VW as ill-governed and inefficient.

"A lot of people said to me 18 months ago that it is too much career risk to even talk to my clients about owning VW," says Ms Church. "They are now saying it is a career risk not to own the stock. Clients are coming to them saying, 'the stock has run up 30 per cent, why weren't we involved?'"

The credit for the turnround is not all Mr Müller's, with some analysts saying he was bailed out by an upswing in the market. Before the crisis VW's footprint was already more global than its rivals, allowing it to benefit faster when the market picked up. Car sales in China, where VW sells two-fifths of its cars, rose 5.1 per cent last year, in part reflecting decisions made decades ago.

Other individuals have also been heavily involved. Hans-Dieter Pötsch, the longtime financial head who was promoted to chairman of the group in late 2015 remains an essential link to the family owners of VW and has kept the trade unions on board with the post-crisis strategy. "As chairman of both Volkswagen and Porsche SE [the parent group], he's the glue that holds this company together," says Kenneth Garschina, principal of Mason Capital.

Herbert Diess, the cost-cutting executive lured from BMW in July 2015 to head up VW passenger cars, is also credited by some because that brand has made the biggest improvements in the past two years. Frank Witter, chief financial officer, is also said to have played a decisive role in co-ordinating cost strategy across the 12 brands.

As has Bernd Osterloh, the powerful head of the works council whose pragmatism and cost-cutting solutions were behind the Future Pact signed by unions and management in late 2016 that will see 30,000 jobs lost through attrition. Mr Osterloh did not merely offer support for the plan to cut €3.7bn in fixed annual costs by 2020, he took the unprecedented step of meeting with investors in London to cheerlead it.

"It's a collective push," says Mr Asumendi. But it is not without tensions. Last year Mr Diess and Mr Osterloh tussled over the pace and depth of job cuts, with the latter accusing Mr Diess and his colleagues of "flagrantly" violating the terms of the cost-cutting Future Pact "as soon as the ink was dry".

This array of characters suggests to some that Mr Müller is not really in charge. But it may just be that he is the opposite of both Mr Winterkorn, his details-oriented predecessor, and Ferdinand Piëch, the former chairman who encouraged the appearance of being all-powerful.

These two were the chief architects of a hierarchical culture once dubbed by Der Spiegel as "North Korea without the labour camps". Workers were encouraged to follow orders and not question them.

"Winterkorn decided everything, in every brand, as regards products and technology," says Professor Ferdinand Dudenhöffer at the University of Duisburg-Essen. "Müller isn't doing that. The brands now have the power to decide for themselves."

This hint of democracy in Wolfsburg is referred to approvingly by many in and around the company.

The old, unquestioning, culture was diagnosed as a key factor in the emissions scandal. And Mr Müller claims his greatest achievement to date has been to reform it - by decentralising decision-making. He has also encouraged projects with the technology sector in areas ranging from electrification to self-driving and internet-connected cars. This month VW announced partnerships with autonomous start-up Aurora and chipmaker Nvidia. Last year it invested in ride-hailing app Gett and launched its own urban mobility brand, MOIA.

"Before my time [as CEO], Volkswagen was a kind of a closed-shop company and not very open to any form of co-operation," Mr Müller says. "Now we are quite open."

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What went so right with Volkswagen's restructuring?

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If you had invested in Volkswagen a day before the diesel scandal was exposed in September 2015, your stock would not only be up 10 per cent by now, it would have outperformed BMW and Daimler - rival carmakers that have both posted seven straight years of record sales.

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What is Volkswagen accused of?

It's been dubbed the "diesel dupe". In September, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that many VW cars being sold in America had a "defeat device" - or software - in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. The German car giant has since admitted cheating emissions tests in the US.

VW has had a major push to sell diesel cars in the US, backed by a huge marketing campaign trumpeting its cars' low emissions. The EPA's findings cover 482,000 cars in the US only, including the VW-manufactured Audi A3, and the VW models Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat. But VW has admitted that about 11 million cars worldwide, including eight million in Europe, are fitted with the so-called "defeat device".

The company has also been accused by the EPA of modifying software on the 3 litre diesel engines fitted to some Porsche and Audi as well as VW models. VW has denied the claims, which affect at least 10,000 vehicles.

In November, VW said it had found "irregularities" in tests to measure carbon dioxide emissions levels that could affect about 800,000 cars in Europe - including petrol vehicles. However, in December it said that following investigations, it had established that this only affected about 36,000 of the cars it produces each year.

Full details of how it worked are sketchy, although the EPA has said that the engines had computer software that could sense test scenarios by monitoring speed, engine operation, air pressure and even the position of the steering wheel.

When the cars were operating under controlled laboratory conditions - which typically involve putting them on a stationary test rig - the device appears to have put the vehicle into a sort of safety mode in which the engine ran below normal power and performance. Once on the road, the engines switched out of this test mode.

The result? The engines emitted nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times above what is allowed in the US.

What has been VW's response?

"We've totally screwed up," said VW America boss Michael Horn, while the group's chief executive at the time, Martin Winterkorn, said his company had "broken the trust of our customers and the public". Mr Winterkorn resigned as a direct result of the scandal and was replaced by Matthias Mueller, the former boss of Porsche.

"My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group - by leaving no stone unturned," Mr Mueller said on taking up his new post.

VW has also launched an internal inquiry.

With VW recalling millions of cars worldwide from early next year, it has set aside €6.7bn (£4.8bn) to cover costs. That resulted in the company posting its first quarterly loss for 15 years of €2.5bn in late October.

But that's unlikely to be the end of the financial impact. The EPA has the power to fine a company up to $37,500 for each vehicle that breaches standards - a maximum fine of about $18bn.

The costs of possible legal action by car owners and shareholders "cannot be estimated at the current time", VW added.

How widespread are VW's problems?

What started in the US has spread to a growing number of countries. The UK, Italy, France, South Korea, Canada and, of course, Germany, have opened investigations. Throughout the world, politicians, regulators and environmental groups are questioning the legitimacy of VW's emissions testing.

VW will recall 8.5 million cars in Europe, including 2.4 million in Germany and 1.2 million in the UK, and 500,000 in the US as a result of the emissions scandal.

No wonder the carmaker's shares have fallen by about a third since the scandal broke.

Will more heads roll?

It's still unclear who knew what and when, although VW must have had a chain of management command that approved fitting cheating devices to its engines, so further departures are likely.

Christian Klingler, a management board member and head of sales and marketing is leaving the company, although VW said this was part of long-term planned structural changes and was not related to recent events.

In 2014, in the US, regulators raised concerns about VW emissions levels, but these were dismissed by the company as "technical issues" and "unexpected" real-world conditions. If executives and managers wilfully misled officials (or their own VW superiors) it's difficult to see them surviving.

Are other carmakers implicated?

That's for the various regulatory and government inquiries to determine. California's Air Resources Board is now looking into other manufacturers' testing results. Ford, BMW and Renault-Nissan have said they did not use "defeat devices", while other firms have either not commented or simply stated that they comply with the law.

The UK trade body for the car industry, the SMMT, said: "The EU operates a fundamentally different system to the US - with all European tests performed in strict conditions as required by EU law and witnessed by a government-appointed independent approval agency."

But it added: "The industry acknowledges that the current test method is outdated and is seeking agreement from the European Commission for a new emissions test that embraces new testing technologies and is more representative of on-road conditions."

Environmental campaigners have long argued that emissions rules are being flouted. "Diesel cars in Europe operate with worse technology on average than the US," said Jos Dings, from the pressure group Transport & Environment. "Our latest report demonstrated that almost 90% of diesel vehicles didn't meet emission limits when they drive on the road. We are talking millions of vehicles."

Car analysts at the financial research firm Bernstein agree that European standards are not as strict as those in the US. However, the analysts said in a report that there was, therefore, "less need to cheat". So, if other European carmakers' results are suspect, Bernstein says the "consequences are likely to be a change in the test cycle rather than legal action and fines".

Certainly is. Over the past decade and more, carmakers have poured a fortune into the production of diesel vehicles - with the support of many governments - believing that they are better for the environment. Latest scientific evidence suggests that's not the case, and there are even moves to limit diesel cars in some cities.

Diesel sales were already slowing, so the VW scandal came at a bad time. "The revelations are likely to lead to a sharp fall in demand for diesel engine cars," said Richard Gane, automotive expert at consultants Vendigital.

"In the US, the diesel car market currently represents around 1% of all new car sales and this is unlikely to increase in the short to medium term.

"However, in Europe the impact could be much more significant, leading to a large tranche of the market switching to petrol engine cars virtually overnight."

More on this story

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What is Volkswagen accused of? It's been dubbed the "diesel dupe". In September, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that many VW cars being sold in America had a "defeat device" - or software - in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results.

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Oxfam failed to address sexual misconduct and bullying, finds review

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Oxfam failed to address sexual misconduct and bullying, finds review

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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jan/17/oxfam-failed-to-address-sexual-misconduct-and-bullying-finds-review