Global Stories

The United Nations had launched highly ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. The comprehensive SDGs covered a variety of subjects from reducing carbon emissions, to reducing poverty, hunger and improving healthcare industry; set targets for the countries of the world to be accomplished by 2030. However, as the 2030 deadline to achieve them draws...

While addressing the issue of waste management, it is very important to not overlook the increasing amount of e-waste that needs proper modes of disposal. According to Research and Markets, globally,  e-waste is expected to climb to nearly 7 kilograms of e-waste per person by 2022. Considering that many of the top-selling smartphones weigh...

Low prices and unprecedented demand are fuelling the growth of “fast fashion”. This takes trends from the runway to consumers in record time. The problem is that, in the process, fashion is putting tremendous pressure on the environment through water use, pollution, waste and carbon emissions. Apart from this it also has negative social...

A spike in intentionally set fires in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil has provoked an international response from government leaders due to the devastating impact these fires could have on the world’s climate. This has caused the corporate community to also begin to speak up. Apple CEO Tim Cook was among the first to pledge...

Governments across Asia and the Pacific this week endorsed a set of collective recommendations and initiatives, including scaling up regional cooperation to complement national efforts in reducing disaster risk, in recognition of the changing geography and intensification of disaster risks. Convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP),...

Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) announced a new water strategy that represents an evolution in thinking around water use in a global supply chain, particularly in areas already facing water stress, and a new way to define successful water stewardship in manufacturing. It leverages the latest water science and data, consultations with leading water...

Canada's House of Commons passed a bill Monday to make it illegal to hold a whale, dolphin or porpoise captive, punishable by fines up to $150,000 USD. It's known colloquially as the "Free Willy" bill, named after the 1993 movie in which a young boy frees a killer whale from a US amusement park. "Nothing...

About 2 million people were displaced from their homes, and around 28,000 are still forced to flee on a daily basis due to persecution, conflict and natural disasters last year. The International Chamber of Commerce marked World Refugee Day on June 20, by launching a partnership with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and issuing...

Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has been widely discussed being a focal point for debates about hope and scepticism related to the world’s future development. AI is an innovation which will profoundly change our economy, politics and society – it is, therefore, time to ask if and how AI will change corporate social responsibility (CSR)...

Over the last 20 years, the building sector has focused on tackling the 28% of global emissions created by the operational phase of a building, the greenhouse gases pumped out by offices and homes as they are cooled and heated. Far less attention has been paid to embodied carbon, those emissions created during the...

The estimated $550bn global hotel and hospitality sector is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries. And with some 17.2 million rooms booked each year, it is also one of the most impactful. Tourism contributes about 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and those are set to grow by 130% by 2035, according to the...

The use of artificial intelligence will be critical to delivering truly autonomous vehicles and seamlessly integrated transport in cities one day. The transformation of it has already started in various cities of the world with AI being used in a host of transport applications, cutting CO2 emissions on the roads. In some of the cities...